Jason T

Here’s one I made earlier…

Great to see you posting Jeff and I totally get you losing interest through burnout as I go through it too; so much to do and a lot of it is so repetitive that it becomes a chore. I have been working on a model of Sandside station for eight months now and as there’s no proprietary stone anything like that used for the building (and me wanting to ensure that all quoins, lintels, sills, etc. line up), I have been hand scribing Plastikard; it’s also an incredibly complex building. I deviated into rolling stock (far more 5 plank wagons than I will ever need, and a rake of departmental wagons for instance) but then mountain biking takes over again and nothing gets done. Also, the cat has taken to sitting exactly where I want to work…. I started on one of the chimney stacks today, then the cat decided to sleep on my chair when I got up for five minutes. Just can’t win!

Probably a bit off topic for RMWeb but I'm going to chat about mountain biking as it's my other real passion. There's actually some ok trails in the woods around the quarry but they're not easy to spot. Have you found the cheeky stuff on Arnside Knott yet? Doesn't really give it away per se but if you know your way around the Knott, you might be able to find it from this (yep, I'm an idiot MTB YouTuber...) Disclaimer: It's a bit sweary 😀

It's been a while since I last posted but I haven't been quiet with regard to modelling, it's just that I have been plodding away with tasks that take a lot of time and updates would be a bit dull and repetitive. I finally bit the bullet and started on the station building, the structure that is by far the most complex I have ever attempted. As with all other buildings for Sandside, there's no suitable embossed stone available so again, I have had little choice but to scribe the stone into Plastikard (yes, I guess I could have compromised and used an unsuitable embossed sheet, which hardly anyone would ever have noticed as being incorrect, but I would know...). As posted above somewhere, the station building was designed by Paley & Austin of Lancaster and was nothing like any other station building on the Furness Railway. The real station There's a long way to go and I think I will need to invest in or borrow a 3d printer for certain components. What you see below is 4 months worth (on and off) of measuring and scribing; at a guess it will take at least another 6 months before it is anything like finished. The model so far Now as I am sure you can imagine, all that scribing becomes somewhat tedious so from time to time I have deviated, converting locos and stock to EM Gauge and of course, building wagons from kits. Quite a few wagons. I am trying to keep the rolling stock in line with that which would have been used on the branch (there was no through freight other than the coke trains from County Durham) but you have to include something that's a bit different, right? Well, for me, that's an engineering train which will consist of some ballast spoil wagons and a Loriot W. I bought the Loriot W kit some time ago; it's a Cambrian kit and when I opened it and looked at the instructions, I kind of put it to one side. Cambrian kits build up into lovely wagons but you do need to take a bit of care building/fettling them in my experience. Anyway, with the Loriot, it went together really well. It's currently very shiny black in preparation for the decals going on, before being weathered. Loriot Also in progress is this Cambrian Starfish, which will make a change from the Grampus wagons that make up most of the rest of the consist (all Parkside) Starfish Whilst building the Loriot, I pondered what to put on it as a load; it'd be pointless modelling it without one as why would it be there? I didn't want to go for the usual JCB So, off to Google I went and found a number of images of them with front loader crawlers on them; another search and I found the Langley Models Drott crawler. Again, a work in progress and quite possibly one of the most fiddly kits I have ever constructed, but it's getting there and will hopefully look the part when finished and be a bit different to the usual JCB. Drott I do have a JCB too of course, one of the Dapol models. I started this over a year ago and it then sat in a box until the weekend, when I moved forward with it to this point, wearing primer. The cab is still removeable at this point to allow me to paint it and then fit the glazing, which I luckily measured and cut out all that time ago. There's also a Langley cement mixer, which has been sat in a box since Bacup times, unfinished. It looks a bit battered but doesn't show up in real life as the real thing is WAY smaller than the photo. JCB and friend

Hi Shaun, I did indeed use SE Finecast 7mm brick on a couple of the buildings on Bacup, also did so with the loading shed on The Mill. For my new project, I've had to hand scribe plastikard as the stonework is rather distinctive and there were no products available that were anything like it. It's taking months.... Loading Shed Buildings for Sandside

Blimey mate, you don’t hang around do you? At EXPO EM, the photos you showed us was of a couple of baseboards under construction and that was about it, and now you’re further on than a lot of people’s layouts ever get! Looks lovely already

