Weathering the platform.

Having glued the platform surface to the base it was time to weather the base. The bricks and cables just looked too bright and new, not dirty and old as such a platform would be. Not only that but a bit of weathering does hide the odd glue smear and similar! The airbrush was loaded up with some very thinned earth coloured paint and randomly sprayed on the base until the desired effect had been achieved.

Putting it on the layout it turned from this....

....to this. Still more to do to the platform itself but it is coming on.

Back to model making!

 Time to get back to some modelling as it did rain today! Still didn't get much done as there were indoor jobs to do on Mrs. woody's list! However, I did get some more done on the platform for my 00 gauge layout. Something that you see attached to most platform sides are electrical cables but rarely modelled so that was my challenge today. I had some thin black cable salvaged from a defunct electrical appliance and although not long enough to go the full length of the platform I had a plan!

First off I needed some supports to attach the cables to - just like the real thing! I cut 5mm lengths of sme plastic rod from the WMD stock of such things and super glued these at 25mm gaps - roughly 6 feet in old money,

My plan to cover the joints in the wires was to make a dummy joint box. Some angled plastic strip did the job.

Painted balck they blended in.

Tempoarily putting the platform in place it looks good - in my view anyway!

Just needs the top surafce gluing on and some weathering - I wonder if it will rain tomorrow!

Logs and platform escapades!

For some reason I had to choose today, the hottest day of the year so far, to work in the sun and get on with some logging escapades! The pile of tree parts on the front drive that I have accumulated over the Winter (all for free) and looks an eyesore (well it was free as I tell Mrs. Woody!) is getting smaller as I split and log the wood. Mrs. Woody will be pleased - I hope!

My work space with trusty cross cut saw!

After several hot hours it is a much reduced pile and a log store looking much better for Winter!

Meanwhile, as they say, things are moving, slowly, on the platform for my 00 gauge layout. The platform surface is sprayed with Halfords grey primer for that worn tarmac look and the edging stones are now being painted in a stone colour by brush. A bit of masking tape helps keep a neat edge.

Putting the surface on the base shows how this is coming together rather nicely. Certainly easier to do then my log escapades!

The edge!

I am usually on the edge of something - normally a calamity like hitting my thumb as I continue splitting these logs....

Much to the amusement of this nest building pigeon! However, if he builds his nest at the rate of one bit at a time going by what's in his beak, then I may well finish my platform before his nest is built! 

Moving onto model making, today the edge in question is on the platform I am building for my 00 gauge layout. I have already put brick paper on the base but today I added an additional edge that most real platforms have to support the edge slabs of the platform surface.

I started by gluing some more brick paper to mounting card and let that dry.

I then cut strips four brick courses wide. The edge of the strip that would show, although unlikely to be noticed as it points downwards, was coloured in with an appropriate pencil.

 
The edge was then glued to the upper edge of the base.

At the ramped ends the strip was cut as needed.

The end result is what I hoped for.

Points, brakes and couplers - all in a day at the Rocks By Raill Museum!

Woody has been videoing again at the Quarry day at the Rocks By Rail Museum with a YouTube video about points, wagon brakes and couplers.

Back to model railways, the platform edge slabs are now finished and a first coat of grey primer has been applied to most of the platform surface. If it was not for having to replace a central heating pump, cutting the grass and having to go to the recycling centre I might have got further but certain jobs have to be given priority as Mrs. Woody tells me!

Once the slabs are painted a stone colour it should begin to look a lot better.

Finding Time!

Things are progressing with my platform, but not as quickly as I thought they might! Finding time to do everything is an issue! The photo below shows my method of joining the two parts, well actually three, of the platform surface. Because of the girder like construction of the base there is no room for a thick piece of card under the platform surface otherwise there would be a hump in the surface! Not having the time to carve chunks out of the base to make room I needed something else. My solution - paper! Just a small piece glued to overlap the two parts and with some glue also applied to the card joint. It wont be strong but as long as it holds until I finish the slabs and then the surface and base are glued together that is all I need.

Part of why progress is not as quick as I would like is that these lighter evenings and good weather (well better weather!) see me cycling a bit more (1400 miles this year so far) and catching up with a mess of a garden. However there are always things that delight like this young blackbird that I took a photo of having had a fill of apple!

Tomorrow wont see much time for model making either. A day of shunting at the Rocks By Rail Museum at the Quarry Day Event and then I need to go and change the banners for the next event a week today which I only just found the time to alter from last years date! That will be a long day then! When will I find the time to do Mrs. Woody's job list!

If at first.....

Time to put some slabs along the edge of the platform surface that I am building at the moment for my 00 gauge Last Great Project Layout. I had in the back of my mind using some very thin plastic card that I could cut into a long strip and score the individual slabs onto it as well as a bend at the front to go over the edge of the card surface. The theory was, by my standards anyway, sound but it just did not work out. The long strip bent as it was cut and the edge would not fold over in a clean line despite having scored it. 

