Multigauge

Some pics of recent developments. I've weathered one of the warehouse using sandy powder to give a more yellow brick finish; not sure I like it though.

@sb67, no base coat. I gave a light coat of humbrol acrylic spray afterwards to seal it. I do tend to have issues with the humbrol acrylic I have; 2 or 3 times now it has bloomed. Not sure if it's me or the product.... I should say it worked fine on this occasion.

Thanks bazzer. I've used some before and ran it through small choc blocks for support etc, but I no longer remember how I came about the wire, not it's dimensions, so that helps. I have seen a link to a certain large DIY chain that claims to sell the wire, but I think it needs straightening as it comes coiled.

@sb67 thanks for the kind words. The arches were coloured with a mixture of Skin tones soft pastels by Boldmere (stocked by the works from memory) Derwent pastels from Hobbycraft and and polychromus pencils by Faber Castell from WHSmith. There is a thread on RM web about using pencils - search polychromus - that gave me the idea, but trying to find the right ones was a chore. Dark chrome yellow was used a lot, but I also used light yellow ochre and yellow ochre. Brown ochre, raw umber and burnt sienna were used too. I just did bits at time and sometime wiped bits away if I thought it was overdone. The stone setts have been coloured with a graphite pencil to start then odd ones highlighted with the coloured pencils too. Hope this helps.

Oh, and can anyone suggest where I can get piano wire for wire tube operation? And what diameter I may need for peco code75 point work?

Slowly but surely it is starting come together. 2 weeks galavanting around seeing friends, a funeral, festival and returning to work has left little time for much modelling, but I have finally completed laying the setts the night before last; weathering next. I started on lining up the arches that form the scenic break but they need some work. I also built a scalescenes barge over a few nights too, and although I made a mistake here and there I think I've rescued it. I'm too knackered tonight to do anything - photos can wait for another day.

Looking great.

Watching with interest to see how this develops.

Further work done with covering the area with setts. It is still not finished but almost done. I'm pretty happy with the direction it's going in, but I recognise that some on the inset track pieces could be better. You can see where the first half have been finished with various shades of grey intermixed with occasional colours against the bare wills sheets. The back boards have had a single coat of matt emulsion for the time being, but will need to be finished with something else.

Time has been tight over the past few weeks so little has been achieved. However, I gave the setts a coating of spray varnish to seal in the work done with the pencils/chalks etc. Disappointingly there was some blooming - this happened before of some card structures too - although it doesn't detract too much and tbh I think it will get covered with weathering. I have also started to construct the back scene boards, but I've realised that I should have thought a bit harder about how they are going to be secured because the wooden bracing is a bit light; I've been sourcing corner bracing and other suitable brackets to hold everything in place.

Great attempt and I think the overall feel is there. The green is a bit pale and perhaps uniform, but I think weathering should make it look much more in keeping with a quayside structure.

And as a comparison, this was taken at Gillingham the other day. It shows just how varied the colouring can be.

Nothing done on the layout board for a while now due to various reasons that are not modelling related, but I have been trying to get some Wills brick arches suitably coloured up. These have been recycled from a layout I built almost 30 years ago. I had painted them red brick but have roughly removed most of paint and started again to get a weathered yellow brick. I've used pastels, chalks and pencils. What do think so far?

Ray, Thanks for the tips and encouragement. The ship has sailed regarding not being stuck down, but I shall give the solvent method a try. There will be little work down now for a good few days due to the room being needed for other purposes.

A bit of weathering of the setts done. Starting to look a little lived in; more to be done though.

Looking good.

A bit more progress tonight. A few more sheets of Wills stone setts butchered to fit. Whilst far from perfect, it is also far from finished, but I'm rather pleased with it so far. I intend to fill in any of the large gaps with a bit filler and make it look like detritus. A small amount of fettling has been required - I think in places the sheets are interfering with the loco wheels a smidgen so causing stalling at low speed - but overall, it's running ok. I'm not sure how much more of the stone setts I want to lay as I think it may need some variation, but I will see. I think once I've fitted some more of the inlays I shall pause on that front for a bit an concentrate on the arches forming a scenic break, buildings, gates, and hopefully build up a little canal scene.

Lurgy, trips away and catching up with work has slowed the modeling down somewhat. However, some more Wills sheets have been fitted and I've made a start on a low relief terrace house back. I need to make a set of gates to go between the two buildings; the temporary one is there to give an idea.

I think it's looking pretty good. You're a lot better at this inlaid track malarkey than me. I briefly considered using check rails and found out that they were not always installed and took the easy option. I've been making slow progress with mine due to a non covid lurgy doing the rounds that floored the family, but I have fitted some more Wills stone setts. I tried using Das clay as a trial but it didn't scribe well for me.

@ManofKent thanks for this.

It's difficult to tell due to the lighting and shadows, but I suppose the beauty of these kits is that if you do something you don't like you can easily print off another and start again

Going back to London yellow brick. How weathered was it say 1940/50s? Did it even look yellow then? The only photos I've seen so far in that era have been back and white.

I can't claim ownership of the idea - it came from elsewhere on this forum. I used a cutting disc, but it is a very tough thing to cut; it did seem to snap like a tile in the end. I was interested in using the neo mags but had the same issues under a test bed. I appear to have misplaced them now anyway. And yes, disguising them as some other part of the infrastructure should be easyish.

Some more Wills sheets cut and fitted today. I've found some issues with one section affecting the running of the Peckett. Seems like the sheet may be a smidgen too high so I need to sand it down a tad. I've also noticed problems with the Peckett stalling on the frog of the second Y. Problem solving tomorrow... Managed to cut a kadee magnet in half and it still does a good job in pulling the knuckles apart.

Now that's an area of London that really has a fascinating - and unsung - railway history. A real tangle of lines as well as pipe work.