Gloucester Road

So its a US prototype, but the mobile phone tower is complete.

So thats where we are. So summer holdiday have come to an end and both boys were bundled onto the bus and sent off to school so with that there should be more time to get some modelling in. There has been a flurry of grass planting and messing around with backscenes behind the upper level country station. All the grass has been put down and most off the detailing has been done. Static grass was done with my technique of doing the grass off the layout and making a matt that is then trimmed into postion; it has been covered before but here is a quick recap. Step 1 is to make a template of the area to be covered and transfer this onto some sort of film I use clear sandwhich bags. Here is the area to be covered Step 2 is to apply the glue onto the sandwhich bag in the shape of the area, then apply grass and hairspray as per the usual method of applying static grass Step 3 is to let the glue dry for several hours. Step 4 once glue is dry you can simply peal the grass mats off! So with grass down it was trimmed and out into place and blended in with the grass around it. Once grass was down a path was added for the farmer and to access the mobile phone tower, sheep were added , tress and some other bits and pieces here is an overhead photo looking accross the station The backscene has been changed again as i am still messing around with what i like. This one is just a cloudy sky, not sure how i feel about it. Next on the list is to finish off the mobile phone tower and get that done. Thanks for reading Stephen

So its been awhile since any modelling has taken place here in NH, between bike riding and the kids being home for summer holidays days are pretty busy. So today decided to take out the glue, hairspray, static grass and had at it for a few hours. I started to attack the area behind the station. I used my usual method of making grass sheets and then blending them into the area . The area done so far comes up to the front of the last wagon. Then had a mess around with a temporay background, it doesnt look half bad. Very promising when I get around to doing it properly Might do some more tomorrow. Stephen

So its been a month since any real progress has been made on Gloucester Road; I seem to have had a modelling block. It's been mentioned elsewhere that one goes through this and Ive even had it before, but sitting down and doing modelling seems a bit of a chore at the moment. I have plenty of plans and things that need doing just can't get myself to do it. I have been playing er operating (?) the layout and really enjoy it, which is good. Just cant find the desire to make anything. One problem is that the weather for the past month has been brilliant; which means lots of cycling. Close on 200 miles last month. Enough grumbling. Have done some more work on the front of the shops/houses Stephen

I always enjoy checking up on your progress. Its a real treat to follow the progress of your buildings going up.

Finished off Modern Industrial Building T009. This goes together nicely and with the ability to put the doors anywhere you want can be suited to most locals. The crane inside has been made, but my roof is very snug, ie wont come off easily, so roof MKII is in the works because the crane is cool. Still needs to be bedded in, fencing (on order) and some people added and this will make a nice cameo scene. Very happy with it. Stephen

modern industrial buikding T009 .

Nice too see the trains running.

Presentation of the blog is very nice. The trees are fantastic, very airy and i like the fact that you can see through them. Will need to take lessons when i get to that stage on my own layout.

That is an amazing collection of trains to run.

Cold and rainy day here in New Hampshire, kids are both in school Mrs out shopping what would you do. I boiled the pot, made some tea crabbed a box of Digestive Bisquits, put a beer in the fridge for later, turned on Pink Floyd and shut myself in the train room. My main focus was on the Modern Industrial Building kit, with fits of cutting out some more windows on the Small Terreced Houses. So here we are at 830 this morning; piles of walls, roofs and frames. The grey frame is one of four to go inside the industrial building and the blue walls go to this kit too, all of the other pices go to the asembly line that is the terraced housing and shops. Here is a wall and frame holding each other up, ive decided i am going to make the crane so you can seen one of the column front for the crane here (the yellow bit) It was taking me about 30 minutes per frame, so here we are two hours later. One side of the frames have been glued and the back wall is resting in place. I needed to feel like something was being accomplished at this point so had a good look at how this was coming together while sipping tea and eating a snack. After a breather we attacked the front and side wall by installing two doors and a loading dock. Then the lower and upper wall corner pieces were added and the wall capping layer added. A base layer was then added to bring the whole thing up to road level. Once this was done some temporary scenic material in the form of fencing and ground scatter was added to see what it would look like when beded in. This will need to be redone at a later point.; at this point im happy with how its going and am itching to finish. Still need to finish off the office that goes inside, the internal grane and the roof. Now to go and find that beer. Stephen

