wiggoforgold

Refurbishing the scenery has reached the private siding now. I'm taking some pictures of the work as it progresses and will put these up in a couple of days. In the meantime here are  some pictures with trains in place.

First, a picture of Juniper Hill's J94 "Cranford" entering the mill siding

Next, class 15 D8233 is seen with a couple of vans for the mill.

Lovely work as always Alex. How are you finding your new static grass machine? I was about to buy the FMR one (and a balloon, following the recommendations here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/64167-static-grass-tips-and-techniques/?p=1687374) to start grassing up Buckden, but your comment makes me worry it might not have the oomph to do nice long tatty grass embankments.

 

Marcus.

Thanks Marcus.

There's a place for both types of grass machine I think. I bought a large one partly because i had some quite large areas to cover (but in this respect the FMR one was doing all I asked of it, albeit not as quickly, but I wanted a machine that could cope with longer grass fibres (Up to 10mm for the reeds in the river, which I haven't tried yet.) and the FMR machine can't cope with the longer fibres - (it has difficulty with anything longer than 4mm I find). Where the FMR one has the advantage is for finer detailing, such as grass growing through cracks, where the new one is too large to wield effectively.

I'll recommend the Gravett book again - I know I keep mentioning it, but that's how useful I find it.  I have no connection at all to the Gravetts save as a very pleased reader of the book. (I spoke to them briefly at the Plymouth show I think when they were exhibiting their Dolgoch layout about 20 years ago, but they won't remember that!)

Looking forward to seeing more of Buckden in due course.

Hal, I'm glad you fount the details helpful. Since I posted, I've found a better section for a "before and after" feature, but it will be a couple of months before I get to it. Good luck with yours, and post some pictures when its done.

Alex

I’ve taken some “before and after shots” of my first experiment with the new static grass applicator. In previous entries I have described the construction of a stable block for Diddington, which was installed in the fields adjacent to the engine shed.  The field had been given a basic covering of static grass using a simple applicator, and this is shown in the first picture, with the hole cut for installation of the stables.

Once installed, the field in front of the stable was reworked. The first step was to tidy up the existing scenery, by gently scraping back the existing grass (not completely) and levelling up the ground in places with Polyfilla. The fence between the field and track was then installed. I’ve used Ratio fencing, though I think it should really be post and wire. The fence comes in straight lengths, and these were gently bent to follow the profile of the land, and mounting spigots in the form of lengths of plastic cocktail stocks were glued to the rear of the fence. The fence sections were sprayed with various mixes of Tamiya grey and earth colours, and the fence was glued into holes drilled in the scenery.

The path was made by painting the area of the path with Humbrol dark earth enamel, and while it was still wet, sprinkling it with fine ash through a metal tea strainer.  The areas to be grassed were then painted with dilute PVA, and the whole given a coat of 4mm static grass fibres. This was left to dry for a few minutes, then the excess was gently hoovered off. The grass was then built up further by overspraying some areas with hairspray, and giving those areas a further coating of longer (6mm) fibres.  Weeds and bramble were built of using Carrs dark green scatter either direct over more hairspray, or on to a web of gently teased out pastiche (theatrical hair), stuck in place with more hairspray. Undergrowth at the base of the fence was also built up using pieces of Woodland Scenics clump foliage, glued in place with PVA, and covered with more scatter.

Hi Hal

I've just got the one by wwscenics, which they were demonstrating at RM web live in Coventry. I used it last night and am really pleased with the results.

The static grass in the pictures was done with the FMR tea strainer one, which is a lot cheaper, but not as good for larger area, and it won't cope with longer fibres.

All of the are a bit of a struggle round the edges of buildings, or when a more precise application of grass is needed.

If you haven't already seen it I'd also recommend Gordon Gravett's "Modelling Grassland" book which is full of ideas and techniques.

Alex

Sorry Jonty not Jointly. The curse of predictive text.

Really shows off the benefits of static grass nicely.

 

 

Cheers Mark.

