KNP

Well it is certainly cheaper and you must also take into account that the 48xx only arrived 2wks ago from Hatton's so the motive power situation was dire!!!

After looking through some of the lovely layouts on this website I noticed that many of you have a vast array of motive power, the following picture portrays my entire operational steam power for Little Muddle. No, No No, you can put your hankies and donations away as, in a way, this sums my approach to model railways and that is they are just an excuse for me building scenery..........plus the grand children like to see trains moving - on odd occasions. Mustn't forget I do have a diesel railcar as well but that is currently sitting on the shelf waiting for some flush windows and weathering to be done.......no rush as the running timetable is very minimal on this railway!!!!!!

Its an ink-jet, full tile HP Photosmart 6520 Print, Scan, Copy, Web. (I'm reading off the label as it's next to me????)

This is a bit of a warning for those of you, like me, that use home printed brick papers. I make no apologies as this has been posted before under another topic heading on this website (so some of you might recall it) but I feel I must point it out again to ensure it doesn't happen to you.....or at least you are aware of a potential problems for the future Quite a while ago I used a compatable continuous ink printing system for my then HP printer for a while, it was about a quarter of the cost of a set of standard HP ink cartidges and was advertised as colour fast - it has now turned out it wasn't but it took about 5 years before I realised I had a problem when last year I was comparing photos of 'as built' and then. The engine shed was one of the first buildings I did with brick paper using this ink and was quite complicated one to model with all the recesses, plinths and BoE details so to find I had an issue was a bit off putting. I had coated the model with a couple of coats of ordinary matt varnish following completion to protect when handling and fading!!!! Once I realised I had a problem I coated the model in four coats of UV matt varnish (see picture) to stabilise and stop any further degradation - only time will tell if this has worked. To bring some colour back to the front walls and chimney (areas most effected where those facing the window where they caught the sun) I used the same UV varnish but added a dash of acrylic brick colour to give a wash which has brought some colour back, the chimney I also picked out some odd bricks in effort save it. I coated the entire building as well as all other buildings built in the same way on the layout even if they hadn't faded just to be on the safe side. At the moment it looks OK and appears not to be degrading anymore. The first picture shows the rear of the building and the colour it should be. The second one is the UV varnish I use as it is designed to protect photos and paintings it was also the one that had the best web reviews. Third picture is the worse area to the chimney and the final one is the front of whole building following the brick wash application Advise - I now always use the manufacturers ink for my printer (HP 6520) as it might be more expensive at the time but the ink appears to be of a much better quality and more importantly colour fast? Hope this is of help and stops someone running into the problems I had. I must admit I didn't get much help from the two railway workers sitting on the seat as they just sat there and watched - must have been their tea break!

Many thanks for your comments and if memory serves you where one of the first to tell me to do something.........!!!!

To me it's these little things that add the realism and I keep adding them as I think of them. This was an after thought following seeing some old pictures of a harbour wall. The steam drifter, to me, is actually quite a way from be finished. I have parked it for while as my new Hatton's 48xx arrived and this along with finishing the autocoach became the priority. The last thing I did to Misty was make my own transfers and I discovered that most printers, including my own, don't print white so I had to paint the hull section white and then apply the transfer with a see through section for the number making sure it all lined up.

The viaduct was a couple of Hornby ones I found second hand on e-bay, they have been repainted and tweaked to look like what they look like now!! Posted a picture for a closer view. There is one funny incident that happened, the backscene is glued with wallpaper paste to a 2mm MDF boarding fixed to the wall. When going over with a wall paper brush my thumb caught the sheet and ripped it.......a few choice words where said like - Oh bother!!!. You can just make it out to the right of the large single tree behind the viaduct, I managed to conceal it quite effectively as it was a very large hole? I had no intention of trying to remove the section so I went out and bought a very large tree and planted it in front of it.......I suspect even this tree will be felled as I will probably replace it with a new prime tree. This part of the layout was the first bit built as a 3 foot x 18 inch module and then added to the framework when that got built.

Many thanks for that comparison but I just model what I see and can visualise (most of the time) what it will look like in my minds eye before I start.

Thank you. The roof sheeting was added to the former by working out the circumference length, making it out three pieces to form the central lap. This was then glued at just the ridge line and when set each side was bent over the former gluing with super glue and an accelerator as I went along until the section was fixed. Then just making another and gluing and lining up and so and so till the roof was cover. It was then carefully trimmed. With regard to the netting it came from a model boat website - Modelling Timbers, where most of the items for Misty came from but I have just looked and they seem to stock it at the moment. A search on the web will find another stockist no doubt.

It's got a nice sweeping flow about it now. Look forward seeing regular updates with that new camera of yours.

