ManofKent

Good luck with he layout and job hunting. Don't overlook your local FE colleges - pay isn't school standards but can be rewarding in a different way.

I went with modelscene (some trimmed down). Did need a lot of seam removal though...

It might be worth looking at some of the "Steam Punk" gears/cogs packs you see on Amazon/Etsy/Ebay

This looks great. I've no idea how you manage to pull off something that looks so good in next to no time.

Those Canada Geese look superb. Yes you'll see Canada Geese, Herons and Godwits (both species) around the Medway Estuary. Gull wise you'll see plenty of Herring Gull , Black Headed Gulls and both Lesser and Great Black Backed Gulls - Common Gulls aren't common though. Ruddy Ducks aren't completely impossible but very unlikely - they've all but been eradicated from the UK, it's very much a question of when you're model is set. The UK population didn't get that established until the 1970s (derived from escapees in late 40's). Not uncommon through 80's and 90's then pretty much shot out of existence in last 20 yrs to protect the Spanish White Duck population.

There's a tiny section on the line in Robin Waywell's IRS book on industrial railways and locomotives in Kent. Not a lot of detail on the line other than it was largely used for dumping mud from Chatham Docks. List the known locos though if you're interested? You've definitely captured the grottyness!

Okay, I'm not sure where the best place to post this nagging question is (mods feel free to move it), but whilst deciding on what colour to paint doors, windows, corrugated iron, cranes etc. I kept coming up with mid-green. Does anyone know why mid-green paint seems to have been the defacto choice for industrial equipment and buildings since the 19th Century (and possibly earlier)?

I must get over to my parent's loft. I had one of those (secondhand early 70's) (along with the Triang shunter). It ran like a racehorse and the motor sparked like anything. I wonder whether it's still there.

If you're not too bothered about precise scale you might get away with some of the Western wargaming mdf kits for buildings - they're nominally for 28mm figures which would put them slightly over scale, but the buildings tend to be undersized - dirt cheap so might be worth a try e.g. https://www.waylandgames.co.uk/4696-wild-west-scenery

Bored with inscribing stone setts and still prevaricating over whether to squeeze a curved background on or stick with corners that are at least view blocked at low level, I had a play with another element. I needed a small coal lorry suitable for use in early to mid 50's and the options seemed surprisingly limited, particularly if you wanted to avoid railway or regional branding. I ended up picking up a used Pocketbond Classix, stripping paint with a dremel and brushes before priming and hand painting. Main colour is mix of Tamiya white, blue and decktan. First time I've tried the lifecolour weathered wood paints for the deck and whilst I need to improve my dry-brushing I don't think it looks awful, particularly as it will have sacks and a little black weathering thrown in. Undecided on how much to weather the body. Thinking a very thin panel wash and maybe a little rusty brown under arches but not too much. I suspect commercial vehicles were generally kept in reasonable presentation for customers. Livery looks believable from photos of preserved Austins, and is the same as I remember from my childhood (although by the coalman then had a Bedford) .

Hi Keith, To my eye the spit planks look much better. I think it's worth the effort. Take care, Richard

As an interior I don't think the slight oversize width will show, but looking like real wood will. I look forward to seeing it develop.

Mike - any thoughts on how you're going to depict the harbour mud? I'm needing a small build up of creek silt at the front of mine and my experiments haven't been overly successful. I tried filler painted sandish colour and it looked too matt and too smooth. I know the texture is negligible scaled down but I think I need a hint of texture for it to look right and it needs to look damp. Was wondering about a gloopy mix of gloss varnish, chinchilla dust and weathering pigment, but yet to try.

There's always The Isle of Sheepey Light Railway (although I have to say MrWolf's photos do make Colonel Stephens Railway's seem the height of unnecessary expenditure).

I find the Cauldron Foods Lincolnshire sausages pretty decent, but I wouldn't want to ram my opinions on ewe.

This thread has descended into shear madness.

Signed

A bitty day. Roof section of timber store assembled (Wills Kit) and given initial paint (believe it or not under natural light the corrugated iron is green with black (well black lightened a little with some deck tan to soften slightly) wood work. Kadee magnets cut down a little from each end with a dremel. I was going to just paint planks on, but decided to gently score them with the cutting disk to hopefully enhance the illusion. Of course the planks are now 4mm wide, but my walnut strip wood for the rest of the walkway was 3mm. The difference showed too much so not being able to rescore the magnets it was order some more strip wood (Cornwall Model Boats are excellent for strip wood). Hopefully when painted the magnets won't be too obviously magnets, and the walkways are at least in logical locations. Whilst I had the dremel out I took back the original finish on a Pocketbond Austin K2 that's going to be repainted. Oh, and because I haven't got enough partially completed jobs to finish off, I decided I would add more hand carved stone setts...

Not a lot of progress this week due to being reminded the garden needed some work... Having been severely disappointed with the Woodland Scenics saw bench kit, I tracked down one from Langley models - still to assemble, but unlike the Woodland Scenics garbage it does have clean and undistorted mouldings! Caboose switches installed. They're the HO/N universal ones - a bit smaller than the standard HO ones but obviously still overscale and not prototypical for UK railways. I think they'll look okay once bedded into the scenery and painted - Chris Nevard used the slightly larger ones on Brewhouse Quay and they look okay (alright there's the minor issue that I don't possess Chris Nevard's talent or experience... ). The connector was too long for where I wanted to site the forth one, but I turned one round and carefully drilled out the hole designed for wire operation and used that (just fits) - it took two attempts but thankfully they came as a set of 5. Would I use them again? I don't know - on this 'layout' the points are only 4 inches ish from the front so wire in tube just seemed pointless (no pun intended). If the points were further in on a larger piece I'd probably go remote operation with rod or wire in tube, and whilst I can get away with none VR point levers on a private industrial layout they'd look wrong on a BR branchline... They work well and using a lever is quite satisfying.

I've never heard of baking powder and CA before. Interesting.

That's tighter than I expected. I was thinking I'd have to go with corners (tiny layout) but that might be doable. 3mm stuck to a 5mm outer box should certainly work...

I'm not generally a fan of photo back scenes but this works really well.

Certain shops lend themselves to pavement displays - Greengrocers being an obvious one, but bicycle shops could have a few bicycles outside or a hardware shop tin baths, buckets etc.

Thanks. With DAS check rails are pretty much essential to keep the flangeways clear. The problem with checkrails besides being a little fiddly to fit is they do emphasise the narrow gauge nature of oo. I like the Wills sheet setts - they're definitely easier - maybe a little even (although prototypes vary) and whilst not quite overscale they are at the large end of real setts. I found the trick with scribing DAS was drying time. For me about 18 hours seemed right - not set perfectly hard but almost. Hope you and your family are feeling better.

Almost every small town had at least one bicycle shop. Hardware/ironmongers were commonplace too.