PaternosterRow

Couldn't agree more with the comments made so far. Absolutely amazing work. Someone employ or financially back this man quickly and get him to produce these in kit form for general release. Brilliant work of a genius!

I know we joke about the IKEA connection from time to time but this model really wouldn't look out of place in one of their display rooms at the store!!

Beautiful workmanship. Great to see those lovely drawings. Move over Paul A Lunn! Most modellers pay no heed to rationalising the design of our layouts - it's just straight from mind to hand - this is why I find your blogs so fascinating. So crisp and neat as per usual - brilliant! Mike

Hi David, further to my last comment - I found the tin!! It is - RUST-OLEUM PAINTER'S TOUCH Craft Enamel - Acrylic C&H Ocean Blue 150ml tin. I bought it in Homebase and it was the nearest match to the colour I was after. Just sprayed the model lightly with it in a gentle sweep at about 15 inches away. Seemed to do the job nicely. Hope that helps. Mike

Hi David, The only reference I had was an article in Rail Express from last year for the anniversary of XP64. It mentioned Turquoise blue. I simply carried the picture with me to the local DIY store and matched up the paint. Sorry I can't be of more help. Incidentally, this colour would be a good representation for sun faded BR blue locos. I don't even have the tin any longer so can't give you the make etc. Thanks for the kind comments by the way. Mike

Hi Mikkel Have to ask what camera you use - the macro shots are absolutely superb - very crisp. Know that you were shopping around for one some time ago - are these shots from a new one? Mike

Couple of more Station pics. A second hand A4 'Seagull' picked up minus a front buffer from Hattons. Now rectified with additional lamps. Class 26. Somewhere in Scotland maybe? The station was made to accommodate my across many era and livery RTR collection so that's why there is no signage to pin it down to anywhere etc. Agree about sleeper spacing in Code 75 - I tried to cut them out once and completely hashed it all up. So I've just put up with it since.

Many thanks Beast.

Cheers for the comment.

Cheers Pete. I was toying with the idea of constructing some sort of station throat beyond the bridge deck. But, like with most of my layouts once complete, I'm a bit bored with it all now and want to move on to the next project. Maybe one day I'll go back to it.

This is definately a hobby that keeps on giving, Mikkel. Architecture of all kinds interests me but not being an engineer I have no idea how a lot of building components work. So it was quite a magical moment to actually understand the function of those locking bars during the build process. It certainly reinforces the old mantra that we learn by doing - always remember my old Headmaster who kept repeating this in morning assembly. He knew what he was talking about even though I used to roll my eyes at the time! The shot of the Collet was only an initial test shot so I regarded as a bit of a throw away but it has grown on me since.

Thanks very much for your comment.