Same here I was brought up with dingy sailing (Heron) down on the Thames at Cookham from the tender age of 5 and then onto a yacht based in Chicester basin for more years then I can remember. Haven't for a number of years now but the memories are still fresh so mooring a boat will be second nature involving fore and aft lines, I might even treat the harbour as tidal and through in some springs as well....... Thanks

Thanks, the drifter isn't finished yet so I need to be able to remove her to the work bench but once that final stage is reached she will be moored correctly complete with boarding ladder. I have the running rigging to do, deck clutter to add and some navigation lights to finish. As the picture shows the mooring ropes are ready!!!!!!!!!

Since posting that earlier picture where I used the sunlight to cast a shadow over part of the layout I have been messing about trying to copy it with my lighting rig. Basically the room and pelmet lights where switched off and I had one 125w daylight continuous light on a tripod with the diffusing umbrella removed shining to one side at the height of a setting sun. I think I can do better so I will carry on tweaking once I have got the camera tripod out of the loft so I can use different slower camera settings etc. The camera was handheld and on the standard program setting for this. The effect is quite different and it wasn't until I posted that old picture that it made think of this again. Here is what I think is the currently the best one and will be trying to bring more shadows into my pictures from here on in, after all every time the sun is out we have shadows around so why not on a model...... One thing it made me notice is that the slates on the store roof have lost there relief in places as I got the roof to deflect by gluing the card slate strips onto a card sub base which turn was then glued the model and pushed down to get the deflection until set.

Thanks for the comments and hopefully inspires you to crack on with your layout. With regard to what to put on your baseboard how about a model railway!!!

To be honest no I haven't as I feel I'd need to work on them as a production line. I tend to work on one thing say the steam drifter, get fed up, move onto to something else and then come back to whatever I put down a week or two later. My worry would be I'd let people down plus the cost of getting the armatures from the states has gone up and up. I luckily had a good friend going to Florida about 15mths ago so she able to pick up some for me and bring them back in her luggage which made them cost effective. This the site I got mine from is http://modeltreestore.com/ and as you can see even a 5" to 7" medium version is currently $15 for 5 plus postage, I picked mine up for around 20 for $10 so quite a difference in that relatively short space of time.

Well, I was being conservative with the numbers so it would take a while...ha.ha. So I will continue to check but here is an older one taken unbelievably 6 years ago with my Nikon D5100 when it was newish using the afternoon sun streaming in through the window to form real deep shadows. Much work has been done on the Harbour Masters house since then......

It's based on an actual one I saw in an old B&W photo, can't recall where I saw now as I built it a couple of years ago.

It does seem to be the trees that are getting the most comments. I have spent years trying to achieve something that I was happy with, the tree in question was pre-prime trees (sagebrush armature versions which I got into last year) and was made by combining three good Seamoss trunks together to form one. I found you would buy a 'forest in a box' and out of that get an average 3 or 4 good trees therefore wasting a lot and it wasn't until I started cutting them into smaller sprigs for fixing to the prime trees did they become useful : advise - never through anything away as one day you'll find a use for it. I then clumped the foliage for this tree by dunking the tree into a tray of blended flock rather than sprinkle it on. Have a go and you will see you can different distinct types As a comparison here is one of the prime trees with a light thrown onto it to make it stand out. What I like about the sagebrush is that it looks like a tree trunk straight from the bag and also when finished you can see right through it. Fiddly yes, time to build this tree around 2hrs with the larger 40 footer (scale of course!!!!) about 4hrs and to think I have now made 30+ of them..........with more planned

Few more pictures today as I go trolling through the 1200 or so I've taken to date to see what is suitable or not. Enjoy

Many thanks, as I have said to an earlier member I did actually, no word of a lie, design the scenery first with the woods, rolling hills, valley and stream all planned out and then said, right then now put a railway line through it. I must confess it has worked rather well and by some of the lovely comments I'm getting implies I hit the nail (or spike!!!) on the head so to speak. Regarding the plans still no luck in finding them, so it looks I'll have to get my level and staff out and carry out an 'as built' survey......

Its a main line to nowhere, just for decorative purposes only and to give the branch line from Little Muddle somewhere to terminate. The overall plan is to leave the RH side finishing at the backscene (unless I want to knock through the cavity wall and build over the shed of course!!! the management might have something to say on that one though) but to the LH side (Encombe Station) a 3 or 4 line traverser is envisaged - when I've no idea......one day? Thanks for the comments

Your comments are appreciated and what you have been doing all this time is building your excellent layout Hintock.

Thank you and I'll will give it a whirl. I've written 10 'how to' articles for Justin on Railway Modellers to date with another one in preparation so I'll see what I can dig out.

Thanks, I sometimes feel that the model railway is just an excuse for me to build scenery and buildings, I can go weeks without running a train and when I do it's to check it still works!!!!!

Hope you don't mind me commenting but following on from what I've been saying, think of what the scenery would be like before the railway came along. I would suggest the road to the left is omitted and if the houses remain then turned around so you can model the back gardens which has the effect of pushing the level crossing even further from the point and off board so can be implied. The nearest house I would make the largest as it would act as excellent view blocker.