Fairport Mk2

[marc smith]

Yes, sometimes you just have to live with a structure in a position for a while. Often, something just doesn't look "right" and you can't put your finger on how to improve flow and composition...
And then it hits you - as has happened here. They do say "less is more" and that can often be the case - sometimes, you just take some building / structure away, and everything else just looks more balanced.

That Merit coal office now looks quite unlike its' former self. Nice job there

[47137]

When I look at a layout from a normal viewing distance, a layout 1.5 m (5 feet) wide just about fills my field of view. So I reckon, for any layout longer than this, visual balance has got to be achieved in selected scenes on the model; while for a micro, the balance has got to be over the entire layout, and possibly for individual scenes within it.

 

I have a short list of essentials for Fairport:

- cottage (because I'm determined to put it on a layout after 40 years in a box and a cabinet)

- bus stop (interchange to airport bus link)

- processing plant (a hint of it, much better than only on the backscene)

- passenger platforms for both trams and trains (the tram platform can suit any Continental stock I run too)

- siding for PW train

 

This shouldn't be too much of a tall order, as long as the passenger services are one coach long / one tram long, but everything gets more challenging by a juxtaposition of industrial and semi-rural set-pieces near each other. With 3 square feet of baseboard, this is probably closer to each other than the imaginary occupants of the cottage would really want.

 

The tree is very important to make a break between them. So now, the area around the tree needs to look balanced, and also the sections framed by the tree on each side, as well as the view of the whole layout.

 

There could be a footpath to the coast and I am going to try hinting at this by extending the foot crossing into the back of the layout:

 

If the works platform is primarily for workers at the plant, and the tram platform is primarily for users of the airport bus, the foot crossing also divides the scene into private and public spaces.

 

I did the grass last weekend. It is my very first attempt at static grass - the stuff is too expensive to do many trial runs. The grass has ended up a bit more kempt than I was aiming for, but I do think the colours of the concrete and the tarmac areas work now. They looked a bit anaemic before - the layout needs some colour (like the yellow door and the grass) as well as the numerous browns and greys.

 

With the grass, the whole layout is starting to look more upbeat. This is good, because if it ends up too pretty it will be much easier to tone things down than to lift them up.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

This weekend I have installed catenary masts for the tramway. This is probably the last structural work on the layout. The masts are by Sommerfeldt (their part number 107) and they are designed for simple installation onto a conventional baseboard where you have access under the baseboard surface. For the Lack shelf I have extended them with brass tube like this:

 

The tube is glued over the thread at the base of the mast (Araldite), with a M3 plain washer to act as an end stop. At the bottom of the tube there is a piece of smaller tube tapped M3 and soldered inside. This takes a fixing screw and a crinkle washer.

 

On the layout I drilled downwards all the way through the landscape and the shelf and jammed in a length of larger tube:

 

There is Araldite around the base of this tube too:

 

So, the mast drops down into the tube in the baseboard and is fixed in place with the screw and its washer:

 

The brass tube I used is three consecutive sizes by K&S Precision Metals:

3/16 x 0.14 inch (jammed through the baseboard)

5/32 x 0.14 inch (extending the post of the mast)

1/8 x 0.14 inch (tapped M3 and soldered into the bottom of the mast extension)

These all telescope together neatly.

 

The usual height for a tramway wire in Continental Europe is around 6 metres / 20 feet. This looked a bit dominant, so I have set the masts for a wire about half a metre lower, at a nominal 63 mm above rail level. The loading gauge remains adequate for any 00 I want to run.

 

- Richard.

 

Edited February 5, 2018 by 47137

[sb67]

Just found your topic Richard. Really like the look of your layout and I've also been inspired by the Modelling Grasslands book and been trying to use some of the techniques on my layout although it's an industrial yard.

The catenary masts look great and I like the way you've got quite a bit in the layout without it looking too crowded.

I'll look forward to seeing some more.

Steve.

[47137]

I do wonder if some of the techniques in the book on grassland are really only for 7 mm scale. I had a thought about making a muddy wheel rut beside the concrete road on my layout, but the subject just seemed too small to try. So I have let the grass grow instead.

 

- Richard.

Edited February 6, 2018 by 47137

[sb67]

I recon they could be done but a bit more difficult in 4mm, not to say they are easy in 7mm! Mind you Gordon makes it look so easy in the book, I find it so inspiring.

Steve.

[47137]

I have taken off all the buildings and the masts, and put the layout on the workbench, and started the ballasting. 

