SNCF stephen

After starting my station with such promise I came to the conclusion today, after leaving it to one side for a couple of weeks, that I need to start again. This is a bit of a blow but I was looking at the station and it really needs a redesign, especially the support infrastructure. Also I negelected to coat the initial layers with varnish so some of the base layers were starting to come away which was not a huge issue now, but considering there is a large amount of work still to be done I thought that it could only get worse. Part of the problem was that the support infrastructure was not lining up squarely and I now need to look at how best to do this. I am thinking of creating some templates using the photoshop software I used to create the rest of the building. The upshot is that I am now a bit more well versed in how not to do things and how to get better results. Another upshot is that my standards have been raised. So I may be a week or so behind schedule but I will get there in the end. Any advice or comments would be extremely gratefully received. Thanks for reading. Stephen

Great work with that. I am currently doing some work with photoshop and printing so I am watching with interest. What type of printer are you using?

For some reason Rmweb sometimes posts twice for me. It is very odd.

Thanks very much for the nice words, still a long way to go (the corners look crooked in the pictures etc).

I have been working quite hard on the new station building for the layout. Although until this evening I felt the work was not paying off. Today I created the windows, the frames and the interior of the station. It is all very basic inside at the moment but the good thing is that it is all pretty prototypical. To end the evening I attached the wall panels to the frame and took a few pictures to celebrate. Only the West Wing (not the TV show) is assembled as of now as I need to print some windows onto acetate paper for the east wing. Above shows the basic structure of the interior. This includes the staircase (which is in a similar colour to the prototype). The gap in the floor in the above picture is to accomodate a lighting unit in the future. I like to future proof any buildings I make for this feature. The above shows the West Wing in place. This one nicely shows the new name of the station. Here is a close up of the doors, you can just see the staircase. The upstairs will be kitted out in the same way. QUICK APPEAL FOR INFORMATION - If anyone knows what the upstairs of a small SNCF railway station looks like could you please let me know. Any information would be very very very useful! As always, thanks for reading. Stephen

Some Flemish Bond bricks for the scratchbuilding section would be excellent for me.

Some Flemish Bond bricks for the scratchbuilding section would be excellent for me.

You have a great eye for detail, judging by your previous work.I am sure that you will do these features justice. As my dad always says to me "Rome wasn't built in a day". Good luck!

Well in my last blog I hinted that I was going in the direction of digitally designed models as pioneered by some of the other modellers on this forum. If this works then it might enable me to have more bespoke buildings on my layout to a higher level of quality. This first entry is a few weeks into the construction process. I actually started learning photoshop when me and my wife were on holiday in France. She showed me the basics and I started editing some pictures I had taken of the local station (Eymoutiers). The station is gorgeous and is full of architectural detail. For the size of station I am modelling the amount of detail is large. Here is an image of the station I took a few weeks ago: The roof detail is going to be difficult, not only does the shape of the roof look quite complex the windows extending out of the roof are going to be very hard to portray. Still I am considering a few techniques to do this. So back to the design. The basic elements of the model were taken from the photographs I had taken then scaled to fit each other digitally on photoshop. A basic model was made at first with just the windows and doors but other elements have now been completed including the signs, plaques and even the ticket validation machine! As of tonight I have printed out the major components onto card and I have then printed out overlays of the architectural details, but these were onto paper. To hide the bleached paper look I used some slightly off white Humbrol paint on each of the edges (this took a great deal of time but really did make a difference). I am now in the process of adding these overlay layers onto the lower layers. The name on this particular station has been changed to Neuvic (all done in Photoshop) by altering the original name. This fits with the location of where my layout is based. I am awaiting some acetate paper that I will use to print the windows. This will complete the side panels. I had previously created a basic mock up of the building and placed it on my layout. The picture is really awful but gives an idea of the size: The mock up made me realise that the footprint of the building was larger than my MDK kit of a French Station. Large enough that I am now in the process of designing new platforms for the station. These are being made using Foamboard (thanks for the advice in the questions section Tom). This will allow a better layout to be accommodated than modular plastic platforms. Following the creation of these side pieces for the building I am intending to build a frame out of stronger card. This frame will support the structure as well as allowing some basic interior elements to be modelled. I have downloaded the scalescenes interior pack for this and I am looking forward to using them inside. As always, thanks for reading. Stephen

