The Diddington project

[wiggoforgold]

Hi

Its been a while since I posted an update. I've been working on the layout, but summer is here and outdoor activities have been taking precedence over posting updates of late. Anyway, with Diddington currently in sections, I've been taking the opportunity to add some more scenic items and refurbish some of the existing work.. I discovered the Scalescenes row of cottages the other day, and thought this would be ideal for the row of cottages I had been intending to make to go behind the boathouse, where I'd left a suitable hole to plant it in. Here are some pictures of work so far. I've ordered some etched window frames from Brassmasters for the cottages, and when these are installed I'll post some more pictures.

 

 

Pete - a belated thanks for the heads up re the casters. I was thinking along similar lines. I've got a friend who builds large mixing desks and the like and I'm going to pick his brains on the subject.

[46444]

Great to see an update Alex.

 

Those cottages do look good.  

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[wiggoforgold]

Refurbishing work is progressing steadily. I've finished with the river board for now and I'm going to make a start on the loco yard board. I've attached a couple of pictures of the current state of the river board, showing the class 24 crossing the bridge with a short van train.

 

While working on the layout I've been musing as to whether Diddington is actually a model railway, or a model landscape that has a railway running through it. Certainly the river board which I've been working on is probably 95% scenery, with a single track running across it. The space available would provide plenty of room for lots of tracks if I was so inclined!  The layout idea has always been to have a fairly sprawling, simple layout in a large space, and I've resisted any temptation to add incident and complexity. In fact its been simplified from the original plan, with the approach being singled (the original plan had a double track approach) and a siding was deleted from the goods yard at an early stage. What I'm trying to achieve is a sense of time and place, with the railway forming part of the landscape. Stock scenery and landscaping items are chosen with that in mind.

 

 

 

[wiggoforgold]

Oh, and I find pictures are a useful way of identifying things for attention. For example, looking at the first picture of the class 24 crossing the bridge, I think the middle telegraph pole needs raising. I also think the lack of signals is an ongoing embarrassment, which I do intend to address, although some kind friends have told me their lack is not too obvious.

[Ramblin Rich]

I like the idea of a model landscape with a line running through, much more convincing than over cramming with track. This is a great example of less is more, much like Neil Rushby's Morfa scheme.

[wiggoforgold]

Morfa!, that's the layout I was thinking of when I wrote this and couldn't remember the name. Thanks for reminding me.

[wiggoforgold]

Refurbishing and adding to the scenery continues. I'm on the loco shed board now. Here's some pics of the current state of play. I've been experimenting with static grass to get the effect of grass growing through the yard surface and the early results can be seen in some of the pictures. The large baseboard gap is because the boards are not currently bolted together, so the joint isn't fully closed.

 

[wiggoforgold]

I've been trying out some new ideas for detailing the scenery, such as grass growing through paths, and clumps of brambles. I brought Grodon Gravett's book "Modelling Grassland" at RM Web live in Coventry and have found it a wonderful source of ideas.  I've made some clumps of bramble from teased out postiche (theatrical hair), fixed in place with hairspray, sprayed with more hairspray and sprinkled with dark green scatter. Here's the result:

 

I've added more detail round the loco spur. I finished the fence. Really it  I would prefer a wire fence between the loco spur and the private siding, but to save time I've used the Ratio Midland railway fence, sprayed with various mixed of Tamiya flat earth, dark grey and NATO black. I glued length of plastic cocktail sticks behind some of the uprights, and pushed these into holes drilled into the bards. The fence is fixed in place with pva , and weeds and longer grass built up along the bottom, which helps to hold it in place. I wanted to add an overgrown hut in the corner, base on one at St Ives (Cambs), but my first attempt warped horridly, so I scrapped it and instead refurbished an old Cooper Craft GW hut rescued from my son's train set. I've given it a corrugated iron roof and added some barge boards. I've taken some pictures of D5579 awaiting its next turn of duty. The grubby state of the loco is authentic. Despite having a special livery it was in a very shabby state when photographed in early 1965,  I've seen some pictures of her in BR Blue, but not in Green - did she go straight to blue, or did she have a spell in green first?

