Of Trees and Track

I'm always fearful that my posts about the design of the next layout might give the impression that I'm not actually doing any real modelling.

So here are the meager fruits of this weekends work.

I'm not sure but I think this is my first ever completely scratchbuilt tree. The wire was from the scrap box and rather thicker than that normally advocated. You can see the bare armature, coated with hot glue, in the current header photo of the blog. I sprayed it with Plastikote Manhattan Mist stone paint, which is one of those handy products for adding a bit of texture in all sorts of situations.

The tree is intended to disguise the sharp bend in the backscene behind the station building, and seems to work for that purpose.

This is certainly the first hand made track I've tackled since my OO9 days. In those days I used copperclad sleepers. For this I've gone back to riveted ply because that's what my disastrous attempts at EM track building in my teenage years used, and I wanted to lay that ghost to rest.  I'm not actually planning to use this technique on the layout itself, but I wanted to make sure I could do it if I decide I need to use rivets rather than C+L chairs to strengthen the points. Oh, and I had some FB rail I wanted to make use of.

Llanrhaiadr Mochnant in Glorious Colour!

I was whingeing recently in my comments on Geoff's excellent  article on good yard textures about how difficult it was to recreate colour from black and white photos.

It is typical therefore that almost immediately afterwards I found this set of colour photos of Llanrhaiadr Mochnant.

£15 for each high definition download is a bit steep if you ask me but even the preview versions have provided me with some useful information. I'm glad I found them now rather than in a year's time because they've corrected my understanding of a few points. In a particular I'm really pleased to find this shot of the shed with the fuel pump next to it. I think it will make a nice cameo.

I'm certainly a lot happier now I know more about the colour of the goods yard and after another couple of washes I think I'm getting closer to the right effect. I need to do something about the vegetation around the edges. It would appear to need to be a darker green than the grass behind it and more weed than grass.

Fencing

A quick break from work this evening has let me put the fencing in place, though not permanently yet.

The idea of building it on the U channel has worked better than expected, especially since the channel could then be pre-planted with vegetation.

The intermediate strakes are 0.6mm Plastruct rod. If doing it again I would probably use wire. They are so obvious in photos of the line that they need to be modeled, and that in turn meant I had no real choice about whether or not to model the fence wires, for which I used knitting-in elastic. This is one of the alternatives to stretched sprue that kit modelers use for rigging biplanes. I could imagine using it to represent signal wire as well. In this case I've used Metalcote on it, but to be honest I think it would have been fine in its natural state.

I think it has made a big difference to the diorama

Not good enough

No one is probably more surprised than me that I've made a fair amount of progress against yesterday's to do list.

As always though it isn't that simple, and as I've improved one thing I've become more dissatisfied with others

Giving the goods yard a wash of various tones has improved it considerably, but it still isn't quite right. 

The platform is looking better, but still needs some weeds to disguise imperfect join between the platform surface and the platform edge.

The attempt to improve the weighbridge windows

Appears to be no better than my first attempt.

Time to bite the bullet I think and build a new version. 

Behind the revised version you can see I've been trying to sort out the lineside fencing as well. Given that I'm having to retrofit it I've opted to build it on a sub-base made form U channel. This was a good move because even then trying to get the "knitting-in elastic" in place was a struggle for my poor eyes. Having said that it worked better than expected. It has just enough tension to remain taut without pulling the posts inwards too  much, and enough give that it doesn't get damaged when you catch it accidentally. Incidentally I've not attached it to any of the intermediate posts, it lies up against them due to the tension. I've still got to add the thin wooden strakes that were used between the concrete posts on the prototype.

Remedial Action

Whilst playing around with train simulators, planning Llanrhaiadr Mochnant and working rather too hard it has to be said that Apa has been getting very little attention. In fact it looks very unloved as the shift to Autumn weather seems to have caused a few things to come unglued. To be honest it is hard to get up too much enthusiasm for a project that has served its purpose, especially since I want to focus on developing my EM gauge track building and stock fettling skills. If I didn't know better though I would blame the damage on an obvious scapegoat. Young engines today bah!

