James Hilton

Get some photos up!

Without anything to scale off properly it's hard to see how big this is but guessing from the floor tiles, this is going to be incredibly impressive on the layout Great piece of selective compression! I too look forward to seeing how this comes together

That looks do-able Rich... more managable too! Having picked up a copy of the Class 37 Diesel Retrospective in the library last weekend I've been strangely taken by a photo of William Cookworthy and a rake of clay hoods on that breakwater type thing - lovely colours! I can't afford another project though!

That's what I tried originally. I think I'll have to revisit it over Christmas chaps - in real life the paper looks ok, but you're all making me thing that it really deserves doing properly

Thanks! There will be a barrier along the edge of the track to protect pedestrians as there will be end access to the loading dock via some steel steps.

It's from the P4 track company... www.exactoscale.co.uk You need to look for Easytrack OO components, and then buy the bull head or flat bottom rail seperately. It's then a case of sliding the short (8 sleeper length) sections on to the rails and yeah it then behaves exactly like flexitrack.

Thanks for the tip Jim - I'll take a look at that on Saturday.

Thanks Will - I've gone with a Dynamis (the split from set ones from Hattons). At ??75 it seems a decent starter price and I'll take things from there! My 37 won't stay grey for long... it's currently 50/50 on my poll thread in the forum for Intercity or Loadhaul! 37803 is the easiest conversion, 37698 in Loadhaul second and 37675 in Intercity hardest as I'll need to replace nose grills for that one!

It feels good to have made some solid progress in the last fortnight, Paxton Road is at last coming into the final phase... The MOD warehouse on the back of the layout needed to be completed before I could finish the ballasting or scenery on the front of the layout. However since building the plasticard shell in the very early days of the layout I've struggled for inspiration... these new photos are 2 years on from when it all started: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6868&hilit=paxton+road+warehouse&start=25#p177027 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6868&hilit=paxton+road+warehouse&start=25#p188387 So what have I been up to? Well the original roof has warped so will need replacing but I've finished the shell. This started with a spray of grey primer. Once dry I added a wash of Humbrol 98 (Matt Chocolate) all over the external wall surfaces. I added a light cream (I can't recall the number) wash over the brickwork - and then once dry used some 98 to add darker staining. I painted the cameras white and the emergency door blue, and then used some Europe dust and Black smoke powder to very lightly weather the loading dock, and some Europe dust powder to stain down from the pipe supports (along with some matt white paint on the top of the pipe to represent bird droppings!). I was struggling to decide how to do the signage and came across the free Scalescenes warehouse download which included all the signs I needed... an added bonus it also included perfect roller shutter doors so these were duly cut out and applied using spray mount. Looking at the model it still didn't look right so I ended up cutting up the 'concrete apron' from the Scalescenes factory and using spray mount applied this to the loading dock. Here we are with current progress... showing all this work to great effect. I'm really pleased with the finish so far - nice and subtle but definitely work worn. So what's next? Well a new roof and some steps down from the loading dock... and then decide how to do the concrete infill without ruining the finish on the building!

I'd say the colours not bad - try some 6.5mm winter fibres with a puffer bottle in places to relieve the monotony of the green.

I'm hoping we have a super detailed high quality 73 on the cards from Hornby with their Christmas release information...

Ah I see what you mean about the wing walls and clearances on the platform now Rich

The grass looks awesome! Which shade is it? I used spring pasture I think - and then some autumn short and winter long fibres to start adding some variation with a puffer bottle. Fantastic progress and I think I'll steal the concrete pad technique for Paxton Road I've been working on the warehouse and was going to post photos this week - but yet again Jon you've achieved more in a day then I have in 10! Great work.

I look forward to seeing all the plasticard painted - and then it weathered too!

Any prototype photos for us without the book you could share or have links to Rich? This is the issue I guess with non-prototype modelling Mind it does mean you can get away with a little more artistic licence.

Thanks Grahame! Awesome models - they really do capture the look of the prototype much better than Heljans 33/0 does out of the box (although I think the mods I did to mine make a big difference). I think you can add photos in comments - but they need to be hosted elsewhere first (i.e. your gallery) - see below:

Sorted the wheels - I've used some plastic tubing (the stuff the spare springs come in, from a pack of Kadees). I'll finish the saddle, cranks and pedals, paint her up and post some new shots

Wow this is looking great, fantastic modelling - do you have a prototype photo, I've not seen a good detailed photo...

This new Farish stuff (and Dapol) in N is enough to get me seriously interested... I guess it would give you a great scenic tail chaser potential or as you've done, squeeze a LOT of model into a small space. A top class 33 and I'd be well on my way...

Oooh now there's an idea - does anyone have any 8mm handbrake wheels they could donate to the project?! PM me if you think you can help!

The points look lovely! I hope to build some of them in the new year. Photo backscene with just a big sky? Sounds a little like Western Road in that there isn't a great deal of scenery, and it's more the stock that is the scenery

Sometime it's hard to sit down and work on a layout until you've got a baseboard built so how do you fill the odd hour here or there? Well this week I've been assembling all my Easytrack (half as OO, the other half is for Rose Hill so is P4). It's quite straightforward but leads to sore fingers sliding the rail through the moulded sleeper bases. The effect is worth it though, it looks superb. Even the OO is fantastic and I've got myself down for point construction in 2010! So what next? Over Christmas I suspect I'll sketch out the baseboard plans with Dad back at the family home, and work out if I'll need to operate a little selective compression to get Rose Hill fitted within the area constraint of the challenge (and the area constraint of my garage!) Today was an early Christmas celebration with some friends so not much modelling time - however I did escape down to the Churnet Valley Railway first thing this morning with my 2 year old daughter - very atmospheric and great fun! Cheddleton depot and station on 13/12/09 about 10am, still frost on the ground and with steam leaking out of the coaches 5199 (a Llangollen loco I believe) awaits with the first Santa special of the day whilst the NCB shunter warms up on the depot. A distraction this week has been a scratchbuilt BMX bike. I wanted to see if it was possible to fabricate something delicate enough and in proportion - and it is! This is the result of an hours work, and uses 0.45 wire for the forks, headtube, top and downtube, and 0.35mm wire for the handlebars and rear triangles. I'm stuck on what to use for the wheels though, they need to be about 8mm diameter... any ideas? I plan to make two, one for each layout as there will be some dirt jumps modelled in the woods on Paxton Road. After taking the photos I realise I should have included something for scale - the rear triangle is 5mm across the bottom, and the top tube is 7mm long... i.e. this is tiny! I must be mad! Next up, I'm going to finish off the station building and start scratchbuilding some of the platform furniture for Rose Hill (seating and bike boxes) along with further work on Paxton Road's warehouse!

Great model the Bachmann 08/09 - that responds really well to some subtle detailing and weathering Happy to answer any specific questions after you read the article - just send me a PM. Most of the effect you see is without using an airbrush, it's just being careful to observe photos of the real thing

It does put the signal centre in perspective! Incredible.

I love the dirt on the nose bonnets - fantastic!