SNCF stephen

It is always difficult to make a decision to scrap something you have put time and effort into. But the old must make way for the new and if you can make a good go at it then it is surely for the better. I look forward to seeing how your new N gauge layout progresses. Good luck.

Wow, every time I see your efforts it makes me want to have a go. Thanks for the inspiration!

To start with, here is a similar picture to the one that I posted last weekend. A few minor changes have taken place including the placing of reeds, spraying the trees with matt varnish and some minor tidying. Plus this is the best looking image I took today so it is always good to start with that! This next one is the field which I started last weekend but have now continued. The track has also been ballasted and the bushes alongside the line added. The camera was really not playing ball though so I am sorry about it being blurry! The last image is of the camp site. I had painted it a light brown but I have taken the time today to paint it darker brown off the pathways. I am going to order some more scatter materials over the coming weeks to complete this area. Once done it will feature a small man made beach on a small lake. There will be about 6 or 7 tents in the site. There will be a few conifer trees in the site as well as a small drinks stand and a toilet/shower block. Following this I intend to make the road out of Das Clay and colour it grey. Once that is complete it will be a case of adding the foliage around the lake then adding the water. This week I had my first experiment with water. The fact that the small pond in the first image is still empty should tell you how easy I found the EZ water. I am going to try some other products (possibly the solvent version of the Woodland Scenics range). As always comments are very welcome. Thanks for reading Stephen

I had the same problem on my layout and found that giving it time to settle after the first drying session then going over it again helped. I did a test piece of ballasting on balsa wood and it did go crumbley so perhaps the Balsa extracts the moisture from the glue quicker than normal?

Just a quick picture to show the progress I have made since last week in the small wooded area: The forest has been made out of cheaper trees because this section of the board is removable and therefore these needed to be easily replacable. There is a small pond (that has yet to have water put into it...) which has a deciduous tree hanging over it with a tyre swing. Towards the lense is the start of a field which will extend over the entire elgnth of this removable baseboard with the occaissional tree/bush strategically placed. The ballast is Woodland Scenics brown ballast, it needs to be tidied up before I am happy with it. I darkened the glue/water mixture with a little Railmatch sleeper grime. Thanks for reading, your comments are always welcome. Stephen

Last week I wrote an entry about the camp by the lake. This entry is a progress report on this section of the layout. So I got out the Busch camping set and had a go at placing them on the shore of the lake. It looked good enough to spur me on to do some more (the white stuff is cheap clay which I was using to do some scenery). Thinking the adjacent board (which is removable) was a bit bare I added some cheaper trees to it to see how it might alter the look of the scene. It looked quite good. I then plaster bandaged the hills and lake bed. But that was not enough, the background trees looked good but needed something else to give them a bit more interest (there is a clearing in the forest that will have a cameo of some sort). So I added a small hill and area for a pond. Then I painted it brown. The pond had a deciduous tree over it which will feature a tyre swing. This small pond is there to test my ability to do water before I do something big with the lake. It is also worthy of note that I am selling a load of stuff on ebay and the market place to try and raise funds for the next modelling project. It is going to be an interesting one and I am very excited about the possibilities it has. Thanks for reading Stephen

Nice Work David. I used Peco motors for Neuvic and they do the job. I would have chosen other motors had I put more thought into it. I have Cobalt motor I am trying on the scenic module. It is like a Rolls Royce. Smooth reliable operation, very flexible and if you do not enjoy soldering you can just clip the wires right in! Is the vehicle in the siding one the N gauge snow ploughs?

Point motors are not as daunting as they look. Good luck with your experiment tomorrow. What type are you using on your layout?

The area I have chosen to model is a popular tourist destination so one element I was keen to model was a small man made lake next to the line as it curves around. The base board has been in situ for a while now but there has been little in the way of scenery aside from my crude pencil drawings to show where things will go. So today with my wife away I decided to crack on with the small hill and the bridge. I started by using foam board for the main sections of the scenics then card where it was not needed to be as structurally supportive. After this it was the tried and tested methods of scrunched up paper secured with dilute PVA glue then strips of paper over the top with more glue. This has now given me a feel for the area. I also added some fibre board to give the lake a better shore line (I am still intending to raise up the surrounding area slightly so it can hold the water). The next job for this is to apply the plaster bandage to go on. After that the road network will be installed. I am going to use Das Modelling clay for this to see what the results are like. Finally I have installed the depot on the layout. I am still not 100% sure on the layout but it is basically a 1 road shed with a large siding that could accommodate old stock (basically this is a siding that can hold out of era stock if needed or the occaissional maintenance train!). There is plenty left to do and all the while this little creature is wreaking havoc with the wiring Thanks for reading Stephen

Thanks, I totally agree. It would have been even more frustrating to have completed it and wasted more time on a model I was far more unhappy with. Lets hope I do not need more wishes for v 3.0 and v4.0 !