Another video, this one about wagons. And before anyone points it out, I didn’t spot the incorrect door spring on the 5 plank (pictured on The Mill) until I came to editing the video. Another for remedial work…. Let's talk wagons - fettling kits and ancient RTR stuff https://youtu.be/NK8i6JpNkKo

I got a bit carried away, carried away in a 5 plank open wagon one might say. The layout needs a few of these for stone traffic; upon checking what I already had and the stock from The Mill, I probably had enough. However, there’s a photo of a rare through freight (excluding the coke traffic) of a Stanier Mogul hauling a lengthy train of empty open wagons. Chances are that this was such a rare occurrence, it’s probably not worth modelling but I do like building wagons. As we all know, open wagons were used extensively but have all but been ignored by manufacturers, with not much variation; kits are the same. However, with the kits, there’s the possibility to add variation, which I have tried to do through using different underframes, etc. The rake currently numbers 16 fitted opens (unfitted will come later) made up of LMS, LNER and BR built wooden and steel wagons; one Bachmann in there (regauged but nothing else), many Parkside and a hybrid. I was looking in my stock boxes and found a heavily weathered Airfix LMS 5 plank (I think it came from Dave Shakespeare of Tetley Mills fame). Nice body but the Airfix underframe was junk so went in the bin. So, I fired up Paul Bartlett’s site and found a clasp braked variant and with the help of Mainly Trains etches, some judicious bending and filing, some Plastikard, Lanarkshire buffers and some spare Parkside solebars, I botched this up. Original paint has been stripped off, ready to receive it’s undercoat of Halfords Primer. Here’s the full ‘collection’; the aforementioned Airfix hybrid in raw plastic/metal, six in primer and nine finished. I have a feeling that the rake will grow (I am on the hunt for more Airfix 5 planks as Morton vac converted ones are noticeably absent) Sorry for the awful photos; there’s a window behind the layout that provides unkind light.

As covered in my thread in Scenery, Structures and Transport, I have made progress with a number of the buildings, mainly the goods shed (finished apart from weathering) and Berry’s Warehouse (painting being a long ongoing task). Below is where I currently am with both. Aside from buildings, another passion is wagons and whilst I openly admit to not being very knowledgeable about them, I am trying to ensure that I have the relatively correct types for the traffic that Sandside saw, mainly open wagons with the occasional tar wagon, van, etc. Of these opens, there were four main types, each with their own traffic flows. There was substantial coal traffic, handled by 16 ton mineral wagons and their earlier wooden bodied equivalents. I have more of both of these than I would ever need. 5 plank and steel bodied equivalents were used for stone traffic, the last traffic on the branch actually being stones used in sugar production in East Scotland!! I have a fair amount of opens but not enough (and not enough variety) so am working through a pile of kits. Luckily, I needed quite a few opens for The Mill so when I retrieve that and the stock boxes, a half decent number will be available. Ballast traffic appears to have used Catfish and Dogfish wagons. I did build up a few of these from the Cambrian kits years ago (pre Bacup) and complimented them with a few Heljan Dogfish (which I left in either Engineers Green or stupidly resprayed in Gulf Red, thinking that was a more common livery than it was). They never really saw use on Bacup so languished in boxes for years. As they were from early in my modelling rebirth, the quality is not great and remedial work has and will be required to bring them up to standard. With the Cambrian ones, this has so far involved converting them to EM (and removing a load of PVA from the inside of one Catfish (where I had added a load and then changed my mind). The Heljan ones have been more involved; converting them to EM has taken some fettling, as has stripping off the Gulf Red ready for re-spraying. One has obviously met with the floor at some point so will need new handrail uprights fashioning (handrail replacements already formed from wire) Box of projects The coke traffic from County Durham to Furness was handled using an eclectic mix of steel and wooden bodied hopper wagons, surprisingly not in specific coke wagons (I checked this with my friend and project mentor, Karl Crowther - he doesn’t know he’s my mentor!!). I have already built a decent number of Parkside 21 ton hoppers over the years and have a few Slaters wooden bodied ones; these have been converted to EM but are in various stages of painting and weathering (only one is completed, used on The Mill). However, many more are needed so I am building additional ones, adding planking to the interiors. Additionally, I have ordered a pack of the Accurascale ones. I will need two rakes; one full heading south and the empty returns. At least I won’t have to worry about the internal planking on the full ones (thank God). The latest build Other hoppers in various states of completion And that’s it, for now.

