Highlandman

Those long shots shots show the station and harbour off really well. I especially like the one with the two Warships ticking over, waiting for departure while the bus heads to the station in the background. Simply wonderful.

Why is it that the like button is sometimes just not good enough.

Thank goodness we have words.

Those last sets of pictures were great, especially the pannier working on the local freight. You can just hear the couplings and buffers clanging away whilst the train is shunted. And the clickety-clack of the wheels as the loco hauls the stock away from Kingsbridge Regis. Or the holiday makers arriving for their onward journey to Salcombe as their loco trundles away for turning on the table. A truelly evocative bit of model making and photography.

Some great pictures Alan. I especially like the Western with the Steps in the background and the Western again at the stop blocks. The sound must have been amazing. A great testament to your modeling skills.

Keep 'em coming please.

The modelling at Kingsbridge Regis is Westcountry atmosphere at its best. I can't wait to see how the small harbour progresses.

Currently on ebay,

One only and eight people watching. I know its not azn 86 but does this help.

Happy birthday Allan. I hope you've had a great time and if I can have as much hair as you have at 80 I'll be a happy man.

In all fairness, I do have some help.

 

I can produce scrap really quickly in here...

 

IMG_8230.jpg

 Where's the jealous button when you want one? With a small workshop like that it's no wonder all youo timber construction looks so professional. I'm looking forward to the rest of the build.

This is a wonderfully evocative piece of modelling. Very reminiscent of Mr Jenkinson and Co. If only I had the skill to build track like yours and then worry how sharp the curves look. That track level pictures look super.

Please please, post more of this wonderful layout.

My humble offering of a nearly finished Harbour Master's office for my Salcombe Harbour layout. Just the guttering and downpipes to paint and stick on and then adorn with sign posts and lifebelts.

Please excuse the rather messy work area.

A husband and wife are getting ready for bed. The husband jumps into bed and starts reading a book while the wife preens herself at the mirror.

"Darling" she said

"Yes" ,said the husband, "what's the matter?"

"I'm fed up" she replied.

"Why's that?"

"Everytime I get undressed and sit here I look at my small boobs, wished I had a bigger pair and wonder what I can do"

"Well you could try rubbing a bit of tissue paper in between them" said the husband.

"Oh!" exclaimed the wife, "do you think that would work?"

"I not sure", said the husband, "but I'd give it a go 'cause it's done wonders for your *rse........."

That's a great way to extand the cottages and very effective. I admire your courage to cut a lovely model in half. How did you accomplish it?

It's nice to have Squires back on line again but I'm a little disappointed that it's not offering an online shop facility rather than the old pdf pages. But something is better than nothing so 4 out of 5 stars from me. Yeah!!!

The weather sure can change quickly down there as can be seen in the video of Sunday's Torbay. Nice in the morning, somewhat different in the early evening. Luckily we were in front of the Voyager which failed, the weather didn't affect the Brit which put in its usual sterling performance.

 

I was on the footplate during the wet and windy bit of the video, fortunately on the landward side stood behind the driver. It was toasty on the footplate....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Z4Eo0ef0Q&feature=youtu.be

 Is that flat cap man at about 23 seconds in stand way up on the wall while every sensible person is on the walkway watch the train.

Hi Nick

Much Murkle is looking really good. The two new movements in your operating sequence add a new flavour to the story.

In the pictures and video I love the lighting as it gives a nice warm glow as of a late autumn afternoon or sunset. It's a lovely bit of modelling and story telling, every bit as good as John Flann's Hintock.

Keep up the great work

All the best, Andy

The first picture looking through the station canopy looks very effective considering you 'plonked' down the Metcalfe buildings. With a road, pavement and bus turning circle, ala Kingswear, part of the layout should look great.

You can see in your pictures that the auto white balance on your camera has problems with rendering an accurate colour balance with some lighting. Some cameras seem to cope with this better than others. But your manual setting seems to have captured a perfect picture. Sometimes it is worth carrying a small piece of white card in your bag that you can place in a composition to set the right colour balance. Nice picture.

Taking pictures of layouts can be very difficult at exhibitions taking in to account the layout lighting and the ambient lighting in the hall. Most modern cameras have some way of adjusting the colour balance to suit different light temperatures and these are usually better than using the auto setting which is usually no more than a best guess solution.

The best way to do it, if you can, is to set the cameras white balance manually using the layout lighting and the background lighting. On your layout I presume the backscene has white in it and you could take the reading off of that and set white balance from that. Once that is done nearly all your photographs should come out as you see the layout by eye. It's amazing what the eye and brain cancels out to show you the colours you see.

In the copy of your picture below I have adjusted the colour balance using the white steps on the wagon as a guide. I hope hope it improves it just a little bit.

I did see this at Scaleforum but unfortunately did not get any pictures. It's a nice small layout.

All the best.

Those last sets of photos are a fanstastic demonstration of architectural model making from a master modeller, and something for us apprentice modellers to aspire to. The speed at which you can turn out these masterpieces still amazes me. Can't wait to see what else we have coming from the 'Mind of Downes' and his nimble fingers. Absolutely stunning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NujDnsDlE8M&app

Hope this helps.

The two layouts are coming along nicely Andy. I'm having the same problem as you at the moment in deciding what sort of panel/lever frame I want. I will need about 23 levers for my points and signals and that number puts some options into the economically unviable bracket. I had look at the DCC Concepts lever frame but the cheapest I have seen those is £165 for a pack of twelve. £320 for lever frames, I don't think so. I also looked at the the Scaleforum leverframe,but by the time you purchased enough frames and then switched to build in that worked out just as expensive. The Sprat & Winkle/MSE lever frame is showing its age now and the tolerences, compared to modern alternatives, leaves a lot to be desired. There is a lot of sloppiness between the levers and frames and is very difficult to sort out unless you can engineer a new top to the frame. A shame as the lever arms have a nice bulky feel to them. It looks like I am going to do the same as you and resort to toggle switches, either on a layout plan or in a bank of levers with corresponding coloured switch covers for points and signals.

I look forward to seeing more work appearing here and I am always stunned at the amount modelling you can put out in such a short time. Where do you get the energy?

Keep up the great work Andy.

Good to meet you at Scaleforum today Steve. Many thanks for taking the time to talk about signal construction and some of the methods you use. It was nice to see some of your work in the flesh, it's wonderfully done.

Some lovely signals Steve. The bracket looks great but in the video it looks as though it loses some of the bounce effect between one end of the torsion bar and the other. Is this a limitation of this type of mechanism or does it just need some tweeking?

I am amazed at the amount of superb models you can turn out Andy. This small "photo plank" is coming along nicely and really looks the part. I like the way you have modelled the puddles in the ballast, some looking quite deep. I just hope a certain Dr. Foster from Gloucester doesn't have to visit the depot for any reason.

That's all looking rather effective Andy. I like the way the trees hide the join on the half relief school building and the stone wall surround really suits it instead of railings on their own. I suppose, rathere later in years, they would have added railing to the top of the wall to make the school more secure. The chapel at the end of the lane sits very nicely and is ideally situated for end of term services for the school. A great bit of modelling.

The viaduct is coming along nicely and the stonework looks absolutely superb.