A White Christmas

I had unofficially set myself a target of getting the 'Christmas Tree Halt' rebuild completed by the end of October, lots of reasons but mostly to ensure it was completed for December! I think I might have made it...

Since last week's update the major change is that I have painted the snow. As daft as it sounds this is key to the effect that I am after, as I wanted a snow finish that was durable (i.e. not too much loose material glued down) and repairable (in case of sticky fingers). This is why I paid so much attention to texture at the filler stages... My method has been to use Vallejo 70919 'Cold white', thinned very slightly with water and with a drop of Vallejo retarder medium added, painted using a soft brush (to avoid brush marks) and as each area is painted a very sparing sprinkle of Deluxe Materials 'Icy sparkles' added. You cannot see the sparkles in the photos but they do glimmer if the light is right!

The Noch trees have been fixed to their barbeque skewer pegs and slot neatly into the tubes set into the scenery. In the foreground I have added the bare bushes around the fence and shelter, with a smaller patch to the right. These are largely recycled from last year's efforts, but broken into smaller sections and a effort made to make them look more like bushes than trees. These were painted with the Vallejo 'Cold white' for the snow effect and again some icy sparkles sparingly added.

Last year I had hoped to add some ribbon around the base of the scene to help emphasise the "decoration" element of the concept, but had nothing to hand and no time to go out looking. With more time on my hands this year I was able to obtain something suitable, I always knew I would probably end up in the craft section of Boyes for this but had not perhaps foreseen making the purchase in their Barnard Castle branch!*

The ribbon was attached using double-sided tape, it really adds to the effect of the whole scene "floating" as you cannot really see the black-painted supports underneath.

There is one more item to add in due course but all the work I wanted to do to bring the pizza back to life for 2021 is pretty much done. A few adjustments have been made to the wagon for this year, notably adding Peco couplers in place of the bent bits of wire it ran with last year, and adjusting the load to not look quite so over-powering (although they are still HUGE presents!).

 

Attention is now turning to safe storage, it isn't easy to create a box that slips over a pizza and bolts in place, so a box that accommodates the pizza and has storage space for the trees is now under construction.

Colin

*my eyesight is fine, thank you...

Gimmie Shelter (and other snowbound detail)

I'm making progress with the rebuild of 'Christmas Tree Halt', with short bursts of work almost every day taking each step at a time.

The Wills halt building was primed and painted, ironically in pretty much the same colours it was moulded in, but the painted finish is much nicer in my eyes. The moulding dictates that there should be posters ether side of the doorway, so I searched online for suitable vintage looking Christmas themed designs. The chosen posters were reduced to size in Gimp and given the effect of a frame around them, then printed on glossy photo paper. Once fixed in place the whole structure was matt varnished to remove the sheen from the prints.

The shelter was glued in position and the snow (more filler) built up all around it whilst the glue set. As I had a weight on top holding it down I could not add snow to the roof at this stage.

I have also managed to plant a short length of fence, more Wills halt leftovers. I had to create a little trench in the scenery to get this to sit correctly, but once I was happy I glued it in place and added more snow all around. Just visible to the left in the shot below is the extra piled up snow I've added in front of the rock faces as these areas looked fat too flat before.

Once the shelter and fence were firmly in position I could add snow to the horizontals of the fence and the roof. The rooftop snow had a little PVA mixed into the initial layer to aid adhesion to the painted surface. The corrugations are still visible in places and I've achieved a snow dropping off the edge effect. On the right I've tried to give the impression some snow has recently dropped to the ground

The sign and bench from the Mk1 version of the scene are now in place and blended into the ground. There are still a few more areas to attend to before I start to paint the snow in it's final coating, such as to fill the areas of bare ground where the trees will sit. It is funny how the snow actually looks better and cleaner in the current photos than in reality! 

Oh, and I must clean up those rails...

Colin

It's starting to look all white...