 

Finally, here's a picture of a more usual Brush Type 2, D5500, propelling a brake van past Diddington shed. The engine is Hornby, slightly repainted and weathered. The brake van is an old Airfix/Dapol one.

 

Cheers for now

 

Alex

[46444]

Great shots Alex.

 

Some nice detailing being picked out too.  Amazing what hairspray can do for your layout! 

 

Keep the posts coming.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[stewartingram]

I've seen pics of the loco in green.

 

Stewart

[wiggoforgold]

I’m working on a new stable block which will go next to the engine shed at Diddington.  I’d hoped to have it finished by this weekend but it will be a few more days until construction is finished.  I’ll put a blow by blow account of the construction in the card modelling thread and will post a picture of it in place here.

In the meantime I came across some pictures I took of the layout a couple of weeks ago. One of the advantages of it currently being in sections is that I am able to photograph the layout from angles that would normally be inaccessible.

First here is a picture of an Austin A35 van parked by the boathouse at Diddington.

The line across the road in front of the van is the joint between the road section built on the layout, and the surround to the boathouse, which is removable. The gap will eventually be filled when the boathouse section is fixed in place.

Next, an end view of the engine shed. 

Diddington shed is now closed, and the shed itself is used for storage. The rails are rusty, but the infrastructure of the steam railway is still in place, .The shed itself is a Prototype Models kit of Stamford (which is a GN prototype, and Diddington shed should really be a GE one. One day I plan to build a model of the shed at Huntingdon East, but for the moment the Prototype Models kit fills the bill)  The water crane is a Mikes Models cast kit of the one at Stamford shed. The coaling stage, just visible on the right, is from Huntingdon East, and in the background the old turntable pit can be seen.  In the period of the model, the shed is no longer used. Locomotives wait in the yard between duties, and to facilitate this part of the line to the old turntable has been left in place, so locos can enter the loco storage siding.

 

Behind the shed, and next to the Mill, is a street called Jubilee Terrace.

The terraced buildings, on the left in the picture, are made from two Howard Scenics house back kits. The building on the right is a model of a building at the gas works in Huntingdon, and at Diddington is the mill manager’s house. It’s made from card, covered with Exactoscale brick paper, to match the mill.  The road itself will get a bit more detailing in the form of lamps, an improved road surface, and a couple of road vehicles.

 

[nest]

Fantastic shots there Alex!

I presume the kit is a card one?

 

Nestor

[wiggoforgold]

It is a card kit. It's been around for years, and is currently produced by Freestone model accessories. It was built in response to a challenge from a friend, who wondered how far it was possible to go with a card kit. The card parts are fairly extensively braced, and it's been weathered with powders. The card kit doors were overpainted with Tamiya green.

[stewartingram]

Are you sure that is an A35 van? Looks like the rainstrip goes over the windscreen, not down the pillars at the side, which would make it an A30 (small chrome radiator grille though, the A35 was painted with a chromed horseshoe added around it). And of course the A35 had flashers, the A30 had proper trafficators! 

Sorry, pedant mode on, as a former A30/A35 enthusiast...

 

Lovely layout, and my area too, keep it up.

 

Stewart

[Ivatt46403]

I do like your Huntingdon East pit a lot. I keep vaguely imagining that I'll find a corner somewhere to do the shed and working turntable...

 

Marcus.

[46444]

I do like your Huntingdon East pit a lot. 

 

Especially with a J15 in the vicinity!

[Ivatt46403]

Especially with a J15 in the vicinity!

 

Soon(ish(and slipping back all the time: http://www.Hornby.com/br-0-6-0-j15-class-early-br.html))!

[wiggoforgold]

Thanks for all the kind comments.

Stuart - you are right - I've just checked and it is an A30

Marcus. - one of the advantages of the period chosen is that I don't have to model the turntable bridge. The down side is that I 've got a Hornby J15 on pre order, and when it comes I'm going to have to explain to it why the turntable isn't available.