So I'm in the process of making up the Modern Industrial building T009, the walls are done and under weights for the night. Here is a mock up square with a roof on. At the same time a street scene using roads, corner shops and small terraced houses is being planned out. It is being done in much the same way that my earlier scene was done, mentioned earlier in the thread. Currently the bases and some paving has been clued down, roads and such are just there for planning. Closest to the camera will be a corner butcher and a shop, then the big open area will be an area that will have the station entrance that is on the upper level and some general seating and trees. Then you can see the base area for some houses or more shops. The walls for these structures are also under weights for the night. This is what the guest bed looks like with stacks of paper, arranged for each kit and ease of finding pieces. Hopefully no visiters as i have quite a system going and would not like to pick up the pieces. Off to more cutting and pasting. Stephen

Though there has been no update recently it has not been quite on Gloucester Road. Currently working on several scalescenes kits; small corner shops, small terraced houses, roads and modern industrial building. Pictures will follow soon.

For chain link fence ive used some made by Gold Medal Models, available online through N scale supply.

Like the coach. Looks like you took out the centre posts

They are very easy to use. In the container is an application brush/sponge and you put some on and dab it onto the model. I use a paint brush and just apply (brush it) where needed, you can also wet the brush and paint the powder on. It does tend to blow around so make sure your work area is covered. As Black Sheep says it is very much like makeup powder, little powder case and applicator. But you feel manly because you bought it in a hobby shop! Stephen

Sir Rowland Hill, 47474, was taken out of service for a while as it went through the paint shop. It has had an application of various Tamiya weathering powders added to it. Pretty pleased with how it turned out. Stephen

So the Paxton bus was taken apart, simple screws from the bottom, it has been weathered and people added. I had a bag of unpainted figures so attacked them with a simple coating of paint, nothing to complicated simple monocolor. Then off came their legs and in they went, happily heading to London, apparently. A light dusting of dirt was applied and then some darker colour around the tyres and the back of the bus. Having looked at pictures these buses seem to stay very white, so i tryed to add just a hint of dirt. sitting on the workbech green, red and yellow seem to be a popular colour then a head on shot showing the driver Stephen

Thanks for that, my boys said it looked like a caterpillar too We had a similar thought, bus comes apart easily now to find some people.

So in my birthday package were some signs from Miniscene Models an Oxford Diecast bus and 60054 Charles Babage and Class 121 in Network Southeast colours. The signs from Miniscene are fantastic; in the past i've made some of my own but these ones are brilliant, as is the bus from Oxford. The bus is quite white and will receive a dusting of dirt soon. 60054 has been throught the works. Having been run in and pipes/plow added it was captured being topped up at the fueling point before entering service. This is an excellent model and looks fantastic, willl be weathered at some point but will run in ex works condition for a while I have always liked the Network Southeast scheme so when Dapol put out a 121 it would have to join the roster. Have been nervous about Dapols locos as the reliabity has been hit or miss. However this runs smoothly and quietly and looks the part. Having been run it was seen on its first service While adding pipes and things i figured it was time to add those to 47474. Have also been trolling for pictures getting ready to weather Sir Rowland Hill. Now have been giving some thought to the area behind the country station. Here in the states farmers sell/rent out land to mobile phone companys to put up towers. Does this happen in the Uk? My thoughts for this area are to have a field with a fenced off area for a mobile phone tower. Does this sort of thing exist? had a look around RMWEB and the internet and cant find photos that are from the UK. Does anybody have one they could send me In the photo above there would be a field over the brown area a phone tower about where the tree is and a hedge by the freight line. thanks for reading

That really is some neat wiring!