Well I returned (reluctantly) from a trip to France on Saturday night. Since then I have attended a wedding, obtained a kitten, got a pretty nasty cold and had all sorts of undue stress at work. I have posted in the overseas modelling section about my X2400 and X2800 projects and wont say any more on these except that I was going to blog about them under the topic of "2 Budds the Wiser" *tumbloeweed blows through my modelling room* Anyway Whilst in France I managed my first proper trip to Paris and whilst there I did a model shop binge which was fantastic. Here is a picture of Limoges before our train departed (note the train on the right in the En Voyage Livery): I visited Decotrain, Trans Europe, Orpher Line 1 and the holy grail for french N gauge enthusiasts TRANSMONDIA!!! I was quite restrained in Transmondia, I only purchased a wagon and some road vehicles. However one of the road vehicles I did purchase was their limited edition exclusive MATP Mercedes Benz Citaro bus. This looks lovelly and I will admit it does look slightly out of place on my layout but still I am sure I can think of an excuse as to why it is there. Before placing it on my layout I opened up the body and placed some seats in there to make it look a little more realistic. The windows are tinted so you cannot really see them but they do make a difference when looking at them closely. Over the coming weeks I will be trying to get all of the sidings in place on my layout. However one development that has taken place is that my wife has shown me how to use Photoshop and I am producing a model in a similar style to BMTHtrains (printing onto card). I wont say too much now but I will blog soon about this. Thanks for reading. Stephen

I love the work you are doing on this layout David. The attention to detail is superb. In terms of iconic buildings you could look at something along the lines of Selfridges in Birmingham or the Public in West Bromwich. That could let your design go a bit wilder. Here is a picture of the Public (it is an art gallery/entertainment complex): Other iconic designs could be a new cinema (the AMC Cinema's have quite a modern design). I like the way this layout is being designed because it is very similar to how a Local Planning Authority would regenerate an area. Keep up the good work.

Great idea for a group on French Railways. Thanks for setting this up.

When I started the layout the village that formed the main centre was going to be very basic. Over the past few months I have "regenerated" the main section of the village and put in new supporting walls thus creating a new open space and a village on two levels. However there was something missing. The villages in the area I am porttraying have had similar regeneration but there are often large sections that have not changed significantly in hundreds of years. Therefore I decided to move the small faller industrial building and have a go at degenerating the area and giving it a sense of history. To test this idea out before I committed a large amount of time to this degeneration I have created some balsa wood mockups of the buildings that will eventually sit in these locations: There will be 3 main buildings that are proposed to be residential and one that is in a state of disrepair/under renovation. Due to the sheer number of projects on the go at the moment this will be put on the back burner until I have some more time. However I am keen to mimic the medievil styles of building materials that they use in this area of the world. I recently made a purchase off ebay of some workers apartments that were originally manufactured as a kit by Arnold. They were well made and aside from a few issues with the paint I thought they looked good. However a new coat of paint made a big difference and changed this: To this: This building is going to be the Mairee in the village (the local government office!). It has made a huge difference to the feel of the village. Other improvements have been that the square (that is not really square) is looking neater (but rough around the edges!): I am currently waiting paint for some of my projects but there is news of my two other new arrivals. These are some resin casts of 2 railcars 1 is the X 2400: The other is the X 2800: I am awaiting some chassis for these units from the USA. I am looking forward to getting them running. Finally it is worthy of note that my train layout once again extends around my room, although this time it has been constructed to a far higher standard. I have no pictures of this yet (although I hope to make a video of this soon). However it has allowed me to get my stock out for a bit of a run: (sorry about the quality of the last one). As always, thanks for reading. Stephen