Horsehay Railway Modeller

Im back !

I've been home for a week now , and although i have not spent too much time in the garage there is progress to report.

I've begun adding a stone wall around the churchyard as well as measuring up for an engine shed and goods yard the other side of the station. hopefully i'll get these purchased and built over christmas.

I also saw a good deal for this dcc fitted 4mt on hattons and couldnt resist. i promise ill get round to buying some tank locos soon.

I'm very much a rule one modeller, in that i am trying to acheive the look and atmosphere of a late sumers day on the wenlock branchline in the mid sixties, however i will find any reasonable excuse to run what i want. for example my rake of mk1s has been diverted from the mainline and runs happily around this backwater branch.

on a similar thread i was thinking about an interesting goods train to run. I am certainly going to build up my stock of mineral wagons and vent vans, but to add interest i was thinking of something else. initially a limestone train from the quarries around wenlock, this is still an option, however i happened across a Hornby cement wagon online and thought of the idea of a long cement train headed towards the ironbridge power station which would have needed a lot of concrete during its construction in the early to mid sixties. 

does anyone know of cement trains headed to the powerstation in its construction? if not i may think again , however i have already nudged the my family in the direction of cement wagons for cristmas.

hi all,

this morning my skaledale magna waiting room arrived. so in between lectures i have set about trying to make it fit.

i knew it was too big out of the box ...

so i went rogue with my rotary tool and cut it about 60/40 giving me two options for my halt building.
Im not entirely sure whether i like the smaller or bigger half. so any advice is welcome.

option a:

option B: 

I'm just waiting for a few bits and bobs to arrive so I can either work on the station or attempt to make the scale scenes terraced house kit. 

I've just been looking at the raised area and having marked out the location of the terraced houses... there's still alot of space. I could make another set of houses however I feel this would be the boring option. 

I grabbed some of the Wills fencing I had lying around and have mocked in an area for some sort of industry.  I feel like it could be a good location for the back of an industrial unit or car workshop etc. Any ideas? 

some more of the work ive completed in the last few days:

I continued the station area by giving all of the brick plasticard a white wash to fill the mortar. im still waiting for the rest of the paints for the brick and stone work.

I then continued work on the embankment by adding a layer of soil , on top of which i added a variety of static grasses and some coarse turf.

Whilst this was drying i began adding trees. I decided to try some woodland scenics fine leaf foliage. i was relatively impressed however the "medium green" is a bit vibrant and will need toning down. i also realised it is basically a pack of premade seafoam trees, so in future i will buy more noch seafoam and make my own again.

When adding the trees i also added some shrubbery behind the platform to cover a line i accidently made on the backscene . i also added a wills gwr fence. this mornings project was to add a hedgerow between the station and sidings. this was acheived using rubberised horsehair which i painted brown and covered in coarse turf.

I am quite happy with how the station is progressing. finally for today i am looking at how the baseboard join can be covered or disguised slightly , i was thinking about some sort of pathway between the station and the yard. is a barrow crossing along the join too cliche ?

over the last few days i have been progressing with the station area.

i began by cladding all of the wall sections in brick plasticard, and adding edging stones to the platform using card.

I also added an embankment  leading up to the platform as well as a small mound along the tracks using sculptamold.

Thes next step was to paint the platform surface with various shades of grey . this has already received some weathering but will receive more soon.

Finally for this stage i added details, such as stone edging around the arch as well as a pavement on the road using das clay. i also added a second wall to the stair case, and finally platform edging using matchsticks.  

Ive also been doing some scenic work on the embankments which i will show you in my next post , and have ordered the necessary paints for the brickwork.

35 minutes ago, simon b said:

I like to use the old Hornby kits as low relief house backs, the numbers are R273 and R274. The other option is the Wills CK11 kit but those are very time consuming to build correctly.

 

You can see 2 of the Hornby kits minus their chimneys at the back of this pic.