Santa is bringing me a static grass machine with a bit more clout for Christmas, so grassy areas will extend in the new year.

Well spotted. Ivor has made an excursion into the Fens. jointly Chambers was standing in the way at the bus stop at Juniper Hill when the weekly bus arrived and had to be moved on

Happy Christmas

Alex

A few different scenes for Christmas

First, something a little different. Back to 1959 for this one. The K1 is a Replica body on a Bachmann K3 chassis. The coach is by Ian Kirk, and was built about 20 years ago.

Next a couple of shots of D5579, which is one of my favourite models, so I take quite a lot of pictures of it! The model is an Airfix body on a Hornby Chassis, and construction is described in my blog. The first picture is taken from and angle which isn't possible when the layout is fully erected.

The second picture shows D5579 double heading D5500, which is a Hornby model, , with the cab window surrounds repainted green,weathered and renumbered,

Finally, Juniper Hill is well and currently living in Cornwall. Here's the bus from Diddington having just arrived at Juniper Hill (There isn't a passenger service), while Cranford waits between shunts.

The stables at Diddington have now been installed on the layout. Details of the build can be found in the Card Modelling Forum. This post is concerned with its installation on the layout.

The majority of the buildings on Diddington are made from card. This is because I find it easier to work with, and well braced card buildings are extremely strong.  All the buildings are planted in the layout, rather than placed on it. The following words and pictures show how the stables were installed.

A start is made by cutting a hole in the scenery where the building is to go

This hole is lined with card, and blended in the surrounding scenery with Polyfilla. 

All the buildings have either a “cellar” at the bottom of the sides, or a base about 10mm in depth, which fits in the hole. When the hole is finished, the building is glued in place, taking care to ensure the building is level and vertical. Once the glue has firmly set, the sides or base of the building are blended in place with more Polyfilla, or a mixture of plaster and pva.

Once dry the Polyfilla/plaster is sanded down, and the whole over coated with burnt umber gouache, to provide a base for the scenic treatments, fine ash sprinkled on wet dark earth paint for the paths, and static grass for the grassy areas.

There are a couple of features on the base which are worth mentioning. The paved area outside the stable was made from individual slabs cut from a sheet of self adhesive computer labels, which were airbrushed varying shades of light grey/buff, before being peeled off and stuck to the base, which was previously pained dark earth. Once in place, some of the gaps were painted over with slightly dilute pva, which was then treated with static grass, to give the effect of grass growing between the slabs.

The manure heap outside the stables was built up with Polyfilla on a card base. This was then painted with matt black, before being painted with a dilute pva mix, and sprinkled with fine ash. This was then painted with Johnsons “Klear” floor polish to darken it, and sprinkled with “dead grass” static grass to represent old straw cleaned out of the stables.

I've been working on the stables for Diddington. I've posted details of the construction as a topic in the card modelling forum, and I've taken a set of pictures of the stages in planting the building in the layout, which I'll add to this thread later. (its too late for me to start a long posting now), so here's some pictures of the work done to date.

And bringing up the rear, a brake van:

Thanks for all the kind comments.

Stuart - you are right - I've just checked and it is an A30

Marcus. - one of the advantages of the period chosen is that I don't have to model the turntable bridge. The down side is that I 've got a Hornby J15 on pre order, and when it comes I'm going to have to explain to it why the turntable isn't available.

Alex

It is a card kit. It's been around for years, and is currently produced by Freestone model accessories. It was built in response to a challenge from a friend, who wondered how far it was possible to go with a card kit. The card parts are fairly extensively braced, and it's been weathered with powders. The card kit doors were overpainted with Tamiya green.

I’m working on a new stable block which will go next to the engine shed at Diddington.  I’d hoped to have it finished by this weekend but it will be a few more days until construction is finished.  I’ll put a blow by blow account of the construction in the card modelling thread and will post a picture of it in place here.

In the meantime I came across some pictures I took of the layout a couple of weeks ago. One of the advantages of it currently being in sections is that I am able to photograph the layout from angles that would normally be inaccessible.

