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Paul Robertson

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Blog Entries posted by Paul Robertson

  1. Paul Robertson

    Reflections on progress...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    So it's been a while since my last update. Progress has slowed on the railway through January and February as I have been volunteering at a vaccine clinic many weekends, work has been taking up a lot of time, and two children's birthdays needed attending to. I found myself with a spare couple of hours this afternoon so decided to work on the side back scene. Having spent a couple of hours trying to sketch in convincing perspectives to carry the quayside into the back scene it was proving impossible to find something that looked convincing that I could paint on. Instead, I decided to try a mirror. I've seen this done on other layouts in the past and it helps to convince the viewer that the layout carries on into the distance. Looking on Amazon I found some self-adhesive flexible mirror tiles which seemed to do the job so sent off for a pack. 
     
    Having received them they were very easy to cut with a hacksaw (bit too thick for my craft knife) and then mount onto the hardboard back scene. 
     

    (the basic tile in place) 
     
    Whilst it gave a nice affect the transition from the top of the mirror into the back scene painted cliff was a bit abrupt so I wanted to place something here to cover this up. Scratching around in my offcuts box I still had some corrugated sheet and styrene strip so decided to make a link bridge from the station across the top of the mirror to the ferry for foot passengers. 
     

    (Painting up the bridge) 
     

    (pedestrian Bridge glued in place) 
     
    I decided to use the mirror to my advantage by creating a half A-frame structure with a yellow concrete base and letting the mirror do the rest of the work 
     

    (a-frame in place thanks to some smoke and mirrors) 
     

    (the quayside doubles in length with not much more effort) 
     
    Still working on the station detailing and building the control tower on the cliff which is work in progress. 
     
     
  2. Paul Robertson

    A place to stay...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    With the advancement of the back scene into the townscape I needed to create some building facades to try and link the painted back scene with the main model. The first building I tried was to the left of the station bridge. I thought this might work nicely as a slightly down at heal establishment whose heyday of catering for well to do passengers eager to catch the first ferry of the morning to get into Paris by midday has long since gone. Its clientele are now more likely to be railway workers at of place for the evening, or business travellers needing a quick booking. 
     
    So I started off by cutting out some thin balsa wood and then cutting further thin strips to make some eaves. 
    (balsa wood about to be covered with brick paper) 
     
    I thought as the hotel was likely to be built at the same time as the original harbour station that a similar brick paper would be suitable. 
     
    I then made up a sign to advertise the hotel to station passengers who might have missed their connection and are in need of a last minute bed for the night. 
     

    (harbour hotel sign put on.)
     
    I then started painting on the rest of the building in perspective onto the back scene. Lots of masking tape was employed to get the right perspective lines. 
     

    (painting on hotel front wall with the top row of windows) 
     
    I used my acrylic pens to add the details to the roof and windows. 
     

    (working on the next building using the same technique) 
     
    I worked my way down the terrace of buildings using this technique with less detail as we got to the end of the street. Having completed this I then made a couple of outline industrial units to go to the right of the bridge. 
     

    (corrugated industrial units made out of some leftover sheet I had in my modelling tin)
     
    This was painted up in the dull corporate Seahaven blue that other metal structures around the port have been painted (they must get a job lot of it and then paint everything that might corrode) 
     

    (once painted up I then painted in the perspective roof again masking off to get the right perspective lines.)
     
    Having painted on the roof for the units I then used my paint pens to put on some skylights. The rough idea are these are part of the customs warehouse. 
     

    (completed station backscene) 
     
    Having completed the station backscene I then painted a backscene for the ferry so it feels like the ferry extends further than the model. 
     

    (getting the block colour in place) 
     

    (ferry backscene complete) 
     
    I might start on the port control tower next. I feel I'm getting there. 
     
    Thanks for reading
     
     
     
     
  3. Paul Robertson

    The hills are alive...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    The back scene painting has come on from doing the sky last time. I started with painting the hills into the cliff face. I had sketched in a viaduct in the background to suggest a mainline that the station and goods branches end up connecting to. 
     

    (initial hill painted in. A hint of woodland copses and hedgerows on the hills with scrubby embankments either side of the viaduct) 
     
    Following this I carried on with the hillscape round the layout until it came to another cliff and the sea. In order to suggest a rolling hill lighter greens were used at the top of the hill with streaks of white brushed in to give that curve feel. 
     

