Graham T

The girls have had their noses buried in Asterix books, so I've had another swipe at the brickwork on the station building, painted the ridge tiles, and a first coat to seal the slates. Painting the stonework will be next, I think. I haven't decided yet whether or not to do more to the bricks - I will see how things look with the stonework done first...

Not sure about the cess colour, but I would recommend painting all of the ground surface with an earthy brown acrylic. That way you won't have any white showing through if there's the odd bare patch in the static grass.

I used quite a few etched brass sheets when I built a 1:72 model of HMS Campanula (the sets were from David Parkins, who I think may be a member here). On several of them rivets were shown by a dot etched into the rear surface of the sheet; you then use a pinpoint to gently push through the metal from the rear side, raising a dimple on the visible face to represent the rivet head. I think this is what @longchap was probably referring to...

Thanks Andy, that did the trick. There goes the rest of my evening 🍻

Thanks Robin, have been trying that but the linked pages won't load for me. I'm using Chrome but have also tried Opera, with the same result...

As a Gold member of the forum, should I be able to see BRM online? (Asking because I can't, and think I probably should...)

Indeed, it could have been far worse. The girls were very happy and for most of the visit I was able to browse a certain forum, which helped me to ignore (as well as I was able) the cacophony made by dozens of hyper-excited kids...

Not if you look hard enough! From my experiences of Viennese New Years, I suspect some of the rockets could reach your home under their own power!

Currently "enjoying" a mediocre cup of coffee at a soft play centre in Vienna with the girls. Either paradise or purgatory, depending on your age!

Now that sounds like time very well spent! Snorkers? Good-oh!

I sprinkle a little WS blended turf in amongst the grass layers. For scatter to represent wild flowers, I apply hairspray to the area, then take just a very small pinch of scatter between finger and thumb, and rub them together to spread it out.

Pah, t'will be the work of but moments for a man of your calibre Mr W. Just one thing. Are you sure the second chimney was made of brick?

Certainly is fun, and be warned - rather addictive!

That first shot in particular is a (Christmas) cracker Rob!

I've made a little more progress on the station building in the evenings once the girls are in bed. I started off with a layer of Tamiya deck tan, as a primer and also to represent the mortar. The quoins, cills, and so on also got a base coat of this as I thought the colour I had used to begin with was a bit too bright. Once that was finished I dry brushed on a mix of Vallejo light brown with a touch of burnt red. I've always struggled to get a brick colour that I'm happy with, but this one doesn't look too bad - so far. I'll pick out some bricks in different shades of browns, reds, and oranges as well. The eagle-eyed will have spotted that the station appears to be back to front in the second pic. This is because I started by painting the rear of the building, just in case I made a complete hash of it! (That's happened before...)

That looks rather nice. I'd say it was time well spent adding the canvas to the roof.

It's from ESU Phil, came fitted when I bought the loco. If offered the choice I'd go with Zimo.

Yesterday my girls wanted to see what was new at Chuffnell R since they were last here in June, so I gave them a quick recap. Pleased that they were still interested! They also wanted to see the loco with the firebox flicker; I only have one of those, the ex-MR 0-4-4 1303 (the Mogul is supposed to have it, but it's never worked). Anyway, I duly popped 1303 onto the tracks, her having been sat in the disconnected one of the two "fiddle yards". You can probably sense where this is not going - or actually, not going. The damned thing wouldn't run. It has been sat quietly for I suppose a few weeks, since it was last run - when it was fine of course. Nothing has been done to the loco at all in the meantime. To say I'm fuming is something of an understatement - the loco came perilously close to taking a short, and I dare say final, flight across the room. I took the body off to look for anything amiss, although I can't imagine what can have happened in there. Everything looked as it should do, of course. I reseated the decoder, without much hope of success. The Power Cab refuses to read the CV. I've tried resetting CV8 but I can't tell if it's actually resetting or not. After leaving it well alone overnight I tried it again. Still no read on the CV. After a few power cycles it did, just once, show the first line of info, and then nothing again. Later on - it will allow me to re-programme it and runs ok again. Grrr. Disgruntled of Chuffnell Regis.

The bodgers here at Chuffnell Regis would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and also a safe, healthy, and happy New Year 🎅

What Tortuga said 🍻

I can't aspire to that level, I will just have to hang up my brushes!

And in non-railway related news, I finally bit the bullet and made a start on the companion painting for the wolf picture that appeared a few pages ago. This is the beginnings of an octopus painting for my younger daughter. Just the easy part done so far!

That was more of a fluke than anything else Colin, I assure you! (Long time since I've been called young too, but thanks 🙂) I don't envy you trying to build a curved canopy - I struggled enough with a straight one...

Roofs at Chuffnell Regis are spotlessly clean Andy, didn't you know? Well, apart from the cottages behind the signal box, apparently... Good point though, thanks. I'll try out some techniques on scrap first as you suggest. And a very happy Christmas to you and yours as well 🍻

Thanks Neal. Fortunately it doesn't overhang. If it did, I expect that the Bodgeit and Scarper solution would be to move the building back a few mil rather than try to modify the canopy!