Mikkel

Great views, this really works. The way the vegetation serves as view breaks is very effective. I'd also like to hear more about the balloon trick, sounds like we can all save some money :-)

Good choice :-) The last photo really shows how well the curved backscene and the whole fascia (incl. lettering and that very cool grey colour) works. What can I say other than: Neat, Pete!

Hi Ian, I have been wondering about the colour too. I suppose it depends a lot on where the track is located (and maybe also the period?). Most of this track will go inside the goods depot, where I assume the wood would be less weathered by the sun and less exposed to dust etc. So in principle I think you are right it should be darker. But I think it also depends on the colours surrounding it, ie how it looks in relation to its environs. I've got some track down now and embedded almost up to the sleeper tops - will post photos in due course to illustrate.

Hi Ian, that's a useful (and very specialized!) tool. I thought the blade was pointed at first, but can see from the enlarged image that it's exactly the width of the moulded handrail. Neat! I am following all these trackbuilding entries with much interest, lots to learn on getting points right, thanks for illustrating it.

Hi Jon, a varied entry indeed. That point does look good. I'm feeling rather envious of the deep timbers, they really have a nice bulky look about them, compared to what I'm working with right now. I always get confused when Nimbus is mentioned, as it means something else to a Dane. I thought you had a side hobby :-)

I'm not the best to ask as I've always liked code 100 for its simplicty - but what I have run on code 75 hasn't had problems. But then most of that has been kit built or new RTR. Some of the older models supposedly can give problems in the points, but others can answer that better than I.

Amazing. The windows and the light coming through them works very well, I think. Is the layout limited to the shed or will you also build the yard outside?

Ooh nice. Looks like something your boots could get stuck in. Looking forward to seeing that develop!

Nice description of the trials and tribulations faced by us railway modellers :-) Any chance of some photos of the wagons?

Maybe it's because thoughts of models (railway ones, I mean!) are a nice distraction? And then sometimes it can even become an escape, or a slight obsession even. Hope you had/are having a good trip to Sao Paulo, and that you managed to stop the driver for the photos :-)

Cheese and Tomato sandwiches are best, as its no big deal if you drop them on the track. BLTs, on the other hand.... Yes I had noticed you use the Flexitrack, Frank - it does look good and is very tempting, I think. As for the wooden timbers, weathering each individual sleeper (well, almost) is satisfying, and on a micro its doesn't require a big effort. On a normal, decently sized layout it might be another matter though? But wooden timbers would go well with a trestle like yours on Morfa Bach - there's something special about that real wood "feel". I'm glad you think so Nick, you got the dimensions spot on, many thanks for that!

That Lionheart stock does look good. It seems to be a promising range. Regarding the style of the backscene, I like the example you show for its own worth. In my view painted backscenes of this type require a lot of artistic skill though, otherwise it can easily detract from the realism of the layout. But you might of course know all about it, just thought I'd mention it. Regarding figures, you might want to have a look at these top quality 7mm figures: http://borderminiatu...platecrew1.html or http://acstadden.co....rewFigures.aspx

The weathering powders are Carr's, from a set with four shades of dark grey. I'm a bit confused though as it's not the "Grey Tones" set that appears in the photo on the C+L website - the ones I have are darker shades. Anyway to expand on my rather blasé comments about weathering: I used the two shades of powder seen in the photo (which are the lightest and second-darkest in the pack respectively). I applied the lightest shade first, more or less consistently across the panels, then softly dabbed on a bit of the darker powder more randomly. The sand paper was P240 used with the grain of the wood after the powders. Apart from roughing up the wood ever so slightly, it takes off a bit of the colour and so adds to the worn look. It's a pity the webbing is the same thickness as the sleepers, as it would have added to the advantage of the panels if you could have left them on. But I assume the webbing would become too brittle if it was made thinner. In fairness, I think perhaps the real advantage of the panels is that you can lay longer lenghts of flowing points and straight trackwork and experiment with it in real time. For micros like mine, there is perhaps not much advantage of using panels - except that it is what made the whole track building thing seem more tangible and less scary at first! I agree that the depth of the sleepers is another issue. The shallow depth does not perhaps show directly once ballasted, and yet it doesn't take much to reveal the lack of depth. The human eye is not easy to betray! Regarding the ballast: that last photo does perhaps misrepresent it a bit, as it's so close up. There is a comparison with 2mm ballast in this entry here: http://www.rmweb.co....-carrs-ballast/ . But I agree that like virtually all model ballast it seems slightly overscale. I think it works OK for the bay area, but for internal use in a goods depot I am not sure I will be using any ready to buy ballast at all. Will have a look at Chris' approach.