 

A period of radio silence will follow ... I really do not enjoy this at all (inadequate boredom threshold), though the method described by Gordon S does actually work for me.

 

50 sleepers done in c.100 minutes, 150 to go.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

Three concentrated sessions later, the ballasting is done ... Woodland Scenics (right) for the passenger-carrying tracks, and chinchilla dust (left):

 

Wood ash for the front siding:

 

Finished off by gluing down the foot crossing, this hides four out of the six rail joiners on the layout:

 

A few things learnt:

 

- Woodland Scenics 'fine ballast' seems about the right granularity for 1:87 scale, and sticks well to puddles of PVA.

- Chinchilla dust sticks well to wet enamel gloss paint, but turns into a hopeless pulp on PVA.

- Wood ash does not still to wet paint at all, but PVA works well.

- A cotton handkerchief over the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner will collect all of these for reuse.

- Wilkinson's own brand PVA is a good consistency for ballasting out of the bottle (and is rather better than PVA from The Works and Evostik 'Resin W' for this purpose).

- It is easier to apply the glue carefully enough to keep it off the tops of the sleepers than to scrape off the mess afterwards, but easier <> easy.

- It would have been easier to have painted and ballasted the track at the back of the layout before fixing the backscene in place, but this would have caused problems of its own especially with wiring the section switches (at a high level) and installing the mirror and visualising everything at the planning stage.

 

I am thinking, the tidying-up will be easier with paint rather than more granular material.

 

- Richard.

[sb67]

Looking good Richard. I might try that method of ballasting on my next layout.

Steve.

[47137]

The technique works well for thin-sleepered track like SMP. It is not so good for thick sleepers like Peco, where the result will look more like a siding with much of the sleepers above the ballast. Also the thin-sleepered track has the sleepers further apart, so it is easier to get a brush in between them.

 

A friend who is an armchair modeller saw the layout yesterday and asked if it was a model of a real place, which was encouraging. He also commented on how much the ballasting helps to draw the whole layout together, this is true though I would find it difficult to take a photo to show this.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

The 'release pond' is a wooden frame with a card base, this is how it was on 2nd January:

 

I finished the model this weekend:

 

The water is gloss enamel varnish by Humbrol. I had intended to use some 'Realistic Water' by Woodland Scenics, left over from a layout 5+ years ago, but the product had set hard in its container and had to be thrown away. The next idea was some gloss acrylic varnish by Daler-Rowney but for some reason this would not dry ... the test patch was still soft after three days so this got thrown away too. I guess this was old or stale, it had come from a charity shop some years ago.

 

I painted the bottom of the pond with a dark blue/grey acrylic, and then primed this with a thin layer of the Humbrol varnish brushed on. The idea being to force the 'water' layer to dry slowly and not form bubbles. Then I poured in a layer of the same varnish, rather less than a millimetre thick, set the pond on a level surface and covered it to keep the dust out. Three days later the varnish was set enough to not swim around when I tilted the pond, but still soft enough to take an impression. It carried on setting while I did the ballasting.

 

The varnish dried looking really flat and shiny and reasonably foul-looking, just what I wanted really, but with a huge miniscus all the way round which spoilt the effect. I painted over the miniscus this with a matt varnish so it doesn't catch the light any more.

 

The railings are from Model Scenery Supplies, they are laser cut from card and I think they will look best left in their natural state unpainted. They are also a common British protoype, available in 1:87 scale so a big thank you to Model Scenery Supplies for a small range of items in the scale.

 

I built up the ground surface around the pond and the processing plant a while ago:

 

... and I have now glued the pond onto the layout. I could leave it held in place by sideways pressure from the base of the processing plant but gluing it down lets me know it won't move and I can fill in the gaps around it:

 

It is said "good models have charm", so I added the relay box to represent the pump controls and add some appeal to what is otherwise a pool of industrial waste. The gaps in the railings are for two legs of the bridge crane.

 

This is the second model I have fixed down onto the layout, the first was the base for the gatehouse.

 

- Richard.

Edited June 29, 2018 by 47137

[Guest ShildonShunter]

Hi Richard can I say this is becoming a great post to follow a simple little layout with loads of modelling going on. Your ballasting techniques are something to have a go at. Keep up the great work Richard.

[47137]

I have tried chinchilla dust on gloss paint to finish off flat roofs and for ballast and it is quite an interesting substance to work with - it is absorbent and the result takes on (slightly) the colour of the paint. For a micro, I think it was worthwhile to try this material for ballast, because the quantity of paint involved is going to be less than a Humbrol tinlet. It would get expensive for a larger layout.

