Trip-Titch - 2021 The Cob : the little people

[southern42]

On 20/03/2021 at 21:05, ManofKent said:

Colour of the marsh will be interesting too. From memory of buses up from Aberystwyth many years ago at some points it's green but  at others a brilliant orange.

 

Fire ash is a great free resource - my 2" of ballasting  is a mix of fire ash and fine grit.

 The marsh changes to a dramatic orange come autumn.  Since l am modelling a misty grey day in September, a greyish green to orangey brown mix of vegetation should be about right. After doing summer sunshine on two layouts, I fancied doing something different. It was a misty moisty day when I rode on the gravity slate train so it is inevitable, really. 

I will have to work from the back to the front and set about making the distant landscape before building and blending in the bank of stones. As the landscape will be made on card from a cereal box and will need to be thinly built up, I will create the sand banks with sculptamold. Then I can cover the marshy bits with the green stuff.

 

Making a start.

Cereal box cut to size 20mmx7mmx2mm (approx)

 

Using an offcut of some laminated chipboard to keep the base flat while it dries out.

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by southern42
Re-phrasing!

[southern42]

I added another layer of Sculptamold for the sand dunes and salt marsh then left to dry overnight.

This morning, I added another layer and left it to dry. I also added a layer over the embankment to take the stones.

 

When all is dry, I will paint a base coat over the Sculptamold then add the scenic materials.

 

So far...

A rough texture to hold the stones.

 

The estuary in position, freestanding - removable while I am working on it.

 

Pleased with progress but it always seems to take longer than expected!

Edited March 25, 2021 by southern42

[southern42]

Progress is being made albeit taking a bit of time.

 

First, I sanded down the estuary saltmarsh and sand banks, then added more Sculptamold and reshaped the different areas. While drying, I gave a dark granite colour to the levels on the seaward embankment, then started laying the stones - four layers with four sizes of stone. Yes, I did, indeed, grade them into four sizes!  ?!?

I have marked out the distant hills a little more clearly and reworked the water channels.

The paint ended up looking darker in the photo. The small piece of card is where a signal will go. 

 

From the seaward side. More stones to come...

Taking a bird’s eye view over the track down to low water level.

 

Time is marching on and I have to determine the size of the signal. At the top is a black lamp with yellow light. From another project, I have a GWR(W) Modelu lamp going spare and a clear lens that will take some yellow paint. I just need to be careful when I remove the handle! There are several pictures of the signal online so easy enough to scale it down to suit the lamp.

 

More to do tomorrow, then.

Thanks for looking in.

Polly

Edited March 26, 2021 by southern42

[southern42]

I wanted to try out my new box of Winsor and Newton acrylics  so I had a go on the front of an envelope.

I might as well kill two birds with one stone, I thought - don’t worry, no birds were injured in the making of this picture. 

 

So, here it is!

 

Just a rough copy, mind, and about half the size of the Sculptamold backdrop.

 

The two stripes above were just practice runs but I like the effect it would give to some sky. Something else to think about.

[southern42]

Yes!  Solved the problem of ‘joining’ the seaward embankment to the estuary backdrop...I think!

 

I was originally going to have the channel of water, which runs alongside the wall of stones at the base of the stones, in the obvious place - on the baseboard.

 

Looking at the two together, this morning, I saw a better alternative: fill in the gap with pebbles & seaweed to blend in with the sand on the backdrop and put the channel of water on the backdrop instead.

 

That should serve two purposes. One which should give a more realistic look to the bottom of the wall of stones, and the other which should give a better sense of distance between stones and channel of water.  All an illusion, really.

 

The one thing I liked about some of the biblical stories I was taught at school was the art of disguise and deception.  No wonder I like modelling! it is a great indulgence in that very same art of disguise and deception. 

 

So, first, I painted the stones and gave them a low water tide mark.

 

 

Next job is to turn the Sculptamold backdrop into the estuary. I may be some time...

