Horsehay Railway Modeller

2/2 I've also added this week to rker in the coal sidings, I can only assume he's breaking up some coals and ashes in the ground. I've been working in scenery around the churchand I've been doing my best not to take photos of the class 40 every day. Thanks again, David

Finished something else today, We have water in the stream! after painting, adding soil and weathering in previous posts the river has been sat waiting for water for some time. I opted to go frlor epoxy resin Instead of any realistic water product off the shelf. I bought a well reviewed cheap casting resin. This was mixed according to the instructions and poured on, I then added a layer of mod podge gloss which was pushed around with the airbrush to form ripples. I'm toying with the idea of a canoe or rowing boat. Thanks for looking, David

A Little bit of work done this afternoon. I've mocked in the retaining wall and raised area. I've mostly followed my design however it's not completely accurate. I've left a blank section in the corner that can be brick wall around the shed. Every where else I'm thinking of putting stone. I've cut the slot in the raised section that is meant to suggest the track turns to the right and continues off however I'm not sure if I like it "in the flesh" and I'm not sure I can make it look believable. I think I might just plug the hole and put some removable buildings on the raised area and leave the viewer to decide where the mainline runs after it goes under the buildings.

The church is installed and lit, may need a resistor or two. So far I've just added static grass and a tile grout pathway. I need to bed the church in with bushes and trees and add some sort of stone church wall. I may even add a grave or two.

The church is now in position and I'll do some work on the scenery around it later. Something else I've been working on Is the scenery around the coal sidings and signal box. I began a few days ago by applying static grass, this was a bit bright so after this photo was taken I airbrushed a black wash over it all. Today I've been working on the hedge. I began by gluing down rubberised horse hair I had spray painted brown. I then trimmed the hedge into shape with scissors and scattered woodland scenics coarse turf on top I think its looking quite good, the static grass is a bit bright and short, but I'll be adding a darker 4mm grass on top at some point. I also have some dead grass to out in some areas

Morning all, Thanks for all of your advice and kind words. For now to save cost I have just used a fine sharpie to draw on the lead. I've also started painting. I began by mixing a sandstone colour and airbrushing the whole building with a few base coats. Then I added a few black washes, painted the doors brown and the roof a slate grey. This is it rested on the the layout to test its position, I've marked out the church wall and footpaths and drilled a hole for the lighting wire. This morning. I've been weathering it more with some pastels and I've glued in the windows, just got to glue in the roof properly and wire the light up then I'll install it and start working on the surrounding scenery.

It's quite a hard plastic so I'm not sure I could do it without heat, however I think the heat would make a mess of it. I think I might leave the courses off for now But if it looks odd I think I may try scribing them on. Thanks for your help I think I may try making up some windows to resemble the leading.

Last bit of work for this evening or should I say yesterday. The Heljan Church kit arrived a few days before I went to visit family. I was a little annoyed to see it had a spru missing from the box meaning I was short three walls for the bell tower. There was a photo on the listing showing what was in the box, I should of had a closer look. After pondering for a while I used the single tower wall I had to draw up the missing three. I also took advantage of this to add a few details to make it resemble an English church a little better. (I drew the rest of the building in blocks to get scale) Having spent this morning drawing up the new walls and then 3d printing them whilst I worked on other things, after supper I could assemble the kit. It went together well and I'm pleased to say my 3d printed section slotted in perfectly with the kit parts. I have a few dilemmas. I've left out the glazing to make airbrushing easier, however I'm not sure what to use when I do put it in. The main hall will be lit like the rest of the buildings, so you may be able to see inside if I'm not careful. The kit came with clear styrene however I think I'd prefer stained glass of some sort, or maybe represent the lead gridlines on the glass. Any ideas? Another dilemma is that I had originally intended to use clay to add stone detail to my printed section, however looking at it now I think it should be fine without, and blends In Relatively well to the textured kit parts. I printed using some quick and dirty settings just so it didn't take all evening, however I think it's given a good enough texture to leave as is with ou rgb further clay texturing. What do you reckon, do I need more stone texture or will this suffice once airbrushed? Thanks for looking as always, David

Change of plan for this afternoon. My glue gun packed in as I was working on the second block of buildings. The hot glue gun was about 5 years old and probably needed replacing anyway as it has been used and abused so often. Anyway I started off by positioning some Bachmann scene craft figures I purchased on the last day of my holiday. I'm not sure if the farmer is trainspotting or if is car has broken down. And here this old boy is going for his afternoon stroll by the water I also fitted an led to the signal box. It's on a steel wire so the roof can be removed to add detail or look inside. I think I will eventually add overhead power lines around this area to show the station has recently been hooked up to the mains. I doo like running in the evening with the buildings glowing. Hopefully the resin will arrive tomorrow so the Brook can be poured. I also think I might start on the hedgerows for the signal box this evening. Thanks for looking, David