 

Thank you very much for the advice   some more kits to look at if I'm not happy with the Scalescenes one. Nice layout BTW. 

15 minutes ago, simon b said:

How many do you need?

 

I'm looking at about 45-50cm ish of low relief house backs  so 2 metcalfe kits or 1 of the scale scenes kits. But I was hoping to find a resin or plastic equivalent. At the moment my plan is to build the scale scenes kit and see what it looks like. 

I continued my search to little avail. so ive bitten the bullet and bought the scalescenes kit. At 4.99 even if i dont end up using it im not out of pocket. hopefully i can get it printed.

5 hours ago, sb67 said:

 

I know they're not plastic but have you seen Scalescenes range of downloadable kits? You can get different wall finishes as well.

 

https://scalescenes.com/product/t008-low-relief-house-backs/

Hi there, these are a great option and I've made several of their kits in the past, however I was hoping to have all my buildings made of plastic and resin etc. On this layout. I will keep them in mind though thanks. 

This is the kit I'm looking for an alternative to. 

Hi guys, 

Does anyone  know of a plastic kit, wills ratio etc.  For terraced house backs. I need some half relief buildings and I know the metcalf kits will look okay and fit but I really don't want to have the village of metcalf shire feature on the layout. 

David

Warehouse

since the inception of this track plan i have wanted to build a small warehouse / representation of a loading bay of a larger off scene warehouse.

i have had an exact scale design for the dimensions of this building for several months, and being strapped for cash i decided to try and scratchbuild at least a mock up with out spending a penny, however im so pleased with the results it will be staying on the layout. 

i began by cutting out the building in cardboard and hot gluing its shell together.

This shell was then covered in brick plasticard

I then cut out two personell doors and clad the roof in corrugated plasticard using the same method as above. 

The final build stage was to add a goods door and timber details, as well as a tin foil flashing strip.

To start painting i gave all of the brick a thin white wash. i also weathered the roof with some dark washes. The whole building was then airbrushed and weathered further and the wood detail was painted Tamiya deep green. i also added bolt details to the doors using a pencil and a fine brush. 

you may also note a light was added above the loading door in the form of an led and some heatshrink. finally the building was glued in place and received some vegetation.

Shed

i began by adding 3 warm white leds, these are soldered to steel wire which is airbrushed brown to look like some sort of scale lighting assembly.

whilst working on the retaining wall i embedded a section of brick plasticard to imply the wall had been reinforced when the shed was built. i gave this a quick white wash and installed some

timbers.

These Timbers form part of the buildings "framework" and allowed me to slot the existing structure into the retaining wall. it was then glued in place and i set about making a roof out of slaters corrugated plasticard.

i cut it into rectangles wich were then overlapped and superglued together. i then removed it from the timber frame before priming it in my leftover deck tan .

the roof was then glued on and weathering began using different washes , dry brushes, sponges and my airbrush. 

i didnt get many photos of the process but im very happy with the results.

Retaining wall

I have finally organised my photos and compressed some so i can now break down my recent work into a few posts.

I continued scribing das clay all along the retaining wall using the method shown in a previous post. 

During this process i also added some support pillars and re modeled the tunnel entrance with better clearences.

I continued adding clay detail such as capping stones and then let it all cure for a few days , meanwhile an order arrived with some scratchbuilding supplies, as well as some tamiya paints.

I began by painting all of the square cut stones with Tamiya Deck tan. (you may note i also added brick plasticard to the central supporting pillar.

Once this was dry i carefully painted all of the round stones with Tamiya Ocean grey.

You can see here i added detail into the first sectiion of the tunnel, I also scribbed a builders date into the tunnel portal.

The final stage was weathering, i used several light airbrushings of black and brown as well as a final dusting of thinned deck tan to tone down the blue.  

I also made sure to add streaks etc. and weather key areas more.

Sorry I haven't posted any images yet. Hopefully I'll get them compressed tomorrow. 