 

The wood ash is more difficult to work with. It has worked out well as a finished ground surface (glued with PVA on top of chinchilla dust on top of gloss paint) but it was not so good as ballast. It is not "bad" but I might have achieved a better effect with only paint. In fact I might still try painting it.

 

As a sort of "progress report" I have only one large item of "railway" to make now, and this is the overhead wiring for the tram. I have never done this before, I have the masts ready but I think the system will be the last part of the model to do because it will get in the way of everything nearby. There are also the two passenger platforms but I can install the layout on its wall brackets and drop these into place when they are finished. This leaves the processing plant and its pump house as the last major item. I need to have a think about this. The silos have conical bases for granular materials, but they really ought to have flat bases for liquids. However it is possible I am the only person who has noticed this. I want to re-do some of the ground finishes too, as per the "Modelling Grasslands" book.

 

Edit : when the ballasting is done by Gordon S (who described the PVA method), it looks as good as this.

 

- Richard.

Edited February 14, 2018 by 47137

[47137]

I've had a week away from the bench to attend to some domestic matters, and to think through the rest of the modelling for the layout.

 

The first real dilemma (unwanted railway-related modelling compromise) is the location of the point lever.

 

With the ballasting done, I think it is best to put the layout back onto its wall bracket now and deal with some of the individual models. This was, after all, the reason for building them on sub-bases in the first place. I'll report back when I have something useful to show.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

I found a toy bus at a swap meet, the Lledo "Marathons" number 3. The livery "Island Tours" is just right to set the scene, and the dimensions seem ok too - the width is around 28 mm representing eight feet in 1:87 scale.

 

I have put the layout back onto its wall bracket for the time being, and here is the mid-morning sunlight in early Spring representing early morning on the model:

 

- Richard.

[47137]

The bus is representative of an early Neoplan Spaceliner from the late 1970s / early 1980s, but I don't think it is a model of an actual prototype. One appealing feature for the layout is the doors modelled at the front are identical on both sides. So at a glance, the vehicle will pass as a right-hand drive body. Most 1:87 scale models of buses and coaches show the passenger entrance on the right, and the driver's door on the left, and look wrong in a British setting. 

 

- Richard.

[Allegheny1600]

Hi Richard,

That bus/coach is an interesting find and looks great in that setting.

I might have to hunt for one. You're right, getting RHD vehicles in H0 isn't that easy, I just choose appropriate British vehicles but probably mostly LHD!

Cheers,

John.

[47137]

I still enjoy going along to swapmeets. There is rarely any British H0 to be had except Lima Mk2 coaches, but I do find things like this bus which I simply didn't know about beforehand. I try to remember to take along a battered lorry or a bus in 1:87 scale in my pocket so I can make a judgement of whether a new "find" will look ok on the layout. I am tolerant of modest variations in scale for solitary road vehicles, the problem comes of course if I ever want to tackle a busy street.

 

As an aside - if you ever want to add an early VW Golf to your layout, it's worth remembering the cars imported into Great Britain before 1987 had LHD windscreen wipers :-)

 

- Richard.

[47137]

I have decided, the model of the crane is finished. The model has had too many coats of paint, and I have ended up with Tamiya "haze grey" as the top coat with some rather bright metallic blue still showing. The result doesn't photograph very well but it looks better in real life:

 

I don't want to sound daft, but I found this kit quite difficult to build. There is nothing to locate the parts together and it is  easy to get parts not quite at right angles. Even glueing on the control box took three goes, so the paint needs retouching there. Some parts of the model are still crooked, but they will straighten out when I glue it all down onto the ground.

 

I know I cannot make this particular model any better. There is a part of me which tells me to buy another kit and have another go and be a bit more careful - there are still mould release lines showing through the paint - but the overall effect is ok and won't get dramatically better.

 

I am pleased with the track here. The track is laid on Woodland scenics foam strips, with the ground surface of foam board and card butted up against the foam.

 

- Richard.

Edited June 29, 2018 by 47137

[sb67]

That looks fine Richard :-)

Steve.

[47137]

 

That looks fine Richard :-)

Steve.

 

Having slept on it, I realise the real weakness of the model crane is the excessive thickness of the parts. The visible edges of the I and H beams are about 0.8 mm wide, representing 70 mm in 1:87 scale - at least twice as thick as they should be. They look even worse because the laser-cut railings nearby are close to true scale.

