Marly51

Met my husband when he was a university lecturer and he had already decided to take early retirement at 50 when we both moved to the Far North. Our daughter was born just before he retired. I had been self employed for most of my professional life and continued to work part time. We have found that we are more busy than we ever were with the 9 to 5 routine, so don’t know if that is proper retirement? After the move, he was offered part time work teaching for 10 years, which fitted perfectly with pursuing his photography and painting. I have been involved in various heritage projects as a volunteer and also professionally. Trying to extract ourselves from some of these commitments now, to focus on more time doing things together and also our individual interests. Having a daughter later in life has kept us young at heart. My line of work meant that income fluctuated quite a bit and my private pension also suffered at the hands of the Equitable Life debacle. However, if your finances allow, I still think early retirement is well worth it to establish a new routine and enjoy life even more. PS In our house we share ALL the domestic chores and each have our own workshops/studios (having a dedicated space is a worthwhile extra) !

Baseboard trimmed to size, lake basin repaired with air drying clay, then layers of toilet paper tissue soaked with dilute PVA textured using a coarse paintbrush to create a surface for the lake. This technique is described in a YouTube video by Martin of ‘MarklinOfSweden’. Some tiny stones placed at this early stage to represent the larger boulders at the shore edge. This will now be left until completely dry, before adding additional texture finishes to the shore edge and painting. Martin recommends leaving the painted surface for a good 72 hours before the next stage. In the meantime the rest of the landscape can be modelled and the youth hostel built.

I don’t feel so bad about the state of my workshop now - can’t get past my door, but will have to tackle it soon to get to the larger project at the back! Living in an old cottage where space is limited, it is too easy to fill the workshops with materials/objects which might come in handy for projects, sometime in the future! Also preferring the smaller projects, which I can enjoy working on a modelling tray on my lap!

Look forward to seeing how this Dinky lorry turns out in its BR livery, Bob! I’ve also succumbed to buying a few old Matchbox vehicles from the 1950s, hoping to customise them for dioramas or one of my layouts.

Great idea Dufus. Up here in the North, the folk who live in Rogart Station also rent out the old waiting room and have converted carriages and an old gypsy caravan into self catering accommodation. http://sleeperzzz.com/

I like the idea of having some catenary masts on the model and found these N scale dummy masts from Dapol. Although the posts on the single masts, on the Brunig Line, extend above the catenary, I think these are acceptable? Video of the Brunig Line for reference.

At the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore, they created a small railway halt from a refurbished signal cabin, and I am sure they had a ‘churn stand’ or ‘churn bank’ by the railway line. The Folk Museum acquire buildings from all over the North, so would be interesting to find out the history of this one, if it is based on an actual location. Will check through my photos and see if I took one of the ‘churn stand’.

A Corner of ‘Londinium’ Reclaimed: “In the post-apocalyptic era following the collapse of the world wide web and mobile phone networks, a small group of followers of 'Steampunk' claimed their territory, the location of the city’s ancient settlement of Londinium. The buildings by the old canal were an eclectic mix, from medieval to Edwardian. The destruction of space satellites and power stations, throughout the country, forced this creative and innovative group to reconsider old technologies based on steam, clockwork and manpower. Some of the group had been members of a steam heritage society whose reinstated line already passed through their ‘hamlet’ and provided access to the country for food supplies, from farms beyond the city boundary. Coal was available from abandoned stocks, which existed near closed-down coal mines, where the seams of coal were still viable. The 'travellers', gypsies and ‘boat people’ were also great survivors. Depending on their traditional skills and knowledge, they travelled between the scattered communities, bringing news and goods for exchange? As well as the refurbished engine from the earliest era of steam, horse power was coming back into its own. An old coal gasworks provided energy for cooking, heating and lighting. These were dark days, after decades of trying to save the planet from pollution, people were returning to the old ways - what does the future hold for these survivors?”

