froobyone

Hi all, Layout work has been delayed momentarily while I design a small engineering building. I'll post pics of the first prototype, but it's very rough. Some fitment issue and very roughly painted to give me some ideas. I've also finished the weathering on the wrong era brake van, vent vans and TTA. Making sure to clean away where the numbers are. I've also started work on another tree. I wanted to try a different technique, so this time I used DAS clay on a twisted wire base. Then a base coat of brown, followed by some Vallejo crackle medium. Once this was dry I then airbrushed a dirty white over it and waited for it to crack. I'm trying to get a birch tree look, but I think it would be just as effective with shades of brown. I'll try that next time. Have a great May day weekend all and good luck with any and all modelling. Best Dan

I've replaced all my passenger couplings with Hunt magnetic type and all my goods are using Dapol easy shunt. I just couldn't get along with the standard TT couplers. I've just got to hope that the magnets are strong enough for a 7 car rake plus dummy engine, when I finally can afford them. Best Dan

Hi all, Did my first attempt at static grass today. What an absolute delight. Managed to mildly electrocute myself, obviously, but apart from that it went swimmingly. I did make a rookie mistake of not vacuuming the overspill before I sprayed my glue mix on the first section, but I think I've mostly got away with it. I'm very excited about the countryside section now, which I'd been nervous about. I'll drop a few pics in. Obvious caveats apply. Never done it before. Fully colour-blind. An idiot. Best Dan

It's actually some loose stuff that fell off a bunch of cheap trees I got off Amazon a while ago. They were awful, hence me trying to make my own. I'll probably strip the rest of them for future trees of this type. I'd drop a link to them in case you wanted to do the same, but they're no longer available it seems. Sorry, that probably wasn't much help. Best Dan

Thank you both. I did have an oak in my mind when it started to come together, more by luck than by judgement. Roots still need a bit of work before I'm fully happy with them. Tomorrow I will be trying to texture the trunk with some crackle. Let's see if my luck holds out. Thanks again Dan

A happy little tree. Bob Ross would be proud.

Hi all, Had some fun this weekend adding DAS clay to the rough ground areas between the running lines. I've never worked with clay before, but I successfully managed not to make a vase or summon the spirit of a dead loved one... I have to patiently wait 24 hours before painting, but that's fine, as I've got to wait for some flock to arrive anyway. I will be using static grass, but if the internet can tell you anything, it's put some scatter down first. Due to the fact that I'm doing all this on a super tight budget, because I can't afford to advertise my model kits in the break during Coronation Street, I'm having to do a lot of things manually, that I would otherwise throw money at. For instance, to use my airbrush without a compressor involved a lot of deep breaths. I'm joking of course, I got the missus to do it. I needed a steady hand. One of the main unaffordable costs was going to be trees. So I thought I'd have a go at the wire twist method. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out. It looks like Jimmy Saville at the moment... I'll have a better idea when I've given it a waft of paint. Plus some extra fine leaves and it may save me some money, or cause me to be pilloried the length and breadth of the land. Not unlike Jimmy. Don't ask me what kind of tree it is. Dammit Jim I'm a doctor not a botanist! Until I do something else stupid. Dan

As the famous song once said, what a difference a spray makes... Gave a section of track a tickle with the airbrush this afternoon. Some scat brown and dark brown/black where oil has accumulated over the decades. There are some spots of ballast that need a fettle/filling but overall it's going in the right direction for me. The finish is a bit sheeny for my taste, so when it's all done I may put a flat coat on it. I celebrated with a little running session. Blink Bonny seemed chuffed with the changes. The gronk was camera shy however. Next job/test will be filling in between the lines with grass and mud. It'll be a test because I've never done anything like that before, so it could all go horribly wrong... Until next time Dan

