Oncomin5torm

I've been busy installing lighting into the shed, and als some magnets This will hopefully hold it steady when it gets a knock by a hand or foot on the table. I used micro smd wired cosh the rear of one of the upright supports in the shed so not visible without lifting the shed up.

Things have progressed quite a bit since the last post. The hardstanding has a coat of paint, just a pale grey which will get weathered down. Backscene boards have been installed with a backscene sheet from peco installed as well, overcast sky is what I had to hand. I have spent a bit of time modifying and backdating the shed I will be using. It is a 3D printed small shed I found on ebay, it suits what I need but was a bit too modern for what era I operate, the early to mid 90s, so I decided to backdate it a little. I've added a layer of brick plasticard, and then capped that with some 1mm styrene rod, painted the brick up which I think has really brought the whole shed to life, i've also done a layer of blue grey to the sides of the shed not brick and the roof in a pale grey, not to worry these will all be weathered suitably.

I wish I could take credit for it, it was done a number of years ago by Tim Cooper of The Scrap Line on youtube

After many failed attempts in the past at hardstanding I have opted to use the kit from scale model scenery for it on this layout, as one kit would do the whole area I want to cover. This is the area covered loosely and not yet glued down. The hardstanding is overhanging the edges of the board, and once the wood glue is dry (tomorrow or beyond) I'll cut it down to the profile of the edge of the boards, this will give it the impression it continues off scene and I am only modelling a small section of the works itself. The shed is a 3D printed offering from eBay, which I will be modifying with a brick coarse to bring its age back to the 90s a little more. The total scenic area will be 480mm x 400mm this is because I don't need to waste all the fiddle yard boards area with the turntable, so long as there is enough space to allow the tracks to be straight before going onto the turntable itself.

I have been slowly behind the scene been building a new micro. The layout will be a wagon repair depot, I got the idea from the fantastic Templegate Wagon Works by Dave Tailby but his was build in O gauge and I am doing mine in OO. Using a 400x400mm board from grainge and hodder with their turntable board (also 400x400mm) I have used their turntable as a sector plate of sorts. The turntable is just big enough for an 08 with a longer wheelbase wagon like an OAA or Seacow. Three tracks, middle one will have the shed for the repairs, and the front for any heavy duty work that can be done with a small overhead crane, the rear is being partially hidden, so I can add and remove stock to be moved onto the scene, and with an option to add a longer folding/cassette fiddle on the end so I can use a larger loco such as a 31 or 37 to bring stock in for work and shunt it with the 08.

I'd love to know what happened to this layout after it was sold. Anyone know?

I've not weathered much steam stock but I know Bunters Yard on youtube has done a load if your after advice and ideas. Tim cooper (The Scrap Line) on youtube has also done loads of stock weathering videos, one of my go to videos for weathering. That is if your after any advice

Stunning, I thought it was a different layout for a moment, next level modelling in my opinion.

Hi Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I've been looking at getting some. Of the norfolk heath baseboards and I cannot get in touch with them. Ive tried Facebook and email but no reply. Where did you order yours from?

Superb. The backscene just brings the whole layout to life, not that it wasn't full of character anyway so this just elevates it even more. Love it to bits.

It has inspired me, mines a brewery.

Coming along nicely, I love the low relief loco shed, it looks so good, excellent use of the space. The barrels really add something to the layout

The area in front of the buildings is that hardstanding or just a heavily compacted ballast type ash? I must also admit that your layout has inspired me to build something very similar, but with my own take on it. For that I must thank you as its such a fantastic little layout idea and simple track plan that offers so much playability in a tiny area.

The Ruston 48DS is one of my favourite locos, I have done a DCC upgrade with stay alive, those suckers needed it haha. The signal box is excellent, and It fits your location perfectly.

The whole layout looks amazing, pecketts are superb little locos. Would you consider a 48DS Ruston? they are small and compact and would have worked an industry like this. What kit is the signal box? You have built and painted it superbly

This is exactly my kind of layout. I LOVE everything about it, the size, I am so impressed with how much you have fit into a small space, its not even 1m long and its excellent, detail levels are all there. I want one.

Brilliant progress, so glad youve carried on and not sold this as I love the layout, the class 25 looks ace too.

I have also had a bit of time spare to be able to do more to the Thomson Full Bake coach. Ive added rust to the roof, using weathering powders fixed in place with a base coat of enamel varnish and applied into that mix. On to that I airbrushed 2 different shades of greys which when filtered together blend to a nice faded colour. To get the bleed effect I used enamel thinners and stippled the roof and gently the rust comes through and bleeds into the surrounding roof shades which gives you this fantastic bubbling effect. The final stages of the weathering is now going to be general grime applied through the airbrush, and panel line washes into the recesses.