Not a huge amount of progress with the buildings since the last update; I think I was beginning to suffer from burnout. However, I have not been idle. Goods shed The goods shed is all but finished now, with doors and drainpipes added. Basically, I just need to weather these and the roof Berry’s Warehouse With the construction finished (apart from the slates, which will be done after the painting), I have made a start on painting the building and it is proving to be as challenging as I thought, with the real structure being in such a state of disrepair in the period depicted. The stonework has already had a few goings over with various colours being dry brushed on, a bit light at the moment so plenty more to do. Also, trying to capture the darker areas without it looking patchy is a challenge. I’ll get there, it’ll just take time (as suspected). The blackened buildings of Bacup seemed easy in comparison Other than this (and adding the drainpipe to the signalbox), I have been fettling wagons, but that’s for the main Layout topic.

Oops, forgot the shot of the doors and downpipes

Bi-weekly update time. Berry’s Warehouse The roof ‘formers’ are now on, with lines drawn on as guides for the rows of slates. Internally, there’s a fair bit of structure and support to this to avoid warping. Additionally, I primed the building, added the stone base layer of paint and the first wash. There’s a lot of dry brushing and detail painting to come. Goods shed Most of my effort over the last two weeks has been focused on getting the goods shed done, still some way to go but all the components are ready; weathering is the main outstanding step. Unlike Berry’s, this obviously had gutters and downpipes. The gutters were made by scribing a channel into the edge of a sheet of 40 thou and then shaped (front only, nobody sees the side that butts against the building). This is then trimmed to be around 4mm wide and affixed to the top of the walls using a slither of 40 thou, painted and when dry, the roof formers fixed onto the building. In the period modelled, the goods shed wasn’t used so I will model it as such with the doors closed. Whilst this does reduce traffic flows, it’s accurate (and to be honest, the way I have designed it, it will be easy to change the front doors to being open). As can be seen, the doors are all done with just a bit more painting and weathering required to finish them. Also in the painted but not affixed pile are the downpipes. I went with York Modelmaking slates, partly because I don’t currently have a printer so am not able to print off sheets of slates on card. First time I’ve used YMM’s slates; quite like them but if you go slightly off course then it’s not easy to correct them as the glue is mighty. To be critical, the ridge slates are a bit rubbish too. Anyway, apart from a bit of weathering, job done. The final job completed has been the dry brushing of the stone walls, picking out individual stones. That took some time! Hopefully by next time, the goods shed will be completed.

To be fair Rob, we could just rename this thread “How realistic is Kelvin and Robin’s modelling” 😀

Anyone who follows my thread in the Scenery Structures and Transport sub-forum will have seen that I have made quite a bit of progress with the buildings for the layout with the latest, Berry's Warehouse, coming together now following weeks and weeks of scribing. Rather than post a ton of updates in here (when there's ones in the separate thread - pretty much only working on buildings at the moment so it's more relevant there), I have made a video of my progress. Some will know that I have a mountain biking YouTube channel (Stopadoodledoo); through that I have come to really enjoy filming and editing videos that are probably not like your average MTB channel. In the same way, my railway modelling channel is probably not like any other you will have seen either - probably a bad thing really but... meh; it's the kind of videos I would like to see. I have no intention of moving all my modelling content over to YouTube as I really enjoy using forums and the discussion that threads generate but the occasional daft video, well that's different. Anyway, after that 'marketing', here it is:

Another week, another milestone. After completing all the scribing for Berry’s, the next task was to build up the wall thickness around apertures and continue the stone courses into them, then add window and door frames and where applicable, doors. The half panelled fence in the top front door was built up and added, with the planking scribed rather than use embossed sheet (as was used for the doors). With these added, I then strengthened the interior of the walls (necessary to keep them straight) and then bit the bullet and glued the structure together. With some relief, the quoins on the corners matched up and were neatened up to be as seamless as possible. As you will already notice, there’s a lot of green on the building, this being Squadron Green Putty, rubbed into the painstakingly scribed mortar courses. The real building was built from rough stone and over the years, patched up with line mortar that in places, completely covered the stones. With the putty applied, I then took it back to hopefully represent this; will hopefully make sense and look better when undercoated, tarted up and painted (dreading that) bit. I also started on the roof but that can wait. The images aren’t great but that’s because they are still captures from footage I took for a forthcoming YouTube video; I will post a link when it’s uploaded but the channel and its currently solo video is https://youtube.com/@flawedfinescale8454