More Embankment

Over the plaster, I added a wash of gold ochre, burnt umber and black acrylic paints. I painted it on with a brush. It turned out pretty good.

The next step if the houses in the corner. I'll need to try and cut another bit of foam as I think I have taken too much land off one of the houses.

However, with an ops night on Thursday, tomorrow will be a tidying up evening.

Until next time.

More Plaster

I re-plastered the embankment with some think plaster. It maybe too thick, but we'll have to wait and see.

I've ended up smearing the plaster on with gloved fingers. It doesn't look too bad as it is. By the time it's painted and scenery material added it shouldn't look too shabby.

While I was there, I started on the hill with the houses in the corner. I cut some polystyrene using a craft knife and whittled bits of it off until the foam was nicely formed.

It's not in the right place but it's easier to take a photo. One of the houses isn't going to make it from the top image.

What's next?

1. Give the embankment a wash.

2. Add some bushes.

3. Paint the foam.

4. Create some gardens.

5. Fences.

6. Tidy up for an operating session.

Until next time.

A Bit of Plaster

The last update had points installed. Sine then I've had a couple of operating sessions. Operating sessions do tend to slow down progress. But there has been some.

Around the back of the main freight yard (Boydtown Yard) and underneath Awdry there is an embankment. I've used a a lot of retaining brick wall so far and for the curved section I thought that I would make a plaster rock face.

First I filled some gaps with some scrap foam core boards.

Next I used some masking tape to create a something for the plaster to stick to.

Then I put on some plaster.

Then I used the crumpled alfoil mould method which I had used before. The only problem was that I had poured too much plaster in and made it too thick. I also ran out of plaster as I only bought a small bag.

Now that I've been able to get to a hardware to buy another bag, I'm going to put more plaster on and put my alfoil mould on top of it. That's tomorrow's job. What could possibly go wrong.

I've a operating session coming up this week so I'm hoping it'll be sorted by then.

Until next time.

Ah... Winter

This video by Kathy Millatt cropped up on my Youtube feed a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not saying that I've lost my mojo. The long silence is due to a winter illness - it a sort of occupational hazard in my line of work. And this year it brought it's a game.

I've had a couple of other railway related things going on as well, so they have take up the fifteen minutes a day that I philosophise.

If you haven't already seen this clip, give it a go.

Until next time.

Putting things off.

You know those jobs that aren't really difficult but you want a bit of time to do them? Like installing point motors for example.

It has taken a while to put them in. Not because it was a difficult task but because it was a little awkward. It involved soldering and drilling and pulling stuff out from under the layout. Not hard stuff but a reckoned that it would take me a couple of hours, so I kept putting it off until I could tackle it in one go. I should have looked at other jobs to do but that seemed too difficult.

It took a little bit more time than I thought but I took my time and the job is finally done.

The point motors are for the top station of Awdry as a couple of the points are out of arms reach and require a little stool to operate. Not any more.

Four point motors were installed. Three at the end of Awdry station (top) and one ate Brewery Lane station. (Bottom) The latter allows access to the grain silos.

One of the points at Awdry required a bit of packing to operate properly.

Tonight's effort was using my new Peco Static Grass Applicator. I threw the old one out as it wasn't as safe as I thought. The Peco one is much better and less likely to stop your heart. It was a very narrow strip between the track on the edge of the top level but it still needed some grass.

As I have an operating session in the first week of the month, I am not too keen to do anything too major with the layout. A bit more ballasting and retaining wall building will probably fill the time between now and then.

Until next time.

Cattle Yard

With the tarmac down, the next bit along is the cattle yard.

The ramps and pens were built for an Inglenook style shunting layout in 2002. I was using four wheel wagons, mainly S trucks and a sheep van. They were reused in 2005 when I built a larger layout and needed a cattle yard. 

The yard is small but considering that it is on the edge of the baseboard I reckon that I can get away with it.

I have been thinking about how to get some dirt texture onto the plywood. To be honest, I was going for something cheap and easy for a Thursday night. The answer came with sandpaper. I have heaps of it that I bought years ago. I cut out some 240 sand paper and dry brushed it with some dark brown acrylic paint. There were a couple of sections that weren't dry brushed and didn't look good. I rubbed this bit off with my finger and dry brushed it again.

It was glued in place and left to dry.

The pens needed a little bit of repair, as did the ramps. For the tall ramp, one of the long supports needed to be replaced. The ramps were originally scratch built with Evergreen styrene. The fences are from Atlas. There was more fencing but it hasn't seemed to survive as well as the pens. New fencing was added down the sides. I'm hoping that the the way they finish at the edge of the baseboard gives the impression that they carry on towards the viewer. These fences are the same kind used for the cattle dock on Billabong Marina and the the grassy car park by the station.

The repairs are a slightly different colour and I'm okay with that because they are bits which were recently repaired.

It was all stuck down with PVA and few bits of green added for good measure. The cows are removable. No pun intended.

The bare plywood next to the cattle yard has since been painted burnt umber so that I don't make the same mistake when putting the static grass on the next section.

The next step is to ballast that bit of track and put down some more grass. Sooner or later though, I'm going to need to wire up some points. That might be a job for the long week end.

Until next time.

Sometimes Things Need To Be Done Twice

Work on the next bit was going well. On day one the next section of wall below Awdry was cut out and Scalescene's red brick glued on top. Day two saw most of the plinth added, except that I ran out of brick paper. I printed another sheet off and it was a different, more saturated colour.

I experimented a bit and worked out that with my Epsom printer (a really cheap inkjet), if I print off more than one sheet, then the colours are faded.

I don't know why. It didn't happen with the old printer. 

I printed off a whole heap of new sheets of brick paper in individual one sheet jobs. Check out the difference. The top half is the first attempt.

The wall was finished and a quick trip to the layout yesterday saw the tarmac put down for the loading area and the coal conveyer.

The next bit to sort out is the small cattle yard next to the tarmac.

Until next time.