Stop, Look, Listen

The fact that they're too often ignored by road users (and pedestrians)  isn't an excuse for not including the veritable forest of warning signs which surround the modern level crossing.

Himself has been very busy reducing, printing, cutting and sticking for the last week or so to populate the areas around the three crossings on Bron Hebog - including the one subsequently named Bron Hebog after the model provided the inspiration to an operating department puzzling how to differentiate the two crossings on the same lane leading out of Beddgelert.

(That's the one furthest away at the top of the picture.)

Himself assures me that all the signs are faithfully bilingual, too, using photographs of the real things, not a generic product.

I do think this view up the lane - I think it's one of the best on the layout.

Building Maintenance

It’s strange sometimes, isn’t it, how the simplest jobs are the ones that take you the longest to round to doing.

I can’t remember how many months ago it was when Himself asked me to repair the window in one of the farm buildings which he’d put his thumb through.

Ten minutes with some strip and Mek Pak and the job was done.

Window Pain

Normally it’s Himself berating me for clumsiness but this time the boot is on the other foot!

One of the farm buildings has been returned to me for repairs because Himself put his thumb through the delicate styrene window bars at one end.

This small outbuilding straddles a joint between two boards so is kept removable, and it was during setting up at Greenock last month that the damage occurred.

I doubt anyone would notice, but we know, so it needs to be fixed.

Droning On

This is a post purely to share a photograph rather than to update you on any particular progress.

While taking some snaps of how far he's reached with the fencing Himself took a shot from directly overhead the area of the farm which looks like the kind of image you'd get from a camera on a drone.

Or possibly one of those satellite pictures on Google Earth of maximum magnification - without the pixellation, of course.

What it does show up, more clearly than a normal viewing angle I think, is the way we have used different shades and textures of scenic material to represent the vegetation - from the mowed lawn of the farm garden, to the grazed fields around the barn to the long, tufty grass elsewhere.

I reckon it looks very effective - what do you think?

Garden Gates

There are so many details still to add all around Bron Hebog, which is why I suppose you can never say that any layout is truly ever finished.

The most recent things which have been done are these two gates leading into the garden of the farmhouse.

They were made by Himself who used a fret of etched brass round-topped fencing from Wizard Models.

Soldered together in such a way that the hoops overlapped created the gate effect we were looking for.

On a huge layout like ours they are a very small details that you would most likely not notice unless they are highlighted like this, but when added together they contribute to the look of the whole piece.

Farmyard Scenes

There have been more little details added to the farmyard along with the (scale) miles of fencing going on the layout.

Some etched brass gates have been added around the place.

Himself as also cut, fitted and painted the resin breeze block wall I cast for him.

The whole area's still far too tidy, though, but it's getting there.

Breezy Does It

While Himself was busy inserting fence posts around the farm scene on the layout he took another look at our research photos and discovered that there were some walls missing.

Not your iconic Welsh dry stone walls, but walls built out of what you and I would probably call breeze blocks.

So he asked if I could knock some up by scribing into styrene?

Seeing how he was only needing around a foot of wall, in total, I agreed.

When I sat down to do it between Christmas and New Year, though, I realised I'd forgotten just how boring it can be.

By the time I'd scratched out six inch's worth I decided I couldn't face doing it another three times - because you have to do it on the back as well - and it occurred to me that there was no good reason why I shouldn't short circuit the process by using this first piece as a master and casting the rest.

Thanks to my inherent laziness I was able to leave the silicon rubber to set overnight and then the next morning, in the space of 2 hours, cast four sections which he can now use to make the 1 foot section of wall required.

So now I'm freed up to move onto the next project.

The bad news is that it also involves a lot of scribing into styrene and this time there will be no resin rescue option.

Farm Garden

Despite a multitude of distractions Himself has made some good progress on the garden around the Cwm Cloch farmhouse, the most obvious of which are the pair of trees.

He's also finished the lawn with static grass and added various other bushy-type things.

This means that the old barn in the middle of the S bend and a few more Oberon Wood houses are the only remaining blank spaces on the layout.

