stevegant

Just read the entire thread - stunning !

Whilst waiting for the glue to set on the signs I have been playing around with some mock-up's to decide on how to lay out the rest of the scene:

Over that last few weeks I have been plyaing around with something new. For about 10 years I have had a small factory building sitting on the layout which had no real purpose. So, work has started on creating 'Brillliant Bubbles' - a Bubble Car restoration centre. Firstly work started on some signs. I wanted to try an make then look a little weathered and having played with them on the PC I then printed them in draft mode on my laser printer that gave them a nice subtle slightly faded effect:

A few more that are currently in progress. I like to let them dry and the come back each night and add/remove a little. These all had a factory weathered finish but it was all one shade of grot so wanted to add some enhancement.

Hi - no I don't have an airbrush. Purely powders and hairspray. No paint used on these. I think the subtle effects come about when a fibreglass brush is used to remove some of the powder and it just leaves some fine traces.

Thank you!. Well it was a bit of trial and error. I basically sprayed some hairspray liberally onto an old metal baking tray. I then dropped on some light and dark rust powders onto the tray and mixed it aroud. Was applied to the models with a mixture of cotton buds a cocktail stick and a fine brush. When dry I put some neat hairspray on a brush and went over the weathering to blend. When fully dry I used a fibre glass pencil to remove some of the powder. I was a bit worried that the powder may not stay put but the extra hold hairspray has done a good job and seems to have fixed the powders well. Hope this help. I'm no expert but this approach seems to have done the trick!

Over the last few evenings, I have started to work on some Bachmann SSA’s that I have had for about 10 years. Having looked at many pictures on-line I decided it was time to make them look somewhat more used and abused. I want to run these as a small empty rake so wanted to create the effect of rust inside as well as to the exterior. Thiis was completed with powders and a touch of hairspray (borrowed from the wife – don’t tell her!)

Work has started on adding a wall to provide a safety net.

For the last 10 years or so the lifting section of my layout looked like this. In the back of my mind, I had always felt that any trains passing over were a little vulnerable.

... and a slightly more distant shot.....

Well, a couple of months down the line and things are progressing well with the scenics on the small extension..........

And how things look at the moment. (The yellow Armco barrier is just a mock-up and will be replaced with something to scale!)

Some work then commenced on the hard standing. This is made from some off-cuts of Karndean flooring turned upside down. The slight texture on the back was partially sanded before building up some layers of paint. This will need final weathering once installed but won’t be fixed down until the ballast is done. (I’ve also just fixed the slightly bent rail joiner that I spotted in this photo!).

Point motor starting to be blended in to the landscape. A small former made and covered with plaster bandage.

Then inside for a test fit of the new board section.

I’m not a carpenter but eventually did a reasonably neat job of cutting a recess out of the board for the surface mount point motor. As the boards are 12mm ply it was just about possible to chisel through about 6mm layers of ply.

Then off outside to build the small section of baseboard.

As I operate live frogs I needed to supplement the surface mount motor with a juicer to control the frog polarity. All wired up and quickly tested.

Having satisfied myself that I was good to go I then removed a section of track ready for the first new point (no going back now!)

After 10 years I decided that it was time for a small extension to Laundry Lane. My plan was for a couple of extra sidings for my Railtrack class 121 and Windhoff. The sidings can also be used for my engineers wagons etc. The extra board would only be 15cm wide as the middle of the room is used for storage when we decorate other bedrooms. At the back of my mind had been the fact that one of the point motors would need to be surface mounted and being at the front of the layout I really did not want this to be too obvious. I decided to do a quick and dirty test of mounting a Gaugemaster surface mount motor upside down and partially embedded. It’s not pretty but it works fine and brings it almost flush with the sleepers.

The engineering team must be at lunch !

A cold misty night. at Laundry Lane........

And finally, nice addition to the wall of the room ......

I have also been busy with some small additions ......

Well, it's been a while but in recent times I have started to get back into the modelling. My office block had always looked empty and I had never added lighting as that would have highlighted the empty shell. So, I managed to produce some strips to represent an office interior in the late 1980's (ish!). This was made from a number of images flipped to create these strips that were assembled into Excel. Yes, in Excel which made it easy to drag the individual images around: Once printed these were attached to some backing card and then placed behind the windows in the building. Some lighting was put together. The pictures aren't the best (quite difficult to photograph this) but gives an idea of the overall impression and it looks better than an empty shell!