Will Vale

More amazing-looking stuff, keep it coming. I didn't realise you could make springy springs from brass or copper - I would have thought they wouldn't spring back owing to the metal being ductile/malleable, but that clearly isn't the case. I think I'll have to read The New Science of Strong Materials again...

I couldn't let it lie, and having deforested the area with tweezers, I made these

while waiting for my daughter to eat her tea - the benefits of being a kitchen table modeller I'm reasonably confident they're an improvement in appearance, I just hope I don't accidentally crush them since the stems are just dried grass out of a Hornby packet. I was surprised in the close-up pics that the Jordan scatter I used for the flowers actually looks like petals - not that it's accurate or anything, since these are heads with many flowers rather than large blooms, but it's in the right area. The colour was a bit bright so I tweaked is with blue wash at the bottom, and drybrushed white at the top.

That looks excellent, nice to see a different approach to exhibition presentation although I'd be a bit scared about stability. Maybe you could have a weighted pedestal and cantilever the board and fiddle yard on opposite sides of that, giving you lots of airiness, but it would need nerves of steel.

Sorry this is so late, but what a brilliant result - its wonderfully neat, believable work and sets off the locos to perfection. What a great thing to have on your shelf!

The ballasting is by far from perfect

I think "the ballasting is nigh-on perfect" is probably what you meant to say - it's really that good Like the fishplates too - I've thus far been too chicken to try and fit the etched ones I bought.

Thanks for the compliment and sorry I got the names mixed up - there is also a member whose username is "Ben Alder", although I think his real name is Richard? Very confusing. I can't even work out which post/entry I was looking at when I got the tip, but I'll take your word for it

Are you the Ben Ando from Model Rail? I've been really enjoying the modern wagon articles.

I think those work really well, and the reminder that there are other styles out there is a good one. Have you considered doing some long exposure shots? I have some 1920s Canadian railway books and I love the images where the train is clearly posed on a bridge, but the water and steam are motion blurred.

I'd probably take that deal I like doing stock but I have a lot more fear factor around it - you know, the risk of spoiling something nice that you bought. I'm hoping to get two (or three?) locos and another rake or two of wagons up to a passable standard between the end of October and the exhibition.

The ballast is weathered following ElDavo's method on Waton - very thin acrylic washes. I used about 60:40 water/alcohol in a shotglass, with a blob of paint. I started with ultra-thin raw umber, then went to Vallejo Brown Leather to match the sleeper weathering. Applied with a broad brush, then again turned sideways and dragged down each rail. I might come back to it with one more wash of GW Calthan Brown, which is the slightly rustier colour on the rails in the near siding.

The advantage, as Dave suggested, is that it's very controllable. The two minor disadvantages I've found are that

1) I often forget that it's thicker as you use it up, and get blotches which need to be dealt with.

2) You can get a relatively hard edge which is difficult to disguise.

Both of these can be addressed if you spot them when it's still wet by stippling the edge or the heavy patch with more alcohol or water and possibly blotting it a bit.

Thanks again for the kind words. I just wish I had more stock to show - I can do MTAs or MKAs, that's it in terms of stuff that's had attention paid to it

Thanks! The main problem at the moment is keeping the big picture in mind since there's an awful lot to do at the depot end yet, but these little dalliances are good for my sanity. Plus they finally mean I can get some half-decent photos

Incredible work, and fantastic colour match between foreground and background on the roadway and pavements.

It's not just a case of having straight track to fit the magnets, it's more that the couplers need to be dead straight aligned to uncouple reliably - I think you're supposed to have a wagon length of straight either side of the coupler. I only mention it because I've been bitten by this before, although it was with the Bachmann Kadee-clones - maybe the originals are less fussy?

The track I had trouble with was this:

with magnets sited between the facing points, at the start of the short siding, and in the straight side of the loop. I failed to get anything like reliable uncoupling with the 4w Bachmann skips and ended up filing a little off the inside of the knuckle to loosen them up a bit.