First here is a picture of an Austin A35 van parked by the boathouse at Diddington.

The line across the road in front of the van is the joint between the road section built on the layout, and the surround to the boathouse, which is removable. The gap will eventually be filled when the boathouse section is fixed in place.

Next, an end view of the engine shed. 

Diddington shed is now closed, and the shed itself is used for storage. The rails are rusty, but the infrastructure of the steam railway is still in place, .The shed itself is a Prototype Models kit of Stamford (which is a GN prototype, and Diddington shed should really be a GE one. One day I plan to build a model of the shed at Huntingdon East, but for the moment the Prototype Models kit fills the bill)  The water crane is a Mikes Models cast kit of the one at Stamford shed. The coaling stage, just visible on the right, is from Huntingdon East, and in the background the old turntable pit can be seen.  In the period of the model, the shed is no longer used. Locomotives wait in the yard between duties, and to facilitate this part of the line to the old turntable has been left in place, so locos can enter the loco storage siding.

Behind the shed, and next to the Mill, is a street called Jubilee Terrace.

The terraced buildings, on the left in the picture, are made from two Howard Scenics house back kits. The building on the right is a model of a building at the gas works in Huntingdon, and at Diddington is the mill manager’s house. It’s made from card, covered with Exactoscale brick paper, to match the mill.  The road itself will get a bit more detailing in the form of lamps, an improved road surface, and a couple of road vehicles.

I've been trying out some new ideas for detailing the scenery, such as grass growing through paths, and clumps of brambles. I brought Grodon Gravett's book "Modelling Grassland" at RM Web live in Coventry and have found it a wonderful source of ideas.  I've made some clumps of bramble from teased out postiche (theatrical hair), fixed in place with hairspray, sprayed with more hairspray and sprinkled with dark green scatter. Here's the result:

I've added more detail round the loco spur. I finished the fence. Really it  I would prefer a wire fence between the loco spur and the private siding, but to save time I've used the Ratio Midland railway fence, sprayed with various mixed of Tamiya flat earth, dark grey and NATO black. I glued length of plastic cocktail sticks behind some of the uprights, and pushed these into holes drilled into the bards. The fence is fixed in place with pva , and weeds and longer grass built up along the bottom, which helps to hold it in place. I wanted to add an overgrown hut in the corner, base on one at St Ives (Cambs), but my first attempt warped horridly, so I scrapped it and instead refurbished an old Cooper Craft GW hut rescued from my son's train set. I've given it a corrugated iron roof and added some barge boards. I've taken some pictures of D5579 awaiting its next turn of duty. The grubby state of the loco is authentic. Despite having a special livery it was in a very shabby state when photographed in early 1965,  I've seen some pictures of her in BR Blue, but not in Green - did she go straight to blue, or did she have a spell in green first?

Finally, here's a picture of a more usual Brush Type 2, D5500, propelling a brake van past Diddington shed. The engine is Hornby, slightly repainted and weathered. The brake van is an old Airfix/Dapol one.

Cheers for now

Alex

Refurbishing and adding to the scenery continues. I'm on the loco shed board now. Here's some pics of the current state of play. I've been experimenting with static grass to get the effect of grass growing through the yard surface and the early results can be seen in some of the pictures. The large baseboard gap is because the boards are not currently bolted together, so the joint isn't fully closed.

Morfa!, that's the layout I was thinking of when I wrote this and couldn't remember the name. Thanks for reminding me.

Oh, and I find pictures are a useful way of identifying things for attention. For example, looking at the first picture of the class 24 crossing the bridge, I think the middle telegraph pole needs raising. I also think the lack of signals is an ongoing embarrassment, which I do intend to address, although some kind friends have told me their lack is not too obvious.

Refurbishing work is progressing steadily. I've finished with the river board for now and I'm going to make a start on the loco yard board. I've attached a couple of pictures of the current state of the river board, showing the class 24 crossing the bridge with a short van train.