In response to fellow RMweb members who were interested in how I made the overall wire roof the following is an article that was scheduled to appear in a future edition of FRMR. The baseboard for the model had been completed by the end of December and the roof structure by the end of January. It was around this time I emailed some pictures to the late Bob Barlow, who in response asked me to write a short article about its construction. By the time this was sent the poor man was probably starting to become very ill. It would be in bad taste, as much as a lack of respect, to send it on to another magazine but it’d also be a great shame to just bin it. So here it is. I’m sure Bob would have put his experienced editorial eye over it before it made it to print so this is it how it was submitted without any adjustments. An Overall Station Roof from Galvanised Wire By Mike Lynch After the success of my ‘House of Shadows’ layout I decided to push the concept further and use the same internal lighting technique for a small station scene. The general idea was to construct an overall arched roof on a 6 foot long curved layout and enclose it in a custom made lighting box. Most of my previous roofed dioramas have been made from 1mm diameter galvanised wire and I could see no reason why this roof couldn’t be made the same way. Being from the ‘make do and mend’ generation, I’m always looking out for ways to model on the cheap. This can be an expensive hobby and the amount of brass material required would cost way too much for what will only really be a photographic display. Bundles of galvanised wire were found at a tip some years ago so all my roof schemes have only ever cost the price of the solder and flux! Many modellers would recoil at the thought of using material like this because it is not an accurate representation of that used on the prototype. But I’m more of a ‘fine art’ rather than ‘fine scale’ modeller (if there can be any such thing) so it’s only the overall impression I’m interested in. To me, the background is incidental to the stock so as long as it looks fairly realistic that does for me. The first thing to do before undertaking any such scheme was to trawl my collection of prototype books for pictures of Victorian Overall roofs. The thing I noticed most was how the curving steel stanchions seem to disappear into the sides of the support walls instead of sitting squarely on top of their masonry columns. This means that the feet of these half circle stanchions rest much further down toward platform level. In order to create the same effect small curving flutes were made from cardboard, painted and then mounted onto the wall. This arrangement dictated the circumference of the wire arches; they would now need to be about a third of a circle in diameter instead of a half. The photorealistic wall texture, Carlisle Station Wall, is from the Smart Models range and very much lends an authentic look; the three arch bays also neatly predetermined the stanchion spacing. Station roofs, like all roofs, are made from a collection of standardised components that have been pre-made in a factory, delivered to site and erected. The same process needed to be mimicked in model form. Therefore, each of the arches had to be made exactly the same in order to achieve the duplication found in roof structures of this type. The layout needed 13 spans; 11 of these were going to be double sided with two single arch spans at the entrance and at the rear. The entrance span was going to be glass fronted so it required window bars to match the acetate texture that was going to be used. A mirror was going to be employed to double the length of the scene at the rear of the layout so the other span would need to be single in order to create the correct reflection and neatly reinforce the illusion. In total then, I’d need to make 24 single sided arches in some sort of a jig. A side elevation plan of the layout was drawn up for reference beforehand and then transferred to an old off cut of plasterboard which would be used as the master jig. The wires would need to be held in place by small grooves during soldering so these were simply scored out with the tip of a small screwdriver once the paper covering had been cut away to reveal the Gypsum underneath. Plaster board is excellent for this type of work as it’s easy to score out (try scoring curved lines in wood!), it also doesn’t absorb much heat from the soldering iron and subject metal. Once satisfied that all the measurements and lines were correct the wire was prepared. This had to be stretched by use of a vice and pair of pliers in order to straighten it out; the wire is quite soft so this also introduces a little tension and ensures that it doesn’t bend as easily when working with. It was then cleaned with some Emery paper and cut into the predetermined lengths required. During the making up process I found it best to quickly drop a little blob of solder on each of the joints first, let it cool and then go back and work it around properly. I also like to be liberal with the flux; it’s messy but it makes for a solid joint and there’s also nothing quite so satisfying than watching solder flow easily over metal. In the first test arch only the uprights between the outer and inner curving wires were soldered. This was then taken up and offered to the master plan for checking. However, the outer wires started to bend up out of shape after a few minutes and I thought that at this point the scheme would come to nothing. Going back to the prototype pictures I soon began to realise why the engineers had introduced angled locking bars between their uprights. These were introduced into the master jig and another arch was quickly soldered up; it worked and provided a powerful insight into the design of these types of structures. In fact, just to ensure against any further springing a longitudinal locking bar between the arch feet was also incorporated; these can be found in a lot of roof structures and are commonly referred to as Collars. Once these arches were complete 22 were joined together at 10mm apart with temporary wire spacers to make the 11 double arch spans required. These wires would be removed later when the spans were finally linked up with each other. The entrance and mirror arches were modified accordingly. Once washed down the spans were transferred to a master plan that had been carefully drawn out on a separate board. This plan mimicked the curving wall and its column locations exactly. At this stage another template was scored out on the plasterboard in order to make the triangular glazing sections that sit atop the arches. These were relatively quick to run off and were soldered on in situ without too much fuss. Joining all of the spans to form a cohesive whole was very straightforward. Using cardboard spacers as guides, simple lengths of wire were soldered along the outside length of the span run. It was crucial to ensure these joiners were spaced correctly in order to accommodate the acetate glazing panels that were going to be used. Where these joining bars needed to be thicker, individual lengths of wire were soldered together before being fitted. In order to ensure the curve remained true, so that the structure exactly fitted the sweep of the wall, 5mm square metal bars were soldered on the feet bottoms at both sides. These were picked up quite cheaply from a local DIY store and were easily bent to shape. Once the structure was complete it was thoroughly washed down with hot water and detergent. I did this in the bath and won’t be doing anything like that again simply for the sake of domestic harmony! On a final note, this has been a very cheap project to date; even the baseboard came off a disused hoarding found at the road side. The roof took about 30 hours to complete and, as described, was very simply and quickly put together. Researching the prototype was also very enjoyable and gave plenty of insight into the design and assembly of this type of roof construction. Some of these Victorian super structures are now over 150 years old and despite the weather, Hitler’s bombs in some cases and the appalling lack of maintenance during the BR era they remain solid and true. They are testament to the abilities of the original designers, engineers and erectors. This has made me wonder just how long my simple model will last; that’s in scale years of course! The Master Jig - an old off cut of plasterboard. The jig took a bit of a bashing but is still servicable should an extension be made at a later date. Once joined together the arch spans were transferred to an accurate plan of the layout drawn out on a 'making up' board. There was a fair bit of fiddling about during the making up process and the entire structure was regularly test fitted against the layout. Once the structure was complete it was offered up to the mirror. The purpose of the single arch span at the rear of the layout is now obvious. Its reflection reinforces the illusion of an unbroken series of double arch spans. An initial test shot during the covering stage and before the Light Box section was made. A shot of the completed structure under natural lighting conditions.