[southern42]

The backdrop received some minor adjustments with the sanding bar.  A set of these was on my Wishlist and arrived in my Christmas stocking, and this one has proved excellent for this particular job. I then hoovered excess dust off the backdrop and gave the whole thing a coat of acrylic paint which I applied with a narrow piece of card from a cereal packet to fill any oversize indentations and smooth out the sandy bits where needed.

 

Disguise and deception.  I could not disguise the fact that the backdrop was too long so, before proceeding further, I cut a few millimetres off the end! Harder than I thought, hence the Stanley knife rather than the scalpel.

 

 

Various colour undercoats added to highlight the different areas for the scenic materials.

 

The backdrop may seem somewhat short, but when the whole 3-cakebox diorama is finished, it will have hills and dunes coming in from either side to complete the panorama...but that is some time off...I am just concerned at the moment with the 8"x8" however odd perspective makes it look!

 

A cropped one. Now, that's better!

 

I think I need to have a tidy-up, now, before I do anything else!

[southern42]

I had a long bash on the backdrop this morning until lunch which is running a bit late!

Not ideal doing it in one go - waiting for the glue to dry after applying each type of foliage would have been to my advantage - but walls, road and lower footpath need to be built.

 

Bird's eye view.  The sunset appearance is the reflection of the back of the (yellow) cereal box card encasing the Sculptamold. 

 

One interesting thing, because the backdrop and stone embankment form a deep valley, the whole thing darkens towards the bottom.  I was intending to lighten the backdrop but, Interestingly, the gradual shadow seems to heighten the sense of perspective, so I will leave it alone. It was a dark day when I rode the Gravity Slate Train, anyway.

 

A more normal view.

 

 

It is September and you can see a bit of orange growth, already. Biologically, the flocking* is the wrong shape, but as I have said, it is all about disguise and deception! It comes as a mixture of yellows and oranges.

 

* Woodland Scenics Foliage - Early Fall.

 

The Yellow Signal with 'W' - still on the to do list - is near the change over of marsh to dune.  So, I thought I would try and incorporate the two.  The track, at this point, is also adjacent to a very narrow strip of land on the other side of the Cob with a fence and more  greenery, which is all I had room for at the front of the cakebox, and hence my intended inclusion of the signal.

 

Time to get lunch!

[ManofKent]

That backdrop captures the real view beautifully.

[southern42]

On 30/03/2021 at 16:45, ManofKent said:

That backdrop captures the real view beautifully.

 

Many thanks, ManofKent, kind of you to say so. Since we have been confined to a 5-mile travel limit, it was impossible to get to Porthmadog, so I had to rely on photos and descriptions found online.  Then it was how best to do it with what I had available.  I am really glad that you mentioned the 'brilliant orange'...the little I have added stands out quite dramatically and brightens up what could be an otherwise lacklustre scene and makes using a yellow '60s bus more compelling - it was a spur of the moment buy at the Conwy Valley Railway Museum when I first thought I would like to do the Cob.

 

 

Late in posting; yesterday, was spent doing the signal and the area at the front.

 

[southern42]

Cakebox at the end of Thursday.

 

Greenery since added to footpaths and road, and lamp added to the top of the signal.

 

So, nearly there.

 

Polly

Edited April 3, 2021 by southern42

[southern42]

The signal.  I was tempted to buy the ARB Model Craft kit (I still am!) but that would defeat the object of the game for this Challenge - recycling rubbish, and the challenge of DIY, of course. So, one recipe for the the Cob Signal, coming up.

 

White Post: 1 x used grubby pot plant support stick, cut and sanded to size and shape, then painted white.

Concrete base: 1 x scrap of gradient foam used under the track.

Metal base of post: gradient foam as above.

Black post to carry ‘W’ sign and lamp: 1x lace pin cut to length and painted black.

’W’ sign: 1x (online) image stuck on piece of cereal packet - the back painted black.

Lamp: 1x Modelu 4mm GWR/BR(W) loco headlamp (handle removed) painted black.

1x small rectangle from offcut of mounting board - with pin hole - added to the base to take the lace pin and to lengthen the lamp in keeping with the Ffestiniog lamp.

