Signs of Spring

I've never been a Winter modeler, and last Summer was lost to sorting out my mother and her affairs. So, although I began to store up projects, I didn't get much done.

I did get the office/studio semi-organised in the way that you can only do after living in a space. I now want to do a much bigger shift around to give my workbench more light and to make the light more manageable when I'm doing video calls and podcasts.

As it is, I'm at least organised around tasks, if not individual layouts. For the last ten days the tasks have been around building structures for Gerralt Rd, Dark Hall Halt, and the Kato Circus modules I bought as a quickie project eighteen months ago, that for overtaken by the house move,

First of the Kato Circus modules

I'm taking a very robust, literally, approach to the Circus modules, on the basis that they are bound to be knocked around. This is the first, and some of you recognise the platform shelter, which is inspired by Park Hall Halt's original one. I've used the thick plastic Ratio corrugated iron sheet for strength, but I've found it much harder to work with than the 4mm Wills sheets. Building a prototype has the advantage that you realise your mistakes before wasting too much time. Needless to say I've discovered a lot more detail about the building since putting it together. For instance I now know the corrugated iron extended beyond the facia bar at the front, and there was a basic gents toilet attached to the back, though the exact details of that remain obscure.

Incidentally, I'm painting the module bases with one of the many "darkest black" paints now available.to give them a floating island stage set vibe.


Work on Dark Hall Halt proper has mostly focused on modifying the Lcut girder bridge. Once again, there is nothing like beginning a model to realise the details you've missed. And that is not to mention the perils of presuming the kit manufacturer had taken full-size engineering into account. Fortunatly I think I can compromise with a little bit of extra work.

The same comment about making presumptions about kit design applies to a structure I had in mind to solve my compositional challenge on the right-hand side of Gerralt Rd.

I was grateful to find the model from DAPR, but I don't know how well the CI effect will work when painted, given the printing process and the lack of individual panels. I'll work around the latter using paint effects, but I should have sribed them on before beginning construction. I also decided I couldn't live with the flimsy legs, so they are being replaced with H girders. I'm also not sure this is the building that will actually sit there, but it is in the right ballpark.

At the other end I'm beginning to firm up my ideas for the level crossing, based on the well-known one at Porrthywaen. It isn't quite there, but not far off.

First idea

Getting better, but at the expense of even less 'bitsa' station