Whilst I wait for scenic materials for the signal box area I thaught I'd mock up the iron works /factory area. I had previously drawn cad files so I printed out a plan and set about slicing up some foam board. Two people there for scale. They're quite I. Posing from the front but they're mostly low relief so should nestle in behind trees when viewed from the front of the layout. I changed some dimensions but overall its what I planned. For now they're like cardboard cutouts but I I'll slowly add more structure and then windows and doors can be cut and it can be clad in different plasticards. Right time to crack on with the other buildings.

Back home now the 40 is looking and sounding great on the main layout. Hopefully som scenery will get done before I go back to uni.

I then set about painting the stones with acrylics and using various washes to weather them. Static grass Was also applied in some areas to show where the cobbles had become overgrown. Finally, the full story is on my main layout thread, however I visited the local model shop here and left a few hundred quid lighter but with this lovely dcc sound class 40. That's all for now, David

I've managed to get some work done on this layout whilst I've been visiting family here in Suffolk. I began by ballasting with woodland scenics fine buff ballast and then weathering with a mix of vallejo earth brown and some black acrylic. I also painted the boards black. I then spent a couple of afternoons with a scalpel and a plastic tube scribing cobble stones and blocks using das clay. 1/2

I've been away visiting family this week so no progress on the layout but I hope to get some bulk of the scenery done in the next fortnight I have left until I head back to uni. I've brought my little layout with me to show my grandad and some work has been done on it. I thaught as I was close I would go to great Eastern models in Norwich on Tuesday and buy possibly a new loco and some more scenic items. Having been interested in cheap dcc sound I got speaking about what tts chips they had in stock. I then looked at the price of the locos that matched both the tts chips and my era/location. The only one in stock was the new Bachmann release class 40. Having started to look at that I ended up spotting the sound fitted version which had only come into the shop on Monday. Catching my gase I was offered to give it a run on the test loop. Long story short after running it round the track a few times I was hooked and broke my debit card on the brand new release Bachmann class 40 with loksound fitted. its hard to say no when you've fallen In love with a loco on the shops test track, but now I've had it a few days I have no regrets and i think I've gotten over the gap in my wallet. (might even visit another model shop tomorrow) I've only just realised that this is still awaiting delivery in many shops and I was lucky to get one without pre ordering. Its an incredible model and sounds great. Not bad for my first taste of sound but now I think I've caught the bug.

Well, the layout has survived the journey to suffolk and all works well. I've brought it mainly to show my grandad but I've also got a box of scenic materials with me so some work may be done. In a last minute change I hammered out the brass dowels and put in some m8 bolts that I had ground the ends down on. They work pretty well for alignment with a little bit more effort compared to the dowels, however they don't rip the backsene when trying to align the upside down board to form a box and they allow the box to be bolted securely closed for storage and transport.

Track all airbrushed this afternoon. I decided to try something different from sleeper grime and used vallejo earth brown airbrush paint. I think it's their game air range. I think it came out quite well. The rails will probably get another coat after they're ballasted. And I'll be weathering the ballast too but for a base weathering colour this works well and it gave great coverage Iver all of the soldered wires and pcb sleepers.

sHi all, I've had a change of location to the gfs house ( in a covid bubble) but I've managed to get the wiring completed. All of the track now has droppers and every point is motorised and has live frogs. I've tried to keep wiring as neat as possible. The lenz dcc system clips Into the bottom of the board and is removable and there is a chocolate block plug and socket at the baseboard join. It all seems to work well and the phone app is now working too. I'm loving having a portable layout as this week I've been working on it at the other half's house and next week it'll be coming on the family holiday to see my grandparents. My grandad got me started on railways and one of the reasons for this layout is so I can take it to show him. Also it's great taking photos outdoors. The baseboards are working quite well and whilst the join works very well for track allingment I'm having a few issues when inverting the boards to form a box. The allingment dowels work great when used normaly but trying to line them up blind into each backsene when making the box is a nightmare and Ive scratched the backsene more than once. I'm considering replacing the dowels with removable bolts and wing nuts. The theory being they can be removed when flipping the boards over so there is nothing pointy to catch on the back scenes, and also I should then be able to bolt the box closed instead if relying on the allingment dowels catching in there corresponding holes in the back scene I hope to paint the tracks this afternoon and then I'll be all set for scenic work hopefully. Thanks for looking, David