 

One way to avoid this would be to scratch build these parts of the model from brass sections, possibly reusing the plastic hook and winding gear ... but really (at the moment anyway) it's not worth the effort.

 

- Richard.

Edited March 18, 2018 by 47137

[47137]

I want the model of the processing plant to remain detachable after I fit it onto the layout. The only way I can see to make this workable is to use some screws to clamp the model tight against the backscene, and of course the backscene here is a glass mirror.

 

I have been putting off trying to drill some holes for the screws for weeks now, fearful of the whole thing cracking into pieces, but I tackled them today with what seems to be complete success. The important thing was to use a drill bit designed for glass and tiles. I bought a set of four "budget" bits from ScrewFix, and used the smallest one:

 

The mirror is already glued onto the plywood backscene so I started drilling from the back and this let me locate the drill without it wandering around. I've not used this sort of drill bit before but they seem to work by simply grinding away tiny fragments of glass as they work their way into the material. I used my ancient corded power drill, which runs at about 2,700 rpm. After the tip broke through the front of the mirror, I drilled back through the other way to finish the holes. I put some screws into the holes so they show up better in the photo:

 

The holes will of course be hidden by the model. The ragged edge here is the silvering, this is a front-silvered mirror:

 

The only casualty of the operation seems to be one of the "scale" fences, which has vanished from the layout. It really is better to deal with the heavier work like this at the start of a project.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

About six weeks ago I realised I could not work up the processing plant any further on its sub base, but rather it had to be fixed down to the layout and tight against the mirror. I moved the layout onto the workbench, fixed down the processing plant, and stopped. Having the layout on the workbench rather got in the way of all model making, and I digressed into other things.

 

I have spent some time, probably too much time, pondering the importance of "correct scale" and especially consistency of scale throughout a model. I hope the  layout is or will be true to 1:87 scale everywhere I can manage, but in reality it could pass for 00 by merely changing one buffer stop and the stock! 

 

The laser-cut card railings beside the pond are 1:87 scale models of a common prototype, but their delicate nature seems to exaggerate the over-scale thickness of the girders in the crane and the processing plant. Worse, they seem to shout "he bought those". Conversely the handrail in front of the gatehouse (bent paper clip) is over-scale thickness, but somehow looks substantial and reasonable - and I am reluctant to replace it with something thinner.

 

As a British H0 layout, I am going to have to build or alter some of the stock myself, and there is no benefit in having either the layout so good it is let down by the stock, or the other way round. Essentially, I have got bogged down with detail which has stopped me making progress, but fortunately I haven't found the need to share my deliberations on the forums. The bottom line is probably, "there are varying degrees of excellence".

 

I have restarted by putting the layout on a portable workbench (so I can use the main workbench again), pulling off the scale railings, trimming some of the static grass (nail scissors), and filling gaps in the ground surface.

 

- Richard.

Edited May 6, 2018 by 47137

[47137]

This is how I installed the model of the processing plant.

 

I glued a block of wood inside the model, near the top:

 

Then I used wood screws to fix everything down. There is a screw through the mirror into this block of wood, two more into the chimney, and a fourth screw through the backscene into the top of the elevator. Some more screws through the plywood base onto the layout.

 

When I drilled the left-most hole through the mirror, a hairline crack appeared above the hole, and over a week or so this crack worked its way up to the top of the mirror - just like a chip in a car windscreen. The crack doesn't show in the photograph here, and indeed it doesn't really show unless you look for it. I suppose the problem is the mirror glass is fairly thin, and sits unsupported a fraction of a millimetre above the backscene at the point of drilling. At least I got the holes in the right place :-)

 

- Richard.

[47137]

I have added the pump house building to the layout:

 

This model is from a rectangle of foam core board with a frame of strip wood to hold it flat and give it some depth:

 

This model appears in a mock-up last December, and on Steve's Metcalfe Yard topic. I'm not sure why I put off fixing it down for quite so long.

 

The pipes are from a moulding by Knightwing. They seem to be made from a sort of non-standard styrene which doesn't take solvents very well, and my first assemblies kept on falling apart. In the end I simplified the pipes as far as a could, and I've left painting one of them until later. Perhaps they are an in and an out, or a hot and a cold.

 

The ductwork is the same stripwood. I didn't fill the wood grain and this is still visible through the paint, but only when you are looking for it. The downpipe is a wooden meat skewer, this is a bit over scale but it looks reasonable to me and I suspect if I try to take it off and fit something thinner it will not look much better.

 

- Richard.

Edited May 7, 2018 by 47137