Tony Simms

Thanks guys! Much more happy with this than the plastic version which has now been binned! The remainder of the station buildings will be done in this style. Update soon!!

Nice! Possibilities for horse and rope shunting in 2mm?

I know that one of my big failings is that I often rush into things and end up having to redo them or extricate myself from the resulting mess. This applies to life generally as well as modelling specifically! However, that initial bodge-up often helps me understand how I might do things better and therefore as long as I learn from my mistakes, I'm quite happy to make them. Of course, sometimes it all works out fine the first time. Sometimes... The station building is one where I've struggled and struggled. The current attempt is probably Mk 10. I've tried various permutations of plasticard, card, embossed plasticard, brickpapers etc. with little or no success in most cases!! The version now in progress now does however show some promise. Hallelujah! Follow the last post, windows and doors were fitted to each panel: The panels were then assembled around a "first floor" of mounting card and a similar ground floor with a large aperture cut in it (to allow access to the lower windows for subsequent glazing). Inner walls were also fabricated to block views through the building and to add a bit more stability. Spurred on by my previous success in printing sills etc. I drew and printed some cornerstones on the CAD program which were then cut out and pritted to each corner: A light coat of matt varnish was applied and will hopefully seal the lot. Next onto glazing and curtains and detail the chimney before weathering commences. Then the rest of the buildings!

Don The trowel is just for dumping blocks of plaster. Yes plasticard does have a use; pushing plaster around! I find that thumbnails are as good as anything once the plaster has partly set. Cheers

Steve I used to have problems with Epson inks; photographs were particularly susceptible to fading. Having said that, some of the brickpaper on Masham was home printed and survived quite well. I've been running a Canon printer for the last 18 months and those photos, some of which get a fairly strong blast of light daily, are as good as unchanged. Hope the brickpapers are similarly stable! Cheers

Steady progress on Brafferton continues. Mike Taylor did kindly invite the layout to Expo, but we agreed in the end to give it a break from Association events for a little while. The station area continues to receive attention and the cattle dock base and platform (brick bit) are in. I've been playing about plastering these into the contours of the land and laying the station approach road from the main road and overbridge on the right hand end of the scenic area: As a result of this, my dissatisfaction with the station building (main bit) has reached critical mass. Rather stupidly, I omitted the detail on the rear wall, thinking it would not be apparent to general viewers of the layout. Wrong; it is! Secondly, I was not overly happy with the accuracy of the reliefs around the windows and the building seemed to lack the impression of solidity that such a edifice should have. Finally, the walls have warped like a Starship Enterprise and the building looks like it has been on short rations for a month or two; damn plasticard! Back to the drawing board! The roof has not warped (no lamination of plasticard) and seems to be usable. Additionally the Noch tiles do make it rather attractive; I have therefore commenced new walls around the original roof. Reverting to my favourite media of card and paper, I have attempted to represent the distinctive reliefs around the windows and doors. This blow up shows the result: After some tomfoolery, I decided that two layers of paper to provide the relief was about right. The big problem I've always had was lining the window apertures accurately with the relief overlay; the relief apertures are only 1/2 mm wider than the main window and door apertures. After several unsuccessful attempts at measuring and marking, I draw the profiles up on CAD, overlaying each section to assess accuracy. The relief layer is therefore a sheet of Scalescenes Aged Red Brick pritted to the CAD outline. The outline for the inner wall is pritted to card. The various apertures are cut in each of these and then checked for alignment. Once happy, I pritted a further layer of brickpaper on the inner wall and cut and folded it back through the apertures. Finally the relief layer is pritted to the inner wall and any excess trimmed from the outsides. You will see that the end wall (shorter) has the relief layer untrimmed. Once the shell is assembled, these will cover the edges of the front and back walls. I must say I'm a much happier bunny, having reverted to card and away from plastic. Plastic does have it's uses, but not for brick buildings in my experience! More soon!

Very nice! Good to see you making progress.

Looking good! Even by the light of the silvery moon!!

I've not been asked...

Thanks for the feedback folks; always most welcome. I'm really pleased with the way this has panned out and I'm looking forward to painting and weathering the surface. That will need to wait until the cattle dock and main platform is in place though. To the right of the photos is currently a bit of a war-zone with much to be done (and undone in places!) Missy; the photos probably "benefit" from a certain "je ne sais quoi" having been taken on a ultra high speed, in a dark garage, with no tripod. I think it's called "fuzzy"!

As promised, I am posting several pictures of the yard crossing following clearance of the flangeways. Once the filler had set, I initially used a Stanley knife to score close up to the inner of each rail, down as far as the tops of the chairs. This was cleared out using a 1/2" paintbrush. The knife was reversed and the score widened using the flat back of the blade, and brushed clear again. Finally a hacksaw blade was used to give a little extra width to the flangeway; I merely used the rounded end where the hole is, so no teeth came into contact with rail or filler. After all that, the flangeway was brushed clear. Again! Last but not least, the filler was burnished with the back of my thumbnail to ensure that the rails were proud of the outer filler and that there were no crumbly bits. Tomorrow, I'll test with a loco, but the Standard vans roll through without problems:

What, off the beer? Seriously, give the filler a try. I'd expect it should be fairly easy to get hold of even in such far flung places as Spain. I'll try and carve the flangeways today and post back on the same. Cheers!

Yeah! Thankfully, I'm not ripping up track like Pete and Missy.

