mike morley

Very probably

Sheds in triplicate, taken on a visit to the North East in 2012.  I can't actually remember where it was, just "somewhere in Northumberland"

I didnt realise I was a chimney fetishist until I saw the wonderful Maindee East layout of the late Steffan Lewis.  I was him who coined the term 'chimney fetishist'.

This contribution came about when I realised my eyesight was no longer good enough to see if my roof had lost any tiles during the multiple storms of the last few days.  I took a couple of pictures instead, enlarged them and here we are.  On the left, under the rendering is number 14's original 1880's chimney.  In the middle is mine, which is probably about a century younger than theirs.  On the right is number 10's, which was built over a couple of days during a bitterly cold January seven or eight years ago.

Makes me realise you very rarely see TV ariels modelled.

The truncated chimney of the flat above one of the shops opposite.  It would be a challenge to model without looking contrived as it is, but on a suffocatingly hot summer night a few years ago the occupants of the flat got up on the roof and for a couple of weeks afterwards there was a half-empty wine bottle sitting on the chimney!

Strictly speaking, not from beyond the railway fence as this is all that's left of a Mid Wales Railway permanent way hut, near Pant-y-Dwr.  I thought I'd posted this one once before but cannot find it. Apologies if it is a duplication.

Subtle, this one.  I like the way the rough stone of the shed merges seamlessly with the brick of the chimney.  I've had two or three attempts to model this kind of thing and found it very difficult to do convincingly.  This is from Sulby, in the Isle of Man.

Also Manx.  Officially Cross Vein lead mine but known to all by the fabulous name of Snuff the Wind.  Closed to the public since 2020 because it became unsafe.  The chimney of the nearby Beckwith's mine, having had a distinct list to starboard for many years, had finally collapsed in a gale about 2010.

Back to Wales for the last one.  One of the few remnants of the mine at the head of Cwm Maethlon, behind Aberdyfi.

West Coast Main Line.  The long white building is the Three Locks pub, on the Grand Union Canal between Leighton Buzzard and Bletchley.

On 01/02/2022 at 17:15, Pillar said:

Regarding the grey paint, I believe GWR grey is quite dark? The shade on this wagon is a very light grey and definitely more like BR unfitted grey to my eye.

GWR grey might have begun life very dark, but as it aged it got lighter and lighter and ended up very pale.

First chassis I ever built employed the Iain Rice method of setting it in motion and spraying it as it ran.  Wouldnt do it that way again because by the time everything that needs to be is covered other areas are caked.

Since then I've sprayed the chassis (red primer + Halfords satin black) before fitting the wheels then scraping the paint off the brake hangers in order to solder the actual brakes in place.  The brakes themselves and wheel rims are later carefully brush primed and painted.

Isn't the plural of chassis chassis?

Another archive from my hard drive

My laptop is coming to the end of its life and I found these while working out which pictures I wanted to keep and which ones can be deleted.

These were taken in the Forest of Dean  last Spring Bank Holiday.

At the Cannop end of Parkend.  I was surprised to realise most of the timber had clearly been cut some time before.

These are more subtle -possibly too subtle to work in anything under 7mm scale.

Adding stability to the parking area opposite the pub on what was once the line twixt Parkend station and Marsh's Siding.

Now the job is done, any more thoughts on the question of the width?  If you were to build another one, would you tackle that, too?

Masokits do etched stanchions

Some years ago I had a job where I was one of three administrators who had to share passwords because we simply could not do our jobs with the levels of access allowed us by own our passwords.

Then the company changed hands and "things" started to happen.  A deficit of £125,000 appeared on an account to which only I, theoretically, had access and had only used once to the tune of perhaps eight hundred entirely legitimate pounds .  Another account I did not know even existed, let alone had access to, was emptied of umpteen thousand pounds.

Then, after much else, the company was raided by Scotland Yard's Organised Crime Squad, whereupon it was revealed that our new owners were in league with the Russian Mafia.

Never have I ever been so relieved to leave a company.

Varnishing is okay in theory, but not in practice.

For a start, a varnish that is suitable for,say, a brick wall will not look right on, say, a planked wall.  Using a different varnish for every different type of surface being portrayed is not practical.  I've often seen applying the varnish before you start being suggested but to me that defeats the object of the exercise and you might as well use plastic.

Also, it is all but impossible to varnish all of a structure - inside and out - and in a damp atmosphere moisture will find every nook and cranny you missed very quickly indeed.

With regard to scratchbuilt buildings, a lot will depend on personal preference and where the model will eventually go.

