bridgiesimon

Thank you Rivercider, most appreciated. As other people here may guess by now, the layout's revamp was successfully completed ready for the show this weekend, a great show and well worth a visit should you be in the area by the way!! Firstly, a couple of views with the cabin lights on - And now with the cabin lights off to show the interior lighting off better - Finally, here it is at the Nailsea show today with my son at the controls. We are enjoying a relaxing evening in readiness for another day of fun at the show tomorrow. Best wishes SImon

Time for another quick update as copious amount of glue are drying in the cabin - the static grass has now gone on as well as some of the trees replaced and the edging along the backscene although to my eye in this piccie, it looks a little too contrived at the moment. Another instance of looking at piccies to see what you cannot see when looking at the model itself!! Anyway, time for cuppa and then back to the cabin for more. Defo think it will be all ready for the Nailsea show on Saturday and Sunday - https://www.nailsea-district-mrc.co.uk/ Best wishes Simon

Thank you. Ok, I had time for a quick visit after work today and finished sanding down the plaster and then gave it a coat of green paint ready for scenery over the weekend. And with the lights on, I am really pleased that there does not seem to be any light leakage from places where leakage is a bad thing! best wishes Simon

This evening I got back out to the cabin with a pot of filler mixed ready and filled over the foam glued in last night. Tomorrow, depending on how well the plaster has hardened, I will sand it back/refill as required hopefully ready to paint by the weekend. The hope is to spend the weekend doing the re-planting etc. I am more confident of getting the layout sorted ready for the show the weekend after next as time goes on! Best wishes Simon

Cheers Ray, all heading in the right direction thankfully, always others suffering more! Anyway, got back out to the cabin this evening to start the patching and rebuild instead of more destruction - Next step will be getting the plaster on in the next couple of days. Best wishes Simon

So our next outing for Hobbiton End is on the 23rd and 24th March 2024 in Nailsea, second time lucky we hope!! We are also booked to go to Wells for the 3rd and 4th of August 2024 and to Burnham on Sea for the 24th/25th August 2024. Ok layout update, um... er... ah... A few issues to admit to here - A few months ago we started getting issues with the LED lights inside the structures and for the easy one, the warehouse, I lifted the roof and replaced them easily. Not so with the others as they are all buried in the hillside with no access other that digging them out! At the last show my son and I were taking about how much of a shame it was that the lights no longer work and as I had a longish gap to the next show, I decided that maybe a couple of them could be sorted out. So I got cutting and sorted out the front hobbit hole as it is easy to get to - and so this is now happily lit once more - That developed into a mass destructive session accessing and replacing all the LED strips in the layout which left massive holes in the scenery but well worth the effort I think! I then noticed the state of the printed backscene, installed really early ion the development of the layout, it was looking grim - faded, scruffy, bubbled in places and with dirty marks as well. Ok so that had to go as well!! It was at that point realisation dawned - I had only 3 weeks to the Nailsea show, AAAAAAAAARGH!! Anyway here we a re a week later and a progress in 2 main areas - Firstly the sky, this was sanded down and painted white ready for the next step. Then having watched a couple of Youtube tutorials and looking at a lot of skies, I plucked up the courage and this morning I painted the backscene. sky blue, paler towards the horizon and blended in upwards followed by stippled clouds. I am really pleased with the result. (other than getting paint on the fencing along the back of the layout, oops!) the second area that has been developed recently is a new window for the front hobbit hole, something I have been thinking about doing for ages. In this view, the hole I cut out for the new window can be seen with the basic framing and additional roof in place. I then made up the room to go behind it and then cut out the polystyrene where it will go. She can be seen quite well watching you from her window. So less than 2 weeks to go and a LOT to get done but fingers crossed we will get it all sorted by Nailsea. Best wishes to you all and more updates to follow!! Simon

well, apologies for such a big gap since the last update! Nailsea and then Calne were a problem last year as I have had several issues with my leg including a couple of bouts of arterial and deep vein thrombosis which messed up lots of activities including those 2 shows, lega apologies for anyone hoping to see Hobbiton End there! Anyway, we did get to the most excellent show at Compton Dundon a few weeks ago in memory of the organiser, Howard Martin, who died last year. It was a great show and full of memories of a great guy! Here is a piccie of my son, Seb operating the layout that day - Yes that is blue hair, Oh dear!! More to follow soon. Best wishes Simon

Bumping an old thread I know, but does anyone know what happened to JBs model world? I have acquired a stack of plastic boxes like the ones they used and logged on to prder foam trays to find no sign of them, his Ebay stock is empty and messages are not answered. Other companies do trays I know but not A4 size. Best wishes Simon