Yellow lens: 1x painted Modelu clear lens. 
All stuck in place with superglue.

Platform: Designed but I need to rummage up some materials to make it - plasticard and some electronics wiring should do it.

 

 

As you can see, I went for Scalecenes dry stone walling paper, one of two items specifically bought for the build, itself, the other was some 009 narrow gauge track.  Other bought items were for railway operation: slate wagons - a mixture of kits (in the photo above) and RTR, and some seated people for the wagons.  The rest is what was readily available at home: new, used, leftovers, or scrap.

 

New tools (Wishlist presents) were successfully tried and tested.   No modeller was injured in the process!

 

Polly

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by southern42
Typo

[southern42]

Now, for some trees.

 

I prefer to make my own trees using seafoam but i have none left so, how to spend a happy Easter Day? Well, take a couple of oversize trees left over from a previous layout, cut off the tops, snip and tuck to reshape, add some scatter and stick them in their hole. Then cut and snip one of the lower halves of the original trees and use the pieces to make a couple of smaller specimens. 
 

The original sized tree on the left. The two for the cakebox on the right.

 

The trees at each end are probably a bit taller than they should be (their size part of my disguise and deception idea) but, in a few years time, the real ones might just catch them up! More autumn scatter is to be added to the trees and long yellow grass along the front edge. Also to appear is Rod Mullett who will be off to Black Rock Sands to do some fishing - if I can find something to use as a fishing rod, that is. A lace pin is about the right length but seems a bit thick.  If I paint it a lightish colour, maybe, it will not look too bad.

 

Polly

 

Edited April 5, 2021 by southern42

[southern42]

Today, sees the season change to early autumn on the road side of the railway.

 

But can I deceive you into believing you see the waters edge of the River Glaslyn?

 

 

A quick mock-up with soft pastels on a 1cm  wide piece of card (one side of the enclosing cakebox, naturally! :-) blutacked to the side edges (so a vertical piece of kit!)  of the diorama base and the baseboard it sits on. You can see the two foam layers in the top photo. So, technically, no extension to the actual diorama but it does needs blending into the bank, if I keep it.

 

I feel I am pushing boundaries on all fronts...

 

And another day, tomorrow.

Edited April 5, 2021 by southern42

[southern42]

It is several days since my last post, so what have I been doing all this time? 

Apart from tweaking two of the trees, I have been sorting out a platform for the signal.

 

Attempt 1.

Plasticard platform with plasticard brackets and reshaped staples for the handrails.

 

 

 

Attempt 2.

I was not completely happy with how it turned out (handrails too far in and not high enough, and solid brackets) but seeing how easy it is to manipulate the staples, I decided to have a go at using them to make a pair of brackets as well.  That is what has taken the time. A very simple idea but, in such a small scale, not so easy to get the centre piece inside the larger one and stay there while being glued in - I spent more time looking for it after dropping it or it flying off, regardless of which handling tools I used, including more time trying to get both arms of the small part to the right size in the first place - at least three rejects! - and getting it to sit in the right position.

 

 

I will cut off the excess length after they have been painted.

 

Thinking they still look rather plain, I then had another idea!

Out came my bag of The Little Leaf Company's Ivy.

I sorted out two leaves about the right size and superglued them onto the brackets; then, gave them a coat of PVA glue as they are quite brittle; and roughly painted the brackets white hoping they would look like cast metal.  They need a bit of cleaning up, and a wash of light brown to give them a more weathered appearance.

 

 

The new platform to take them is in progress.

 

Another day's work, beckons...

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by southern42

[southern42]

As of 5 o'clock, today, I had all the components ready to build my (second attempt) platform for the signal.

 

I thought I would try my luck with the grubby lace pins for the platform handrails.  What a lovely surprise! Once sanded clean, they bent really well using some pliers and so I was able to make two presentable handrails.  On the Cob platform, the front ends of the handrails are secured through the platform with bolts - that makes them easy to do, here - a small hole in the platform and a bit of superglue.  The ends at the rear are actually secured on a joint on the signal post, not on the platform. Scale it down and it could probably be done but I am just glueing them on the platform. Securing the platform to the signal post is going to be challenge enough without bits of brass to fiddle with at the same time.

