Sasquatch

That's wonderful Chris. Unable to find any images online of what I have in mind I'll try to describe it in some detail. The road will climb up from the mill town's industrial canal zone past more recent factories and railway infrastructure before arriving at a sort of suburb or smaller community that has become absorbed into the metropolis. "Victoria Square", has a small gardens with low walling topped with railings and a grand statue of Queen Victoria herself. Elms are maturing giving shade and adding a bit of greenery to the grim gloom of the rest of the surroundings. At one end there is a tram shelter with all amenities. At t'other is a public convenience. The road is one-way around the small park flanked by shops, pub, schoolhouse and Saint Teresa's church. Side streets all rise away steeply with typical West Riding Victorian housing. The view into the scene was once blocked by housing and shops but was demolished to make way for the expansion of the railway. I might even throw in a police telephone box. Get the picture? Regards Shaun.

Maximus Pesiorix. Obviously!

It seems rather fashionable on RMweb to post a yearly update of such, so here goes with another ambitious plan. Nothing new is planned, just to press on ahead with the Mill Town section. Seeing as we have decided not to build any more kitchen cabinets and put up glass shelves instead, I have gained some serious modeling time. I'm working on a complete layout tour video. Something I don't think I'm very good at. I'll shoot the same bit of video 6 times because something seems to go tits-up every time and then the battery goes flat. So, a work in progress. The last video (of the black 08) was quite well received on YouTube. This has encouraged me to do a layout build video of the mill town. edit: Just worked out that I can plug the charger in while taking the footage🤔 One section of the town that's got the mojo flowing is the idea of making a sort of square, with a small park area surrounded by shops and amenities that incorporates a tram terminus. Almost everything needed to build the 23'x12' section has been acquired, anything I'm short of seems to be out of stock. It's all very well reintroducing a dead and defunct scale Peco, but you mustn't forget to look after your bread-&-butter customers. I'm never going to even consider going TT along with most other modelers, but we still need OO turnouts, buffer stops, rail joiners, fencing etc!!! Winge over. When the weather gets too cold there will be structure modeling by the wood burner. More shops, a church, large factory, station, signal box, hotel, L&Y offices several bridges, more houses, two pubs, derelict mill and maybe a carriage shed. We brought ourselves an espresso machine for Christmas. It's surprising just how much gets done after coffee! Squatch.

Hi Jeff. You're not alone! Mrs. Sasquatch insists that it's natural to wind down and be lazy during the height of winter. The same is going on over here, an inadequate heater in the warehouse means that nothing gets done in there November through March. Seriously, all I've done over the winter is 1.5 videos and three small buildings that I did sat next to the wood burner. There's a wood burner in my barn too and I did manage to build a 9-drawer kitchen cabinet and a small nest of tables during the end of November and the first half of December. Am looking forward to the return of the mojos. Hope that you're well. Regards Shaun.

The fish-n-chips in Bridlington and North Shields wasn't bad but not as good as that in Ijmuiden, Vlissingen and s'Gravenhage which is quite different! Over here in the Pacific Northwest we're spoilt. Why have cod when you can have Dungeness crab. Brother-in-law gave us a crab for Christmas, so we had crab cakes on Christmas Eve with homemade Tartar sauce. Christmas morning, I wanted to make Crab Cakes Benedict, but the girls protested about too much rich food! Regards Shaun. (Mouth watering yet?)

We recently learnt that being members of the nightshade family, potatoes can aggravate inflammatory issues. After a long day back in October we had fish and chips. The following morning my hands and feet felt like someone had set about me with a hammer! Shame because I like potatoes just as much as the next person. Yukon gold spuds make the best mash and fries. Regards Shaun.

Sorry to say that I don't miss British food. We're having a Mexican food bonanza having discovered two Mexican supermarkets. Tonight, I made chicken tacos. The meat was slow cooked in the crockpot with the seasoning. The tortillas brushed with oil and warmed in a pan then the tacos were assembled with pico de gallo, cojita cheese, sliced green bell pepper and red cabbage, avocado, sour cream, fresh coriander and lime juice. Next time we go back I'm getting ox tongue for the tacos! The only good fish and chips I can remember having in England was in Tonbridge on the way to Margate one year. The shop was run by Spaniards which might explain why it was so good. It's been months since I ate a potato... Squatch.