It's definitely worth a try, but there seems to be an element of skill (luck?) involved so practice is probably a good idea. I've had some areas come out really well, others not so well. The most important thing is probably to roll a big 'cigar' - I started off with rather a weedy one as a test, and it was harder to hold. It may also be better to roll a new cigar rather than try and use the second half after you split it in two, since passing it from hand to hand tends to mess it up a bit. Unless you're ambidextrous!

3M Super 77 works really well, if there's a brushable equivalent (very high tack glue) it would be good for small areas, but masking helps for that as well.

Cheers Rich, might try that although the short fibres I have (Woodland Scenics) are rather too glossy - the Noch ones are the business.

Fast work again - I assume at this rate you'll be finished in time to put it in for the 2010 challenge?

The plan looks interesting, I like the flow and the curviness of everything. The one issue I can think of there is If you're using Kadees, will you have problems with the lack of straight track siting the magnets?

I was going to suggest turning the two sidings in the foreground of the last pic into one to get more siding length, but then I realised that with the headshunt this way does get more length - just side by side. Clever stuff

Cheers chaps - I'm glad I'm not the only subtractive one out there!

You're right on both counts James - it all needs weathering/colouring and the girder is too short I thought I'd be better off weathering the markings in place because the just-primered surface is a lot more stable and grippy than something which has had powders etc. on it. The cunning plan for masking the curb is to do what I did just now when painting the second row of white stripes and the give way sign on the cycle path - fold a strip of tape under, so that the bit over the stripe is not sticky, then put another strip over the top - there's about 2mm between the stripe and the curb which gives me a little room to work. Although I might end up just brush painting the edge and crossing my fingers

I'm not sure what to do about the girder height in the longer term - on Google it looks like it comes to just below shoulder height on the couple crossing with their shopping, so it's not too far out - and maybe they're not as tall as heroically-statured Inspecting Man...

[edit: Fixed link - so excited because Street View embedded in the editor, but it doesn't in the published article, ah well.]

The greenification is achingly close now - hopefully have something to show after the weekend. I'm currently at the snow/slush phase (brown paint, gesso, lightweight filler)

Looks very smart, although I see what you mean about dulling the roof down - go carefully as the powders are a demon to get out of something with texture if you get too much on

What're the MIG washes like? I've used the powders and I like them a lot, but have no idea about the washes.

There were some other finish issues too - the gloss itself was oddly patchy (with gloss and flat areas) and I had a few brushmarks I did wonder about Dullcote but I was concerned that I'd be sealing in a bad job which would flake off or otherwise go wrong later on. I must confess painting things is often where it goes wrong for me - I do OK with the Tamiya cans and I'm getting better at primer, but it still makes me nervous, particularly with scratchbuilds.

So many thanks for the tip - any painting advice is always gratefully appreciated and it's clearly something you know a fair bit about - love the finish on the dump truck and the container you posted recently!

Fast work John! I like the flow of track on the left side a lot, but maybe it needs something different on the right so there's a bit more operational variety at the two ends?

Looks very nice, especially considering the vintage - plus points for using cast-iron kitchenware

That sounds like a good idea too - I saw somewhere (here?) recently that Micro Mark do a magnetic clamping tray which looks good for smaller parts.

Those look great, I might have to copy that idea as well! I made some flyers the first time we exhibited Igelfeld, which were popular but there was sometimes a reluctance for people to pick them up and read - signs/panels as you've done would solve that. Also they'd use less ink

That's a good point about the bulky tools, I hadn't really thought about that side of it. I was surprised by how much modelling I could do on holiday with (lots of) plastic plus glue, one knife, one file, one saw, scraps of sandpaper, a hardback book, and a cutting mat.

I failed to click on the blog link when you posted it - silly me. I really like the second image, the 08 plus two long vans makes for an oddly satisfying train with a good sense of bulk.

I know you mentioned you'd been putting off the overbridge for a while, but what's there so far looks good - like the brick retaining wall plus earth bank combination. I suspect you might need to raise the bank a bit so it comes up to the road level? Or is it a footbridge?

[posted here since I couldn't get Blogger to accept my comment]

For some reason the video won't play for me (Opera problem?) but the pictures look marvellous - I want one!

[edit: working now - not sure what went wrong there]