MRDBLUE17

Hi Everyone, Pete - I have seen some pictures of the Hogwarts Express getting watered at Rannoch - If there was a decent model of the loco it would be considered and may yet get added at some point as the Hornby model can be picked up cheaply and then could add some sound and steam! If I were to exhibit it in the future I could create some Harry Potter type add on features such as Harry Potter on a Broomstick and the flying Anglia off the viaduct - the wife would probably take an interest as she is a Harry Potter fan. I have had some fun last week on the landscaping - as you will have seen from past posts I like to use polystyrene blocks to form my landscape and then cut and break bits off to shape. I then use wall paper paste and torn up bits of paper bags, brown parcel paper and even some lining wall paper as the valley is quite large to cover to form a sort of sturdy paper mache ground cover. As I learnt from other people on here the cheap hanging basket liners seem to be very good at creating a textured ground cover base layer which I can then add everything else too when I get the chance such as gorse, heather, brachen etc. I left the paper to dry out for about a week and have so far added the grass base cover to the south end. Here are some progress pictures th first 3 show the south end and the grass bank will help to blend the base board joint more easily. The viaduct end sees the nearest thing I have to represent a Scottish LL machine but Tinsleys Viking doesn't quite cut it with the BP tanks in tow, but gives an overview of the work at this end. Due to living in an old flat built around 1890 the floors are not level and the board at this end of the room is the hardest part to work on in situ as I had to cut the angle so it fits in behind the door. The other thing is the viaduct curve actually has quite a sharp gradient at the start of it which gives locos under DC control a bit more realism when starting out of Rannoch. DCC control will help to smooth this out. Anyway hope you like the progress - I'm off to have a play thanks to Rail Express with my new loco - runs great unlike the real one sadly! Thanks for looking, Mark

Hi Peter, Thanks for posting that picture of 47975 - it will be useful when I give it some weathering especially around the underframe and bogies - still might need to move the electrical cable up as well onto the cab front as I have left it on the buffer beam up to now. Thanks, Mark

Hi Alex, Sorry I have not been in touch with you for ages but I lost track of your new project - I saw the very start of it a while back and then with the naming of your layout thread just missed it completely so use to following your trains on Grimley. All I can say is I am gobsmacked at your progress - I knew this idea was going to be impressive if and when you had chance to biuld it but to see how much you have done already is impressive. I am over a year into building Rannoch now and you'll be finished long before me at this rate. That depot building is some size - a few pages back that shot of 60040 was of an N-gauge loco inside the shed right? (LOL) To see a 60 looking that small inside a shed building will look certainly look good and I don't think I have ever seen anyone else attempt something on this scale before. Those photos from Peter are very good and I can't help but think that recreating that scene of a 45 body being lifted like that inside your shed would be simply amazing. The SMP track and your 60 look very good - I will be interested to see your choice for concrete track as well as I am wanting to find a good solution for my future project but want to stick to 00 as well. Will enjoy following this now I have found it again! Thanks, Mark

Hi Pete, Great to see so many photos added of some very busy scenes at Lanbourne! The 25 sat at the buffer stop is simply superb by the way really captures the atmosphere of your layout so well. I don't want to join in the ganging up on you (I think its know as cyber bullying!) but I did put a Howes chip in my DRS 33 207 model and it is by far my favourite sound chipped loco and is so much fun to operate as once it has gone through the start up and is ready to set off - the breaks come off, the engine revs and moves off slowly and the way I have set it up means I can simply open it right up and the engine burst into life as it slowly gathers speed - you know you want one! Quite a few of the SWD chips now operate on DC albeit a bit limited and not as good as full DCC running but might be an option although personally I really like the Howes chips above anything else. Thanks, Mark

Hi Dave, Your comments are too kind - but apart from the few Cambrian kits I have hand painted which I am fairly happy with I don't have an airbrush for doing locos or coaches but it is something I want to learn to do in the future as it will be a skill worth having but the amsies overlays have been a compromise I am happy to live with for now on the sleeper MK2's. I really enjoyed those clips of the 27 - is that the Howes chip as it does sound really good - I enjoyed watching one at Model rail scotland and admit I could be tempted to run an earlier period at Rannoch one day as a result! The photo of the 108 looks really good as well and if you do requests would like to see a video clip of one of your sound fitted units leaving on the Kirkcaldy stopper next time your having a play! Thanks, Mark

Hi Jamie & Pete, Thanks for the kind comments always appreciated. Pete I am looking forward to seeing your building as well!

