David Holman

Can only ageee with JB. Indeed, nosebleed level for me! Very impressive.

Nice article and fine pictures of Chris Romain's 10mm scale model of Killybegs in the new edition of Model Railway Journal. Not sure if MRJ makes it over the water, but for those of you in GB, you can get a copy from WH Smiths. As a modelling magazine, it's a bit niche to say the least (eg a 3 page article on scratch building a SR yard lamp), but there is always something interesting - though guess I would say that, having every edition since issue 0...

Lovely stuff. Thanks JB.

For appearance, 21mm is best. However, for running trains, much depends on your stock and if there is older stuff then Code 100 may be the only option, otherwise stuff could be bumping along the rail fixings. Peco Code 75 the likely compromise, I guess if your stock is all from this century.

Modern image modelling at its very best. Probably said it before, but ugly buildings somehow look really good when done as well as this.

Splendid.

For those with the knowledge, 3D printing is coming on leaps and bounds as this fantastic work shows. A different type of modelling to conventional scratch building, but still requires a lot of skill and patience. Those complex front ends are a work of art as much as anything. Top job.

Lovely work! The proportions look great and everything is 'square', as it were. This all brings out the character these locos had. All black locos can look a little underwhelming compared to the gleam of etched brass or nickel silver, though they soon come to life once highlighted with a little light weathering, or even just the addition of red buffer beams, number plate etc

Already looking effective - will be good to see how this project develops.

Loading docks and street scene This is the last area to be blocked in after the destruction wrought on the Arigna Town scenery. The idea is that there is a short loading dock for a horse box, with an end loading dock alongside for carriage truck traffic. This means certain trains will be able to drop off/pick up individual wagons, adding to operational interest. In addition the road surface, pavements and loading dock area itself all needed a fair bit of attention, meaning this took a lot more time than just doing ground cover. And a pleasant change it's made too. The walls are all made from Wills random stone plastic sheet, sometimes double siding 5mm foam board for extra depth. Where necessary, the walls are then capped with DAS clay, before painting with acrylics. The road surface was first prepared by putting 2mm thick strips of card down the centre, to eventually create the cambers with more 2mm card to raise the pavements. 20 thou [0.5mm] plasticard was then used to create gutters, curb stones and paving slabs. Fiddly, but worth it as this area is nearest to anybody looking, so merits extra detail. A mix of filler, PVA and black acrylic was then put down for the road surface, carefully sculpting it to create a camber, while in the loading dock yard chinchilla dust was sprinkled on the wet plaster to give a more gravelly surface. The yard gates are recycled from an earlier layout [never throw things like this away!], while the slope up to the end loading is made from C&L point timbers. The end terraced house is actually the Railway Inn from Arigna - a bit of a shame as the decorative front is now hidden against the back scene. Have decided this building won't be fixed down as it will foul the hawthorn trees on baseboard 2 when the boards are paired up for transport. You might also be able to see where I've added another layer of decoupage to the back scene, though, it must be said that like the rest of this area, there remains much to do. However, I find it encouraging to get areas visually complete, so I know things are starting to look right before adding the details.

What we need is a few more 7mm scale modellers to make worthwhile for Mayner to do some of his excellent kits in the larger scale. There's a certain 4-4-0 I could covert!

Full of fine details for us modellers and some very smart work on the level crossing too.

A little jewel. Beautifully done.

Especially the lower one.

Oh my! And there was me thinking it was 7mm scale!

Not green though, so really ought to be dyed before planting in PVA. Not sure it would like being ripped off after the glue dries either.