If at first you don't succeed try again so plan B came into operation. This had me cut out the individual slabs from the strip. Each one also needed the edge folding to go over the edge of the card as the photos below show.

It really did not work! It was a pain and time consuming folding the edge of each individual slab and they did not really stick to the card very well.

If at first you don't succeed try again so plan C came into operation which substituted paper for the plastic card!  

I still cut out individual slabs but no need to pre-bend the edge as they could be glued using PVA to the top surface and once dry the edge of the card could be painted in PVA and the edge of the paper slab bent over - I even surprise myself on occasions with the genius of the plan!

It is time consuming but not as much as dealing with the plastic alternatives and in a way it is therapeutic!

I have done about a third so far but it is looking OK at the third attempt of adding slabs!

Brick Magic!

Time to bring some life to the platform that I am building by using the magic of Metcalfe Red Brick Sheets! 

Having measured up, I cut enough strips to the right width to cover the platform base.

With those cut, PVA was then applied to the rear of the strips and they were attached to the platform base.

I had cut the brick strips so that I could match the mortar lines at the joins and that seems to have worked well. The red arrow shows where a join is.

With all the strips glued on the base looks much more, well, err, base like!

I just need to start working on that platform surface starting with some edge stones but that is for another day!

Woody goes Hi-Tech!

For many years I have had a flat screen TV with built in DVD player on my workbench. I inherited it so don't know much about its past. I have never used it let alone even tested it to see if it switches on preferring the less distracting radio or CDs or even showing my age, my collection of cassettes! However, having a collection of railway and model making DVDs which I never get the chance to watch as Mrs. Woody is watching the latest murder mystery TV show on the main WMD TV or I am in the Man Cave listening to the radio/music I thought I would just see if this flat screen TV works - and it dose so I have gone Hi-tech! So I have been watching some Steaming Around Britain DVDs which is great as I have never seen them before and surprisingly not that distracting as I tend to just glance up to see what sounds the interesting parts - just like communicating with Mrs. W - I really hope she doesn't read that bit!

The proof in not being distracted is that I finished the other end of the platform base. As you can see this coincided with a splendid bit of film of a steam train heading for Mallaig in Scotland!

Putting the platform top on temporarily, saw a cab view from a class 156 DMU heading for Fort William!

Finally clamping the platform base to the workbench to avoid it bending in unplanned and unwanted directions happily coincided with the end of the DVD - all very Hi-Tech!

I can now start thinking about adding some brick facing to the bae and some edging stones to the platform surface. Wonder what Hi-Tech method I will come up with for that?

Looking like a girder!

Now Mrs. Woody sometimes comments on my rough appearance looking like some old rusty bit of metal but in this case the delights of cardboard engineering butchery have resulted in me constructing something that does indeed look like a girder!

I have completed one end of the platform base which includes the ramp at the end of the platform. Now someone with skill and technical knowledge could well have calculated the various lengths and angles needed but not being skilled or of technical knowledge - remember the brute force and ignorance post of not so long ago - I just put things together and made rough guesses which surprisingly have worked out OK! Just don't ask me to construct anything which is safety critical!

As the photo below shows further cardboard butchery has also seen the girder type construction finished at this end of the platform.

The thing with cardboard is that whilst it is relatively easy to work with and can bend as you want it, it can also bend as you dont want it whilst you wait for the glue to dry. Now much as the Man Cave is an inviting place for me I had no desire to sit in there for 8 hours waiting for the glue to dry so I could make sure that the structure did not bend the way I did not want it to. I therefore used some clamps and clamped the straigh edge to the work top. Hopefully that will work and I can get on with the other end!

Crossmembers!

Having got my platform surface to the right shape as highlighted yesterday, it was time to add to some sides and crossmembers but not happy members! There are some specifications which real railways follow as to platform heights and roughly interpreted these amount to a 17mm highwall in model form. I have cut some mounting card walls to this height and also some crossmembers.

Just to get a feel for things I placed the platform surface on top which shows it is looking OK!!!

Having checked that my measurements and shaping were correct it was possible to start some more constructive work on the crossmembers. Hopefully the mix of right angle and diagonal crossmembers will keep things both flat and strong.

My glue of choice at the moment is this special card glue made by DeLux Materials and very good it is too.

I have progressed but this will take a few days to build but I am in no rush as whilst doing it I am also running trains on the layout - I just don't tell Mrs. Woody that bit!

However I did tell Mrs. W about these tulips when we called in at Easton Walled Gardens. 

As Mr. Beecham, he of cycling prowess and model making skills, pointed out to me when I sent him some pictures, the red of the tulips is the colour of the paratrooper's berets. It is of course the 80th anniversary of Operation Market Garden which took place in September 1944.