A little progress on the Christmas pizza. I have been slowly applying filler around the edges of the board, then inside the track but not over the central area. The central area has had a coat of a mix of the same filler but mixed about 4:1 with PVA in the hope this can avoid any cracking over the softer base. Everything is largely thin layers in a bid to further avoid cracking issues. The two "eyes" in the centre of the scene are where the trees will sit, rather than plonked in the snow as per the mk1 version there will be a bit of exposed ground cover visible. In the centre of each patch is a tube fitted to accommodate the removable trees, these extend down through the polystyrene into the MDF base.

Whether applied at full thickness or the PVA mix, the filler was smoothed into place with a putty knife (or in the case of inside the circuit, butter knife...) and textured using a stiff paintbrush. A wet brush was then lightly run over the top to smooth the texture a little. I'm not sure the amount of texture is quite right in places and I may smooth any really high spots with fine wet or dry before adding the final colouring. 

Some of the left over filler/PVA mix was stippled into the previously smoothed area between the rails which has given a much better finish in this area. I now need to clean up the rail edges and have a test run to ensure it still works! Attention will now turn to painting the Wills halt building, some fencing and the rock faces before the next stage of snow work is attempted.

Colin

An Unseasonal Chill

Earlier in the month I had spotted some ready-mixed filler at a reasonable price in the largest shop in the village and bought it to see how it faired, as snow...

It had been on my mind for a while to revisit the remains of 'Christmas Tree Halt', the 009 pizza I built very quickly last December, which had been stripped down after mould or some other irritant had appeared in the snow cover. In truth the board had actually been stripped back completely earlier in the year, the track relaid using Roco sleepers/secondhand rail and even painted and weathered with a non-winter scene in mind. After adding corrugated card around the outside and in the centre I had lost interest again...

With filler to hand I soon found myself carefully filling in around the track. Taking my time, rather than rushing as I had before. I actually filled outside and inside the rails in separate sessions, and split the work into small manageable chunks rather than trying to do it all at once, which I felt helped keep control of the filler. I also tried not to create the final finish on the first application! Between the rails an extra layer was added, a mix of the filler and PVA effectively skimmed on and cleared from rail sides. After a little cleaning up I was relieved that it still worked!

With the track embedded I added the bases of the roadway and platform from card, and created the raised central area from polystyrene, subtly different in shape to the original. New features on the Mk2 version are some rock faces made some time ago using Plaster of Paris in improvised foil moulds, and a Wills station halt shelter, left over from the 'Humberston' diorama. Don't panic about the black blobs, they mark where the trees go, marked in felt-tip pen and then wetted during scenic treatment. In the background of the picture above can be seen some early trials of snow mix using Vallejo Foundation white and the new filler.

The Wills shelter has had a few tweaks to make the parts sit a little more comfortably and give the impression of framework over the doorway. The original station sign and bench should sit to the left. Platform edging is very thin balsa, overkill maybe as it will be covered in snow, but the original build lacked relief in this area.

One of the plaster-cast rock faces. This has been blended into the polystyrene landscape using some white modelling clay that had originally been bought to bed in the track, but was not shall we say the market-leading brand and seems to shrink quite a bit, causing me to go back over the gaps a few days later. It will all get a covering of snow in due course! To hold everything together all exposed polystyrene and some of the clay was covered in strips of kitchen towel fixed in place with dilute PVA.

So far so good, the next job is going to be to create sound fixtures to plug the trees in, I'm thinking of cutting into the polystyrene to add pre-drilled wooden blocks that a dowel in the tree base can locate into.

Just in case anyone thinks this is madness in September, I'm enjoying doing it with time to spare and better conditions for things to dry out. I'm also fairly certain I can be finished in time!

Colin

Neptune at Ninety

A week away in North Yorkshire gave the opportunity to visit Scarborough's North Bay Railway in it's 90th year. Journeying from our holiday park by a combination of buses and cliff lift, we found 1931 'Neptune' operating services as it had for all that time, with only a break during hostilities. The second train was operated by 1932 'Triton' as it had done for 89 years, apparently I had missed seeing relative youngster 1933 'Poseidon' in operation by a day!

