Re6/6

Excellent stuff Pete. You've really captured the 'heavy' look. If made up as per instructions they always looked 'undernourished' IMHO. Looking forward to seeing the 2-HAL! I've got one to do, but I'm going to have a go at using the Branchlines conversion kit on it's own by scratchbuilding around it. I feel loathed to use one of the Kirk 2-BIL kits. I might have a look at using one of my Kirk Maunsell kits as a basis now that they are redundant after the Hornby ones came out.

Excellent stuff Pete. You've really captured the 'heavy' look. If made up as per instructions they always looked 'undernourished' IMHO. Looking forward to seeing the 2-HAL! I've got one to do, but I'm going to have a go at using the Branchlines conversion kit on it's own by scratchbuilding around it. I feel loathed to use one of the Kirk kits. I might have a look at using one of my Kirk Maunsell kits as a basis now that they are redundant after the Hornby ones came out.

That's a neat solution for pick-up Pete. I'd be very interested to see how you get on with them. I've got two 2-BILs and two 2-HALs to build!

Thanks for that Jim. Something that I didn't know. I'll deal with the check rails. The track bases were bought via third party dealer so I couldn't say if they're the old original ones. I do know that when replacing a short length of plain line ready for S4um with the stuff, the rail that I used was 0.2mm narrower at the head and didn't notice it until later! I'll be making sure that I use the appropriate (probably Peco) stuff for the relaying.

Thanks Andrew and Will, good to hear the polyfoam method seems to be the way to go for the future. Not to mention the lightness and ease of handling. It won't be always the most appropriate in all situations such as the viaduct on the Balcombe/Lewes project mind you!

Hi James,

I'll be using the Exactoscale AXX TAPO Tortoise adaptor plate @ £5.00 for a pack of five. They look to be good value and very robust. They're made from a hard plastic . You fix the Tortoise to it and then screw it the underside of the ply. You'll need some brass rod to fit to the underside of the point blades. I haven't actually tried them yet but I'll post on here when I have. As I said above I'll be fitting the pointwork to it's own piece of ply after cutting holes in the polyfoam so that the tortoise will have clearance, and then glue the whole thing (point+ply base) to the foam. That's the plan anyway!

A blurry snap above!

Which pier is going to feature the 1960s band 'posing?'....

No 4!

Very impressive stuff Andy. That's the first time that I've seen a serious and effective looking improvement to Peco flexi.

I'm now looking forward to the next step...pointwork!

do you intend to capture the brick facing of the arches? Please don't say you're gonna scribe every one!

We're not that potty Ian! We'll be cladding it with English bond plasticard and the hole surround brickwork will be etched.

This is a nice addition to the layout. What make is the 14xx? Looks to be a K's.

 

Frank.

 

Yes it is Frank. It has a Perseverence chassis, not sure of the wheels. It was built in the eighties with the new chassis fitted very recently.

I really like the first picture, if it wasn't for the bit of 1:1 room behind the backscene that give I would have though it was real

Background duly removed!

You're right to be pleased with the 2BIL Pete, looks excellent. Could you put up a few more pics of it please?

Thank you for all the kind words. Much appreciated.

Well as Tim said the mess looks really good. Is that the same stuff that he uses on the level crossing gates?

Same stuff. Canadian I believe.

So how much more work do you need to do John before Scaleforum!?

Don't ask!

Quite the best 2BIL that I've ever seen. Well done Pete. You've transformed a 'skinny looking' kit into something with a very substantial look to it. Just as I remember them when travelling to school!

Will you be doing a 2HAL next?

Hi Martyn. I'm glad that we've taken the plunge. It's working out as well as I'd hoped. Using pre-cut ply side pieces and ends, gluing and screwing for each of this size takes about 45mins. Obviously the longer ones (1800mm x 500mm) will take a little more time. But seeing as we will need 20+ a pretty quick assembly line is required.

The beauty of the accidental discovery that the foam will take sufficiently to hold long coarse thread screws, has proved invaluable. I've added a pic above.

Storage won't be a problem! ..but it will mean rearranging the storage of all the other layout stuff!

I've started to post some more images in the gallery.

......- Freemo-type concepts are long overdue on the British scene.

 

And yes, the benefit is that you aren't planning a mega-project that will be decades before you can see progress, but producing a number of smaller projects that are all acheivable in their own right and all usable individually or with the ability to be connected together has lots of advantages!

 

You've hit the nail right on the head there Martyn. That would be exactly what we'd be aiming at. I do agree that FREMO style layouts are very much overdue over here.

Hi JB. Do you mean more of the layout above? If so I will post some more pics in the 'Gallery'.

That is amazingly well "blended"!

 

I assume there were strict rules for exact shades and brands of grass etc?

 

Indeed! We'll probably be using all 'MiniNature' and Anita Decor grass fibres from International Models ( here ) used with the excellent Noch Grassmaster. They produce much more gentle colours that the usual Noch and Heki 'nuclear' green!

Raphael,

We have no illusions that it's going to be a demanding project. We are planning to try 'quick' baseboard construction, using the 'new' ply framed 50mm insulation board method so effectively used on the likes of 'Pempoul'.

Being fed up of building 'planks' this will be the antidote!...hopefully.

The basic idea is that it'll be able to be publicly viewed from all angles. It will be of a modular 'Fremo' style, so that parts and combinations can be joined and exhibited as required. I've seen this style of layout very well exhibited in Holland, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.