Graham T

The postman came up trumps today, and this arrived. It's the Lima parcels van. Not cosmetically perfect (but then which of us is?) but it should clean up nicely with some weathering and a bit of detailing.

There's another Rule 1 Rob, as I'm sure you know. 1. In an interaction between a man and a woman, the man is always wrong. 2. If by some quirk of fate the man happens to be right, refer to Rule 1.

I just had a brainwave (that happens occasionally). The baseboard is ply over battens spaced at 12" intervals. So I can cut a space in the ply from below, then reach up to the elevated section to fit the point motor from underneath. The Boss might grump a little about using the jigsaw indoors, but needs must and all that...

I've now made a start on the second, smaller section between the two bridges. Applied some lessons learned, and made the gaps in the lattice smaller, as well as using a less dilute PVA. This seems to work better, although there is still some work to be done. I also had another face/palm moment when I thought about the motor for the point just to the left of the steel bridge, that leads into the station throat. Some of the groundwork will obviously have to be lifted in due course. Still - all good practice!

Thanks George.

In other news, rather chuffed to let you know that I've just been accepted as an Associate member of the Guild of Railway Artists. (Not for my OO landscaping efforts, I should add...)

I am planning to use static grass later, so that might help with my wrinkles

Sounds like a good idea Stu, thanks. I thought the tissue layer would dry stiffer than it has to be honest; maybe I diluted the PVA too much?

Hmm. Thanks George. Time to put on the thinking cap. Don't really want to tear everything up and start again...

Thanks for the tip Stu. Unfortunately I didn't see your post until I'd already done this... The covering hasn't dried out fully yet. When it does it will get a coat of brown acrylic. I'm not very happy with the wrinkles but am struggling to get rid of them (theres a quotable comment if ever I saw one!)

I'd never used one before, but have found it works well (so far). The only issue is you tend to get very thin strands of glue between where you've applied it and where you stand the gun between applications; but those are easy enough to clear up when you're finished.

And now with the card strip lattice added. I read that this is quick - hmmm. It took me ages! Very solid now though, and still easy to trim with a craft knife if required.

At least it would only be flat on the bottom... ... I'll get my coat.

Reminds me of chicken tarka. It's like chicken tikka, but a little otter

Here's where I got to last night. Pleased with the results so far. Unfortunately I won't be able to work on the other side of the river yet, as I still haven't figured out where I will need to add wiring, and that will need to be done before I do the scenic work.

Thanks Ben. That trackwork of yours looks good. I've decided to go with Code 75 bullhead flexitrack and Code 75 points. I appreciate that the points are flat bottom rail, and that the sleeper spacing and length is slightly different, but I think I'll be able to live with that. I wanted to go with Peco bullhead points as well, but the limited range, and non-availability, pushed me to the current option. I did see the other thread you mentioned, and was sorely tempted. But impatience got the better of me in the end! Where did you get the cosmetic chairs from, and were they a pain to fit? Also, which point rodding did you use? I want to add that before I do any ballasting. Of course I need to lay some track first as well!

I don't know who came up with the idea for the hot glue gun, but I'd like to buy them a beer. What a great tool for modelling! This is the result of about an hour's work. I'll also add card formers running at right angles to the ones already in place, although it's pretty solid already to be fair. Then strips of card in a lattice over the top of the formers, before coating it all in paper towel soaked in dilute PVA.

I see what you did there Looking good.

I got the second bridge lashed together yesterday. Here's a worm's eye view of it in place, followed by a bird's eye view of the whole stretch of river. Now I will start looking at where the lines of the banks will run, and start to build up some of the groundwork. Looking forward to that - but had better do some real-world work first I suppose!

I do like those myself. But for these bridges I've been using cheap disposable craft knives, the sort with the snap-off blades. They work just fine for cutting 2mm card.

Thanks George. Getting through knife blades like nobody's business!

The state of progress this morning. Early sunlight shows up the colours beautifully; unfortunately it also highlights all the errors in my build... Building the wing walls is next.

After a productive morning, with quite a lot of hackery butchery surgery involved, the second bridge is now at the correct size. It's another Scalescenes product. Their method of folding printed sheets doesn't really work for me, as the guidelines for the fold are of course on the printed side of the paper - and you really need to fold from the other side. So what I've been doing is to make a pencil mark on the reverse (non-printed) side of the page, where the ends of the guidelines are - you can see them through the paper. I then draw a faint pencil line on the blank side of the page and use that as the guide for gluing on the card layer. That makes for far more accurate folds, I find. Now I can get on with the relatively simple (famous last words!) steps of finishing off this bridge. Once it's installed in place I can mark out exactly where the river banks will go. As it's clearly a meandering river, the banks at the outside of meanders will be steep and undercut, and those on the inside will have a shallow shelf to them, as materials have been deposited by the flow. I know what I mean anyway!

Very neat idea Chris!

You know how it is... Nobody else might notice it, but if you know you've done something wrong, and not fixed it, then it becomes an irritant! And I've got enough of those in my life without adding ones of my own making.