Hi Everyone, I have not really bothered to update my blog quite as I should. I am continuing to document the building of Rannoch in the layout topics section for anyone that is interested showing all the stages of the build and the techniques I have used as well - it may be of use to some of you and comments and advice is always welcome as it is helping me to get the layout to the standard I want to achieve - well hopefully that is the plan! The roof of the station has now taken shape and I hve even recreated the chimney stacks on top as well. There is still a lot of work to do before everyhting is complete but it is making progress again. Here are a couple of shots with more details of the work and photos on my Rannoch layout topic. Chimney stacks in progress Building in place on layout with main roof structure taking shape Thanks for looking, Mark

Hi everyone, My week of hasn't given me as much time for modelling as I had hoped as had to do some painting around the house but with that done I have found some time to further improve the joints in the roof structure - they are not perfect by any means but have filed down the joints sanded and then scored on some new roof tiles with a knife blade it is looking as good as I can get it on this one and from most angles isn't too bad. I have given it another coat of paint this time with a Humbrol slate grey enamel - the shade looks a lot greener to me than the tin lid but this has actually worked in out for the better as the station building at Rannoch does have a more green hue to it that the entrance building and signal box which have a more grey, purple tint to them. I am letting this harden properly before weathering and adding a few more subtle shades to different slates for a bit more realism. Once this is done the lead flashing will be added at the angles and around the chimneys. These are now built using wills brick sheets - due to the shape of these I counted brick courses in photos and then decided the only way to build up the layers was to cut the wills sheet into thin sections row by row and at different thicknesses to get the right shape to each chimney stack. This was a slow pocess and has taken the odd hour or two each night for a 2 week period but I am happy with how they have turned out - the single centre stack I made first and when I showed the wife she thought it had come out of a packet and I was just adding some paint to it. She doesn't normally comment so they must look ok. The cement rendered tops are made from milliput and the pots are made from plastic rod and strip on the square one with the rims made from very thin plastic strip rod scaped with a knife to get a flat edge and then wrapped round with EMA plastic weld to fix them in place. Not the easiest method but I had the materials in and I fancied having a go at some fine detail parts. I have so far painted the pots and the brickwork and just finished adding the cement motar colours. They will get my final treatment next of using 3 shades of enamels to pick out brick details and then finally weathered down a bit. The third stack has the top section rebuilt with newer brick which also needs to be painted in a more orangy red shade as well. Thought you might like to see how they are progressing: Hope you like them and thanks for looking, Mark

Hi Carl, It has been a little while since I caught up with this thread but it was well worth going through the last 20 odd pages I had not seen of the progress with this vessel. Your craftsmanship is brilliant and I am really looking forward to seeing the model in place on Claggys layout as I am sure the harbour setting will bring it to life. I am just glad Rannoch is inland and I have no plans to build anything by the sea otherwise I would have to get you to build me a ferry as a centrepiece. Following your thread has given me some inspiration though to dig out the plans I have somewhere from the RNLI to build a model lifeboat - I think they are for the Severn class. You use to be able to get plans from the RNLI for a set donation amount and my grandad who lived in Poole near to their headquaters obtained them as his next planned project but sadly never had the time to start on it so they have sat about somewhere in my collection for the last 15 years or so he was a boatbuilder and he used his skills and techniques on a previous model which he had planned to use on the lifeboat. I'm certain if he was still alive today he would also be very impressed with your model, Thanks, Mark

Hi Dave, A bit noisy! Only joking cracking videos especially the run round the whole layout - I have never actually ever heard a real Deltic and after seeing your video of one setting off from Waverley would like to see a real one do just that - have to hope for a rail tour in the future - not the same as the 67 I saw leaving the other day on the 17:08 Fife cicle service - the driver did his best with a blast of the horns and good acceleration but not the same! Thanks, Mark