Very nice and soothing video to watch, and the layout already oozes atmosphere already. Hope there's more to come in due course.

This is so annoying when it happens - valuable modelling time spent fixing something that was OK when you started out. It's like loosing hours of work on the computer. But you're obviously good at handling that sort of thing, Chris. Mind you, those diesel things are so fragile, it would never have happened with a real kettle! ;-)

Been doing some further experiments with the Timbertrack panels from C+L. This is mundane stuff for experienced track builders (especially as there is no pointwork involved), but for me it's all new and part of an exercise to see if this whole track-building lark is something I want to get seriously into. 'The depot' is a good test-bed for this, because most of the track won't really be seen anyway J Above: The C+L GWR panels are essentially intended for EM/P4. In the comments to an earlier post, we discussed that my attempt to use OO 16.5 mm gauge on them gave a narrow gauge impression. Nick kindly did some maths and found that 31.5 mm sleepers would give the best proportional appearance of GWR 9ft sleepers with 16.5 mm gauge. So I cut down the timbers to that length, as seen above. Above: I then conducted some highly scientific experiments to determine the correct colouring of the timbers. Above: After much testing, I finally arrived at the exact formula: Slosh on some sleeper stain and see how it goes!. Above: Next, the timbers were weathered with powders. Again, clinical testing in a whisky-free environment led to a clear conclusion: Add some light stuff, then add some darker stuff. (Note the flying sandpaper. Dunno how that came about, but anyway it was useful for distressing the sleepers a bit.) Above: So it ended up looking like this. Those are thin timbers! Above: Just a test here with rail loosely in place. I think the proportions are better now? Above: Finally I did a test with Carr's ash ballast. I wanted to see if I needed to remove the webbing between the timbers. The C+L website says it's up to you, as it won't necessarily be visible. It is in my case though, as you can see above. So that will have to go. So what did I learn from this? 1. Trimming the timbers does make the OO solution look less narrow gauge (I think). However, it also makes the timbers exactly as long as the C+L ready built flexitrack, which makes it tempting to just use that instead. 2. I might as well have purchased a bag of individual timbers instead of panels, since I'll be cutting away the webbing anyway once the panels are in place. 3. Bread crumbs make for lousy ballasting.

I'm sure the words "domino effect" would keep him awake at night! :-) I hadn't heard about this model world before, quite amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kkhhlezdSU Much more here.

Eyebrows? You diesel types are a bit odd! :-) Only joking. Despite this being way out of my era I can't wait to follow this one Jon, its simply such good modelling.

What a great prototype James. I thought it was a disease when I first saw the name :-) Nice looking grilles, really delicious. This will no doubt become a super loco in your hands.

Great looking toad. And lovely outside frames, they do add character to stock. I can see how the flooding technique would be tricky there. In 4mm it works for slim panels like that (with a bit of practice), but in 2mm it would be really tricky. Will be interested to see how you choose to do the livery. Mine is a real compromise, there isn't even any black beading because as you say it usually doesn´t show from "ordinary" viewing distance. Trouble is, "ordinary viewing distance" is changing: With the advent of sites like this and close-up photography, the bar has moved higher. I might want to try out the black beading on the next coach. Many thanks for the hints on the Lewis articles, I'm off to read them.

Will be interesting to follow this. I have a 43xx I'd like to improve also. Pics would be great if you have the time and inclination.

Hehe, with all these replies going in different directions Pete won't get any sleep tonight :-) I'm in the no. 1 camp - definetely. The powerful backscene is what gives the whole layout that extra bit of character, I think. I can see the theoretical point that the backscene shouldn't grab attention from the layout itself, but if it really integrates with the layout and adds something to it (as no 1 does, and as the original photo maybe did it even better), then why not exploit it? Just a thought...

Agreed. There is a very fine line between a "character" and a "caricature" in model figures, and it's amazing how easily it can affect a whole layout if you cross the line. BTW, here's a layout that is seriously into figures - in quantity, that is! http://www.miniatur-...t-no-356-cw-34/

Definitely! Thanks for the info Frank.

Agree, those smoke hoods look great, can't believe you made them all sok quickly. I don't have much experience with LEDs I'm afraid.