While working on the layout I've been musing as to whether Diddington is actually a model railway, or a model landscape that has a railway running through it. Certainly the river board which I've been working on is probably 95% scenery, with a single track running across it. The space available would provide plenty of room for lots of tracks if I was so inclined!  The layout idea has always been to have a fairly sprawling, simple layout in a large space, and I've resisted any temptation to add incident and complexity. In fact its been simplified from the original plan, with the approach being singled (the original plan had a double track approach) and a siding was deleted from the goods yard at an early stage. What I'm trying to achieve is a sense of time and place, with the railway forming part of the landscape. Stock scenery and landscaping items are chosen with that in mind.

Hi

Its been a while since I posted an update. I've been working on the layout, but summer is here and outdoor activities have been taking precedence over posting updates of late. Anyway, with Diddington currently in sections, I've been taking the opportunity to add some more scenic items and refurbish some of the existing work.. I discovered the Scalescenes row of cottages the other day, and thought this would be ideal for the row of cottages I had been intending to make to go behind the boathouse, where I'd left a suitable hole to plant it in. Here are some pictures of work so far. I've ordered some etched window frames from Brassmasters for the cottages, and when these are installed I'll post some more pictures.

Pete - a belated thanks for the heads up re the casters. I was thinking along similar lines. I've got a friend who builds large mixing desks and the like and I'm going to pick his brains on the subject.

St Ives (Cambs) station, completely flattened and replaced by the terminal for the awful guided bus way. A piece of my formative years torn away. I went back a couple of years ago and was going to cycle up the cycle path to Cambridge, but it was so depressing I went somewhere else.

The first trolley is more or less finished, save for painting, which can wait for the present.. I also need to decide on how the boards are going to be secured to the trolley for traveling.  I'm not 100% happy with the casters, I might try some larger ones, or ones that turn more easily (The ones I'm currently using are 30mm ones from B&Q)

I'll shortly start work on the second trolley, which will be a bit smaller, and the boards it has to carry are a more regular shape, which will make construction easier.

Here's a pic of the finished one

Work on Disddington's new legs is proceding apace. The idea is to construct two "tea trolley" atrrangements. The larger one, which is now nearly complete, will carry the station platform and station throat boards (the largest and most irregularly shaped respectively), the power supplies and the control panel. The smaller one will carry the station approach/loco yard, and scenic boards. When erected, the station platform and station approach boards will sit on top of their respective trollies. The station throat board will fit between the two and the scenic board will piggy back off the station approach board, with its own set of legs at one end.

Here's some pictures of the current state of play. The next jobs are to reinforce the fixing points where the legs bolt to the bottom "shelf", and install the casters.

Mean while work is going on to lighten the boasrds, and tidy up the electrical installation.

I enjoyed that trip to the RM Web members day, and came away with a few ideas.

Diddington was never conceived as a layout for exhibiting, but rather as a home layout that could be dismantled to move it. Added to this, the technology used in the construction of the legs is a good twenty years old, and things have moved on a bit since I made them.

The new idea for transportation and display is to replace the legs for two of the boards with asort of giant "tea trolley" arrangement.. Two sections of the laypout will fit in each trolly for transportation. When the layout is erected, a board will sit on the top of each trolley. The wole thing is on casters for ease of movement. The boards aren't very heavy, but I'm currently looking at ways to take more weight out of them without losing any strenght. The idea is that two people will be easily able to lift a trolley containing two boards into a van fro transportation.

I've started work on the larger of the two trollies. Heres some pictures of the work done so far.

Work has  been a bit slow of late as I've been riding a bicycle up msome mountains, but that little avenue of pleasure is over for the time being, so it will be full steam ahead with consrtuction now.

It's possible ( just) to walk across on the Tamar side at low water. You will still get your feet wet as even at dead low water there is a small stream. Don't forget that in the period you are modelling there was a walkway on the West side of the viaduct to allow people to walk across without going round Coombe creek. It was removed about 1970 I think.