The Grin-Up-North electricity company has installed power to the chippy & number 10. To celebrate Robinsons have invested in new state of the art catering equipment.

Baking soda or powdered graphite will set it off instantly! When my cheapo $1 +2 glasses broke I fixed them with superglue and a sprinkling of sanded pencil lead. Kadee powdered graphite also works but I've not tried it yet. (It's a long way to the dollar store!!!). I have switched to Gorilla super glue gel because not only is it cheaper but it lasts longer than the Zap-A-Gap. I seemed to be buying it and only using it a couple of times only to find the bottle hard. Frustrating to say the least.

Should I be pre-ordering the Beatles train pack I wonder🤭 as well as that B17/5?😉 Thanks for getting up so early Andy. It was worth waiting up for but I should really be getting my head down now. Regards Shaun.

Before I can get on with layout building I'm going to be needing some sustenance, so I thought I'd pop down the chippy. Oh yeah, we don't have a chippy, so I'll have to build one... Having saved a photo of a nice old shop in Leeds on my old laptop of Robinsons Famous Fisheries to one day use as the basis for a model, this would make a nice starting point. These shop front moldings from DPM modulars seemed suitable for hacking up. Three were used, one each for the main windows and one craftily cut into four for the sides of the bays. With plastic card and strip added I mounted them on a card roof section. Hashed up a door with hopper style window above. This assembly slots in between the two bay window sections. The original building was a red/brown colour scheme, so I went with that... The upper storey is pure foam...😉 sorry upper story is pure foam board... ...clad in HO scale concrete block, painted in a dirty millstone grit finish of course. Next, I knocked up a removeable roof section of foamboard formers. Card roof. The clever bit is that after measuring all the roof sections and cutting them out I found that if the hips were aligned and taped together on the inside and the gully on the outside all the sections just folded into the correct shape. (Although I think this only works for a roof with a 45 degree pitch!) I stuck that to the former while still surprised that it all went so smoothly before it all went tits up. Rooves aren't the easiest things to model! After gluing all that together, I took a piccy of all the sections apart. Last night I tiled it in the time-honored fashion. Now for the tricky part. The windows need leaded light with green panes and white writing. The main panes were carefully scribed with the leading and black/gun metal mix painted on and rubbed off when dry. Translucent green paint was applied on the back where wanted. I used "Woodland Scenics" dry rub roman lettering for the writing. It's not brilliant but no one's going to be looking at it through a microscope. The side door that accesses the flat above the shop was scratch built and I'm quite proud of it especially the fielded panel. Again, more glazing detail and a number 10. Steps, curtains, glazing and lots of paint complete the detailing to date. Thanks for checking in. Squatch.

You can keep super glue in the fridge which should help with the shelf life. Sometimes I put my acrylic pallet in there too. Masking tape is employed to cover the required well. If higher authorities don't like the idea, suggest a small tupperware with lid to keep all your precious items in. Happy new year and keep the inspirational modeling coming. Regards Shaun.

To illuminate Herbology, two LEDs have been employed and a circuit hashed together. The sink at the back can just be made out, tap and all. I do hope Fiorella sells some flowers, she's going to need a fist full of shillings to feed that electric meter! Hope you enjoyed that build because I might just get into baseboard building next. Squatch.

If I had to make a number of taps, I'd get some soft brass wire such as picture hanging wire (28 gauge/0.35mm) then drill holes in a strip of square plastic strip (0.75mm) the same size as the wire, one all the way through and holes at 90 degrees in line with the through hole. Feed the brass wire through and bend it to the required tap shape then use carriage door handles (Roxey/MJT etc.) dipped in super glue for the fossettes. Then cut them from the plastic strip! 😉 Hope that helps. Regards Shaun.

