johnteal

Whoop Whoop !!! I made the press, they took the pictures about 2 years ago and the shed looks nothing like this now, but it was a nice trip down memory lane. Looking back there are lots of things I would have done differently / better though. Strangely enough it coincides with me starting a bit of ballasting ....... More info may follow if I keep going.

Thats 4mm to the Inch !!!!! Hope you are all keeping well ! Just to let you all know I am still alive and well, my current modelling projects are still not Railway related but that day will no doubt return... Here is what I have been scratch building. I started with a resin hull bought on ebay and the rest is scratch built from a range of different pictures found on google, resulting in a hybrid freelance charter boat. So if you fancy a diving or fishing trip !!! She is about 45" long built to 1:6 scale To give a better feel for size from the fact that the figures are Action Men. More information about the build and some videos of her out on the water can be found on my blog http://www.rjrmodels.blogspot.com

Thanks Will, I tried that.. It just previews as the text code.

Sorry guys, just realised I made mention of a video within the post but its not there ! Cant fathom how to add a video into a post, either i have forgot more than I thought or something has changed !!!! In the meantime if your interested you can find it

Thanks for the comments and thoughts gents! I haven't been to the shed for months and spending time with my Dad has re-ignited a modelling spark. In the coming weeks I am going to have a rethink of what the shed houses and how best to use the space. Some stock will go and some will stay.... Watch this space !

Its been a while since I did any model making, and even longer since I posted anything on this blog. I have been blogging in other forms. Just not here ! After a long summer and lots of Hospital visiting my mum passed away in October. This has resulted in my Dad and I spending more time together. It seemed a natural thing to find a way to share our mutual interest in model making. To that end I have taken a few tentative steps back into the shed and more tentative steps into the world of R/C model boats. To start I have taken on responsibility for one of the beautiful 1:50 scale boats he has made. in order to add a little personality of my own to it, I have been working on a new payload... A shipment of Railway stock ! I am now a member of the Etherow Model Boat Club and we have spent the last few Saturdays together sailing. The other boat in the video is the one he chose to sail for the day, again built by him

Well the modelling Mojo is at an all time low, so I have decided to tidy the shed and lock the door till it comes back. If I get any minor interest to do anything I will probably just update my modelling blog, rjrmodels as interest in visiting forums is low at the minute too. Enjoy life ! If you want to find me in the meantime I will be at rjrdaydreamer blogging about other things as the fancy takes me I guess this image would be a fitting image to end to the blog for the time being.

You may have noticed by the lack of posts that I haven't been doing much modelling recently ! Real life has kept me pretty busy and I've been spending more time messing with my other, non railway blog RJRdaydreamer. Last night I wandered down to the shed for a bit of modelling, during the course of the week I had picked up a packet of Noch grass clumps Individual tufts of grass. A pair of pliers and some wood glue were all that was needed to stick them down, oh and some patience as there were 70 tufts! The first picture is an overview of where most of them ended up. I found they looked best grouped a little. They are very soft to the touch so are pretty good between rails as they move easily out of the way of couplers or wheel flanges.

last night I went down the shed to do some modelling, but nothing got done ! I ended up just playing trains. The UP short freight arrived and needed switching ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QQk74xzDAM John

Very little modelling done this week, about the most I got time for was mounting the aircon units on rooftops, they will need some ducting and pipework at some point in the future. My non railway blog seems to be taking more of my free time than modelling at the moment, but we will see what the weekend brings ?!

