Painting Pigeons

Hello again :o)

A while ago now when I was putting an order into Shapeways for some of my 3D printed parts I came across these...

As per normal I thought to myself "those look good, I am sure I can use them somewhere" and so promptly added them to my shopping cart.

Well, roll on a year (or two) and I thought while I was working on the goods shed for Highclere that the roof would look nice with something extra. After 'some time' wading through box after box of railway bits and bobs I found the little birdies and then made a start painting them. First the obligatory coat of Halfords finest primer...

They looks much better but then I thought I couldnt just stick some plain Grey birdies onto the layout so I got my paintbrushes out to add a little bit of colour to them (or some of them)...

This made them look much better and a bit more like the Pigeons I know. Some of these were then superglued onto the ridge tiles of the newly refreshed goods shed...

I am happy with that, the goods shed is now toned down a bit plus it now has some little birdies on the roof. The only thing now is how long they will actually last! They don't seem that bothered about the passing trains.

Julia :o)

A hot summers day...

Hello.

Imagine a hot summers day, the birds are tweeting in the trees and the sound of crickets echo across the landscape. You hear some faint bells and clanking comming from the signalbox as the signalman sets a route for another passing train. In the distance you hear the familiar beat of an engine The sound gets louder and louder until the giant thundering beast is there in front of you, you grab for the camera....

OK, so writing stories may not be my strong point but I hope it gives a little taster of what is going through my head when I look at Highclere. As I have mentioned in previous blog entries to me its not just about how something looks but its just as important to try and recreate the atmosphere. To me its what makes a good layout excellent, if you could imagine yourself there, watching these things happen infront of you, if you could smell and hear what's going on around you.

Julia :o)

Reaching for the lasers

Hello.

Back from my hols for the time being. I thought it was worthwhile putting anther post together to show you all some of the stuff I have been upto.

Firstly on Sunday 31st May I was in Bideford at the North Devon Model Railway Show once again. This time though I took along some of my bits and bobs to show the folk down there. It was a nice little show and the visitors all were nice and friendly.

I even made it into the local newspaper there!

While I was there I also have the opportunity to spend some time with Maurice and Mike of Osborns Models. It was good to see their newish laser cutter and I was seriously impressed with the quality of the bits they are producing. Of course I couldn't resist buying some...

Some nice little garden sheds.

A small Southern signalbox, it even comes with a name of your choice

Mike also produced a couple of bits for me...

Some little ferns, Cut from green paper they are incredibly well detailed.

Some corridor connections based on a brilliant idea by John Aldrick. These particular connections hopefully will fit the Dapol Collett coaches.

Finally I have maged to get on with some modelling too after catching up on a few other things last week. I couldnt resist trying some of this stuff out...

I think they need toning down a bit. I will do something once the glue has dried.

Julia :o)

Whats brown and sticky?

Hello.

Its been a while hasnt it! Like many things, hobbies come and go as interests change. This time its been a result of the change in weather and my attention has turned towards the continuing conversion of my van into some sort of camper type thing. Its been ongoing for a number of years now and its really time it was finished off. The warm weather has once again given me the ability ot get outside and do some more bits and pieces to it. Anyway I digress....

Work hasn't stopped on the layout. The previous post showed a small forest which had appeared towards the front of the layout, the following problem was an appropriate floor around the area of the trees. After quite a bit of thinking I made a plan to use some chopped up plumbers hemp purchased from Pendon museum on one of my sporadic trips to the place. This was PVA'd in place and coloured with a small selection of acrylics to give a more realistic tone to it. Once I was happy with the overall colour the whole lot was blended in with the adjacent field bit with a collection of various static grasses.

I am very happy with how its turned out, especially as I kind of made up how to do it on the layout and tweaked it throughout until I was happy with the result. Sometimes you just need to experiment and have a play to get a feel for colours and textures. Please let me know what you think....

Julia :o)

Can't see the wood for the trees

Hello :o)

This is the result of this weekends work. I have been back working on the layout and I took the opportunity to finish off the trees that I started before work was interrupted by the narrow gauge engine.

Following on from the trees that I made for the front of the layout I had another four to complete and place. I really wanted something that would obscure the public's view to make them either look around the trees or even better look through them towards the railway. These trees seemed to work well as at ground level there isnt much in the way or greenery to obstruct the view. There are now eight trees planted which makes for a nice little wooded area...

The good bit to me though is when you get down to ground level...

It was just what I was trying to achieve.




I also experimented with another type of tree using the same sort of technique once again inspired by the German blog...

I would be interested to hear opinions on it. Close-up I think it definitely has the feel of an evergreen to me but I am not sure about the shape of it.

Julia :o)

Trees!

Hello :o)

The trees for the layout have been one of those things that I have dabbled with in the past but never seriously sat down and tried to get any number of them done. Highclere being a quite large layout for its scale needs quite a few of them of differing flavours to fill out the countryside. This weekend was spent producing a few more...

Now I know this guy Stefan has been posting pictures on a German forum for a while and there have been links to his work posted in various places in the past but for some reason last week I switched on Google Translate and sat down to read it.

http://stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=50628&start=825

His work is amazing, it might be all purely for photographic reasons but there is no doubt he knows how to model, and model things extremely realistically. This has been an inspiration to me and after reading a few how-tos he has posted within his thread I wanted to give it a go.