    (The rolling hills heading round the layout to the cliffs) 
     
    Having completed the hills I started adding some of the town scape using a square end brush and lots of different shades of brown and red to have the brick feel to match the brick paper on the layout. I also thought it would be nice to have a white horse on one of the hills and took my inspiration from Folkstones recent artwork. 
     

    (the town heads off up the valley with the white horse looking over the scene) 
     
    Finally I started to paint a beach scene from the cliff behind the station. 
     

    (townscene coming on) 
     
    Still more to do on the townscape and  thinking about how to paint on a bit more of the harbour in perspective
     
    Thanks for reading
     
     
  4. Paul Robertson

    The sky's the limit...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    A busy weekend only left me this evening to make a start on the back scene. I wanted the feel of a breezy summers day with high clouds and decided the impressionist look would likely be the best approach. So it was out with the acrylics and lots of big sploshes of very light blues (I had to lighten the first application as it felt too dark and rich and then using streaks of white brushed in with a bit of sky blue and a small amount of grey to give depth and shadow to the clouds. 
     
    Here is the result so far:
     

    (overall effect) 
     

    (a closer look) 
     

    (and one more) 
     
    Probably needs a bit of touching up in daylight when I can compare colours better. 
     
    The next section will be the hills. This will be a bit trickier to get the right shades and detail. I'll probably reduce my brush size to assist. 
     
    Thanks for reading
  5. Paul Robertson
    Topping and tailing some details on the layout with the completion of the permanent way. Since we are in the southern region it only seemed right to put a third rail running down into the station. Due to the small nature of n gauge I didn't worry too much with the detail. I painted some 1mm styrene strip dark brown then cut a ramp into the ends. Having completed that the top of the '3rd rail' was painted silver. 
     

    (third rail installed) 
     

    (and from the other side) 
     
    I also decided to put the extra lighting in the other high mast by the Linkspan getting a much better lighting effect. 
     

    (lighting towers now giving out a lot more light) 
     

    (note additional vehicles have now arrived) 
     

    (much better flood lighting on the Linkspan) 
     
    I've been sketching some perspective views onto the back scene and will hopefully start painting shortly. 
     

    (all lit up) 
     

    (suitable semi-trailer load now placed on ferry by the yard tractor) 
     

    (lorries and coaches all lined up) 
     
    Many thanks for reading

  6. Paul Robertson

    Sorting security...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    With the completion of ballasting on the upper section of the layout yesterday I decided to get the security fence up between network rail and port authority land. This was laser cut palisade fencing from scale model scenery. Having painted it a suitable olive drab green on the sprue I predrilled holes with my hand drill and glued down. 
     

    (security fencing in place) 
     
    I had some further signage to put around the tunnel mouth along with a temporary crossing for road / rail vehicles at the tunnel mouth for maintenance. 
     

    (Road / rail crossing and signage has now gone up) 
     

    (another view) 
     
    A nice surprise today was found in my porch. A neighbour who is a fellow train fan dropped some old n gauge catalogues through my door. Lots of childhood memories with the Lima catalogue and some interesting stock and track plans with the other ones
     

     
    Many thanks for reading
  7. Paul Robertson
    This weekend saw a milestone reached on my layout as I finished off the last of the permanent way with more das clay and a final ballasting of the station branch line. It certainly feels like an achievement covering the last of the plywood after 5 months of solid work. The first area to be done was the station layover siding. This will be for boat train stock and the odd civil engineers train. I therefore wanted the siding to have a similar well worn feel to the lower yard and used the same das clay technique with fine ballast sprinkled on then pressed in. 
     

    (das clay rolled out between formers to give right width and depth) 
     

    (clay installed on the layout with ballast pushed in) 
     
    Note I had also installed some scale model scenery catchpit drain covers between the siding and the running line. I cleaned of the das clay from the sleepers with wet cotton buds and left the whole lot to dry before painting with acrylics in shades of redy browns. 
     

    (all painted up. Note tyre tra ks marked into the clay as a base for a civil engineers access track) 
     
    All the black wooden sleepers were painted brown with an acrylic paint pen. 
     
    Something else I worked on was the high mast lighting. They havent been giving out as much light as I hoped so a quick rebuild with three extra leds and the effect was much more pleasing. The tops are a bit out of scale but the amount is of light it produces is worth it a feel. 
     

    (new light doing its job) 
     
    Having painted the das clay I then set about greening it up with burnt grass flock material laid on pva. 
     

    (flock material glued down whilst avoiding the access tracks. I even created a little landslip to keep the network rail engineer busy) 
     
    Once the siding was complete it was onto ballasting the running line. This involved carefully applying fine grey ballast then brushing it into place and off the sleepers. I've tried to replicate the cess shoulders as well. 
     

