Hush, hush!

I had to be hush, hush at the Rocks b Rail Museum so no noisy mowers or strimmers! The reason? A film crew. Cant say what the programme is but it will be on main stream TV probably the back end of next year or in 2027! However it was great to watch it being made.

Mr. D in his brand new paint job is a major part of the programme and John and Thomas have made a fantastic job in less than a week.

John  ain the cab awaiting his time to drive.

Meanwhile things did carry on away from the filming with work on steam loco Barrington involving taking off the non-original coal bunker and replacing it with a normal cab back.

A view into the cab that you would not normally get!

Outside work on 1931 carries on with the boiler being washed out ready for inspection.

Richard was under the loco with a hose pipe.

Whilst Hazel was at the side pulling the debris that had washed out through the drain hole.

A great job to do on a hot day!

Chimney pots.

Just a small amount of work on the Dapol Booking Hall kit but it does make a difference. The Chimney pots are moulded as a solid part. By drilling through the chimney pot part and opening it up it does make it look a lot more realistic - it will be enhanced once painted and fitted to the roof!

I do enjoy these small jobs - if only the jobs on Mrs. Woody's list for me to do where this small!

What a pain to do the panes!

 What a pain to do the panes! Well actually it was not too bad a job to glaze the windows for the Dapol building. I could have used the clear plastic sheet provided but choose to use DeLuxe Materials Glue n Glaze to give a better finish and to fill in the all to deep window bars in the window frames.

Basically all I had to do was get the Glue n Glaze into the apertures and let it set.

It looks a bit of a mess but you need to have patience!

After a few hours it all turns good and clear!

And closer in you can see the end result.

Just need to add them to the main building now! Hopefully that won't be too much of a pain!

A night on the tiles!

Well I did spend some of the night painting the tiles on the Dapol kit and very soothing it was! As with the brickwork blogged about a few days ago, I picked out random tiles in a slightly lighted colour to the main colour used. I also used the same Rust colour trhat IU had for the brickwork on the ridge tiles and it contrasts nicely.

Of course it all looked too clean so a wash of dilute black paint was applied. You can see the effect in the half and half photo below.

With the entire roof 'washed', it was set to one side to dry.

With the roof temporarily on the building it all begins to take shape!

Its not easy to be random!

 It is not easy to be random despite what Mrs. Woody may think about my actions! What I am talking about here is being random in picking out individual bricks in a wall such as on the Dapol model I am building at the moment. Looking at a real building you notice that there a subtle and on occasions not so subtle variations in the colour of individual bricks. I replicated this to some degree on my model by taking the Rust coloured paint that I had painted the brickwork in and adding either the Sand or Leather Brown colour as used in previous painting of the model, in small amounts on a plastic bag to make up slightly darker and lighter colour variations on the original Rust colour. Individual bricks were then painted and an interesting effect starts to build up.

This is also the point at which being random becomes difficult - well for me anyway - as I always seem to start developing a symmetrical pattern in painting individual bricks! I really have to think hard about randomness! Just hope Mrs. Woody doesn't read this or I could face some difficult questions!

With the brick work painted, randomly, it was time to add some mortar to the joints and generally tone and weather the colour down. That was done with a very dilute cat of grey paint which was just applied to the surface and allowed to find its own way inti the brick joints.

Finally, all the brickwork had been treated and it looks a lot more lifelike.

I will need to do a similar treatment on the slate roof but I still need to get the windows and doors finished before I can think of adding the roof! You cant just make a model in a random fashion!

Adding some colour!

With the undercoated parts dry it was time to add some colour to the Dapol kit. The inside walls were painted with Sand, the ticket area woodwork was blue, the floor Leather Brown and the brickwork, rather oddly, Rust from the Panzer Aces range. I just found it a great match for brick colour.

Whilst most of the colour was brush applied I did airbrush the steps which would have been a nightmare to paint by hand!

Still more to do but a bit of colour does bring out the detail and with a few techniques that are up my sleeve that detail should get even better in the future!

Not the simple job that I hoped for!

Painting the Dapol station building did not turn out to be the simple job that I hoped for! I think a mix of hot weather, and some dodgy paint made the undercoating of the building and the preciously built steps a lengthy and frustrating process involving cleaning the airbrush on several occassions. However, forget about the frustration and admire the undercoated and primed models! 

Next job - add some colour!

A room with a view!

Lots of things going on at the Rocks By Rail Museum for an important but, at the moment, hush hush event!

The Sundew cab is looking superb and once inside it really is a room with a view! A credit to Pete, Pam and Rob who have done so much work on it as well as the surrounding area which is of course enhanced by my mowing skills!

The drag line is slowly being repainted by Martyn and looks posed to do some work at our next quarry event at the end of June.

Even the face shovel looks 'attractive' in the sun!

Looking up to the quarry area from the newly constructed viewing platform I think all is ready!

There are however other things going on as well such as the continuing work on 1931 and its retube. The last of the taking apart work involved removing the insulation over the boiler - and no, it is not asbestos otherwise Hazel would be kitted up with appropriate PPE!

Nor would Richard be so happy!

With the insulation removed, John, Richard and Hazel rub down any rusty areas and then the Boiler Inspector will need to examine the boiler to see if it is fit to be retubed which, hopefully, it will. Then its just a case of putting it back together which I am told is far easier said than done!

Meanwhile, taking vegetational destruction to a higher level than I ever have, John pilots Mr. D which is hauling the weed killing train.

John seems quite happy to be in the safety of the cab though!

Ceiling time!

Before I can actually get round to painting the Dapol station building I needed to make a ceiling for the interior. Not a particularly difficult job which is nice in the hot weather we have here in the UK at the moment! 

With a bit of fettling, the roof fits too!

Finally, I just noticed a very slight warp in the building so I left it overnight with brick on top to straighten it out! It should work as the brick is heavy enough!

It looks a bit more interesting!

On with the Dapol station building. Having got the four walls constructed I noted that the long walls had a bit of a bow inwards. I also noted that it all looked a bit empty inside and anyone looking through the windows would just see a large empty space.

 To deal with both matters I decided to add a floor and some room partitions.

As I am intending to leave the central doors open where passengers would walk through I also added a ticket hatch to one wall together with a dado rail and some scribed planking on the lower section.

The floor and first wall went in.

Then the rest of the walls and it looks a bit more interesting! Time to paint!