Guess what he's expecting me to be getting on with this winter....

In The Night Garden

While I was away last week Himself was getting started on landscaping the garden around the farmhouse.

It's a mix of our usual underlay for long grass technique and fancy-pants static grass using the electric sieve.

He also added a pathway leading to the front door.

Perhaps it's the blue colour of the render, or perhaps it's a sign I've spent too long in front of the telly with the kids when they're watching CBeebies, but the first thing that came to mind was this...

All aboard the Ninky Nonk!

Farm Painting Finalised

There has been a burst of autumnal activity from Himself which bodes well for the winter.

Among the projects he's been finishing off is painting the Cwm Cloch farmhouse.

He's applied some weathering to the south gable wall which looks very subtle.

The house was tarted up around the period we're modelling Bron Hebog so this explains why the render looks more like a royal palace than your average Gwynedd farm dwelling.

Feeling Blue

There are some signs that Himself is getting back into the groove after an enforced six month modelling moratorium.

He's started work on painting the farm house which is going to be quite a distinctive feature on the layout.

Around the period when the railway was reopened through Beddgelert there was a lot of work done on the exterior of the house with the windows replaced and the rendered walls on the front and back repainted from a mustard-colour finish to this pale blue.

Selecting a colour such as this is always a tricky business.

The research photos can be rather misleading. Some were taken on a bright, sunny day when the blue looks a deep colour while on others, shot on an overcast day, it looks much more pale.

The danger is you could end up with something that looks very gaudy and unrealistic if the colour is too bright so we have aimed low, if that makes sense.

Farm Fitting

As the weeks go by Himself is making more space in the railway room - sorry, garage - and he's been able to put up a second board so that he can fix the final position of the farmhouse.

The model appeared in a more basic form at the show at Dinas last year but this is the first time we've been able to place it in its spot on the layout since it was finished - or at least all the construction done.

Further down the track is the site of the barn which I have yet to make.

Once upon a time this was a derelict shell but in more recent years it has been completely renovated.

That's one of the challenges with modelling a real place which continually evolves.

There are other new farm buildings which have been put up in the intervening period as well, but we're not going to model any of them and so the barn will be done as a ruin.

I understand that the Artistic Director has some plans in hand so that can soon be added onto my To Do list which is lengthening once more as Boston Lodge churns out the carriages.

Batch Of Buildings

I've come to the end of around six months where I've worked almost exclusively on buildings so I thought it would be fun to line them all to to show just how much as been achieved.

In the front row is a detached twin garage for the Oberon Wood scene and the big Cwm Cloch Isaf farm house and a small outbuilding.

At the back are the three houses I've built for the row that forms the southern extreme of the housing estate running down the hill from Goat Tunnel.

There is still one building left to do which sits between the pair closest to the camera and the one at the top of the shot.

I'm still waiting for plans for that one but hopefully the Artistic Director is on the case.

Soon I will hand them over to Himself (without requiring the services of the Royal Mail - yippee!) and he'll fit them in place on the layout.

ROTY - Part 2

Welcome to the second instalment in our review of the modelling year

May

Himself began a new project this month.

 For a long time I'd been intending to replace our models of the original FR bogie carriages 15 and 16 which I scratch built in styrene over 20 years ago and which were finished in late 1980's liveries and so really not suitable for running on Bron Hebog.

If these lovely Worsley Works etches had been available back in the 1990's then there is no way I would ever have attempted to scratch build such an intricate, panelled carriage myself!

This is number 16 which will be finished in the 1920's Colonel Stephens green livery.

Himself was also working on redesigning the fiddle yards on the layout with overlapping upper and lower yards to allow us to run full-length WHR trains.

June

I'd been working away on that row of houses for a few months and at last we had a row of three almost ready for painting.

I find I can get a little bored when working on one project solidly like this, so I decided to put the house building on hold once the 3rd one was complete and resumed work on the Garraway Set which had been on ice since the start of the year.