Hi all My week has been mostly spent ballasting. I've only got the station area left to do and also the areas with the turnouts to allow the fitting of point motors when I find the courage. I've also developed some trackside speed signs which I might sell. I'll add pics and you kind people can let me know if there would be any interest. I still have to weather the ballast, for which I'll employ the airbrush and hopefully that will tie it all together, because I still don't like how it looks. Sorry for boring ballast pics. Best Dan

There are few things in the world that look as good as a BG HST. I think it'll be a while before I get my hands on a set, but my excitement is palpable! I may have to sell one of my RC aircraft or even, god forbid, one of my Breitlings. :-/ Anyway, the photo made my day. Thanks. Best Dan

Of all of Audrey's writings, the stories about the "little engines" were my favourite. What a stunning recreation of their world. Best Dan

Hi all, The first TT:120 building kit is now available and joins the Pratt Truss Bridge in the growing range. A British Railways signal box, scaled down from my OO version, but without the internal details as they were too fiddly to put together and didn't look scale. Added some photos but please note, the forklift is there for scale and isn't included. I am slowly re-creating as many of my OO kits in TT:120 as is practical, but some kits are going to be dependant on finding a good quality, but thinner, wood. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156178392473 Best Dan

No mention of the chronograph movement in the watch. I wonder if it's an in-house movement, or maybe Valjoux 7750? Nah, more than likely a Chinese Neveright 270...

Hi all, Progress on the layout has been slow his week. I'm busy updating all of my kit instructions to CAD drawings and developing a new kit for TT. Possibly. It's the least interesting building I've done so far and as such, I'm not sure if they'll sell well. Having said that, I thought that about the truss bridge too and I sold one the moment I posted about it on FB. So we'll see. What I did manage to do was start the ballasting/painting of track. I'd remembered that I hated ballasting and therefore was really surprised to find that I hated even more than I remembered! Not only do I hate it but I don't even think it looks nice. It'll get a waft of airbrush when it's all done, sometime in 2068. I don't even want to post a pic of the ballasting, it shames me. I will though, because I've only got two other pics. Hopefully I'll have a more productive week. Oh and if you're wondering what the large syringe is for, I though heroin would help with the ballasting. It didn't, it just soaked into the ballast and starting singing Doors songs. Bye for now. Dan

Thank you. :) There's never enough space. I wanted to build Kings Cross. :D

Hi all, Just a quick post to say that the Pratt Truss Bridge I designed for my TT:120 layout is now available on eBay as a kit. It is sized for streamline track with a centre to centre dimension of 35mm. It also comes a track spacing tool. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156161822455 I've posted the instructions so you can see how it goes together. Thank you Dan

Hi all, I am pleased to report, the track laying epoch has ended. The sidings are down, live and connected to the main lines. There will be feastings and ale to celebrate the end of this very long, dark period. As a practising atheist, miracles come few and far between to me, but today I'm pretty sure I witnessed one. On fitting the last fishplate on the last piece of track, I reached into the holy bag of fishplates to find a single one. I had, somehow, managed to buy exactly the right number of fishplates. Despite not having the faintest idea how many track pieces I was going to use. I did have one spare flexi track left, so no one's perfect. The left side will have a small shed for storing/maintaining the gronk. The right side has an extended siding to allow longer rakes through the works building. It's also where the TTA will be stored. Despite knowing that there is still a tremendous amount of work to do, I feel quite relieved that I've got this part out of the way. I'm forcibly pretending that I don't have the horror ballasting to do next. Let me enjoy the moment. "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." W Churchill. Now I'm going to roast an ox and drink mead. Actually it'll probably be a sausage roll and a sip of Singleton. Until next time. Dan

Hi all, Work continues on track laying and bridge building. I now have two powered running lines, plus three platform lines laid and wired. The first two counter rotating trains were run this afternoon. It was a nice feeling. Bridges have been painted, but not weathered yet. I still need to do the abutments, but I've been busy making the instructions for the bridge kit and I'm using CAD for the first time to do it. Took longer than anticipated. I've got a couple of curves to cork and lay and then move on to the sidings. That's all for now. Best Dan

