Sandhills

A couple from me -

Are we allowed 'How realistic are your models ? VIDEO challenge' !? 43 seconds of fun, dad on camera, Joey on Dynamis ! Excuse the kangaroo juice start !

Pete, around 7-10 secs on very high F stop. It was twilight, around 5pm so not quite dark. If it wasnt so cold i'd go back out and do some more !! Jim, yep, my house on a hill ! Trees block most of the view but from upstairs you can see West to the left, North ahead and East to the right. Got power in the shed so just run an extension across to the patio ! (Note to self, 'turn the bloody red 'uns off next time' ! Oops ! )

The same trip pictured at night. Yes, they really are the 'twinkly' lights of Leicester in the background, and yes, im still shivering from being out there !!

47535 enters Western Boulevard along the Braunstone Gate spur with a rake of NSE Mk1s destined for the cutters torch at VB's ! The rising plume of smog in the distance is being generated by Ratcliffe Power Station on the Nottingshire/Derbyshire border. 47535 returns light engine to Beale St.

2 from me whilst I was playing around trying to find something to submit into the NRM competition ! Anyone else having a go at that ?

Love the colour version. Hope you dont mind Andy, played around with your pic and came up with this -

'Hole in the fence'

No, not abducted by aliens, still here and desperate to get back to some modelling ! In the meantime though, some fun with the colour splash tool on iPhone !

Not wanting to start a fight but....... EE or Brush ?? Back in the late 80's EE got my vote everytime, but now.........maybe Duffs werent that bad after all ! ......but saying that, I had a love affair with these aswell !!

Evening Folks ! Its been a while but glad to see the forum & this thread in particular still thriving ! A couple from me -

Hi Paul, Just looked at that second image, hadnt noticed the effect the depth of field had on the poles. There are 8 in total, the missing one being past the camera at my end, so yes, the ones pictured are all on the board. Looks a lot further than 6ft doesnt it !!?? Real rabbits, could get messy !!

Hi James, Commented about the 37 horns and stone wall in the gallery section, but yes, I agree. We learn from our mistakes though ! Get that 26, although I am torn betwee the Railfreight Grey and Coal Sector liveries ?!

Now, now Paul, lets not use that dirty 'F' word on the forum !! Will get the remaining trees and fencing up then look into this fascination with bunnies you seem to have !!!! I have always liked the look of the Express Models, 'bunny in a hole' thing that you fit to the trackside and it pops in and out as trains pass !!!! Not so sure the bunny would stack up in the realistic stakes but Im sure my lad would love it !!

Spent last night completing the final third of scenics on the board so the next trip out for photos would be a little less restricted. Using a Silflor grass mat as a base several other layers of light green flock and dark green fine turf were scattered on top to build up the rough layered look that I am left with. Certainly feel the colour of the Autumn grass is a little easier on the eye compared to the summer and spring shades that were used on Brookestone. It did look like I had killed Kermit and spread his skin out to dry !! The ready to plonk shunters cabin has worked well with the addition of surrounding trees, ivy, a hard standing area and some oily handprints. Maybe a little LED in here to add some atmosphere on night shoots wouldnt go a miss ? The trees and bushes on the rear embankment were done using a twig of fine leaf foilage from woodland scenics with small pieces of International flower tufts glued into place around the base. The flower heads were a little oversized and way too bright so these were removed and just the stems left in place. I still have to add several trees (yet to be purchased !) but need to be careful I dont over clutter the photographic angles. Some of Pete Harveys fencing will run along the back of the board just to break up the transition between model and landscape/sky although the decision on the colour this will be sprayed is yet to be made. Aluminium silver could be a little harsh and I have seen fencing of this type in various shades of green so this could be an option. The vision I had when the board was pictured on the dinning room table compared to this morning is about where I wanted. I know its a little heavy on the green but it does mean the many liveries in my stock collection contrast well. I think the next one will be Eastfield Depot based, I like the look of that famous view into roads 5, 6 and 7 and the corner of the shed with the battered roller shutter doors !! Drab grey buildings, muck and not a tree in sight !!

Hi Dave, Superb stuff.....yet again ! Third one in, (27 in tunnel mouth), stunning !