Ive done alot of scratch building on this layout so I thought I'd give myself a break and buy a pre built station shelter. Does this one look OK for a generic br halt?if anyone can point me in the direction of a good halt waiting room / shelter it would be much appreciated. 

I hadnt realised how long ago it was I'd posted on here. I've made some good progress. I've pretty much finished the retaining wall, added lighting and a roof to the shed, and scratchbuilt a new warehouse building based on my origional plans . I've also fiddled with the positioning code for the point servos and upgraded the throw wires. hopefully i'll get some photos of all this up over the next few days. below is a  teaser photo before i get my sd cards organised and compress a few photos. (ps  the window frames for the shed arrived today)

i forgot to add,

here is a rough computer sketch of the retaining wall design.

The shed has been airbrushed an undercoat of us earth brown. i have also ordered some plasticard and other modelling materials to hopefully do some more work on it later in the week.

in the meantime ive started work on the retaining wall, there will be a more detailed video on my youtube channel at some point. i have decided to continue the theme used for the wharf wall , a mix of large sandtone blocks and smaller rocks possibly flint. there will be some brick thrown in too.this is the scribed clay, obviously alot of work needs doing but its a start.Im still unsure what to put in the front oval on the right board. Im thinking a tank of some sort would look good between the two sidings , and there is a small warehouse going in the front corner of the left board at the end of the canal. i feel like it is a lot of space and dumping a large building there feels like a cop out and it would need to be removable anyway. perhaps a road or yard of some sort?. timber and coal merchant or scrap yard ?  any and all suggestions welcome, Regards ,

David

plodding along with the shed build , one match at a time.i began by framing the roof, and then started to clad the outside with matches.Here the cladding is complete with space for some windows , the roof will be clad in corrugated metal.

cheers,

David

Hi all,

I recently purchased a new camera so I've been looking at work I can do with the materials I've got (i.e. I'm broke). Inbetween all of the practicing (playing ) I've been doing with the new camera I've managed to start framing in the shed. I've decided this will be a botch job lean too that the workers threw up in wood and corrugated tin/ iron . To begin i have set out making up a matchstick frame , hopefully it should look quite good all weathered up, and you should see it through the door / windows.

Hi guys, I apologise for the silence, I've had the layout out  for a little running session and I've been working on some metcalfe bench kits. 

Today I started thinking about the station and actually got some work done. 

I am using the same plasticard from my main layout for the paving.

I began by modifying the ramp, as I had cut it on a diagonal and have decided to make it at a right angle to the track. 

This was  done with some more foam board to make a frame and then the plasticard can be glued on top. 

I then cut some paving plasticard to shape and glued it down. I've left a gap along the front edge to allow for large square slabs. There will be some fencing along the back of the platform. 

Finally here is a of one of the metcalfe bench kits. 

I love it when a plan comes together. 

well, im now in portsmouth back in my student home and the layout has made the journey too.

i thought id better update the thread on what i got up to just before leaving.

to begin with i carved the resin flush with the board as it had bowed out in all of the leaking saga. i then sanded it up to 2000 grit  to make it flush and smooth.

once this was done i gave it a cleanup and painted the edge of the board.

i think it looks quite good, i may add ripples at some point.

you can also see in the above photo that i replaced the foam on top of the hidden sidings with a peice of hardboard. this also has a strip of 9mm ply as a stiffener. it is a little overkill , however i think i am leaving this section removeable so i can have taller buildings up there and still fold up the main boards.

finally i added a small mirror under the bridge. its not perfect but it has to be semi permanent in case i ever want to extend the rails through the hole in the backsene through the bridge. it gives the ilusion that the track and station continue under the bridge.

thanks for looking,

David

Well, thats it... I've moved back to university for the new term. I should be able to make up a few buildings and I'll show any new aquisitions, other than that this thread will be a little quiet untill im home for whatever holidays i get this term . i will of course be posting in  my thread abut my portable layout. 

Goodbye for now Coalorsdale.

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