Ive added some lineside details to the area by the pointwork, this is pretty much the main bit of S&T that'll be on the layout but I wanted to do it anyway and to a higher standard than I had before. The clamp lock motors were bought 2 years ago by a guy who no longer does 3D printing sadly, but I have been told that West Hill Wagon Works now do a set, the relay boxes are also by the same guy. The orange tubing under the rails is from Scale Model Scenery and the cable trunking is by Peco. After a trip on the Merseyrail portion of the network last weekend I noticed the state of the cabling and trunking, so I have opted to put some cables down outside the trunking just like I saw at the weekend. I used a fine single core wire I had sitting in a box which is actually the right sort of thickness for the cabling used on the network. The next major step is ballasting.

Another project started was the weathering of the Thomson full break coach. The coach has been masked up ready for its faded paintwork to be applied. The next step is a layer of Pastel green mixed with light sea blue, this gives a faded blue/green for the base coat, once left to fully cure I moved onto the next step. This was achieved by airbrushing faded blue and then french blue in light coats over the model. This is then almost immediately taken back by diluting IPA with water and then brushed onto the model, working on one section longer allows for the fully faded paintwork effect to show though. Next up is the roof, a good bit of rust for this sucker.

A busy weekend of birthday meals and days out out of the way (another on the way haha) I have got some modelling done. Yesterday I set to with some final bits of trackside detail before finally putting ballast down. Ive used Peco cable trunking down the side of the track, and scale model scenery tubing to pass cables under the tracks, orange as was in use during the era the layout operates. I remembered I had from a previous layout a pack of 3D printed clamp lock motors for the points, so I installed those also, as well as the extra gubbins they need (the little grey boxes)

A little bit quiet on updates recently but thats just how this hobby goes. I sat down and deep cleaned my airbrush so I could finally weather the track, and get back to some stock weathering, I have a very lightly weathered thomson coach which requires some very heavy fading and weathering. I used Dark Brown in the vallejo air range (71.042) for the track weathering, just a quick blast to get rid of the overly plastic look of the sleepers, the rail tops will be cleaned so conductivity is fine. after that I painted the top surface of the platforms using a textured paint by Tamiya, dark grey tarmac effect, I didnt go to the back edge of the platforms as most of that will be covered, and if its a little patchy thats fine as it looks more worn, no weathering has been applied yet, but it will be once the main buildings are in. The platforms are now also fully installed, glued those down using super glue yesterday. Really brings the layout to life.

I've used them on multiple scratch builds, cheap, excellent quality, and super fast delivery too.

No updates recently, I've been busy working and doing small bits of modelling when I can catch an hour or so. I started the rear warehouse for the backscene elements, it will be the full length of the sidings and majority of the layout itself. It will have a canopy across the front to help during the lovely British weather when unloading the mail and parcels. All the windows and doors are from LCut Creative, I was a little unsure about the size of the doors as I was concerned they would be too small for the use of unloading parcels but as a friend of mine said they are fine as nothing that can go on a parcels coach would be too big to fit through the doors. I am also building a larger 3 floor warehouse which has a set of offices at the top as well. The intention is to have a bottom floor that has no windows, as its right at track level, then the big windows you can see and the smaller office window at the top. Just waiting for some plasticard to start cladding these buildings. Whilst waiting I have started the process of weathering the platform edging, and the retaining wall. As I did on Windle Hill I have used Humbrol enamel washes applied thickly and most of it removed with a kitchen roll. This is just the first step in the weathering so it will have a lot more applied before the end, some of it done when scenery is applied. I'm off to the Rainhill Exhibition tomorrow, going to see my first ever layout Oakford Lane, I sold it on a little while ago and it is having its first ever exhibition outing, with its new owner.

A bit of "new" stock to Hill's Cross. Class 37 429 "Eisteddfod Genedlaethol" in Regional Railways livery arrives. This is a Bachmann loco I have kindly got off Cheadle Ridge, it is a dummy unit which is perfect for what I am after. I want to occasionally drag a loco into the siding at the front of the layout as if it has managed to limp along to the main station (not on scene) and then had a catastrophic engine failure. It will have a bit more weathering applied to indicate this, maybe only on one side to show an engine fire. Also neatening up my wiring which goes from the DR5000 to the layout(s) I used to have 4 individual wires on the plug, now I have a 4 core wire which looks so much neater, and it helps my OCD haha