    (ballast brushed into position ready for gluing down) 
     
    A pva, water, washing up liquid solution was mixed up and then applied using a Calpol syringe to fix it all down in the same way as I did for the french drains and chalk base to the cliffs. 
     

    (ballast glued in place) 
     
    A second brushing was done to push back ballast moved during gluing. It all goes very dark when wet but hopefully will lighten again as it dries. 
     
    Next on my to do list will be putting up the network rail security fence at the top of the embankment but that will be for another day. 
     
    Before I finished today I decided to get out all my n gauge vehicles and arrange them to get a feel for the loading of the ferry over the top Linkspan 
     

    (lorries being waved on.)
     

    (network rail welfare unit in attendance) 
     
    I have a large order for extra vehicles in with Hattons at the moment. (a late Xmas present to myself!) 
     
    Thanks for reading
     
     
  8. Paul Robertson
    More detailing around the lower yard today having painted the track work yesterday. 
     

    (das clay and ballast on the lower yard) 
     

    (trackwork painted) 
     
    The first detail around the yard were more crash barriers to prevent vehicles driving onto the tracks
     

    (barrier by the parking bay) 
     
    The next detail was point levers. I made these by bending some 1mm brass tube with plyers and sticking them in some 3mm thick balsa. 
     

    (point lever installed) 
     
    I then got on with more signs around the yard including stop boards, stop look listen signs, and no admittance signs. 
     

    (stop board on the Linkspan headshunt) 
     

    (lower yard sign, point lever, painted buffers, and barriers all installed now) 
     

    (pedestrian access to customs warehouse with barriers and stop look listen sign.)
    (stop board and 25mph sign on exit from lower yard) 
     

    (5mph signage now installed on the Linkspan) 
     

    (a dramatic night time shot from under the Linkspan to newly installed barriers) 
     
    Having completed the majority of the lower yard the next area I will start on is the upper rail area which will be the last major area of das clay 
     
    Thanks for reading
     
     
     
  9. Paul Robertson

    Details, details...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    So today I carried on the road cone production line as well as putting more signage about the place and making a couple of extra stop barriers for the lower Linkspan. 
     

    (cone and barrier production line) 
     
    I also added some more bases to some of the cones to make it look like they have been stacked up on each other. 
     
    The next detail was pre-bought. Some grit bins from scale model scenery. 
     

    (a pack of salt / grit bins. I didn't feel able to scratchbuild these at n gauge) 
     
    I placed these at the top of the ramp and at the ends of the Linkspans where a bit of salt/grit on a icy morning might be appreciated. 
     

    (gritbin installed at top of ramp) 
     

    (and another by the portakabin) 
     
    Finally I added the signage and lifting barriers to the entrance of the lower Linkspan and some more signage to the upper linkspan. 
     

    (lower Linkspan signage and barriers installed) 
     

    (additional upper Linkspan signage with cones and grit bin in place) 
     

    (a shot of this end of the layout now coming together) 
     
    It might be time to do a bit more das clay work on another part of the layout to progress things on a bit. 
     
    Thanks for reading
     
     
  10. Paul Robertson
    A bit of detail at the base of the cliffs today with crushed chalk added and some more signage and traffic management. 
     
    I wanted to make some water filled traffic barriers like this. 
     

    (this is the sort of thing I was after) 
     
    I started with some trusty balsa cutting into three strips and sticking it together. 
     

    (balsa strips stuck together) 
     
    Having stuck the strips together I chopped them into scale 1m sections before painting them white and red
     

    (painted red and white. I then drew two black spots on each side of the base to represent the forklift lifting slots) 
     
    They were then stuck on the the road to reinforce traffic movement at the top of embankment. 
     

    (barriers in place. I made up some spare to stack in the corner of the yard) 
     
    Having completed this I stuck down some chalk I had ground up along the base of the cliff. 
     

    (bashing up chalk with a hammer) 
     

    (chalk stuck to base of cliff with watered down pva) 
     

    (more chalk along the cliff) 
     
    Having completed this I then put some chevrons along the base of the cliff to keep vehicles on the straight and narrow. 
     

    (chevron signs fitted to the base of the cliff) 
     

    (and the other side...) 
     
     
    Thanks for reading.. 
  11. Paul Robertson
    Having done the detail up against the cliff base I thought I could build the parapet fence on top of the retaining wall. I was wanting to create something like the below:
     

    (standard boxy parapet fencing) 
     
    I couldn't find anything off the shelf so it was back to scratchbuilding with plasticard strips. 
     