Sadly the ‘E-z Water’ has not worked. The beads were fully melted, having been heated on the gas hob for over 5 minutes. It poured quite easily, but hundreds of tiny bubbles appeared, as I poured it into the lake area. The meniscus, PaulRhB warned me about, appeared too high for such a small model and I did not think I could disguise this edge successfully. I was able to prise the ‘plastic’ water off once it set. The base of the lake will be remoulded, then I’ll use my varnish or PVA method instead. (I still have 3/4 of the ‘E-z Water’ pack left and might experiment with it at a later date.)

Putting finishing touches to the model today. The lefthand side of the backscene is hidden behind the station. I have drawn some random silhouettes of London buildings and combined it with a smoke effect photo to suggest a ‘smoggy’ London skyline. Created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Ah yes ‘Copydex for gluing textiles and leather and no early commercial artist/graphic designer would have been able to produce ‘paste-up’ finished artwork without ‘Cow Gum’!

I love your module idea! Having accumulated a few Hornby tinplate items for my recent cakebox challenge, I might use them to have a go at something like this for our local Winterfest in November. I am running out of space in my workshop so this might work. The first time I became familiar with Billerbahn, was watching some YouTube videos by Waldbahner!

Trying to get lots of outdoor jobs done during this incredibly hot weather, so modelmaking has slowed down a lot! I have built up the lower part of the scenery with three sheets of corrugated box card, then created a ‘pan’ made from DAS air drying clay for the lake basin and given it an initial coat of paint. Alpine lakes can look quite vibrant, but I still want to adjust and tone down the colour a bit before pouring the EZ water. Fully prepared to redo this part of the scenery if this first attempt doesn’t work. If all goes well I can remove the three ‘former’ timber battens, trim the baseboard, and concentrate on building up the rest of the landscape which will slope gently towards the shore of the lake.

Good luck with the 'Realistic Water', Andy! Looks like a few of us are having a go at water effects? Your sea foam detail works well!

PaulRhB recommenced MDF for the base if I was using ‘E-z Water’, but I only have a piece of woodchip, which I will experiment with first. I have deliberately left the board untrimmed at the main lake edge of the model, made a timber former, which has been sealed and pinned. Once the sealant is cured I will define the curved shore edge, form the base of the lake up to the edge using DAS clay, paint to seal then add some sand and tiny stones, before pouring the ‘E-z Water’. These water products are quite expensive and most folk seem to prefer the more recent range with all the different effects. But I’ll see how it goes Just got to go hunting for the tiniest stone shards from my garden path!

It starts coming together, Jerry, once you see buildings in relation to the track! Marlyn

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Thanks for the advice, Paul! The lake edge is rocky - hopefully the tiny stones I use might disguise this? I’m doing the lake first, so if I’m not happy with the result, I can try another option. Marlyn

Hope you give this one a go, Dickon?

Couldn’t resist buying this Oxford 2CV today. I might use it on this model. My husband is a 2CV fan, but sadly our lovely red one fell victim to the North Highland weather. The local car body shop repair man took it off our hands, hoping to restore it, but it just rusted away!

A couple of photos, after adding some barrels, sacks, luggage and a hand trolley by the canal side and on the platform. The canal warehouse now has a sack on the hoist attended by a warehouseman. The ‘Steampunk’ stationmaster is now in place waiting for the ‘Rocket’ to pass through. I am making a metal ladder, from copper wire, to access the light tower from the canal side, and finalising the backscene. So that should be all, though no doubt I will add a few extras now and again! I still have a collection of cogs and chains.... Oh and there is a story?!! That squint chimney stack, needs an equally quaint chimney pot to finish it off!

Wow, ’ tigerburnie’ , you’ve certainly moved on apace! The scenery is looking really good! Marlyn

Thanks ‘railroad bill’ - it really was fun to work on this - brought back memories!

Hi Jim, Is it possible to order some of your picket fencing? I produced mine out of thin card for my Invershin model, but would love to have something finer scale for the larger Highland layout I am working on? Marlyn Marlyn

Thanks for the advice, Geoff. I was going to do a test piece, then make the lake before anything else, in case it doesn’t work out! Possibly set the whole board tightly in a former, with the edges all sealed, then if there is still slight seepage it can be trimmed once the product is set?