Hi Peter, Glad your back up and running again on here - It would be nice to see some Scottish stock on your layout - perhaps you could run test trains from Crewe or have locos piloting normal trains to run them in - not that you need any excuse to run what ever you like! Look forward to seeing some more shots from your running day perhaps? Mark

Hi Dave, Those shots and details of the work you have done on your coaches is excellent - you have achieved a very good finish on them and the interiors painted do help to bring them to life. I only have 2 for Rannoch coverted using overalys for the sleeper as there is no way I could get a paint finish like yours and the coupling swap looks like it makes a massive difference so I will need to remember that one and give it a go at some point. Thanks for sharing your tips! Mark

Hi Pete, Thanks for your kind comments - your etching skills certainly have helped as it would not look as good without them! The main platform structure will be built from the thick art card I like to use as I got a lot from one of the cheap student art shops in Glasgow last year and once cut into strips will be glued down with PVA (evostick) which will be nice and solid. The top surface will be finished in the pink scottish granite in sections as the real thing and I can make the edge stones be scribing plasticard. I have also found a suitable sheet that will be cut and painted to represent the dimpled sensory slabs that are next to this and at the moment the main issue is finding suitable brick work like you find in pedestrianised town centres and driveways as this has been laid around the platforms and the building and as a walkway to the footbridge but I can't find anything to match at the moment. The edges from the photos I have seen are a right patched mix of stone, brick and timber what look like old sleepers held in place with sections of rail planted upright - I might have to come to some sort of compromise with this and use stone and some patched brick but not sure yet - depends if I take a trip up there this year and can take all the photos I want to get the detail right. thanks, Mark

Hi, This is a project I will enjoy following as I used to spend school holidays in Hamworthy when I was younger and especially remember watching the freight workings on the Ham goods from the level crossing alongside Ham park. I was only 8 back in 1988 but I can remember the 37's in metals livery working the import steel trains with the BDA's and JXA's in tow. The time period you have chosen is also very good as I remember the cross country trains to Poole with 47's and Mk 11's with the odd MK1 restaurant and BG thrown in were extended to Weymouth on Summer Saturdays and the LPG block tank train will also make an interesting train working through. Will you be modelling these tanks and the covered steel wagons as they will make interesting projects in their own right and one I would be interested to see how you tackle. Will you also be including the 2 red brick arches over the main road the runs right down through the entire length of Hamworthy as well as they would make a really interesting feature on the layout as well although not so easy to model with the curved brick runs under the arches and the 2nd one is at an anle where the line curved off to Broadstone. Will look forward to seeing more as this one develops, Thanks, Mark

Hi Everyone, Just thought you might like an update on the progress with the roof - these shots were taken once the main structure was built and it still shows some of the cruel edges and areas that still need work on but thought you would like to see the imperfections during the build. I used plastic weld to join all the main sections together and then used milliput to fill in some of the larger gaps in various sections. I have used the wills sheets for the main structure for strength but I am not yet happy with the joints despite filing and trying to get as close a match as possible between sections. The lower edge of the sheets have been cut away at an angle and filed again as I think it looks so much better to get the lower edge of slates looking as thin as possible like the real things are. the corners and roof ridge will be capped with flashing so I am not too worried about the joints here and again once the chimneys go on these will have lead flash around them as well which will sort the roof line out. The flast roof section has also been fixed into the slated structure so the droop in the photos has now been rectified and this there will eventually be an outer battern of wood made from strip with the guttering attached around the lower edge of the slates so all of this will be easy to tidy up. The joints between sheets will need more work and I am going to file some of these smoother and then scribe on the slate joints to try to even all these out better and hopefully once painted and weathered most of these will dissappear. The attached photos show how the structure went together and then filled with the last two showing the main shape of things on the layout with 37 401 on my now finished tank train to Fort William. Anyway hope you like the progress and I will hopefully get more done this week with being off work! The chimney stacks are built which took a fair amount of time due to the detailing layers on them but will hopefully look good once painted and pots added and I will get some photos done and added soon. Thanks, Mark