    I painted the strips up in the colour I wanted before predrilling holes for stanchions. These were glued in place before the long horizontal strips were stuck on. I used thin balsa as spacers to get the strip heights correct. 
     

    (stanchions in and first horizontal bar going in) 
     
    Used this technique for the second strip and then stuck the third on top. 
     

    (other two strips on and building fence on the other side) 
     
    Having completed the fence I then set about putting more signage about the place. This included on the level crossing, ramp, and speed limit repeater sign. 
     

    (completed fencing with rockfall signage) 
     

    (more chevrons on the ramp this time) 
     
    I've been trying to find a way of making n gauge Road cones. I then hit upon the idea of using a pencil sharpen to sharpen 5mm diameter balsa dowel. 
     

    (shaving the dowel) 
     

    (cone on balsa sheet base and a painted example in the background) 
     
    Once I had sharpened the point I cut a 5mm top section to represent a 750mm cone. 
     

    (cones in place) 
     
    Need to make a few more of these cones to create the right impression. 
     
    Many thanks for reading
     
     
     
     
  12. Paul Robertson

    Putting up the barriers...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    Having finished my Christmas Dinner duties, boxing day allowed me a little modelling time. I had bought some styrene I beam some time back to create armco barriers to protect the Linkspan headshunt from wayward vehicles. Having completed the French drain and ground plain I thought I could give it a go. There are several ready made armco type barriers on the market but you are always paying a premium for not trying to scratchbuild so I thought I would give it a go. 
     
    Initially I tried sticking the cutout stanchions onto the barrier then using it to mark out where holes were to be hand drilled in the base layer. It 

    (holes drilled for armco barrier stanchions) 
     
    Unfortunately the stanchions didn't line up well with the holes so I pulled them all off the armco and stuck them directly in the holes. Armco has a curved end to it which I replicated with a pair of plyers. 
     
    Before sticking on the armco I painted the stanchions creamy grey and the armco yellow as this seems to be the colour scheme of choice for all traffic management items in Dover. 
     

    (first section stuck on with holes drilled for the next length) 
     
    The first section to be complete was around the concrete apron protecting the headshunt from yard traffic. I then started putting armco on top of the embankment and down the side of the ramp using the same technique. Because of the springiness of the I beam I needed to use clothes pegs to help keep the armco in place until the glue had set. The end stanchion was pulled out first time around because of the tension in the bending I beam. I therefore replaced it with a much longer stanchion which held nicely
     

    (ramp armco held in place with clothes pegs) 
     
    Whilst waiting for the glue to set I marked on the armco edges and holding bolts with a fine liner pen
     

    (armco joints and bolts marked on) 
     
    A bit more armco at the end of the ramp and the vehicle barriers around the headshunt was completed. 
    (armco on top of embankment) 
     

    (completed headshunt vehicle protection) 
     
    Next challenge will be crushing up some chalk to finish off the base of the white cliffs before adding some additional signage then other than some minor traffic management clutter I think this part of the layout is nearing completion. 
     
    Thanks for reading
    (starting to come together) 
     
     

  13. Paul Robertson

    It's been a while...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    The past couple of weeks have been taken up with all things other than railways. The family invented an xmas card game which I needed to produce on the computer, and the emergency volunteer group I run has been involved in covid response recently. It hasn't been all quiet on the modelling front however. I completed the lighting on the ferry which now includes navigation and flood lighting. 
     

    (lighting now on board) 
     
    The train deck has three white leds to give that well lit, blazing light, feel
     

    (train deck now let up) 
     
    The next thing on my to do list was trying some yard track ballasting. I wanted to use das clay as a base and then push fine ballast into it to give a much more varied feel. 
     

    (first length of das with ballast pushed in.)
     
    There was lots of clearing off round flanges and sleeper ends to neaten it all up. 
     

    (all filled in. Note I didn't bother with trying to push ballast into das in between the point rails. I thought that would be too tricky) 
     
    Leaving it to dry overnight I painted the sleepers with a brown acrylic pen before starting to paint up the track in various shades of brown acrylic watered down and stippled on. 
     

    (ballast immediately around track painted darker to simulate oil stains) 
     
    Having a bit of time this afternoon I also put in the French drains along the edges of the road and round the embankment. 
     

    (French drain made from ballast brushed into place and then glued with water / pva mix) 
     
    Having completed the French drains I painted up some balsa wood yellow to represent concrete traffic blocks and then fixed an open level crossing sign to one. 
     

