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)

2015, the year of that layout?

Hello.

Now that's a question and a poignant one for me. Highclere has been work in progress for what seems an eternity, it has moved on sporadically, and has even nearly been binned in the past. Now I don't really do New Years resolutions but this year I have said to myself that its really time the layout took some sort of priority over my other modelling escapades. There are a couple of things comming up this year where the layout really needs to be in a better condition than it is now. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going, especially as my modelling has been a bit random recently.

So, this weekend seemed like a good opportunity to do something, I didn't have anything planned plus I was in the mood for a bit of scenic work. I enjoy scenics, its calming, its like listening to some nice chilled out music. I don't have to be precise or accurate, I can experiment and see what appears in front of me...

This is what I started with, its the drain / stream thing on the left hand board just to the left of the Signal box. It had had a coat of basic flock sometime in the past to hide the vast amount of Brown of the baseboard.

So, inspired by Gordon Gravetts excellent book on modelling grassland I attacked the area with a scalpel and cut some chunks out of the area. I wanted to add a little bit of detail / interest to what would otherwise be quite a large area of grass.

And this is what it looks like now. I filled the gaps with some Scultamould which I formed into roughly the shape I needed. Once this was dry I then painted it ground Brown and stuck a bit of the Ballast I have been using onto the area to add a bit of texture.This was then given a wash of black and dry-brushed in earth colours to give it a bit of depth and then some gloss varnish was added to areas to give it a feel of wet mud. The whole surrounding area was treated to an initial layer of 1mm static fibres of varying colours with patches of longer 4mm fibres to add a bit of depth.

The stream was formed out of some air clay which was the painted in some Greeny / Browny acrylic paints and then some Gloss varnish was applied in several layers. Unfortunately as you can see the varnish has gone a bit white in patches though.

As you can see there is still more to do around this area with details to add and hedges amongst other things, including sorting out that varnish. The important thing though is I am happy with it, plus I have enjoyed myself too.

Julia :o)

Catching up with things

Hello everyone.

Apologies for the gap between posts, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year?

Anyway, to bring everyone upto speed with what I have been upto here are some bits and pieces...

1. City of Truro

As you can see I have made a little bit of progress, the initial 'hurdle' to overcome were the driving wheels and with the help of Nick Tilson (N Brass) I got some lost wax cast Brass wheels made from my 3D printed masters. I machined these to fit standard association steel wheel rims and I am quite pleased with the results.
The chassis sideframes were machined from some 0.5mm thick PCB on a CNC machine to get them all parallel and stuff and the spacers were treated to a similar treatment albeit from  some thick brass. The chassis has a 38:1 worm and wheel with the worm shaft supported by a couple of ball races. There is still plenty to do but I have moved forward quite a bit.

2. 18000

In my spare time at work (yes, its another one of those lunchtime projects!) I have been concentrating on the GW Gas Turbine 18000 project otherwise known as Kerosene Castle. Things are comming together well and as you can see the bogie sideframes are nearly complete. All I need to do now really is find a beaten up Farish class 37 diesel so I can chop it up and work out the rest of the bogie bits.

Other bits and bobs...

3. I recently attended the St Albans show and took along a selection of my 2mm bits to show people. Once again it was a fantastic show and I really enjoyed myself. Unfortunately this was spoilt somewhat by some comments on a popular forum under a thread title regarding the show. The comments were made in regards to the same demos being at the show and how they should be changed. I do try my hardest to interact with people and show things that might be of interest at these shows and it was a little upsetting to hear that it may not be appreciated as much as I thought it was. It takes a surprisingly large amount of effort to come to a show and I wish some people could realise that sometimes. Rant over....

4. GW Herring Wagon

The picture does not do this little wagon any justice at all but someone at the ST Albans show passed this wagon onto me. Its a 3D printed 2mm model of a GWR Herring Ballast Hopper and the amount of detail is amazing considering its size. Some extra weight needs to be added to the wagon as the enitre plastic body and chassis does make it a little too light but this can be done by adding a little bit of lead under the chassis or in the hopper if its being modeled full. All that's been done to this so far it to add some standard 2mmSA wheels and also a dusting on grey primer to make it a little more photogenic. Ian has done a great job with the model and I would recommend people trying one out, the link to the model is here...Herring Wagon. I was also impressed by his jigs for assembling wagon tarpaulins which I will try out in time too.