11 was assembled and a roof fitted before I began work on the interior.

July

It's becoming a familiar theme, but once again I gave myself a kick up the backside and resolved that the time had come to begin building a model that I'd been planning in my head for ages.

And so in the space of a few weeks I produced this model of the WHR water tank wagon which was built up on a DZ wagon chassis.

The tank, if you were wondering, was made with a length of 22mm plastic plumbing pipe.

The Artistic Director had one of his periodic bursts of activity and produced a mock-up of the Cwm Cloch farm house before finalising the design for me to build.

Here it is placed on the layout to check for fit and scaling.

August

Redesigning the fiddle yards was turning into quite a marathon project.

Himself spent making weeks wiring up these control panels at either end.

At the other end of the country I started work on building the farm house with the intention that even if it would not be finished we would at least have something presentable to place in the space for the big event of the year which was coming in September - taking both layouts to show at the WHR Great and Small event at Dinas.

And that's where we'll pick up for the final instalment of our review of the year.

Farmhouse Outhouse

I chose to blog at the weekend about the two new carriages which are virtually finished but I should point out that I did manage to achieve my goal of completing 2 buildings in 7 days.

Admittedly they are very small and relatively simple but still I'm rather pleased to have made so much progress in a short space of time.

The outhouse took three sessions to complete - it was scratching out the stonework which took most of the time.

Now it's back to something with fewer stones but mind-boggling complexity.

Yes, I'm going to tackle another one of the Oberon Wood houses!

The Wee Shed

After the rapid garage construction I've moved onto the small outhouse next to the farm house.

It's another simple four wall structure, the  principal challenge is scribing the stonework which, as you can see, I am halftime through already.

The solid wall will need to have a doorway cut into it but I will scribe it first before that is inserted.

With luck I should be able to have this finished by the weekend - 2 buildings the space of a week  - not a bad effort at all.

Meter Reading

What I hope will be the last bit of construction on the farm house has been completed - a rather large utility box on the outside of the front porch.

It appears to match what's on the photographs so I guess it must be right.

Having considered the matter I think I will continue on with a few more buildings.

There's an outhouse for the farm and a detached twin garage for the housing estate which I should be able to knock up very rapidly.

We're not in a hurry for either of them because due to imminent domestic relocation at Himself's end there may not be any work done on the layout boards for at least a year, but it'll be good to know I've got them crossed off the 'to do' list.

Plus it's another excuse for not having to try to build 150 yet.

Pipes In Place

I've been inching towards getting the farm house finished.

The last of the down pipes were put on last night.

All that remains to do - apart from painting it, of course, but that's not my job - is to make something to represent the gas meter box on the front porch.

The question now is what to do next?

There is a small outbuilding next to the farmhouse which I suppose it would make sense to do just now.

I've also got plans for a couple more of the crazy Oberon Wood houses.

Perhaps should I get on with assembling the latest Super Barn castings for the new 117 which I made a couple of weeks ago?

Or - whisper it - even start work on observation car 150?

Pipe Down

I've been able to get back to working on the farm house this week after completing the batch of wagon kits to restock the Narrow Planet webshop.

I've started fitting some of the gutter and drain pipes starting with the back of the house.

The ornamental collector is from a sheet of Wills building details.

It's probably a little too big because the house has been scaled down as it's at the back of the layout.

That said, the only people who will see it, because of its position, are the operators anyway.

The exterior pipes enhance the look of the building but I'm not currently planning on attempting to add guttering - does that make me a bad person?

Lean On Me

I've taken a break from the almost non-stop casting to do a little more work on the farm house.

The big outstanding item is the lean-to shed at the north end of the building.

It's hard to get a good view of this bit of the house without trespassing but the Artistic Director has done his best to interpret the photographs we have and I'm turning it into three dimensions.

The front face is interesting because it's a mix of wooden panels, crinkly tin, a doorway and window.

I have some old, thin, transparent Wills corrugated iron sheet which I've employed here and I'll use again for the tin roof.

It's very effective and should do the job well.