    (concrete blocks and signage in place) 
     

    (an alternative view) 
     
    Another busy week with my volunteers so may be a while till my next post. Merry Xmas and thanks for reading
     
     
  14. Paul Robertson
    It must be the inner geek in me but I've always found gantry signs interesting structures and have wanted to model one. This wasn't going to be a motorway gantry sign as the prototypes I've seen at Dover are a thinner a frame type structure than the massive monolithic structures put up by Highways England. 
     

    (prototype signage at Dover with a frame structural supports) 
     
    I started off making the sign face out of a piece of balsa sheet. I wanted this lit as per prototype so needed to build this in at an early stage
     

    (main sign face structure completed with two white LEDs built into the top of the sign. I allowed a small slit for the light to wash down the face of the sign.)
     
    Not sure why (probably impatience), but next stuck the signs on. Not the best idea as it all needed to be painted and lots of glue stuck about the place but hey ho! 
     

    (signage cut out and stuck on) 
     
    Having done that it was time to construct the legs. I built these out of styrene I beam 
     

    (legs being constructed) 
     
    Alot of these signs have a large lump of concrete painted yellow at the base of them so I cut out some thick balsa to represent this. 
     
    Next was painting. The light box along the box was painted black to reduce light glow through the structure. The frame was painted the same yellow white colour as the high masts to give a bit of a link between the structures and the concrete base yellow as per prototype. 
     

    (all painted up) 
     
    I now needed to wire it to the layout so out with the hand drill and I made a few more holes around the layout. 
     

    (wire connection ready) 
     
    Connecting it all up was a bit fiddly but still managed OK. Then cross fingers and switched it on
     

    (gantry sign in place and lit up) 
     

    (and here is the rear pointing the way to the exit) 
     
    It now provides a nice feature to this end of the layout which was looking a bit under utilised compared to all the business at the other end! 
     
    Not sure what to tackle next. Might be some das clay around the yard railway line or perhaps lighting the ferry. 
     
    At least the passengers can now work out where they should go! 
    (daytime close up shot) 
     
     
    Thanks for reading
  15. Paul Robertson

    Electronics for dummies...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    With my initial success of my high lighting mast under my belt I set forth today to install a lot more lighting. I wanted the lighting under the bridge to represent sodium lighting which is typical of the prototype so installed a couple of LEDs in there and did my best to cover up the wiring from view. 
     

    (yellow lights installed in under bridge) 
     
    So far so good. Next was the Linkspan proper. I wanted white light on this as looking at prototype night shots from Dover it's all white lighting on the linkspans to give the best light in these dangerous areas. 
     

    (Linkspan lighting going in with the wiring to the second high mast included.)
     
    After every instillation I wired it up to my controller and made sure everything worked. 
     
    Finally for today I decided to install some port and starboard navigation lights on the Linkspan (not sure how prototypical this is but I like the look as well as another white LED on the lower link span. 
     
    Again wired it all up switched it on and... 
     

    (oh...) 
     

    (ah...) 
     
    Well the navigation lights work well! I had been merrily daisy chaining all the LEDs with their built in resistors so what power that was left over would power the next. You can probably tell its been about 30 years since someone last tried to teach me basic electronics! 
     
    So out with the wire cutters and strippers and a cats cradle of wiring emerged under my base board as I broke up the light fittings into max of 3 LEDs wired in sync and then wired the whole lot back to the transformer again. 
     

    (suddenly alot more wires emerging from my baseboard) 
     
    Wired it all back up, crossed my fingers and switched on the juice and hey voila! 
     

    (sodium lighting under the bridge) 
     

    (some light on the matter) 
     

    (the layout lighting beginning to take shape) 
     

    (there will be more white lighting to go on the top Linkspan but the navigation lights give a dramatic feel. I also like how the light shines off the water) 
     
    One thing I found quite effective for the high masts was putting a layer of tin foil into the bottle cap to help reflect the light better and give a more even distribution as I only have one bulb up there. 
     

    (light mast with tin foil reflector added) 
     
    I will need to order some more white LEDs for the ship and building but should be able to make a start on lighting it up. Ferries tend to be lit up like Christmas trees! 
     
    Thanks for reading
  16. Paul Robertson
    Having learnt my lessons from yesterday I carried on with the lighting. Trying to get as much wiring done as possible so it could be hidden by the remainder of the landscaping. 
     
    The first item tackled was the Linkspan winding house. I had left the roof removable when I had first made it to allow lighting to be fitted later on. I wanted a white light shining down to illuminate the bridge immediately beneath the winding house along with my first try with fibre optics to provide some lighting around the walkway. 
     