I think (and hope) that the worst of the winter weather is behind us. The garage having recently been relieved of workshop duties, following a batch of home improvements, the layout is once again reassembled therein. I'd been following Pete Matcham's progress on Moorswater with interest, especially his recent travails with inlaid trackwork; Brafferton requires a small amount of trackwork to be sunk into hardcore/yard muck. Having successfully used lightweight patching filler elsewhere, I have used this to subsume the track. This product was mentioned in another member's comment on Pete's post and I have to say it is extremely easy to work with and versatile. The yard to the outside of the rails has already been laid, hardened, and some experimentation on colouring has been undertaked. Now I have filled between the rails. The outer is just below rail height, the inner flush with rails. Once hardened, the inner will be persuaded to give runnable tracks: Colouring experimentation has also been happening in the coal drop yard: Meanwhile... The station area continues to receive (much needed) attention. Once over the yard crossing, the track proceeds to a small unloading platform. Initial plastering in this area was with Polyfilla; very heavy and useless for working with. I'd also rather botched various heights for the landscape; full removal was the only option. A base was inserted for the platform: The platform is a very simple card box with brickpaper sides and plasticard surface: Once glued in, the profile could be reapplied. Correctly this time: A small length of track is required to finish the siding before ballasting and further scenic work takes place: Just to the right of this is the main platform and cattle dock which will require similar treatment...

Very nice!! Did you drill the coupling rods at the same time or are there etches?

David I have several Scalescenes downloads, but find that brickwork never comes out sufficiently defined. Their roadway and concrete are quite nice. It's really just a case of careful handling until the white edges can be coloured and then sprayed with a matt varnish. Don The Pritt needs to be fairly hard; try popping it in the fridge before use especially if you've had it a while. It's big advantage is that it doesn't "wet" the paper.

Really! I'd established a method for construction of the station buildings. You think I'd stick to that? Not a bit of it! The remainder of the station (seen furthest away in the preceding entry) seems to be of a later and simpler construction than the main block. It was before I'd released it, that I was picking out various pieces of card stock (not plastic card) and commencing on construction of the extension. I do love modelling with card; so much more satisfying than plastic and usually easier too. The profiles were cut from dividing cards and adorned with brick paper. This time the adhesive is Pritt Stick: Window openings (and doors) were treated by folding back the paper to create returns. Now I only need colour the top and bottom as part of the lintel/sill: Structural integrity is gained using mounting card as inner floors and walls. It is a little too thick for external walls. With this method, plain walls may be added and trimmed post construction. A strip of brick paper will be added where the first floor wall rises above the inner yard and the lean-to that will be in that yard. Similarly brick paper for the inner walls for the yard will be inserted fairly soon: If I have one criticism of the Howard Scenics paper, then it is the quality of the paper itself. The printing and colouring is lovely, but the paper isn't quite up to the standard of Builder Plus. The extension will butt against the main block. Despite their differing construction methods, I think they will sit okay together:

Nice! I honestly think you might have to let that 78mm out a bit though...

Bryn About 5" deep by 12" wide; should cover most jobs in 2mm! I reckon I should only need one sheet for all of my station buildings which spreads the cost to a reasonable level.

Looks very nice! The trains should run a treat on that.

Andy, the pantiles are beautifully done, moreso than the slates. I'm sure you saw the brick and stone versions too; these seemed quite poorly executed to me. The rubber medium makes them very easy to work and being self-adhesive is also nice; I hope that the glue is fairly permanent! Thanks for the kind comment Julia. It does feel like I'm starting to get somewhere. PS If you want to come round and finish my ballasting off, please feel free!

There really is only so much ballasting one can take! It's still not finished, but I persevere. Meantime, I thought I'd take a break and make a start on the station buildings. These have been started several times before, always with unsatisfactory results which end up being scrapped. The main problem is that the window surrounds are recessed slightly and there are stone corners to contend with too: I'd tried plasticard with varying backing pieces and inlaid stonework. This was way too clunky. I reverted to brick papers, initially on a card carcass, first with Builder Plus paper and then with FMA paper. Whilst the paper was okay, the card was losing structural stability in the very thin areas. Having welded brick paper to plasticard for the coal drops, I thought something similar might work for the building; two layers of plasticard, each with paper welded onto them. At first I cut the paper intending to let plain paper in to represent the stonework; again too clunky. I also made the mistake of folding the paper back round the window apertures; whilst colouring the edge, it was much too rounded in appearance. Now that the various theories were ironed out (I hoped!), I made a start on the final attempt. Outer layer is 10 thou plasticard with the paper welded on using Liquid Poly. When dry, the window openings were cut into the paper using the plastic as a guide: The inner layer is 30 thou treated in the same way. The two layers are then joined and hopefully all the various apertures line up: The walls were all made in a similar way and then joined to each other. The outer layer was slightly larger than the inner such that there was a overlap on each joint. The paper was left oversize and trimmed once the join had set: The final two walls were inserted at the BRM show at Doncaster last Sunday, whilst manning the Association stand. At the show Edward Sissling pointed out some Noch textured tilework. Initially sceptically, especially at over £11 per sheet (!) close examination showed it to be a self adhesive sheet, cast in a grey rubber, such that any cuts in it revealed no other colour. I decided to chance it: Back home, I applied the tiles to the roof carcass and they are very convincing; to scratchbuild this quality is probably 5 or more hours just on tiling! The window apertures were coloured with a thinned enamel and stonework on the corners was represented in a similar way; built up with several very thin coats: So far, so good. There is still much to do; ridge tiles, finish the chimney, windows and doors, curtains, weathering. But I'm happy with progress to date. Then I can commence on the rest of the range and start to bring the platform area together.

Done? Well done, very well done, I'd say!

Simon You are right. Unfortunately, I only realised after the paint had been applied. The smokebox door is glued on. Do I try and remove it and risk the paintwork, or do I leave it in the knowledge that it will only be spotted in photos and then only by eagle eyed buffs?

Steve Yes. There are quite a few "bits" still in a tiny needle case awaiting final addition. The balance weights and the tender/loco fall plate are among them.