Thanks for the advice re signals. I can see that there may not be a need for any however I think I'll work in a back story to allow for one or two as I do quite like the Dapol ones and I have other plans for the main layout. This weekend I've managed to get the track glued down. Now I just have to start tackling the wiring. Most of the droppers are already in but just dangling loose under the board, however I'm sure I've missed a few too. I've ran a coach around by hand for a while and it all seems good. Just needs wiring up before the first loco testing. The join in the middle as well as the track that runs to the edge of the board allowing for a possible future "fiddle stick" are soldered to dcc concepts pcb sleepers which are glued and pinned down. I then cut through the rails and filled them down and it seems to have worked well. That's all for now. Time to do some wiring. Thanks, David

All of the point work has been wired up and glued down, tomorrow I should get the rest of the track glued and then I can flip the boards and wire in the buses and hopefully start motorising points. On that note I've finished writing a simple phone app that sends Bluetooth commands to the arduino... The buttons along the bottom change colour and correspond with green being straight ahead and red diverging. There is also a light switch in the top left which controls the relay for the lighting bus. You may also note I've made a br totem with a name for the layout. This may change however for now it's 'west canal sidings' My idea is that they are ex br sidings now privately owned/ leased from br. Any other name recommendations are welcome but I am quite happy with this. I think I might make this layout a little less built up than planned as I am really happy with the country side look I've begun to achieve on my large layout nothing major but perhaps a few more grassy mounds and trees will appear. And I may imply the larger factory building is off scene instead of having a wedge of it at the front of the layout. Sorry for the wall of text. One last question for this evening. I quite like the look of the Dapol semaphore signals and would like to use one or two for this little layout to add some extra interest. The sidings themselves will be operated by ground frames and probably won't even have shunting signals. However I was thinking some signaling might look nice on the 'mainline' at the back of the layout. Either just before the road bridge at the far right or just before the tunnel / entrance to the sidings in the centre. What signals would be prototypical? There is a trackplan and ideas of the building layout in previous posts of the trackplan on the screenshot above doesn't help. Thanks for looking, David

I have just bought a Heljan ah3 country church - an older HO gauge kit.

Quite a common feature of the valley is the various churches sat half way up a hill. I was hoping to sit one in the corner, or atleast half of one against the back scene. I don't have a better photo to hand but there is about 20 - 30cm square left clear with just brown paint.

The rest of the track has now arrived and I've begun cutting it to size. Hopefully I'll get it glued down this weekend. I've also decided to cut a hole in the backboard on the right hand side so that at a later date I can add a removable fiddle stick or cassette to allow "through running" when I have space. This cutout will be underneath the bridge shown in the cad files earlier in this thread. Finally I've been 3d printing brackets for the rest of the servos and I'm progressing with the phone app and arduino code so that it should all be working by the time the track is laid. Thanks, David

Not too much to report as I have been focusing on the point control system for my uni layout. However the signal box is mostly finished (just needs lights and interior) and the fence has had some more paint. I've also had a tidy and hoover of the whole layout and layout room. And I'm now really happy with the scenic section I've done so far... I just need to add some resin and water effects to the Brook and find a church for the hill. Thanks, David

After several days of frustration, a new relay (from my spares box) and a different Bluetooth unit (also an old spare). I am making progress on the control system. I have started as I mean to go on and everything is colour coded, labeled and cable managed in clear runs so that faults are easily traced. It may seem a bit extreme but in my experience wires soon turn into rats nests and it becomes increasingly difficult to trace runs. I've also 3d printed some brackets that hold the lenz base unit to the baseboard and allow me to swap it between the main and uni layouts. Finally I have cancelled the rest of my track order from Liverpool as after a month I still haven't received it all and they think it may be another week or two. I want to get some scenery done before I go to uni again so I have ordered the rest of the track from a smaller shop with no back log and it should arrive in the next few days.

Hi there, It's all made up of Components I had laying around. Still working on the board but yes the control panel will be on my phone connected to the layout via Bluetooth. The black box in the middle is a relay allowing me to switch the 12v bus on and off with the arduino. The top right is an i2c servo board allowing me to wire servos so they only have an i2c bus connected to the arduino. Finally the dc converters are just cheap ones from amazon. They convert 12v in to a steady 5v for the arduino (I burnt out the one built into the arduino a few years ago) and 6v to run the servos from their own supply. I decided to build it off of the layout so I can programme and wire it all before installing it on the layout and plugging everything in.