    (hand drilling holes for the fibre optics) 
     

    (trial fitting of lighting) 
     
    In order to get power to this without physically connecting it (is it needs to be removed in order to be able to take off the upper linkspan) I attached to wires to the base of the rear supports. I stripped the wire to make contact with another wire fixed to the layout. One leg had the positive and the other had the negative contact. 
     

    (contacts fitted to the base to provide the circuit) 
     

    (and amazingly it worked! ) 
     
    Once I had done that I concentrated on tidying up the wiring and providing some better connections for the other high mast so it now emits the same amount of light as the first. I also put a light in the portakabin so it looks like the workforce are burning the midnight oil. 
     

    (the light pouring out the office) 
     

    (the dockside now looking much better lit from the second high mast) 
     

    The Linkspan nicely lit up. Another sodium bulb has been placed in the entrance of the customs warehouse. 
     

    (view from the cliffs) 
     
    The next on my to do list will be the gantry sign. 
     
    Thanks for reading
  17. Paul Robertson

    A little lighting...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    Not much time to progress over the last few days but before I did too much more I wanted to get some lighting in to ensure I could cover up the wiring fairly easily. 
     
    My first go at the high masts was with a yellow LED to represent a sodium bulb. Unfortunately having tried it out there wasn't enough light coming out of it for the effect I wanted and I didn't have enough room in my brass rod to get any more LEDs. 
     

    Initial trial with a yellow bulb. Can you spot the light?!) 
     
    For the top of the light mast I tried a cut down bottle top. The first one whilst getting there felt a bit too big
     

    (first attempt with a bottle lid) 
     

    (attached to the top of a brass tube) 
     
    Whilst doing the washing up another smaller bottle top passed under my nose so grabbed that one and cut off the screw shank to get it to size. 
     

    (A bit of a wonky top but good enough for a second trial) 
     
    Replacing the yellow LED for a white one provided a much better result. 
     

    (white light LED high mast light) 
     

    (and another view) 
     
    Pretty pleased with the result as it will make the layout a bit of a centre piece in the room. I need to create a second mast and then put some yellow lights under the bridges. The Linkspan and ferry will have white lighting as will the buildings eventually. 
     
    Managed to coax my yellow pen back into life to finish off the dockside lining as well some further white lining down the train Linkspan. 
    (lining finished off) 
     

    (just need a bit more signage) 
     
    Many thanks for reading

  18. Paul Robertson

    Lining out...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    This weekend was a chance to finish off painting the asphalt and to make a start on getting all the road lining and decals down. Ferry terminals seem to be covered with white yellow and red lining of different sorts so out with the acrylic pens and bendy ruler to start marking it all on. 
     

    (marking on the top road lines first using the bendy ruler for the corners.)
     

    (I then marked out a chevron where the two routes split before marking the lines down the ramp.)
     
    The ramp road crosses the railway at the bottom. Due to the dockside industrial nature I decided to make this an open crossing with give way decals rather than full barriers. The first thing to do was to mark on the box junction. I decided to go with a hybrid design using the diamond pattern courtesy of my daughters set square but spread over the whole box as when vehicles are running they use both lanes in one direction on the ramp. Not quite to DfT diagram standard but as this is a private road I didn't think that mattered. 
     

    (box junction marked on) 
     
    I really like these acrylic pens. They make line painting really easy. 
     
    I then lined the rest of the junction

     
    Having completed this it was out with the scale model scenery self-adhesive decals again to put the finishing touches to the road markings. The tiny writing proved quite tricky to get off the sheet, but everything else came off and onto the layout relatively painlessly. 
     

    (arrows where the traffic flows meet)
     

    (decals applied to Junction) 
     
    Having completed the approach roads I turned my attention to the dockside. Having looked at images of Dover the mooring points are marked with red paint and a yellow border whilst on the train ferry Dock there were numbers marked on the dockside I assume as a count down for the ships crew to know when they were about to butt up to the Linkspan. I wanted to mark out the area of the tramway in a similar way to how it was done at Weymouth with a single 45 degree line and dashed outer edge. Unfortunately my yellow pen started running out when I got to that part. Here is the state of play when I finished this evening. 
     

    (marking the mooring points) 
     

    (additional parking bays marked in with yellow lining progressed. Lots of no parking paint slapped down) 
     

    (scaled count down to Linkspan in metres along Dock edge) 
     
    I need to order a new yellow pen to finish off the yellow lining. 
     