 

Alex

[jrg1]

Thanks for all the kind comments.

Stuart - you are right - I've just checked and it is an A30

Marcus. - one of the advantages of the period chosen is that I don't have to model the turntable bridge. The down side is that I 've got a Hornby J15 on pre order, and when it comes I'm going to have to explain to it why the turntable isn't available.

 

Alex

Excellent railway in the landscape-comes together really well-keep it up!

[wiggoforgold]

I've been working on the stables for Diddington. I've posted details of the construction as a topic in the card modelling forum, and I've taken a set of pictures of the stages in planting the building in the layout, which I'll add to this thread later. (its too late for me to start a long posting now), so here's some pictures of the work done to date.

 

And bringing up the rear, a brake van:

[wiggoforgold]

The stables at Diddington have now been installed on the layout. Details of the build can be found in the Card Modelling Forum. This post is concerned with its installation on the layout.

The majority of the buildings on Diddington are made from card. This is because I find it easier to work with, and well braced card buildings are extremely strong.  All the buildings are planted in the layout, rather than placed on it. The following words and pictures show how the stables were installed.

A start is made by cutting a hole in the scenery where the building is to go

 

This hole is lined with card, and blended in the surrounding scenery with Polyfilla. 

All the buildings have either a “cellar” at the bottom of the sides, or a base about 10mm in depth, which fits in the hole. When the hole is finished, the building is glued in place, taking care to ensure the building is level and vertical. Once the glue has firmly set, the sides or base of the building are blended in place with more Polyfilla, or a mixture of plaster and pva.

 

Once dry the Polyfilla/plaster is sanded down, and the whole over coated with burnt umber gouache, to provide a base for the scenic treatments, fine ash sprinkled on wet dark earth paint for the paths, and static grass for the grassy areas.

There are a couple of features on the base which are worth mentioning. The paved area outside the stable was made from individual slabs cut from a sheet of self adhesive computer labels, which were airbrushed varying shades of light grey/buff, before being peeled off and stuck to the base, which was previously pained dark earth. Once in place, some of the gaps were painted over with slightly dilute pva, which was then treated with static grass, to give the effect of grass growing between the slabs.

The manure heap outside the stables was built up with Polyfilla on a card base. This was then painted with matt black, before being painted with a dilute pva mix, and sprinkled with fine ash. This was then painted with Johnsons “Klear” floor polish to darken it, and sprinkled with “dead grass” static grass to represent old straw cleaned out of the stables.

[46444]

Lovely piece of modelling Alex.

Edited December 23, 2014 by 46444

[wiggoforgold]

[wiggoforgold]

A few different scenes for Christmas

 

First, something a little different. Back to 1959 for this one. The K1 is a Replica body on a Bachmann K3 chassis. The coach is by Ian Kirk, and was built about 20 years ago.

Next a couple of shots of D5579, which is one of my favourite models, so I take quite a lot of pictures of it! The model is an Airfix body on a Hornby Chassis, and construction is described in my blog. The first picture is taken from and angle which isn't possible when the layout is fully erected.

The second picture shows D5579 double heading D5500, which is a Hornby model, , with the cab window surrounds repainted green,weathered and renumbered,

Finally, Juniper Hill is well and currently living in Cornwall. Here's the bus from Diddington having just arrived at Juniper Hill (There isn't a passenger service), while Cranford waits between shunts.

[46444]

A few different scenes for Christmas

 

First, something a little different. Back to 1959 for this one. The K1 is a Replica body on a Bachmann K3 chassis. The coach is by Ian Kirk, and was built about 20 years ago.

K1 passes Bentley at Middle Fen 1959.jpg

 

 

Lovely snaps Alex. Really shows off the benefits of static grass nicely.

 

I see Ivo has been hard at work in the Fens as well?

 

Having seen D5579 in the flesh it's a well executed model and deserves to be photographed.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Edited December 24, 2014 by 46444