5. GW Railcar Number 1

I also have finally managed to get my hands on a 3D printed railcar from b&h Enterprises and it does look good. There is some stepping across the body in paces but nothing that a little light sanding wont remove. Its designed to fit either the tomytec 12R or 13R chassis so fingers crossed this might be a quick and easy little project (I am sure I have said that before though!).

6. 3D Doodler

I have also backed a kickstarter project for a 3D Doodler pen. I have a few ideas for it mainly trees but if anyone else can think of any other (sensible) uses then let me know!

Julia :o)

 

Aiming for some Atmosphere Part 3

Hello Again :o)

I have had one of those weekends. You know the ones where you spend virtually the entire weekend sitting around pondering things, doing household chores, and generally avoiding the modelling bench. All until Sunday afternoon when you try and cram everything you wanted to get done into a short time before the weekly grind of work comes around. Sometimes things work out, fortunately it feels things worked out for me...

The ends have been bugging me, its the thing that has held this engine shed up a bit. I have been trying to work out how to add the windows and also how the middle beam bit fitted together. I made a start using photos and things as a guide and its looks reasonable alright to me. What do you guys think? There is obviously still lots of work to do.

I have also tried to finish off the floor / ground bit and today I spent a bit of time with some filler and paint and above is the result. This is classic me, throw all sorts of different paints at something until it looks about right to me. I could never repeat exactly the method but it did start out with some suede effect paint, then the fun started! I am happy with the result, especially as it was semi-rushed and total guesswork really.

Finally, as with the previous posts, below are a couple I took (with the camera on my phone) t remind myself why I am dong this...

Julia :o)

Aiming for some Atmosphere Part 2

Hello :o)

I think I have made enough progress on this to add another blog post, things have moved on a little since the last post. There are a few photos to post so lets make a start...

Thanks to Andy H for the supply of bullhead track which has meant I could make a start on the base for the engine shed. I had some Easitrack point bases already and so armed with the two I finished off the track today. The Easitrack chairs were glued onto a 0.5mm thick piece of styrene sheet which in turn was stuck to a piece of foamboard for rigidity. It also meant I could cut out the access pits and give them some depth too. The photos above show the base at the beginning of infilling the track with a couple of layers of cardboard which annoyingly gives a nice texture and colour.

We now move on a little bit and this is now how it looks, I still need to infill between the tracks followed by adding some steps to the pits but I am happy with how it looks so far. Its a shame most of the track chairs will be covered really!

And the final check 'to see if it still looks ok' The second smoke 'thing' (I still dont know what they are called!) needs adding and them the whole lot needs some details sticking on.

Julia :o)

Aiming for some Atmosphere Part 1

Hello.

For a while now I have had the idea in my head to create a little something that can be used purely for taking photos of engines. The inspiration came a while ago on RMWeb in the form of a roundhouse diorama which has also recently appeared on the cover of the excellent 'Finescale magazine. The photos just oozed atmosphere and really appealed to my sense of modelling and what I like trying to achieve.

With these images in my mind the opportunity came at the N Gauge show where I spoke to Maurice and Mike of Osborns models to see if they could laser cut something I could use in the form of a GW Engine Shed. A short while later I was the proud owner of one shed which I posted about a few posts ago.

So, it was down to me to turn it into something I could use. I started with the roof by CNC cutting out a bunch of roof trusses out of plasticard sheet (which I previously posted about). This now brings me to todays post...

The reason I chose styrene for the roof trusses is so I can easily glue them to the existing laser cut wood. Above you can see them glued to half the roof.

There is still plenty to do but this gives an idea of what I would like to achieve. The long wall will be removable so you can get a camera inside.

This is what the roof currently looks like. I haven't figured out how to do the channels for the smoke yet (I am sure they have a proper name!).

Finally the two photos below hopefully give an indication on what I am aiming for...

I think there is glimpses of atmosphere, fingers crossed it gets better with time...

Julia :o)