 

The handrails look a lot sturdier than the real ones but, hopefully, a dab of black paint might make them look less chunky. I can always redo it again, some time down the line, if I have a mind to do so!

 

 

 

[Marly51]

18 hours ago, southern42 said:

As of 5 o'clock, today, I had all the components ready to build my (second attempt) platform for the signal.

 

I thought I would try my luck with the grubby lace pins for the platform handrails.  What a lovely surprise! Once sanded clean, they bent really well using some pliers and so I was able to make two presentable handrails.  On the Cob platform, the front ends of the handrails are secured through the platform with bolts - that makes them easy to do, here - a small hole in the platform and a bit of superglue.  The ends at the rear are actually secured on a joint on the signal post, not on the platform. Scale it down and it could probably be done but I am just glueing them on the platform. Securing the platform to the signal post is going to be challenge enough without bits of brass to fiddle with at the same time.

 

The handrails look a lot sturdier than the real ones but, hopefully, a dab of black paint might make them look less chunky. I can always redo it again, some time down the line, if I have a mind to do so!

 

 

 

Despite the challenges, it’s these small details which are quite satisfying and provide some rewarding finishing touches! 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Marly51

[southern42]

4 hours ago, Marly51 said:

Despite the challenges, it’s these small details which are quite satisfying and provide some rewarding finishing touches! 

 

And some more challenges certainly followed, Marly51.

 

Yesterday, I cleaned the roughness up the brackets (not perfectly, but OK at normal vision), gave them a touch of weathering, and fitted them to the underside of the platform.  

 

 

Today, I replaced the signal disc.  The cereal box card was a bit thick so I have replaced it with some thinner black card. Mounted on the sanded down and repainted signal post, it looks a lot better. 

 

Then I got round to the platform. I discovered that we had some finer wire than the lace pins, so the handrails have been replaced.  That was another few hours tuning, pruning and bending into shape and size, and another hour or two fitting them to the platform - more fine tuning for best fit.  They still look on the chunky side but the wire allowed me to give them some extra curves like the real thing. I will paint the handrails tomorrow, once all the tension has gone out of my body.

 

 

 

 

I am feeling a lot happier now that job is basically finished and looking heaps better.  There is a matter of adding a solar panel for the electric lamp and mounting the platform onto the signal post, but relatively easier jobs - fingers crossed!  As you say, Marly51, these finishing touches certainly reap their rewards!

 

Time for a cuppa, now (and a bit of Easter egg!)  - the best reward after a long slog.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by southern42

[southern42]

I am pleased to report the signal was finished on Monday with the rebuilt disc, platform brackets and handrails, and second solar panel (the first got lost when I dropped it when placing it in position). Rod Mullet, and gravity train brakesmen and passengers received a coat of paint.

Tuesday went like magic. Rod Mullet was kitted out with fishing rod (yet another lace pin sanded to shape, painted and deployed) and bag (cut from a scrap of foam track underlay) with shoulder strap (scrap of plasticard).

Trees were checked, tweaked into shape, foliage added where needed, and given a dose of fixative. The waters edge was tweaked and glued in position and shoreline blended in. Lastly, roadside edging (polystyrene channel) was painted and glued in position.

Wednesday is set up day for the big shoot. 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by southern42

[southern42]

Yesterday, Rod Mullet, still smiling, on his way back from his catchless fishing trip in Borth-y-Gest, and trees were glued in position along the waters edge.

 

Two brakemen were allotted to their kit built waggons.

 

 

Today, passengers (invited guests) will be helped into their newly acquired Bachman waggons of the sort I rode in.

The rest of yesterday’s time was spent creating a setting for the diorama with hints of a cakebox environment - more card used from a well known yellow cereal box (covered in white).

 

It will soon be photo shoot time. 
 