As Paul mentioned, we will be there with Hobbiton End. Best wishes Simon

depends on the level of super detail you require but for my military goods I am using vehicles from Butler Printed Models - they have a superb range of vehicles suitable for your use. Best wishes Simon

I have just acquired an N gauge Union Mills T9 which has a 6 wheel tender though it is presently in Southern livery so will be repainted and lined out. The issue is that I am struggling to find any info about which of the T9s ended up with 6 wheel tenders in later life. I expect there is info out there or on here but I am failing to find it. Any help will be most appreciated. Best wishes Simon

I now have a week off in the run up to the Nailsea show, not planned this way but very useful. The layout is now set up again and I will go through the usual cleaning and testing over the next few days ready for the show, piccies to follow! Best wishes Simon

Hobbiton End is going to have a couple of unexpected exhibitions soon due to ill health of another layout owner, take is easy Russ!! So we will be at Nailsea Model Railway Exhibition on the 25th and 26th March Calne Model Railway Show, 15th - 16th April http://www.calnemrs.org.uk/ Best wishes Simon

thanks for posting those cars, will defo be acquiring the Regal and the Bond Bug, a friend of mine at primary school, his mum had one and it broke down occasionally, his dad would go out and put it in the back of their lorry to get it home with loads of room! Best wishes Simon

Dont forget to include lots of cages full of undelivered mail and a set of posties on the gate hehe!! Looking good though Merry Christmas Simon

developing really well, I am watching this layout with interest. Best wishes Simon

We had a most excellent day on Saturday at the show, here are a few piccies of the layout - Hope you like them. Best wishes SImon

Update with piccies this time - Firstly, before fixing in place the large tree, I did a little work on the track and then weathered it to blend in the new ballast of the longer headshunt. This has now been rubbed back to clean the rail tops and around the points then checked. Here it is from a rare birds eye view. Now to the trees, I construct them using lots of twisted wire to make a skeleton. I then dribble Evostik PVA glue through it to hold it all together, this works really well and gives a good surface for the gunk to stick to - The gunk is a paste of PVA/Polyfilla/paint to colour which is smeared/brushed all over in several layers to build up a smooth/textured trunk and branches. Here is the tree, bare but in my spraying booth having just been sprayed dirty browny grey. Then I foliage it with a suitable foliage matting, several companies make these, Woodland Scenics, Greenscene etc, this tree happens to be covered with matting from Busch. Sat in place during the hole digging process. While doing this one, I decided that the tree at the back of the layout was looking a bit straggly so it got recovered as well. Final job this evening was to bed in the trees including an extra smear of gunk to fill any gaps. As this gunk is PVA based, it dries and hardens a lot quicker that a water mix, very useful. Anyway, the rest of the evening has been spent watching the first 3 episodes of the new Star Wars series 'Andor' which I thoroughly enjoyed, roll on next week for the next one!! Best wishes SImon

Only a few days to go now til our next show, this Saturday at Compton Dundon village hall. We are really looking forward to showing the layout as it has not been out since October 2018!! The central tree is progressing well and today I was able to sort out a couple of issues with the building interior lights, a couple of the LED strips had failed - another one in one of the rear structures will have to be another time as this will require g=digging through the scenery to get to it but I think it ill be worth doing at some point. I will add a few piccies tomorrow and will, obviously add a few from the show. Hope to see some of you there. Best wishes Simon

The headshunt area now extended with repainted rock face and vegetation. The wine and beer store area, also repainted to match the darker rock type. Best wishes Simon

General tarting up now means it has gone over to see Dr Russ the electro wizz to get it sorted out lol! So now that the layout is out of my hands for bit, attention has turned to constructing a replacement large tree for the centre of the layout as the previous one was looking a little tatty. Will sort piccies as well. Best wishes Simon

Hobbiton End will be out and about once more on Saturday 24th September in Compton Dundon at the village hall for the Small and Delightful all Narrow Gauge show. Open 10 - 4. So, as the layout has not really been used much for a while, it is now part way through a tidy up and sorting out including extending the head shunt, re painting all the rock faces, replacing the main large tree and general tarting up. Piccies to follow soon. Best wishes Simon

Those scenic materials look superb, were they from a UK supplier of from Germany? If UK, who from, think I will be ordering some! Best wishes Simon

totally get that and understand how much hard work you guys have had to do to ensure we all can carry on using this amazing resource so please dont think of me as not being appreciative of your effort, I am also aware this was not of your doing either lol!! Best wishes Simon

Missed that bit my disappointment took over understandably, well fingers crossed for a positive outcome then! Best wishes Simon