The picture above was my first attempt. Now me being me I decided I knew a better way of making them and deviated a bit from Stefans methods using my static grass applicator. As you can see the results werent upto much.

So it was back to the beginning and I tried again. I will not go into too much detail as its described on Stefans thread but as you can see from the above photo the assembly of a tree is really easy. The green wire is simply wrapped around a central wire and looped out in regular intervals, there loops become the tree branches later on. So by this evening I ended up with these...

I am really pleased with how they have come out. The differences I did were I used some Brass multistranded picture hanging wire as the main trunk wire instead of a single stranded one, and I used some PVA glue covered in some Treemendus Bark Powder (http://www.treemendus-scenics.co.uk/tree-kit-order/) which gives a very good representation of Bark.

I have still got loads more to make though but at least I have the confidence I can do them now. It has also taught me that sometimes it is worth following other peoples instructions as well!

Julia :o)

I got the big camera out...

Me again :o)

I couldn't resist it and so I got the big camera out along with a few trains to hopefully remind myself of one of the reasons why I am doing this. Im far from good with a camera but hopefully the photos below will give the impression of what I am trying to achieve.

Julia :o)

Can anyone help?

Hello :o)

I would like to start this blog entry with a request for some help. Hopefully there is someone out there who will be able to help me out....
Amongst all the other things I am trying out is my attempt at making my own wheels, not only for standard gauge but also for the smaller narrow gauge bits and bobs where wheels are hard to find. Now I have figured out how to most of the bits for wheels with the exception of the wheel rims which to date have been beyond my capabilities. I have seen on the interwebs articles where a form tool for wheel rims can be made by producing a wheel and using that to produce the form tool but that means producing a wheel rim in the first place. I have also seen on this blog http://otiraminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/ a tool which has been wire eroded but sadly the guy hasnt replied to my request.
Therefore I would like to ask if anyone knows of, has access to, or knows someone who has the use of a wire EDM machine who would be willing to produce some form tools for me? I can provide everything (apart from the EDM machine!) needed. I have approached a few engineering companies so far and I have had only a single reply quoting a couple of hundred pounds to produce one. If there is anyone out there who could help, it would be VERY appreciated...

Anyway, on other matters I have added a little bit of colour to the layout. I know everyone likes pictures so here are a few...

I am guessing I should add some trains sometime soon!

Julia :o)

Highclere progress

Hello again.

I hadnt planned on putting another post together so quickly but I felt it might be worth it considering the comments that were made on my previous blog post. This is how the layout (well, one board of it) is looking after this weekend...

This is how the signal box and lineside hut are looking now. As I mentioned in the previous post I had reworked the hut to remove most of the weathering. I also took the opportunity to darken the brickwork a little as David had suggested. I didn't remove all the weathering though and I personally feel both buildings look better for it. Of course comments will be most welcome.

Above are a couple of (not very good) photos of me playing around with the lights inside the signal box. Trust me, it looks loads better in the flesh!

I have also made a few more small bushes using some picture hanging brass braided wire. They aren't based on any particular type of bush / tree but I feel they add some much needed intermediate height to the layout between the grassland and the trees. Its worth pointing out at this time the trees on the layout aren't in their finished position, they are pretty much being stored on the layout for now as it seemed the safest place for them. There are loads more to make (at some point).

Finally an overview(ish) of how the board looks right now. Still lots and lots to do...

Julia :o)

How dirty...?

Hello.

I thought I would put a blog together for a couple of reasons. The first is a question if its ok?

As you can see, I have attacked the lineside shed with the weathering powders and things to try and dirty it up a bit and hopefully make it a little more realistic which I have hopefully achieved. The problem now is the signal box looks a little bit too clean in comparison so my question is what do I do now? I could easily weather the signal box to suit but there is a part of me saying it wouldn't be as grotty as the little shed. Has anyone got any advice?

The second reason for this post is to show a couple of pictures of the water feature area to show how much it has progressed since the last post.

I think it looks much better than before so thanks for the comments / advice on the previous blog post. Of course though, comments would be warmly received.

Finally here is another photo for no other reason than I quite like it. I think it gives a nice sense of space (which I am trying to achieve), ignoring that fallen tree in the background of course!

Julia :o)

More Scenics

Hello Again :o)

As Jesse said "this week I have been mostly working on scenics", well he didn't exactly say that but I hope you get the general impression of what I am trying to say. Yes, once again its been time for some more scenic work on the layout. I am still enjoying it although this week has been a little tougher as I have been trying to copy what I have done previously and it doesn't always work out the same. Anyway, I am rambling, here are some scenic bits and pieces...

I found a paintbrush with bristles that looked a quite nice colour so I decided to chop some off, after all its a 2" paintbrush and it wouldn't miss a few.

I also was struggling to find any static grass or similar of the right shade of colour so I decided to make my own fibres by finely chopping up some sisal string with a pair of scissors.

Then with a bit of PVA the ends of the bristles were individually dipped into the glue then rolled around in the chopped up sisal string. I hope you can get an idea of what I was trying to achieve by now.

And there is the finished result, a small collection of reeds. I was tempted to add some more but I think that is enough for such a small amount of water.

Other bits I have been upto include a bit more fencing and also getting some hedges done too. Sorry for the rubbish photos but for some reason I couldnt get any good ones today...

Julia :o)