Thanks Tim. :)

Final bridge iterations I promise. It's final because I wrote final in the filename. I'm sure that's how it works... I had to realign the centre holes for the ribs. I also used the last two prototypes to test two different primers and I've settled on the one I like best. Next job is the abutments. They might be challenging. I did also manage to connect the countryside section and the first train completed the circuit this afternoon. Well, eventually it did. I had to do a lot of vigorous rubbing with a track cleaner first. Obviously I immediately fell into the trap I was trying to avoid, by watching the Scotsman chuff around for twenty minutes. I should have been working, but I've built six bridges over three days and I could do with some down time. Fat chance. I'll spend the rest of the night creating CAD drawings of the bridge to make the instructions. No rest for the wicked. Best Dan

Similar story to me. On acceptance to the RAF and when asked what trade I wanted to go into, the officer almost spat his tea out when I said "Weapons Tech sir". He said "You're colour-blind! How are you going to fix the wiring in missiles?" Good point. I'd actually forgot I was colour-blind at that stage of my life. No one ever mentioned it in art. Either I was really lucky with colour choices or the teacher knew I'd never be an artist and thought they'd leave me to it. Jokes on them, I spent thirteen years as a CGI artist and worried every single day, about every single colour... Best Dan

Thanks Rob. :)

Hi Just a little progress so far this weekend. I energised 60% of the track and ran the first train today. Everything seemed to work fine with no derailments. I have yet to link up the countryside section, so as of time of writing, I haven't completed a full journey. I made the changes to the bridge design -actually, I did it twice and only got it right the third time... There is one more tweak needed before I'm 100% happy, but I'm happy with these two prototypes. They still needed painting and weathering and I also need to glue in the wooden blocks. Annoyingly, one of my riveted plates slipped before taking the below photograph. That'll teach me for using cheap rivets. That's all for now. Best Dan

Hi all, No layout progress today as I've been spending a little bit of time designing a Pratt truss bridge for the scenic section. There will be two of them with a pillar in the middle. Despite my best efforts to get the width right, I didn't get the width right... No drama. Easy enough to rectify. I was originally hoping to get all the parts on one sheet, but I'm not happy with the overall depth of the structure underneath. So I think it'll end up being one and a half boards and I'll have a much beefier underframe. With all that being said, I'm fairly pleased with how the first prototype came out and whilst it does increase the burn time considerably, I also think it was worth the extra to engrave the rivets and plates. Hopefully I'll get the redesign done tomorrow and have a second prototype for the weekend. That's all for now. Best Dan

Hi all, or at least the three people who read my build updates. o/ Work has continued. The last parts of the outer loop are now laid and connected. The southern tracks are a little sharper in the bends due to not wanting the tracks to look too symmetrical. All of the curve will be in a tunnel so I'm not too bothered about how it will look. The tunnel mouth will be where the track goes straight for a little bit. I don't know why I went to the trouble of canting it, considering it won't be visible... I haven't yet decided what will be used for the scenic break on this side of the layout. I'm leaning towards a bridge, but we'll see. My mini scroll saw arrived in a timely fashion and so I was able to cut the wood out for the embankment. I managed to bend three blades... It also created a great deal more dust than anticipated. I was wearing a mask throughout, but I was also vacuuming bits on the opposite side of the boards. The next board will be cut outside and that'll be dependant on weather. Despite there being no power to the track, it was still a breakthrough moment to "hand of god" a short rake around the whole thing. It runs to just under 1.2km at full scale. Still a fair amount of corking/track laying to do. The roads through the station and the siding etc for the BR workshop. I still have to commit to the track clearance with the platforms, as the 08 will not run through smoothly due to the rods sticking out. I suspect the A1 might have the same issue. I may temporarily add power to the front sections and run them both through a few times. That's all for now. Best Dan