Hi James, Clever idea for a post and very nice detail makes the whole scene very realistic. Those cosmetic fish plates do make a real difference and the colours used for your track work are spot on. Thanks, Mark

Hi Everyone, Since my last post of the roof I have already made good progress and most of it is now finished but I have not downloaded all the photos yet to show the state its currently in. As so far I have shown the building taking shape in all stages of construction I thought I would share my more haphazard way of building the roof structure. I normally have quite good perception when looking at photos of the real thing and working out how to recreate this in my model but the angles involved in the roof were a bit tricky and after getting the first of the 2 end sections together I then worked out the size of the side parts before joing them all together using plastic weld. Wills Slates have been used throughout as I thought this would produce the desired effect and would also be rigid enough due to the thickness to give the roof some strength. First I marked out the basic flat shape of the roof outline onto the flat base section already completed. This was done to get a footprint for the upper sloped section of the roof. I counted slates from photos found on the internet of the building and then made the first section by cutting out the upper triangle of the roof. This gave me the width of the top of the flatter sloped part and I could then hold this against the flat roof section to mark out the lower edge overhang from the building. I worked this out to be about 3 slates in width as on the real building the rafters run down and support this overhang with edging boards and gutters attached to the edge of these which will eventually be added to the model. I joined the two end sections together with a light run of EMA plastic weld so that I could still flex them to get the right angle. I was then able to start on the side sections. I got the lower section right first time having marked out the angle to cut to join the sloping edge but I cut the upper section 2 rows of slates short of the required depth which almost gave the side sections a flat run down as opposed to the reduced angle of slope on the lower section. To avoid waste I was able to salvage the cut outs from between the lower and upper section and cut 2 rows and weld them together again which actually went together well and it is hidden on the rear side of the roof anyway so won't really be seen. I used some white tack just to pose the structure so you could see how it was going to take shape and the final shot shows the several sections required to make the roof. I was short by a sheet so had to wait until Model Rail Scotland to get another pack to finish the job. My only reservation at this stage is the wills sheets are quite short on a large roof like this and there are several joins along each side. I still have work to do to blend these before I will be happy to say it is finished. Hope you like the progress and can see how it is taking shape and questions or comments always welcome. Thanks, Mark

Hi Gary, Thanks for that info. The yellow and white for the lichen etc works really well on yours and I wouldn't have thought to use yellow for this but that explains the nice subtle tones you have created so will need to give that a go at some point. I heard a 27 with a Howes chip at Model rail Scotland and thought it sounded really good shunting on a layout. There was a chap stood next to me who new a driver that use to drive 27's and had been stranded on the Forth bridge on 3 occaisions as a result! They weren't really looked after to the end and they were worked hard so no wonder there was regular failures! Thanks, Mark

Hi Gary, That station building of yours is brilliant - I really like the way you have coloured and weathered the slates. Please can you give me any tips as to what paints you used as I am getting very close to doing mine and need to get more green shades into the station building. Keep up the good work and you should add a 37 to your fleet as it would look good having been sent down the branch as a substitute for another failed loco from Fort William with a couple of mark ones and and van in tow - would certainly be interesting! Mark

Hi Gary, That station building of yours is brilliant - I really like the way you have coloured and weathered the slates. Please can you give me any tips as to what paints you used as I am getting very close to doing mine and need to get more green shades into the station building. Keep up the good work and you should add a 37 to your fleet as it would look good having been sent down the branch as a substitute for another failed loco from Fort William with a couple of mark ones and and van in tow - would certainly be interesting! Mark

Hi Pete & Emac, Glad you like the progress, Emac the scan probably would have been helpful but the roof is already well under way and I will post pics of it at some point soon. I resorted to counting slates on pictures guessing on height and from my original drawings and basically just got on with it by cutting out a couple of sections of slaters roof slates. I got the angle roughly right from this and on the first upper section decided that it needed to be 2 rows deeper so cut a strip of tiles and using EMA got them back on neatly to avoid waste. I got back from Model Rail last night and after getting another pack of slates as I had run out stayed up til 3am to get the main shape finished. I have since got a base coat of rail freight grey as this gave a nice greeny tinge to the roof and filled the gaps with some milliput. Hope you enjoyed model-rail emac - great show and some very good layouts - shame it closed at 6pm as I always go on the Friday as I have plenty of time to see everything in enough detail with it normally being till 8pm and have time to buy all those detailing bits from the specialist suppliers. Thanks, Mark

