Blog- halfmoon colliery railway - variation of an update

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Hi,

 

Firstly i must say that im having problems with my camera, so no photos to accompany the writing.

 

I have made a start on the new batch of wagons, these are to the same dimensions to the previous wagons, 64mm x 34mm with a 30mm wheelbase. the body will be 26mm high (4 plank at 6.5mm). The wagons are currently at the stage of rolling chassis' with the floor on. The ride quality still need to be adjusted, once that's done i will continue the build.

 

Also, Im finally getting round to putting on all the retaining wall coping stones, ive decided to do it by first making paper templates just like on the rest of the stonework. Some-what related to this are the brick abutments for the water tower, i have lost one of them but it doesn't matter, the remaining one has just been painted and will be weathered and stuck in place. On the bridge i have selected 2 old 1:72 tank wheels that have been chopped to make them into 2 of those iron washers for anchor rods, after being painted they will go on the side of the bridge either side of the arch. Also I have been experimenting with making a very muddy and wheel rutted track for the road above the bridge. It started with a liberal application of a cheap white filler, leaving until it was nearly set and then running a washer through it a few times and randomly wiggling it about a bit and hoof prints to represent horse & carts struggling through the mud, i also made many trails of footprints back & forth across the bridge. Once the filer had set i applied a slightly varied shade of dark acrylic browns, after this i will brush on some varnish to give it the wet look. I have chosen one of my currently unused figure which will stand looking down over the parapet into the yard, his boots and lower trousers have been suitably muddied with the same brown.

 

The back scene was for a long time in need of a sand down and repaint, this has now been done, it is now in a white base coat ready for scene setting, i may just have another go at painting it or as many on here have done, print off photos and stick them on.

 

And finally the front of the layout now has a plywood façade with cut outs to go around the L brackets, this will hide the horrible mess that is beneath it, there is still some places that need filling (a different and better filler) and sanding and another coat of paint to finish.

 

Thankyou for reading, I have had to describe more than usual to make up for the lack of visual information, a 1000 words and all that.

 

Regards, Sam.

 

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