W18 BR SR Tunny open
A Chivers Finelines kit, built as supplied with Gibson 12m 3-hole wheels.
I’m finishing this kit per a photo from Paul Bartlett’s excellent collection, DS61956 ZCV diagram 1771 in 1984.
It’s built straight out of the box, the only changes I’ve made are due to by ability to loose and break components, so two things have been replaced by close matches.
Working on getting the complex paint layers over the weathered wood before tacking the lettering.
A few more steps along the way.
On Johnson’s Wharf, having identified, designed and started a trans-shipment shed based on one I'm familiar with from Bank Hall in Liverpool, I got the baseboard out of its box to do a fit check with my old Hornby Dublo Class 20. I think it's a tad too high, which is easy enough to sort.
The Type 2 is about as old as I am, and is too much of a treasure to update, so she’s getting a clean and service for occasional use.
When I Saw these Felix Pole minerals being launched by Chivers Finelines, I thought I could justify at least one. The kits build up easily as illustrated below. If I can do it, almost anybody can.
I managed to snap a white metal buffer trying to straighten it, but otherwise no issues at all. Primer next.
There's an old Airfix engine shed en route for the left hand side foreground on Johnson’s Wharf, a snip at just over a fiver.
The purple paper shows the intended site. Some surgery may be required.
No posts here for a while, but that doesn’t reflect the progress that's been going on: Johnson’s Wharf has been out on its first public outing, albeit to a mate’s house for a trial run. This was educational for me and proved that the cake box idea works in practice.
Numerous details, building, figures, and wagons are being worked on, and I'm pleased to say that I think that I have solved the problem of the left-hand edge of the scene. I was much inspired by James Hilton’s Inside Out diorama, and thought about aping it in 4mm, but then I thought I could incorporate something similar into the left-hand end of Johnson’s, using the lovely little Vincent model I have waiting, to replicate another, similar shot from another Gifford/Gamble book:
Here’s a very rough mockup of what it might look like.
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| The view for my version of Inside Out. |
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| Not sure what will happen in the foreground yet |
More progress in the next blog.
Not much is happening, even though there is much to be done.
Sometimes, just to see the track disappear into the distance, with the ever-present possibility of a train, is enough.
Lots to report here despite the lack of posts.
An as-yet unnamed 009 loco is now being painted in the new house livery of anthracite grey with yellow stripe.
This is a Fourdees “Peveril” loco and I’m very pleased with the quality of the print, and how it’s progressing.
The 009 stock that is slowly accumulating will possibly run on a variation of the Shell Island layout, tentatively named “Old Quay”. I want to do a muddy estuary layout and this is the smallest way I can see it happening.
Johnstone’s Wharf is becoming a reality. I’ve continued my 2mm scale idea of using plasticard facing with embossed brickwork and stones instead of brick papers to give the textures. So the Wharf will be a ScaleScenes box file canal scene, mirrored and extended with just 3 sidings, 1 turnout (ordered) and probably a fiddle stick. This will give me somewhere to play with the Peckett and anything else that happens along in OO.
Coales Mill Yard is also progressing. The corrugated iron problem has been resolved thanks to the good folk out there in the cloud, so the cladding is being worked on for two of the buildings today.
Well, no, not yet. But we do at least have some idea about where we are going for once.
After spending far too much time dreaming up schemes that have no immediate hope of being realised, and after having a bit of a chat with Gilly, who cut straight through all the crap as usual, we're back on notch 8 - or whatever the diesel equivalent of full steam ahead is - on 2mm finescale.
So, Coales Mill Yard was extracted from the filing system, stock and progress to date were appraised, and work restarted in earnest.
One thing I've found very helpful is that I now keep a worksheet for the layout, which is divided into strips from back to front, A to G, I think it is, and each feature has numbers, 1 up, from left to right. So the building I’m working on tonight is B2, while the structure started yesterday is D5. I'm generally working from the back forward, because that's where the Mill is. The worksheet lists each feature and then there is a section for each feature with notes and photos, task lists, and queries. I find it helps focus and lets meet work stuff out better.
So B2 is a rather odd structure visible to the left as you gaze through the main gates of my the Mill, a square brick structure with a pitched roof that widens as it goes away from you. The upper story, which is corrugated iron faced, angles out from the gable nearest to you, so that it meets the wider angle at the other end. The resulting slate roof is a very odd shape. The brick part is only about a quarter of the length of the building, the remaining ground floor being left open fronted, with a store or shelter beneath the floor above. The corrugated iron has a door and some windows, and a fair amount of damage at the lower edge.
Which brings us to the corrugated iron, and how to represent it. The ridges are tiny in this scale, but I feel they should be represented somehow. The printed card just looks like planks to me. Research suggested using a roller made from a suitable coffee lid would suffice, but not having a suitable one to hand, I turned to 3D printing, found something that had replaceable rollers to suit various scales, and found somebody to print them up for me. These will arrive soon and will be in the next episode.
I do need quite a bit of corrugated iron, some of the small buildings along the sidings are also clad and roofed with it.
W18 BR SR Tunny open A Chivers Finelines kit , built as supplied with Gibson 12m 3-hole wheels. I’m finishing this kit per a photo from Pau...