Not much modelling has got done this week, the only thing that I have got done is making a batch of Air conditioning units that will populate the flat roof spaces. They were simple to make, a few thickness's of plasti-card to make up the depth and a picture of an aircon unit printed on sticky labels and stuck on the front. During the course of the week they will be fitted, photos to follow. Part of the reason for reduced modelling is an increased interest in my non modelling blog.. rjrdaydreamer.. but I have plans for the coming week in the shed John

Over the past few days I have been working on a new structure to replace the old brick one that was a recycled model from an earlier layout. It didn't really fit the scene and I don't think it was as good a standard as I would have liked. The new building. John RJR

Part of the enjoyment of Model Railways for me is playing with my camera, taking pictures of what I have made. My Samsung compact camera cost me the whopping sum of £70. I guess if I had enough disposable income i would upgrade to something much better, but in the meantime I enjoy what I have. In most cases the picture comes out to a reasonable standard and I have enjoyed learning new skills, many of which I have picked up from other forum members. For some time I have been intrigued by the skill of stop motion (i.e. the Wallace and Gromit style) and in time I may have a play, While browsing the internet I came across the opposite of stop motion, time lapse which is another fascinating genre. Further browsing brought me to the most amazing time lapse photographer and I just had to blog about it., If you get 10 minutes check it out on my offf forum blog, the videos he creates are outstanding. The post can be found HERE

£2.65 unit and optic laces Ebay item 260732847966 delivered in 2 days.

Unmarked railroad crossings are often protected by the train crew throwing red flares onto the road before crossing, as per this video.. at 1:19 in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td-Zz8UdLTs I have been trying to work out how to do this and came up with these Fibre optic shoelaces about £5 of ebay for a pair (2 light units) hole drilled in the road and the fibre optic rubber "lace" pushed up from underneath, bit of paint and a piece of wire for the flare body.. and here they are in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg3eUTpHOOo&hd=1 John

Today the main work was to transfer the ownership of a former Chessie Loco into the hands of RJR branchlines, this will now be working the estate, which will free up the UP loco's. A glance at the photos will also reveal a couple of fences that have been erected. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-eWaHkHsY&hd=1 Playing with trains, cameras and video editing software ! Perfect Friday night ! The music on the "car radio" is playing in the shed so caught by the camera, the loco noise is added in afterwards on the video software (Ulead) then all output in HD

Tonight's activity involved erecting some fencing. I've mounted it on a piece of plasticard that is scored to look like paving stones, this allows the fencing to be done on the workbench rather than at the back of the baseboards John

Last night didn't yield massive dividends but more painting was done on the root beer end I have also posted a new entry on my other non railway blog.

Thankyou

Thanks for all the comments, Angliacan My 17 year old daughter works for an American product importer so I've got a little addicted to the root beer, you can order it on-line but if you do mention my name, doubt you will get any discount but it might help me to get some Leopard, yes your right, the building all look too clinical, once they are a bit more complete they will need some weathering. Alco could be my Mormon background showing through, Beehive industries may be next Robbostrains The silos are real simple. 5 lengths of 50mm waste water pipe from the plumbers merchant, some strips of tape wrapped round to make the sections and a plasti-card disc glued on top. Finally some pen tops on the top. The plasti-card walkways need some handrails

Thanks to all of you who have taken time to visit my new blog, we are back to the railway business here now Last night I spent some time painting buildings, I found it quite a challenge to paint large structures without making them look to "bland" The tower block colour was inspired by this building See what you think. At the other end, a sign, loading bay numbers and yet more building colour John

Having been a regular blogger here and in my external blogger blog, the bug has caught. Today I have launched a new non railway blog RJRDAYDREAMER which is a collection of thoughts prompted by daily life, your welcome to visit. The railway stuff will continue here and on RJRModels its just another creative outlet

Using some Birthday present "cash" I purchased 8 lengths of peco flexi yesterday and last night laid the outer loop on the top shelf. it didn't take long but would have been a much easier job if it wasn't in the "eaves" of the shed. Once laid and connected it was play time................. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6huw0Wch37E&hd=1 John

On Friday after much asking what I wanted for my birthday, Mrs RJR suggested we visit the local model shop to get me something.. Well it would have been impolite to refuse.... So half an hour later I came out with a very nice Bachmann 166. It will make a nice distraction as it circles the top shelf. I set it going and settled to some modelling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYWwvaX_Yqg The job in hand was a new structure for the main layout. John