Minffordd Update: Diamonds Take Forever

I mentioned in a post last week that putting an authentic slate roof on the Minffordd weigh house was going to have to be done the hard way, and this is it.

My means of replicating the distinctive diamond pattern is to patiently cut and stick rows of very thin card which, with the aid of a scalpel blade, has been shaped into regular pointed slates.

To make this a little - just a little - easier, I have a photocopied template which gives me around 20 rows on an A4 sheet.

It stems from a project a number of years ago - another favour - to make a 7mm scale model of the 'Bobby Hut' replica which stood at the station throat at Porthmadog Harbour before the return of the WHR and the extension of the Cob.

This also had a diamond pattern slate roof, although being a much smaller building there weren't so many of them, and being a larger scale the rows weren't quite so fiddly to cut.

It was for this project that I drew up the template, and when I came to make the previous weigh house model (for Fred Howes' retirement) I could easily reduce it in scale on a photocopier.

It's taken around a week to get one side of the roof completed.  

I can manage about 4 or 5 rows a night before I begin getting cross-eyed or just plain bored with it!

Earlier today I took it over to Himself's place for a quick trial run on the layout to check it fits in the intended space.

(Yes, it might have been an idea to have tried this before I began doing all the really fiddly bits....)

The good news is that it slots in perfectly.

The not so good news - although we knew this all along - is that hardly anyone will notice all the pretty detailing on the front because most people watching the layout at shows will see it from this side.

Oh well, the important thing is that the operators get the best view, don't you agree?

Minffordd Update: Every Gram Counts

We're hurtling towards the end of the basic landscaping of the Minffordd layout with the fitting of the plywood formers for the field area in the middle and the area to the north-east of the Cambrian station.

They've also had the chicken wire fixed on top which will be covered in due course with mod-roc plaster bandage and then a brushed-on coat of plaster.

Yes, this is very old school and not especially lightweight, hence Himself's token effort to save a few vital grams by drilling holes in the plywood.

He tells he it was done mostly for my amusement.

The area behind the station is rather dead space, but we wanted the boards to be symmetrical so it will be simpler to fix one above the other when transporting it, so we're stuck with it.

Minffordd Update: Corner Stones

Progress has been relatively swift on the weigh house building, with the walls complete and fixed together now.

The process was accelerated by the decision to use embossed styrene sheet for the dressed stone at the front and sides, and also for the mortared rough stone rear wall (which is actually the one which is most on show on this layout).

The design of the embossed sheet is not identical in either pattern or size to the real building but I think it will be good enough for viewing from a distance.

Of course, it wouldn't be one of our models if it didn't include a element of gratuitous labour intensive detailing.

The multi-pane windows were fabricated using 20" strip - double layered for strength, and each of the stones on corners of the building and around the window frames were cut and stuck by hand - another process that took a couple of evening's work.

Neither is there a ready made solution for the distinctive diamond-pattern slate roof of this building, so that will also have to be done the hard way....

Minffordd Update: Office Work

One of my biggest contributions to the Minffordd project is going to be making the buildings.

I've decided to begin with the FR weigh house - otherwise known as Fred's Office from its more recent use as admin space for the legendary track supremo - partly because I've already made one model of it.

The story behind it was that around 10 years ago I was asked if I could scratch build model of the weigh house to be presented to Fred as a retirement gift - which I was delighted to do.

I did it the hard way, painstakingly scribing the distinctive dressed stone courses into styrene sheet.

(Nothing was too good for Fred!)

This time I'm looking for a easier approach.

I'm still making the walls out of 60" styrene sheet, for strength, but only as a base layer.

On top I have bonded a thin covering of embossed styrene which is the closest I've been able to find to the stone courses on the real building.

Very little of that will be seen by the public because the part of the building which faces the front of the layout is the rear wall which was left as rough stone, so I'm using a different kind of sheet for that.

At any rate, this model will be the one that is furthest away from the audience, so all the more reason not to worry about pragmatic compromises.

Minffordd Update: Grey Scale

I've always thought painting models to get them looking right is a hell of a lot harder then building them in the first place.

Thus, I was impressed on my latest 'inspection' - having been away on holiday - to see Himself put the paint brush between his teeth and had a go at getting some colour on the undoubted centrepiece of the new layout project, the arched stone bridge which carries the FR above the Cambrian at Minffordd.

Things like this are so tricky because a structure made out of natural rock, like this, will always look slightly different depending on the weather conditions on a particular day - how bright the sunlight is or whether it is wet or dry.

It's looking pretty good to me, so far.

I think perhaps it might still require a little more weathering - perhaps some vague hints of brown tones here and there to contrast from all the shades of grey - and even maybe some invasive vegetation creeping in, although structures like this benefitted from a little more 'gardening' care in the 1960s than they get today.

On the other side of the layout he's mostly completed the track laying in the yard - with just the NG spur into the goods shed remaining to be fixed down - and he's been able to conduct some shunting tests with the Kadee couplings and magnets which are a new adventure for us on this project.

Hopefully this means we can have some hands-free fun shunting the daily pick-up goods from Pwllheli.