Finishing Touches for a Micro-Diorama

Having successfully added various grass textures to the micro diorama I decided to add more plant life in the form of a couple of Gaugemaster/Noch laser cut flowers - the purple one to the right and red one back left. The red one fell apart so ended up glued to the post upright as support! The yellow flower in the foreground is a Mininature product. I also added a couple of Silfor tufts into the grass to add more variety to both colour and texture, you should be able to locate them...

As predicted the thin basswood came out and was cut into 8mm strips to add around the edge. Not visible in the pictures I have added the scale and year to the end pieces using dry print lettering as I have on previous micro dioramas. These strips were set in place one-by-one using PVA held with elastic bands until set as the thin material tends to curl under the dampness of the PVA. Once set the next strip is added and so on. The corners were sanded smooth and rounded off and a coat of matt varnish added to protect the lettering and seal the timber.

The scene is now in place in the display cabinet and it's first visitor is 'Flower of the Forest', it is the ideal size for smaller O9 locomotives.

What's next? You'll have to wait and see, but you might have seen some of it before...

Colin

Scenery for a Micro-Diorama

With the foundations and ballast in place I have made progress over a couple of short sessions on this little project. The first layer of ground cover in place is my brown(ish) emulsion paint/PVA/filler mix with a blend of Woodland Scenics fine turf and very fine sand sieved over whilst wet and tamped in place. I have taken the earth mix over the edge of the ballast as part of my plan to blend everything together.

Inspired by a DVD of the Ravengass & Eskdale Railway that I had been watching I wanted to try and create the effect of the weedkiller train on the greenery along the ballast edge, turning the grass yellow with an almost straight edge to the colour join. I've not consciously seen this modelled on a modern era layout.

To achieve this I used a product I had first tried on my 009 layout, the Javis scenics Autumn 'rough terrain' mat. This is a mix of short yellow and green static fibres on a tacky, tear-able backing. Using narrow strips of this either side of the ballast soon achieved the look I was after - it is stuck down by damping both the ground surface and the backing. Liking the look this achieved I then set to with PVA over the rest of the ground area and stuck down segments of hanging basket liner in two different shades. It was so warm in the workshop that after an hour or so of mowing the real grass outside, I was able to lift the backing and surplus materials away and give it a brush through with both wire and tooth brushes, then an initial miniature mow with the hair clippers...

The blend between the 'dead' grass and the longer stuff has worked very well in my opinion. With a spare half hour or so the evening after planting I gave the grass a further manicure with nail scissors then made up some masks of small random shapes from newspaper. These were used to hide the rest of the scenery whilst hairspray was sprayed through, the mask removed and scatter sprinkled over. With three different masks and two mixes of scatter the effect is quick and easy. I then opted to stick the railings in place as it is getting very close to completion..

There's a bit more to add such as laser cut plants etc but I'm getting closer to having to dig out the basswood to make the essential light-wood surrounds.

Colin

An Estate of Mind - Part 2

Motivated by the successful completion of the 4w works coach I looked at completing another item from the small collection living in grey primer. Next to receive attention are this pair of "estate" wagons last seen in 2017 not long before I embarked on the 009 adventure. 

Whilst they might look like a pair of Black Dog Mining WA04 opens, the bodies were actually scratch built to a slightly narrower width to suit my requirements (I'm just to fussy!). Having previously narrowed down the resin bodies I opted to scratch build as it seemed just as easy. 

Now painted with a weathered wood finish I'm rather proud of how they have turned out. 

The finish uses a coat of Citadel 'Baneblade Brown' over the grey primer as a base, not worrying too much that it covers in one coat. Then a wash of light brown, and whilst still wet a wash of Vallejo 'Black Grey'. A light weathering by dry brushing the base colour back over the top finished the first step.

The metalwork was picked out in mix of more 'Black Grey' with a spot of 'US Olive Drab' added to warm the colour. When dry this was dry brushed with a mix of gunmetal, a rust shade and a spot of grey. A spray of Humbrol matt acrylic varnish sealed the coats of paint, before a last dry brush with a sandy coloured mix and further weathering using powders on the interior.

The pair look ready for estate service, I just need to come up with a suitable scheme...

Colin

Evolution of a Micro-Diorama

Despite some progress on the mk2 version of the 'Beck Bridge' scene I still wasn't overly happy. So officially that project is on hold for a while - unofficially I have a 'cunning plan' but that will have to wait...