Couple of more pictures. The Deltic in the far track is from the Great British Locomotives magazine - not bad for a cheap static display model. The Crimson MK 1's behind the Hydraulic are from the Hornby Railroad Range - they're not bad for a budget coach.

Thanks very much Mike. The photograhy is all long exposure under the light box. It's done at night with the room lights off and ciggy smoke is blow in during the exposure - the smoke captures the beams. If you were to just look at the effect with the naked eye then it's pretty crappy. I luckily took the decision to have the light box as a seperate and removable unit so I could also take shots under natural light conditions. It's a very modest digital camera so nothing special and I'm trying to prove a point about not having to use specialist photo manipulation programs or equipment when it comes to taking snaps of your layout. Mike

Cheers Wenlock.

Thanks for the link Mikkel Wow! Beautiful build, but I really like most is the idea of the DIY Copper plating! Brilliant for having a go. As per usual with you, everything done to an extremely high standard.

I have also done them in BW so here they are

Shadow Box Lighting Scheme. 12v Halogen bulbs are used - I wanted to create a Cathedral like atmosphere with beams of sunlighting coming down through broken skylights. The mirror at the rear of the layout doubles the length of the scene. Although designed for freight work, the 9F did pull passenger trains. Unfortunately the driven has forgotten to install the signal lamps!! The rear wall is from the Smart Models Texture range and adds an authentic touch I think.

Thanks for the comment Will and glad you like it.

Cheers Pete, Glad to be back posting too! The trouble with mirrors is in getting them exactly square on to the model and it took a bit of fiddling with shims of card and paper to get the angle just right. Will post a couple of more piccies soon. Mike

Thanks very much Mikkel. The figure 'Fred' was from a Bachmann Station set I bought over 6 years ago. He's been seen at Paternoster Row (my very first model) and also at Cheslyn and I've always found him so realistic. Throwing light to the side of some of these figures really brings out their detail. However, in the shot you like, he appears to float a little over the platform!! (down to a blob of glue under one of his feet). Yes, the ceiling panels are good old Scalescenes and the wall is from the Smart Models Range - really great textures. The acetate panels were downloaded from CG Textures and were simply stitched together in Excel. I had to have these printed off professionally as my printer can't handle acetate - apart from the track and RTR stock it was most expensive part of the model!

Thank you very much for your comment. I have found many other models here on RMweb that definately need a 'Wow' button. Maybe AndyY will eventually give us the extra option!!

Thanks bgman. I'm always trying to aim for atmospheric scenes rather than true finescale ones - simply because I don't have the patience that Finescale modelling needs.

High praise indeed from a master of Finescale modelling.