For instance, I much prefer card for buildings, but my layout room is in a cellar that despite having far more spent on it than I could either justify or afford remains too damp for anything as absorbent as card to last very long.  Thus I find myself forced to use plastic, which I find nowhere near as versatile or user-friendly.

My advice would be to try everything and see what suits you and your needs best.

Try scrolling a short distance down this

https://albionyard.com/fifteen-minute-heroes/

Comparatively inexperienced blacksmith?  Could also explain the very crude brake hanger on the Eastwood wagon.

I've a very soft spot for pretty (choice of word intentional) much every 2-4-0 I've ever seen.  But that Borsig?  Nah . . .

It's tender's a bit of a minger, too.

Would agree entirely with PMP and would add that while some - repeat some - locos can be regauged by simply spreading the wheels there is a definite knack to it that not everybody has.  I don't have it: a friend of mine does. 

He has also discovered that even if there is enough clearance within splashers, behind brake shoes etc to widen the gauge to 18.2mm it does not necessarily mean it will run on EM track.  For instance, the Hornby Black Motor might have the space where it's needed but it doesnt have the wheel profile and dislikes the checkrails on EM pointwork.

Firefox is refusing to open the tool lists.  Says they are security risks.

I used the Hammerite primer a few years ago and found that to get it to work with an airbrush required so much thinning it drastically reduced it's effectiveness.

By pure coincidence, only this morning I primed an inherited Trevor Charlton body of a Midland 4-wheeler passenger brake using Plastikote red primer, which was once widely available but which now only Wickes appears to stock.  After a few hours baking in my airing cupboard it seems to be more than satisfactory.

Legislation of that nature is rarely retrospective so trafficators on a vehicle from that era would very likely still be street-legal now.

EDIT.  He's retired now, but my brother used to be a traffic policemen.  I've Whatsapped him the question but as he's laid up with Covid at the moment an answer is unlikely to be prompt.

Thanks, Jonathan.

The home of the longhouse is Devon, where there are still scores of them, and Scotland, where there are still quite a few - although, like Jonathan, I find myself looking at the pictures of a lot of them and thinking "Was that ever really a longhouse?".  Part of the problem is that the last of them was built in the 1740's and any building that has survived that long will inevitably have undergone something of an evolution over the subsequent centuries.  I've spent countless hours researching them and at the end of the process felt I knew little more than I'd learned within a few minutes of starting.  The key feature is the position of the 'front door' (actually the door at one end of the cross-passage that separated the living quarters from the byre) in relation to the chimney, and knowing that has lead me to the conclusion that one of the two at St Fagans was either

A) Not restored to how it was originally.

B) Not actually a longhouse

or that

C) The readily-available information on the subject is inaccurate.

D) I am a complete dunce who ought to go to back to playing with Thomas the Tank Engine and Hornby track-mats..

I've long known that I'm fikk (I have to take my shoes and socks off if I want to count beyond ten) so my guess is it's D.

16 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

 a derelict long house above Barmouth.

 

I have recently kitbashed a small Welsh upland longhouse from an Airfix church (Link below. Scroll down the page) only to to be told that despite there being two magnificent examples at St Fagans there were actually hardly any longhouses in Wales.  As the man on the scene, what are your thoughts on the subject please, Jonathan?

Not exactly "outside the railway fence", for reasons that are obvious, but I think in a similar vein to the last couple of pictures.  As it happens, I started a model of this some years ago but it ground to a halt when still less than half built because I couldn't decide whether to make it a complete building or half relief.  One day it'll get finished.

This picture was taken not long before it ceased to be the premises of the Laxey Blacksmith, when the Manx Electric evicted him in order to use the building themselves.  I cant remember if they wanted it for a museum or a pw store and workshop.  I believe the blacksmith himself decided to retire.

10 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

There’s an absolutely “wonderful” house and rake of outbuildings in Newton Longeville that needs to be reproduced in model form before the inevitable happens (collapse of gentrification).

 The one by the crossroads?

I've often commented on how modellogenic it is when collecting a friend who lives in Newton Longville on model railway club night.  He thinks the place is closer to collapse than gentrification.

The furthest I've been in the last week or so was to Sainsbury's, so I've nothing new to contribute, but while searching for a picture of something else I stumbled across this.

This pair are in Stewkley, in Buckinghamshire.

Both interesting buildings that would make good models, especially the nearer one (although I'm not too sure about the mustard-coloured paint!) without being in the least bit ostentatious.  That tank (diesel?) at the far end adds a certain something, but it would be a challenge to include the wooden-clad water pump where the two buildings meet without making the resulting model look a bit twee or cutesy.