 

Photos courtesy of Ivor Drone.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by southern42

[southern42]

Some of today’s efforts. 
 

Our two passengers sitting comfortably on their blutack cushions. Looks like someone has brought his pad and pastels.

 

The flag pole to mark the rear of the gravity slate train is made from the leftover wire from the signal platform.  The red flag is real cloth from one of my old shirts.

Don’t look too closely - you can see the frayed edges and the weave! Excuse for the frayed edges is the strong winds we get!

 

 

And how did ewe get up here...?

 

 

She fills a big empty space...

[southern42]

Yesterday was another mix of elation and frustration.  Cakebox ready for photo shoot. All I needed to complete was a horn - still lost! - and a token for single line working.

 

I made a token using another couple of cleaned up lace pins. First time, I cut to size then tried to paint it!  

 

Then I got real and held one end of the pin and painted the other. That’s better! Then I lost it when I cut the end off! Would you believe it? But I did find the horn while looking for it! Some hours later after several attempts, I found the token. At last, I could set up my third photo for taking this morning. Last night’s test shot, below. A rather battered up old horn he’s got there!

 

I modelled the token based on this one:  

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-the-engine-driver-of-2ft-narrow-gauge-steam-locomotive-double-fairlie-39956730.html

 

Now to complete the photo shoot and send off my entry.

 

Thanks for following and for your comments and ratings. Much appreciated and certainly helped to keep me going.

 

[southern42]

Entry submitted!

Thanks to Phil for organising it all.

And Good Luck to everyone who has entered. I love all I have seen on this Cakebox Challenge. So much talent, creativity and imagination out there! Well done all!

 

Polly

[southern42]

Yesterday

All greenery and tools cleared away except scalpel, ruler and cutting board for there is still a to do list of things to be done which I knew I would not have time to do for the deadline. And you thought I had finished.  Yes, for this Challenge, I have, but there are still details that should be done before I venture on, so:

 

Job #1 Add coping stones to the road walls and put hazard markings on the road.

 

Job #2 Replace a few of the stones that do not look right or fit well; lighten the colour of the stones; and naturalise with some grass and weed.

 

Job #3 Continue painting the figures, some are still in primer.  The figures I used on the waggons had a basic coat of colour plus a little highlight.  There are some new tricks I want to try and achieve in this scale but I need time!  I also want to get some larger figures to put in the 1:64 scale bus, if I can get into it - and that means taking it apart...Aagh!  The bus figures will be dressed and painted in gear for 'The Prisoner' outing - No. 6 jacket, cape, striped shirts, boaters, and various types of ladies hats.

 

Job #4 I have some more kit building to do - at least another Dundas waggon and the locomotive 'Prince'.

 

So that little lot should keep me busy for a while if I can keep up the momentum.

 

Today - two for the price of one!  

So, today, I did, indeed, start on the coping stones.  Had I not had my 2nd jab on Friday, they would have been done then.  However, all did not go to plan... On cutting out the first piece of thick card, the knife slipped and moments later I was delving into the First Aid Box!  Thumb all bound up and I was ready to continue, so long as I keep my thumb off everything!  The road markings will have to wait.  I think I shall have to stick with little painting jobs on the figures for now.  I was watching a YouTube video on painting faces earlier this morning and was soon envisaging how I could use some of the techniques on my little people.

 

It may keep me out of mischief, for a while!  

 

Polly

 

[southern42]

Two strips of dry stone coping are ready but not glued down yet.

 

This view is with and without coping stones.

The bottom wall looks fine with a suggestion of 'flat' stones, but the top wall has a more authentic look for the region even if the pattern of stones does not ring true in places.

 

  

 

As you can see, the Cob has been cleared of the signal and all mobile items, except Rod Mullet who is PVA glued in for safety.  It looks so empty after all the hustle and bustle of the two previous days. 

 

Tomorrow, I shall have to sort out a painting strategy: paints, brushes, palettes, water, figure supports, working area... <sigh>

 

Time to glue, then that will be job accomplished.  

 

[Marly51]

That coping strip works really well Southern42!