Things are coming together and sometimes pictures say more than words!

 Things are coming together and sometimes pictures say more than words!

More to do but I like what I see!

Buffer stops!

 As the work on detailing parts for the station area continues it was time to get some buffer stops sorted for the end of the sidings. 

I had in stock four Hornby items which may not be the greatest buffer stop but with some work they can look better.

First job was to give them a base coat of light grey which actually revealed that they are more detailed than I expected. Once the paint dries I will start the detail painting.

They look fairly effective especially from a distance which is a point from which most of my modelling should be viewed from!

You may be wondering what these are?

And these.

Well the next picture should explain!

They are of course the coping stones that adorn the top of the wall and pillars. Simply cut from card - the old backing board to a pad of paper, and with pencil lines to denote the joints they look fairly effective especially from a distance which is a point from which most of my modelling should be viewed from!

The airbrush has also been out weathering the walls with browns and greys to take away that pristine look of the brick papers and again I think from a distance it looks OK!

Hopefully I can start to get things back in place on the layout and maybe actually run some trains!

It is a sizable piece of infrastructure!

With the wall section off the layout for cables to be attached and weathering plus finishing off a few other parts to it you can see it is a sizable piece of infrastructure!

It is 6 foot in length and any work on it takes time dealing with that size of modelling.

However, the two cables are in place and weathering is now to commence which should be fun with something this big!

Now what do we have here?

 Now what do we have here?

A number of bits of plastic strip cut to 1cm lengths but why?

Well once painted grey....

..and with the wall section behind the station removed to the convenience of the floor...

...they were glued to the wall. OK! Nut why?

Well, they form the brackets to which the cables will be attached giving a representation of the real life situation where cables along railway lines are attached to nearby walls! More to do but it is getting there!

Not sure what they contain but it could be some mysterious matter!

 Having had a calming time stacking the pallets with the sacks all included in the Ratio pack it was time to paint.

A coat of light grey was applied as a unifying undercoat.

Then the colour was added. Using a similar technique to that I used on the planks on the Hornby flat wagon wheel carrying wagons, the pallets look worn and used. The barrels probably want another coat of yellow but look a bit brighter than they did and the sacks are in a blue with a yellow dot. Not sure what they contain but it could be some mysterious matter! However, they do add a bit of colour. I just need to add a bit of weathering to them.

Stacking pallets!

 I have enjoyed stacking the pallets with the sacks included in the Ratio pack - most therapeutic!

I just need to paint all the items up ready to find a place on the layout.

Also therapeutic was a bike ride taking in the local canal where the rain of the last week has made an impact! 

The water now touches both sides! I didn't think that we had that much rain but there is the proof!

A bit of wire in the foot!

Those concrete slabs at the base of the 4mm scale figures I have been painting have been removed!

Painful as that must have been for the plastic figures the next indignity that they suffered was having a hole drilled through their feet and a piece of brass wire mounted in it! That wire should enable the figures to be mounted on the platform securely.

Whilst I am working on the smaller details I dug out this pack of Ratio pallets, sacks and barrels from the WMD Stores which should add some additional detail around the Station baseboard. 

There are lots of other things I could be doing like jobs on Mrs. Woody's list of chores!

 Whilst awaiting the ballast to dry from yesterdays deployment of it, there are lots of other things I could be doing like jobs on Mrs. Woody's list of chores and 'things for me to do' list. However I avoided those in preference to some painting of figures of which some will find their way onto the station platform that I have recently been working on. These are the old Airfix figures now produced by Dapol and to be fair despite being about 60 years old they are still a fairly detailed set of figures.

Once painting is finished they will get a coat of matt varnish and that concrete slab base will be trimmed away allowing them to be positioned with their shoes firmly on the platform surface!

Before weathering it I have painted the wooden boards of the catwalk on the signal gantry. Nothing too special as all of the gantry will be weathered which will alter the appearance.

Now, what jobs am I going to be doing tomorrow? Models or Mrs. W's list?

Lots of other things in the meantime to keep me amused!

Time for some more ballasting on my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout which unfortunately is not the last of the ballasting! 

The usual method of brushing and prodding the ballast into place was employed before dilute PVA glue was dribbled over the area and left to dry.

 Because the curved track had come slightly loose from its attachment to the vase I added some weights which should help it all glue back with the ballast and be level too! The good thing about the warm weather is that the glue dries quickly but given it is not quite as hot as during the heatwave I will leave the weights in place for two days. Lots of other things in the meantime to keep me amused!

Well that was illuminating!

Well, after yesterdays post, the light is on and I can illuminate that the strange posts are actually lamps!

Some plastic rod and scraps of plastic card were used to make these which are for the platform.

To attach them to said platform I used some tube and scraps of plastic card to make mounting points to go under the plastform.

Having ascertained where on the platform the lamps were to go, holes were drilled and the mounting points glued in place.

Well that was illuminating!

I will be putting a light on and illuminating what they are in a later post!

After yesterdays post I did not go back to the ladder for the signal gantry but the signal heads themselves came in for some more work. 