Hi Everyone, Now I am settling into my new job etc I am finding time to actually get on with Rannoch and have got some real motivation to get it to the standard I want. I have now finished the weathering and detailing of my rake of 6 BP tanks. I still need to photograph these but they look good behind a 37 running through Rannoch! I have also been cracking on with the layout centre piece - Rannoch station building. Whilst I am very happy with the building up to roof line I had somehow stopped all progress until I saw Garys thread and his Scottish station building. The simple idea I took from this was to make a base section for the roof and build up from here. That might sound obvious but just seeing it on there gave me the vision of how to build the roof on mine and whilst it may only be a large rectangle of plastic sheet it has meant the roof is taking shape! I will need to get another pack of Wills roofing slates at Model Rail Scotland on Friday - will anyone else be there then to say hello to? Anyway hopefully below will be several photos of the roof building stages. The first view shows the large rectangle of plastic card from I think a slaters A4 sized sheet. 2 sections were needed due to the length of Rannoch and the second photo shows the sections I cut out to join the two bits together - top and bottom and EMA plastic weld was used throughout. Where the roof overhangs the building walls the underside of this is clad with boarding - this runs along the building at the sides and along the ends - this was cut from a thin plastic sheet again A4 sized with the board molded on as this was the nearest I could find to the scale of the building and won't really be seen very easily. The roof overhang is supported by beams which from photos the nearest way to recreate the various wooden beams was to use 1.5mm I beam evergreen strip cut to about 18mm and these were glued in place on top of the board sections as near as I could make out from the photos I have found. The ends also have 2 beams and they follow the main beams of the building which should make sense to make the real thing structural sound. The photos should help to make more sense of how this all takes shape The next photo shows the beams and boarding added to one side and end the same process was repeated all round until all sections of the underside were complete. I had inset all the boarding sections so that a finishing section could be made all round the edge of the roof - 2mm evergreen strip was used and fixed with EMA all round. The final 2 photos show this section of construction completed and are views that you will not be able to see once complete. The first shows all the underside of the roof detail complete and sitting upside down ontop of the building. The second shows it sitting in place. At the moment there is some flex in this but this will not matter as once the roof structure is fitted on top with edging boards and gutters this whole section will make a solid roof that can be lifted off if needed - I still need to glaze the building and after watching trains go by will need to fit some interiors as it is actually quite nice to see trains pass looking through the windows and I plan to fit LED lighting to the outside of the building as seen in night views of the station to create a different atmosphere in gloomy light. I have already started on the awkward roof sections and after much cutting, guessing angles, filing and bleeding and after some cleaning up using EMA to try and create some seemless joints - more work will be needed here until I am happy but the good news is it is taking shape as planned and I will ad photos of this at some point in the next couple of weeks. Anyway hope you like this proper update at long last with some actual work and if you want to know more or have any questions or comments please feel free to add them as usual! Hope your all well and thanks for looking Mark

Hi Peter, Hope you have a good time whilst your here - the temperature will be a big shock! Mark

Hi Kevin, Thanks for that - the lighting and detailing really brings that unit up to a decent standard! Thanks, Mark

Hi Kevin, It has been a while since I first saw your layout on here but I have just caught up on the 20 odd pages since on here and I have really enjoyed seeing all the pictures you and others from exibitions have added. It is a superb layout and the stock you have for it is so well modelled. I use to watch the steel trains on the Hamworthy branch loaded with steel rod and have never seen it modelled in such a realistic way before so thanks for sharing that technique on here! I also liked your 117 unit with the lights and detailing you have done makes the old lima model look really good would like to see some more shots of that at some point. Hopefully will follow your updates a bit more regularly from now on! Thanks, Mark