On the other hand it is sat on my desk and I would rather it at least looked finished  so I can switch the lighting on and not feel embarrassed.

Actually problem number one is I need to reattach the lighting and optimize where I'm placing it because I wasn't happy with the original positioning. Other jobs to be done are:

• Putting a road surface in the space between the bridge parapet and the back scene and adding some vegetation around the bridge
• Re-gluing the platform surface which has lifted
• Trimming the vegetation along the base of the platform
• Replanting the trees
• Having another attempt at improving the colour of the goods yard
• Finishing the signalbox whilst fully accepting it is a learning exercise 
• Putting in some of the distinctive lineside fencing
• Replace the windows in the weighbridge

That little lot should keep me busy for a few days. Meanwhile here it is in MSTS

The Grass Grows

I wasn't happy with the grass on the disused platform. Checking back to a photo of Blodwell Junction suggests in real life it the grass was a lot longer and the bushes had encroached a lot more.

So it was out with the Noch static grass again this lunchtime to try and improve the look of things.

This is one of my favourite shots of the layout to date.

I It looks a bit better than this in the flesh. However I do find static grass always ends up looking much lighter than I expect. I still need to add some bushes on the platform, and the join between the grass and the platform edge seems to have become move obvious.

I've added some vegetation at track level as well but that needs cutting back once the glue has dried if only to clear the point rodding. Ah yes, the point rodding. The MSE version is so delicate my eyes have to look for it in the photos of the model, whereas it is very prominent in prototype photos.

Hedging

Just in case you think I spent the whole weekend pontificating rather than modeling.

The hedge is now in place, made from teased out hanging basket liner, sprayed and then sprinkled with foam.

The platform now has a covering of static grass to reflect its disused status, though I'm disappointed that it has come out very bland compared to my test piece, so I need to revisit it. I've also re-foliaged a so-called premium tree.

I suspect I need to build a new version of the weighbridge hut. The window looks OK in the flesh but is revealed as terribly crude in photos.

Talking of which, here are some more photos:

Mud

It seems a long time since I've had  a week that was quiet enough at work to allow for me to be home in the evenings.

I did, however, manage to get something like a lunch hour today. Like as in it was only half an hour and I didn't get a chance to eat lunch, but since I was working from home I did  get a couple of jobs done on the layout.

So the platform is now surfaced and the goods yard is ...well still not right. I'm struggling with the very simple question of what a muddy goods yard should actually look like.

Plastikote

Plastikote and Rustoleum make products that are really useful to two types of people.

The first are the truly creative crafty type who would use the Plastikote Manhattan Mist  Stone effect aerosol to turn a polystyrene sphere into an attractive table decoration.

Thne there are those of us who use these sorts of products to cover up our mistakes.

This, of course, has got nothing to do with any recent work on the platform and goods yard. Nothing at all.

Success and Failure

When will I learn that rushing is never a good thing?

When will I remember lessons I've already learnt before making the same mistake again?

When will I just accept that sometimes things look worse as you begin to make progress?

So what has brought all this on?

Having a 1001 things to do this weekend I thought I would keep the work on the layout straightforward and just assemble the station building and lay down the surfaces for the goods yard and the platform. One of those jobs went well, the other two considerably less well, and the overall result seems to highlight so many other things I'm dissatisfied with.

I'm struggling to find anything I like about how the layout currently looks.
The odd pieces of hanging basket liner are a desperate attempt to find
the right profile to blend with the backscene

The station building looks OK to my eyes, certainly a lot better now it is in a basic coat of matt black and in-situ where it isn't going to be subject to much close scrutiny.

This is how much of the station building will normally be seen

Ignore the back scene corner for now....

 What has gone badly wrong is the ash/gravel surfaces. I was going to use a Polyfilla , Chinchilla sand, black paint and PVA glue mix, laid on a surface painted with PVA. The idea of the PVA is to keep it all flexible and avoid it cracking. So, despite the bottle being right in front of me guess which of the ingredients I forgot to include?