After Mike's request for 'side on' heres one from me !

Still not finished the grass so its a good job the polstyrene (bottom right) looks quite ballast like !!

Dave, love the 'normals' in the Mk1, has that guy just found something dodgy at the bottom of his mug of tea ?! What was upfront on that train ?? One from me -

'Cromptons at Keythorpe Grange Embankment' That popular, named class 47 - 'ersy o eester' For a change, a train rather than just a loco !!

Had big plans for today but ended up doing lots of different little jobs and at 5pm wondered where the day had gone and wasnt quite sure what I had achieved ?! After a big tidy up of kit I got a bit more scenic work done round the cabin on the low level. Spent the morning weathering the first of what I hope will be a complete rake of 10 Seacows in Mainline Blue. The complete train will hopefully feature a pair of sound fitted Cromptons in Mainline branded grey or dutch in the future. Seacow received a coat of frame dirt on the bogies and the body was coated with a good spray of weathered black. Most of this was taken off with a rag soaked in thinner and cotton buds for the finer detail. The stone slides at the sides were painted with silver enamel then rubbed over with the blackened cotton buds that were used to clean the bodysides ! The thinner on these melted away parts of the wet silver paint and left grubby, dull black streaks on the metal. Will spend a bit more time on this area with rusty based powders tmow once everything is dry. After this was done I disappeared up the GCR for a while for a look at that 'Tor**do' steamy thing !! Got to admit it is very impressive, however it put me in the mood to come home and thrash some diesels up and down on the board which then led to 3 new videos all featuring snips of BR Blue ! I must be getting old and nostalgic !!!! Thats all for now folks, work and lots of overtime beckon over the next week or so to pay for all these Cromptons, sound chips and Seacows !!

Great stuff Alex, only met you once and you didnt come across as 'mad' then but something must have happened because this is bonkers !! LOL !! I would put your order in for the Express yard tower lights now ! 5+ should do it !! Keep going mate, you can already see this is going to be a breath taker at exihibitions in the future.

Morning Paul, Cheers mate, was keen to get outside this morning and do a few more clips but I dont think the very realistic rain and gale force wind will do my scenics or stock much good !! The sound on 535 is Howes. Had the Bachmann factory sound in 402 before and I didnt like that but this is something else ! Very handy functions on F9 & F10 with shunting mode & acc/dec limit. Perfect for plenty of play in a small space. Saves a lot of bother having to mess around with the CV's.

I was going to work on the board during Easter Sunday but after reviewing the weather first thing and seeing that it was turning into a pleasant day, Joey and I decided to move board, stock boxes & Dynamis outside for a bit of a play !! Everything had a turn and a chorus of engines have been singing away all day whilst we got on with some tidying, weeding and relaxing. We also devoured a large quantity of chocolate !! Very new to videoing my little creations, however, we have had a quick go today and I plan, after the purchase of some decent converting, editing and playback software tomorrow, to have a better go at it next week and hopefully, time permitting, will have more than 2ft of board to capture the action on by then !! 4 links to YouTube below - (The picture quality & frames per second will improve next week, i promise) There you go then, apart from the obvious picture quality issues, wooden driving skills & reduced setting, let me know what you think and if you want more. We enjoyed doing them but without the conversion software to mpeg, as AVI files the uploading time is silly and its took all night just to sort those 4 clips ! I will invest in the software required if they prove popular ! You may have noticed the only addition to the board this weekend in the form of some trees. 7 added but I reckon on another 20+ doing the trick across the board ! It aint going to be cheap, thats for sure !! A handful of pics to finish with another of the Vac that I couldnt resist as its taken facing the unfinished side of the board, the grid makes an appearance and the 20 is pictured dumped on the blocks having a well earned rest. (A couple of RMwebs' more experienced members pointed out to me the other day that maybe I went a little OTT on the colour saturation at times and after reviewing my gallery I agreed as it was obvious that quite a few shots were less realistic & a little too punchy due to the colours. I have banned any twiddling of the colour saturation knob on paintshop from now on and hopefully you will be able to 'spot the difference' with these shots ?!)