As well as celebrating it's 90th anniversary, 2021 sees the North Bay Railway with a new operator, the operating company changing hands to common ownership with the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway. One interesting development is commitment to the line's pioneering diesel-hydraulic motive power and the sale of the new-build steam loco 'Georgina'. Director John Kerr kindly let me take a quick peek in the shed area to view 'Robin Hood' and 'Poseidon', which now looks a closer match to the original locomotives after much hard work by the Scarborough team.

Services are running daily until the end of October and are "turn up and go", no need to book and trains can be joined and left at ether end of the line.

One interesting thing that came to light after my visit was that there is a model of the North Bay Railway being documented on YouTube. I am not sure of the scale but it uses 9mm gauge track and Dapol A3 Pacifics and is quite convincing, this is just one of several videos on the channel of Harold Thompson - one to watch...

The photos from my visit to Scarborough on 19th August can be found on Flickr - Scarborough NBR.

Colin

Imposters - Spot the Difference

The two 'imposter' wagons seen in the last post are now completed and painted in grey primer. Since the last pictures I have added some simple hinge details, securing pins for the drop-doors and dummy link-and-pin coupler pockets.

Despite being to practically the same design, there are many differences in dimensions and details, in fact I'm not sure anything is actually the same!

When time permits and the mood takes me they will be painted up and finished off, but that really needs to wait until work on their potential home is underway...

Colin

 

Imposters on the Bench

Unfortunately I haven't done much modelling of late, lots of reasons, but the result was that I did find myself analysing my current project (the O9 micro roundy-roundy) and whether I had the time to continue with it, do something different or... who knows...?!

The last few weeks have seen a glimmer of hope and a couple of weekends ago I found I had time to sit at the workbench and actually build something. I opted to build another 3-plank wagon based on the one I had completed in January, a nominal 5ft (scale) long wagon with Grandt Line hinges on 3-plank sides. Of course I then decided one wasn't enough so started a second, and to give some variety this is a little bit longer. Detailing is still in progress with the end stanchions yet to be cut back and shaped.

One of the things that test running the new project had revealed was that trains formed of multiple Black Dog Mining based wagons tended to wobble a bit, especially if propelled. Some might say this is ultra realistic but to me it is a bit distracting (remembering that I abandoned using KB scale Hudson chassis for a similar reason). With that in mind for the first wagon I cut up a Peco N gauge 10ft chassis to a 14mm wheelbase and disguised it with Black Dog-style axleboxes, modifying the set I had made last year to try and add to a damaged Hudson frame. Hence this is the first imposter! The second wagon retains the 20mm wheelbase and has steel channel solebars, where there was space to add genuine Black Dog axlebox castings recovered from a broken chassis. An imposter in the sense they are not functioning... Both have weight added in the void between Peco chassis and floor.

The eagle-eyed might spot that there are no cut-outs for MicroTrains couplings on these builds. This is again in reaction to test running, as in order to avoid any accidental uncoupling events, I have opted to use MT couplers at the outer ends of rakes only, within rakes simple loop and pin couplers will suffice. Both new wagons will therefore be loop and pin only.

This leaves a few modifications to do to existing vehicles. I might have over-thought this, but in order to maintain consistency between vehicle ends I wanted couplers that bore a passing resemblance to the MicroTrains box at the other end, which luckily, if you squint, do look a bit like link and pin coupler blocks on real 15" gauge wagons. So out came the styrene and I had a play, having no 5mm x 3mm section wasn't as big an issue as I thought as I fudged up my own from 5mm x 5mm that had already been cut in half lengthwise... More imposters were born!

From left to right:

• Initial experiments based on MicroTrains 1015 (L) and 1023 (R) coupler boxes. These were actually OK, but the 1015 style one then went on for a bit of further development.
• Refined 1015 and 1023 boxes. The 1015 (L) now has some 3.2mm channel as the coupler face and whilst maybe not as close as the initial version, I concluded that this could be replicated on the new-build wagons easily. The 1023 (R) has some additional section down either side to reflect the additions I had already made to disguise the actual coupler boxes on some stock.
• A stand-alone coupler for new-build stock fashioned from 3.2mm channel, one of 5 made for the new wagons. Externally this and the 1015 substitute will look consistent. 

After that burst of activity there will probably be a bit of a lull until I get any more work done, but we shall see... 

Colin