    Thanks for reading
     
  19. Paul Robertson

    Carrying on with paving...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    Tonight I managed to finish off the point infilling and then get on with finishing off the paving. 
     

    (infill finished off along the dockside) 
     
    First of all I paid attention to an area of das clay I wanted to turn into concrete (wanted a bit of relief from the tarmac). Concrete needs a nice clean edge to represent the formwork so out with the craft knife and metal rule to straighten up the edges. After that I scaled down and scored 9m movement joints into the das surface. 
     

    (area to be 'concreted' tieded up and movement joints scored in). 
     
    Whilst I had originally bought the Indian ink to create tarmac I hadn't been impressed with the results but a couple of coats watered down did look very much like concrete so decided to use that technique instead. 
     

    (a coat of watery India ink. Note how it picks out scored movement joints) 
     
    Having done this I then got out my acrylics and started to paint the asphalt Road. Lots of different shades of grey finished off with a thinner brush and lighter colours to represent where most of the traffic go. 
     

    (Linkspan junction with the lighter paint showing where the vehicles go) 
     

    (with the viaduct bridge back in place) 
     

    (and a final shot of the portakabin on its concrete apron) 
     
    Just need to paint the rest of the Dock then I will need to put all the lining and road painting decals on. 
     
    Thanks for reading
  20. Paul Robertson

    Trialing my traction...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    So having completed most of the infill and das clay around the dockside track I thought I better try out various items of stock to ensure different wheel flanges and wheel bases work before I start painting it all up. 
     
    The first to test were two of my cargowaggons with the class 66. 
    (class 66 going into the underpass on the headshunt for the train deck Linkspan) 
     
    I tried out various sidings and locations with this set up making sure they all worked nicely. The 66 was sticking on some of the point work. I think some of the das clay was stuck on the point flange reducing the electrical contact. With a bit of cleaning this problem seemed to resolve itself. 
     

    (shunting some wagons back into the customs warehouse siding) 
     

    (lined up on the Dockside.)
     
    Having played around with my 66 I then tried out my 2nd hand Graham farish class 08. It initially pushed around my cargowaggons again sticking on a few points. 
     

    (08 on the Linkspan with the cargowaggons) 
     
    Having tried my traction I then tried some different wagons. Out came a Graham farish polybulk and my revolution trains cargowaggons twins. 
     

    (cargo twins on the linkspan) 
     

    (coming across the roads under the viaduct) 
     

    (polybulk attached to back) 
     

    (polybulk on the Linkspan) 
     
    Having tried out various items of stock I will finish off the infill and then start painting
     
    Thanks for reading
     
     
  21. Paul Robertson

    Advancing the asphalt...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    It's been a few days since I last posted but progress have been steady. I've been focusing on completing the das clay roadway around the Dock area. 
     
    More rolling between balsa formers to get the right depth before smoothing off with a shaping tool. 
     

    (rolling out the das clay to correct depth and standard width before laying on a pva layer) 
     
    There was a lot of cutting and shaping the clay to get it around lots of tricky corners. 
     

    (all the clay in but looking a bit rough.)
     
    Once dried I sanded down the clay to get rid of the wrinkles and smooth out some of the bumps. 
     

    (sanding down the clay. The small triangle on the right hasn't been done yet and the sleeper end bumps can be seen through the clay. These were sanded out). 
     
    Once all the clay was sanded and the dusted hoovered up I then started to infill the tracks with thin strips of balsa. Straight lengths of track were relatively easy whilst points were quite tricky. Radius tracks required me to wet the balsa and gradually bend it between my fingers.
     
    (initial infilling with balsa strips) 
     
    Once every piece had been cut out my type 66 was driven over it to check clearances with flanges and that all the electrics still worked. 
     

    (type 66 testing the infill) 
     

    (limit of progress today - a few more points to be infilled) 
     
    A final shot of the dockside:

    (Nord pas de calais back in Dock) 
     

    (the second Linkspan paving beginning to stretch down to the train deck) 
     
    Thanks for reading
  22. Paul Robertson
    Having completed the cliffs and having an evening to spare I decided to tackle a fairly long section of road. Having learnt from my earlier mistakes with the overbridge and Linkspan I didn't try to put the ironworks in first. They can be a finishing touch instead which stops them getting bashed about. It also saves a lot of fiddly cutting about the das clay. I used the air dried clay again as overall I was pleased with the result last time and I still have a large block to use up! Sticking two strips of balsa down to my kitchen work surface gave the correct depth and width to roll out my clay between. A Liberal application of PVA to help bond it to the ply and then I carefully peeled the clay off the work surface and laid it gently down trying to avoid too many finger marks. Once on I used my wooden das clay shaping tools to gently smooth the clay into the corners, adding a bit more here and there to make up levels. 
    (first section complete) 
     
    Considering I had rolled it out as a straight piece it coped with going around the tight corner surprisingly well with a bit of persuasion with my modelling tools. 
     