After the young lady had been painted and placed on the front step to pose for the camera, I uploaded the image onto the laptop and found that she looked like she was from Mars. Now that a more Mediterranean skin tone has been applied, she's changed her shoes and done her hair, Fiorella is open for business. (See what I did there).🤭

The Ratio fence fret has a standpipe! I just cut the tap off and painted it brass. One thing you won't need for your period is hot & cold. So not so many taps to install but then again, you'll be needing big kettles for the range tops! I use gold paint for brass because even my gran polished her brass weekly right up until about 1976!!! I was not a stranger to Duraglit wadding as a kid. The girl I have in mind for the rather fancy florist would be the woman from "Chocolate". A vibrant immigrant dark haired foxy type. I like to create the sort of interesting characters that have something to bring to the scene other than just a boring nondescript, hum drum dowdy Dapol shopper or passenger. They're ten-a-penny. (well at least they were when Airfix introduced them). I'll go with the woman sitting on the step and will add pics in due course. The iPhone is tied up with Radio Garden, we have a Mexican station on after making chicken Tacos for lunch. Our mouths are on fire. Regina, our Christmas guest made them the night before she went back to Portland and I'm hooked but alas mine were nowhere near as good. Regards Shaun.

Firstly, I made a floor from thin card and built up a back room from foamboard. A sort of conduit was added in the back room above the rear hole in the structure floor, to help guide the lighting wires. Ages was spent making up a basic florist. Plenty of room for buckets of flowers, another stand, simple counter and a butler sink, which utilized the laser sheet from the kit. For an added bit of entertainment, I also put my cabinet making skills to the test in 4mm to make a bookcase, also from the kit sheet along with the two detail sections that were removed from the shop front. The tap on the sink is from the Ratio cattle dock fencing kit. The most fun is to be had inventing ways to make a wide selection of blooms, houseplants and pots. These are snippets cut off of the tapered end of a used plastic micro brush. The righthand shop window display consists of house plants and an expensive bouquet of the week. close up of the pavement display. The upper story is simply foam board cut to fit and once painted will be fixed to the back room of the lower section and the lighting added. About an hours work left, the only thing I don't seem to be able to source is a suitable proprietor. It'll definitely be a female but the only ones I have are all Airfix and seem to be dressed for winter and carrying bags of various types. I might just have one figure who is seated that can be placed on the doorstep, so to create the scene I'll need to have the shop door open! More later... Squatch.

Believe it or not I used all that up!

Haha. Well done, Chris! Any excuse to make up some interesting detailing, I'm surprised no one guessed it. Even after all the subtle hints. Yesterday evening I made various bunches of flowers buy filling the end of some plastic tubing with glue and inserting blooms from either Noch, Busch or my own "coloured scatter on green sponge" type. There is so far a double teer pavement display bench and two window displays, the right of which has some exotic house plants on display. The name came to me in a flash. It's a bit modern but was on the front of Mrs. Squatch's new top! The top is Harry Potter themed but of course that wasn't around in the 1940/50s. The lettering came from a DJH nickel silver etch and was stuck onto a strip of black paper that fits within the shop façade. More on this later when I get some more modeling time. It's way too much fun! Happy New Year and Regards Shaun.

Seriously folks...😁

Josie's kind of cute! Does the colonel have any involvement in the running of things or is he just a frequent traveler on the line? Happy New Year my friend. Regards Shaun.

Hi Vecchio. Glad you enjoyed the video. It's very encouraging to receive some feedback, thanks! We have been watching some videos ourselves, about how to make and edit using iPhones. Eventually I'd like a wagon-cam so that we can film the trains arriving, a footplate ride and watch the train leave from our destination. Happy New Year! Regards Shaun.

Happy New Year Julian and indeed to everyone else who visits the thread. 🥳 🥳

Opticians... how on earth would I make all those pairs of specs to display in the windows! In O maybe Felix!! Not a chemist I'm afraid either or a model shop. Another bunch of wrong guesses. This leaves us with but a few more choices surely. Happy New Year Bud. Regards Shaun.

Oh, so glad that I'm not the only one who has a quirk for the perfect brew. I have different cups for various brews. Two nice big mugs for the PG, smaller porcelain for the Yorkshire, deep ones for the holiday chai (with Christmas themes). Also, various cups for the rare occasions we have different kinds of coffee . Espresso, mocha, drip, Iced Mexican Mocha etc. Got to maintain a touch of class in life! Happy New Year to you Simon. Keep tuned in, my aim is to pick up the modeling pace a bit. (Perhaps I need to get the espresso machine out a bit more often). Regards Shaun.