July
The second half of our review of the year finds us in high summer with Himself continuing to make progress with the Mercian Models Welsh Pony kit.
The shortcomings of its origins as a 7mm kit scaled down to 4mm were becoming all-too-obvious with a rather complicated sequence of construction as can be seen above.
Having built the first two houses for the Oberon Wood estate on the layout I was called upon to build a scaled-down version of the double garage I built from a guesstimated design a number of years back which was now very obviously too big when sat beside its new neighbours.
August
We were in print again in the summer when Model Rail magazine brought out this special glossy edition featuring some of the best layouts to have appeared in the magazine including Bron Hebog's sister layout Dduallt.
Himself had also been busy painting the WHR tool van which I had scratch built. It needed more weathering but was beginning to look the part.
September
Himself now turned his attention onto the chassis for Welsh Pony, and this was when the problems really began!
It transpired that the motor and gearbox - which the kit instructions say should be fitted in a transverse arrangement - is impossible to fit. Not only does it not fit within the confines of the saddle tank but the gears foul the motor casing and will not mesh.
We sought advice from the manufacturer who put us in touch with a modeller who had devised an alternative gearbox arrangement (seen above).
September was a big month for us because we got to take the layout out on the road for the first time in 18 months to the WHR's Superpower weekend where it was displayed as part of a model railway exhibition in the goods shed at Dinas.
During the weekend the FR's John Wooden shot this lovely video footage of the layout which included a sequence filmed by placing a miniature camera onto a flat wagon and towing it around the layout.
October
Whilst at Superpower Himself decided to splash out on an RT Models kit for the Harrogate Peckett which was making a guest appearance at the gala.
It didn't take him very look to put it together, and very purposeful it looks too..
He also began work with another push to complete the layout laying the trackbed on the middle section of the big Cwm Cloch S bend.
November
Having had reasonable success with my wagon kits I took my resin casting experiment to the next level with a project to produce a batch of FR Super Barn carriages for a client.
I scratch built the main sections in styrene in my usual fashion and used them as the masters to create mould sand cast a run of resin copies.
Here you can see the first of the carriages in the early stages of being glued together. So far so good....
At the other end of the country Himself was making rapid progress with landscaping the new section of the layout, seen here with Mod Roc spread over chicken wire in a most traditional fashion...
December
We ended the year with Himself completing an improvised gearbox for Welsh Pony.
The Large Englands may only have had an extra 6 inch wheelbase compared to the original batch but it looks very obviously longer in this side-on snap.
My efforts to cast a run of Super Barn carriages had got so far as having three body shells completed by the turn of the year.
Thanks for all your visits to the blog during 2013 and even more so if you left a comment or interacted with us on our Twitter or Facebook feeds.
We look forward to sharing our modelling efforts with you in 2014.
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