What has appeared is a 70 x 140mm 'micro' diorama to fit in my display cabinet in its place that is a lot more suited to the purpose - less is more.

The track came from from the bridge scene cut to length, I wasn't too sure about the fencing, feeling it might overpower such a small scene so after a little thought I tried some fencing along the back edge  that I made up 18 months ago based on some portable wooden fencing used by the Ravenglass & Eskdale railway, as described here. 

As much as I liked the 'Ratty' fence the more I looked at it the more it didn't look right - two long sections seemed to shorten the scene. The three panels of the concrete fence made it look longer. I therefore looked at other low options, and mocked up on this typical low wooden barrier.

The uprights are 7mm NGA wooden sleepers, a pack I picked up from 7mm NGA sales for 50p. Each was cut in half and notched at the top. The rail is basswood, it was 1/8" square but I opted to reduce it by about a quarter to reduce the visible impact, then sanding down the sides of the uprights to reduce them too. 

Deciding this was the way to go the wooden fence was given a wash of brown, followed by dry brushing in natural wood, darker brown and dirt colours. The metal plates securing the rail to the uprights were made from foil cut from a Mr Kipling style tray, probably from a Christmas treat! 

Further progress has seen the track ballasted using a blend of colours, laid dry, sprayed with water and secured with 'Kleer'. Scenic work can now begin using tried and tested techniques and hopefully a few new ideas.

Colin

Progress without movement

Before Christmas I demonstrated progress with my 4-wheel coach conversion to a PW crew coach. After a few delays caused by the weather and illness, the end result is now this:

The yellow areas are sprayed using Halfords 'Broome Yellow' over a white primer, whilst everything else is brush painted in acrylics. Matt Humbrol varnish was sprayed over the completed modelling and weathering applied in the form of washes and dry-brushing.

Inside the figures are cheap Chinese ones sprayed with grey primer and then given a dark grey wash. Dry brushing highlighted the skin colour on hands and faces and orange on their jackets to look like hi-vis (but low-vis, if you catch my drift...). Windows are the Dapol originals and door handles are 7mm NGA ones chemically blackened and weathered.

A couple of other pre-primed items are now awaiting workshop attention, but don't get too excited...

In other news, despite some progress on the mk2 version of the 'Beck Bridge' scene I still wasn't overly happy. So officially the project is on hold for a while - unofficially I have a 'cunning plan'... 

In the mean time the bridge itself has been painted and weathered, which is a good encouragement to actually use it...

Colin

New Season, New Shop

Today was the first day of the season for my local 15" line, the Sherwood Forest Railway. It only seems like 5 minutes since the end of the 2018 season, but even in that short time there are notable changes, including this very smart new shop building.

If you are looking for a suitable building for a small O9 station you do a lot worse than copy this....

On an unusually sunny February day the sun was in the wrong place at the bottom of the line, I had to mess around with this picture and make it black and white to make it look anything like "normal"!

Colin

The Beck Bridge II - Rethink!

Something was bugging me about the 'Beck Bridge' cat food box diorama... I liked the concept but what wasn't working was the practicalities of what the diorama would be useful for, or how it could be stored. It wasn't going to be much use for photography as the bridge handrails were central and got in the way, and it couldn't be displayed anywhere as it would be too vulnerable to being knocked etc.

So I had a rethink and vanished off into the workshop....

Apart from the bridge it is all new material. Well, I say new, leftover 3mm MDF forms the base, with a frame of 12 x 21mm timber leftover from the box build for the 'Old Quarry Line' along the back and supporting the bridge/trackbed (more 3mm MDF). More offcuts of polystyrene form the landscape with a healthy dose of DAS modelling clay to blend it all together. The concrete bridge abutments are from 'Fab foam'.

The track is Peco, when I laid the Pizza layout at new year I ended up with a lot of individual sleepers due to the way I cut up and manipulated the sleeper base, so I have used these sleepers with all the webbing trimmed off and the ends squared off. The ones on the bridge had extra treatment to further neaten their edges as there will be no ballast at this point, in the manner of the bridges on the (now closed) Markeaton Park Light Railway.

This new version of the scene will both fit in my display cabinet and allow stock to be displayed without the bridge slap bang in the middle!

Colin