The plastic card backs I glued on to cover the holes in the back of the units was trimmed and filed to shape. The units were then glued to the already grey painted mounting brackets ready to be painted in black.

The parts of the mounting brackets to remain grey in colour were masked and the rest of the plastic was airbrushed with black paint. I just need to paint the light lenses which is a bit more complex than it sounds and more on that when I get to it and then mount the signal heads on the gantry along with that ladder!

In the meantime what's going on here?

I will be putting a light on and illuminating what they are in a later post!

The ladders too short!

Another one of those it has gone wrong moments!

As I am not using the massive bases supplied in the kit into which the supporting structures fit into and make the model 'playable' for train sets back in the 60s, the access ladder is too short!

Whilst I though of solutions to that problem, I did get the airbrush out and give the assembled structure a coat of light grey paint. You may also notice that there is a small plastic block on the cutting mat just above the signal heads. Cut from one of the supplied bases it will be a potential solution to the ladder issue!

The signal head mouldings do not have a back to them! Even though it is unlikely that this would be noticeable on the finished model I have glued them to a bit of thin plastic card sheet which, when the glue hardens, will be cut to shape giving a proper appearance to the heads!

Now, back to that ladder!

Catwalks

With the main structure of the signal gantry constructed it was time to get the catwalk into place. In real life this would be in place to enable maintenance works to take place on the signal heads. 

Unlike a fashion show catwalk, this type of catwalk was not glamourous and to be honest before the advent of some of the necessary health and safety legalities, could be dangerous to those having to use them.

The catwalk does come with some stanchions which the instructions (yes I did read them - eventually!) say should be used to attach some thread to creating a safety rope. Not feeling as though that was the best idea I raided WMD Stores again to find some suitable plastic rod which was cut to length and glued in place. It may not be all that safe for any 00 gauge maintenance staff but it looks a lot better than sagging thread!

Another successful bodge!

A bit of file work to tidy up the points where the parts were attached to the sprue and it was time to actually glue some parts of the signal gantry together.

One part that is a bit of a let down is on the supporting girder structures where the outside face is nicely detailed with strengthening swage but the other side is flat and looking a little toy like. Just as I highlighted yesterday that something would go wrong, this was that moment!

However, there is usually a solution, or in my case, bodge to overcome such matters, A delve into the ever resourceful WMD Stores found some suitable plastic strip that was glued into place.

That looks better! Another successful bodge!

No matter how few parts there are something will probably go wrong for me!

As work progresses with the station board to My Last Great Project Layout now also known as Woodville Junction, thought has gone onto details other than ballast, dummy point motors and vegetation.

This is part of that thought process which was actually aided by finding this kit in my stash of such things a few weeks ago and suddenly realising that it might actually fit in near to the signal box.

Originally part of the Airfix range and released back in 1960 means this kit is now 66 years old! Looking at the contents of the bag shows that either the original Airfix moulds that Dapol bought from them back in the mid 80s have survived well or that Dapol have remade them. Very little flash present and all the parts look good. Looking at the small number of parts is always heartening until realise that no matter how few parts there are something will probably go wrong for me! I will just have to see if that comes true - again!

Yes, I still listen to live broadcasts - the only steaming I know are the ones that run through fords!

Anyone in the the south and mid part of the UK will be well aware of the drought and whilst out I crossed what is normally a ford about a foot deep.

Barely any depth to what is now a stream but the grass next to the water is still an actual shade of green compared to the desert sand colour of most other vegetation away from any source of moisture!  I will probably regret saying this in a few weeks time but I am actually missing the rain!

Meanwhile, back in the Man Cave, the vegetation on My Last Great Project layout is unaffected by the drought but it does get dusty!

As you may note, more detail to the tarck and track side has been added.

Detail that includes dummy point motors mounted at the side of the points just as real ones would have on most railways around the World.

I like this picture with its view under the road bridge capturing the ballasted track with vegetation growing in and around it in the sidings and eventually leading up to that other road bridge that appears far off in the distance but is actually about a metre away. Doing all this detail takes time but it is therapeutic ;listening to something intellectual or musical on the radio - yes I still listen to live broadcasts - the only steaming I know are the ones that run through fords!

Another exclusive WMD video production!

 The progress continues with the application of weathering powders and vegetation on the ballasted track.

This will actually take a longer time than the week I suggested a few posts ago and you can see the scale of the work in this exclusive WMD video production!

Oily times!

Progress!

With the ballasting done (well almost as I will explain in a moment) it was time to make the trackwork grimy! First thing was to just dust the area with my usual dilute mix of brown paint and that was done with an airbrush for convivence.

It may not look that different in the photo but that misting of brown took away most of the shininess of the track and ballast.

Blasting compressed air, even at low pressure, onto ballast soon shows the areas where I had missed applying the glue such as illustrated by the red arrow above. Oops!

Having reapplied ballast and glued it, attention turned to the tracks running at the side of the platform. Where trains stand they tend to leak oil and fuel onto the tracks and ballast. 

I replicated that with a product by MIG which is oil and grease stain. Simply brushed on oy dries with an oil like sheen to it. I also had some old black paint that I diluted and applied with a syringe.

Still much more to do but as I started this post - progress!