    Second section was the ramp

    (ramp paved) 
     
    After that was a wide section of tarmac to join the first two sections together
     

    (top piece smoothed into place) 
     
    And then to finish this section a large piece that will go under the bridge
     

    (the last piece butting up against the railway) 
     
    Much checking of clay heights, point operation and flanges ensued to try and ensure I wasn't storing up trouble for myself later on. 
     
    Just need to let this all dry out so it can shrink a bit before coming back with filler then painting, white lining and adding the self-adhesive decals and ironworks. 
     

    (first main section of road complete) 
     
    Thanks for reading
  23. Paul Robertson

    A quick update...

    By Paul Robertson,


    Blog
    Just a quick update tonight as I didn't have much time. The shrubbery has grown dramatically today with the rest of the embankment covered up. I've left a small amount of embankment clear for a small diorama depicting a landslip. 
     

    (embankment fully vegetated) 
     
    There are two structures that will adorn the top of the cliff. The first was an abandoned WW2 observation bunker. These were always very crude bits of architecture so thankfully quite easy to model. Digging through my box of bits I had some 3mm ply which I cut the walls and roof out of. Having glued it all together it was painted up in suitably grubby colours before being stuck above the tunnel portal and then covered with encroaching scrub. 
     

    (the old bunker with a commanding view of the harbour) 
     
    The second structure for the cliff will be the concrete control tower but that will have to wait for another day. 
     
    Thanks for reading
  24. Paul Robertson
    So having left the plaster to dry overnight today was a painting day. 
    Firstly I painted the soil a lightish soil colour having seen some photos showing how the underlying chalk affected the upper soil colour
     

    (pic of light brown soils on the white cliffs) 
     

    (soils painted-its lighter than it looks) 
     
    Having painted the soils I then painted the cliffs some very light shades of grey and white. Initially my son asked me why I was painting my cliffs to look like Stilton rind so with this constructive criticism ringing in my ears toned it all down with a bit more white. I was really pleased with the final result, picking out some of the rocks with darker shades to try and  show up some of the geology. 
     

    (the stippled cliff face) 
     
    Having some extra time I then started adding the scatter. A brown scatter first before then adding then some burnt green over the top. 
     

    (brown scatter on first) 
     

    (burnt green scatter on) 
     
    Lots of hoovering in between scattering to clean up. Then using the clump scatter I started to create some shrubbery on cliff tops and the steep embankment. 
     

    (some of the clump scatter on the steeper bank to suggest larger vegetation.)
     
    Now I have all but completed the the main landscape edges I can continue with the roads around the layout. 
     

    (a view from the ferry with the white cliffs rising in the distance) 
     
    Thanks for reading
  25. Paul Robertson
    And so after a few false starts today was cliff building day. The cliff is the only major landscape feature on the layout and hopefully will really set the tone and feel for the layout and give it the character of the Kent coast. 
     
    First thing to do was to remove the polystyrene along the back scene which hadn't really worked and replace it with landscape mesh. To set the right angle I used cardboard from an old cereal packet to create some formers. 
     

    (cardboard formers in) 
     

    (mesh screwed into place with 10mm screws) 
     
    Having got the mesh on then the messy (ish) job of apply woodland scenics plaster impregnated bandage began. I followed a tip off a youtube video applying the bandage onto the layout dry then using a water spray bottle to wet it insitu rather than dipping the bandage first and dripping it everywhere. Seemed to work well enough and I used my finger to smooth the bandage down and fill in the holes with the moist plaster. 
     

    (the completed cliff) 
     
    I placed a second coat of bandage on certain areas where the bandage holes were a bit obvious. Pretty pleased with the end result although the quality of the flock and painting will make or break all that work! 
     
    Having completed the cliff I then covered the final 3 landscape banks to complete the landscape areas. 
     

    (embankments infilled as well) 
     

    (final result that now needs to dry for 24hrs)
     
    Next will be painting this all earth and chalk colours before adding lots of flock. Will also need to clean up the tunnel entrances which have been splashed with plaster during this process
     
    Thanks for reading
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