Moving on to Baseboard 1 After significant amounts of static grass and flocking, decided it was time for something different. That's the nice thing about layout building - when you've had enough of one thing, you can change to something else. First though, had to untangle my hawthorn trees from the electric drill bit [and each other], strip off the foliage and then repair the damage to the armatures with a hot glue gun, after which these needed painting again before being redressed with foliage. Thankfully it only took a morning's work before they were properly planted, as the pictures show. Still a bit of tidying up to do, but hopefully you get the idea. It was at this point that I shuffled the boards around, so I could get all round access to Baseboard 1. Hence boards 1 & 2 are now up against the end wall of the workshop, which somehow makes the scene look a lot neater than with the currently scruffy BB1 as a background. BB1 has been turned around so I can get to the rear - actually the old front of Arigna. What was the cattle dock is now where the goods shed and co-operative warehouse are, plus a small area of flat standing. The latter needed profiling to BB2, so there was still a bit of filler mixing and spreading to do. While I was at it, I scraped out most of the grass and weeds in the track, replacing it with more ash ballast. The idea is that, covering two periods, the track will need to be in better condition than Arigna's, though a few strands of grass can be seen poking through, which is still quite nice. So, on to some different modelling. Much of it has been fairly mundane, things like preparing the loading dock surfaces for the goods shed and Co-op, plus putting back the walls and stop blocks at the end of the platform. I've still got all the different castings of loads for these areas, mainly from Skytrex. Since then, I've been doing a bit of fettling on the goods shed, though the main work has been to make the pillars holding up the front of the Co-op. Vaguely Colonel H. F. Stephens in style [I'm sure the fact that we share a name is key to my interest in minor railways], I can't vouch for any authenticity, but at least the Co-op [which is a semi-flat] now stands up on its own! The two back scenes have been removed of course and the last of the photos show what I'm plotting for the end board. Like all the other back scenes, it will be profiled to the scenery/buildings, with the sky painted on a second board bolted behind. However, on this end board I want to put an impression of the town. For this, I've been toying with the idea of a bit of decoupage - where buildings are not just painted on the back scene, but appear as layers of card flats. Interestingly, at the Stevenage show in January someone was demonstrating just this, so hopefully I am heading on the right lines. The final picture gives an idea of what i'm trying to do.

Clearly it is all in the genes! All power to your elbows!

Stuff like this is what makes this forum so wonderful!

Need I say more?

Currently, on this forum, there are two people doing 7mm broad gauge - Galteemore and me. Is anyone else tempted? Come on in, the water's lovely!

All sounds good, folks! The thing about a Sentinel is there would be no wheel quartering involved, being just discs. Not sure what the axles are, but guess they could be standard Slaters wagon type with the pinpoint ends ground off flush with the wheel. If so, replacing the axles shouldn't be too difficult. The only other issue then is whether all the nice details below the sole bars are far enough out to enable the wheels to be moved out 2mm each side without drastic surgery. Another possibility would be if the wheels themselves are meaty enough, then they could just be tweaked out with some filler in the centre to hide the hole. If anyone gets the chance to have a look at the model, I'd be very interested to know.

The new Railway Modeller has a review of the above and it looks like it might just be possible to ease the wheels out to 36.75mm gauge. Why? The Limerick market branch used a couple of Sentinels and strikes me that this could form an interesting minimal space diorama. You'd still have to build the track and put together a few wagons, but could be a nice way to get into the 'senior scale'. Of course, it may be that Dapol's model is not the correct version, but the arrival of such things always get me thinking. Indeed, could I justify one on Belmullet's harbour branch??

Hawthorn trees, well yes. More like a single hawthorn this afternoon. Had got all seven finished and foliated and was carefully planting in the corner of the field. This involved drilling holes in the ground cover and somehow a stray strand of foliage got caught in the drill and barely two seconds later four of the trees were wrapped round the drill and each other... It was one of those shock horror occasions when you can't believe umpteen hours of work has been destroyed in just a couple of seconds. Since then, have managed to untangle the mess, strip off the foliage and been trying to repair the trunks and branches with a hot glue gun. It then all needs repainting and defoliating. There really aren't enough rude words to describe how I feel!

Weeds & other scenics Baseboard two is progressing: Nettles - proper old school scenics here. I used Woodlands coarse fibres [see pics], cut up into short lengths. Each length is then dipped in PVA and then into some medium crumb from Greenscene, before being put aside [in an old cribbage board], to dry. A couple of hundred of these and next day, it was time for planting! Next up, some work on the joint between baseboards two and three. As before, used clingfilm in the joint, before mixing fine ash ballast with neat PVA and the filling the cracks - ensuring the ground cover was level both sides. Other work on the join involved doing more static grass and foliage cover as below. The front of baseboard two has been causing me a few furrowed brows recently, but as with the rear section, I've decided to keep things simple and mostly go with rough grass, brambles, etc. Hence a layer of mixed foam scatter, with static grass on top of that. Once dry, some extra depth was added with further static grass, held in place with cheap hair spray. Further layers were then added in the same way, but this time using fine scatter, mixed with yellow, white and pink granules from Woodlands. The final touch [thus far, anyway], has been to add brambles using Postiche [see pic if you don't know what this is] with hairspray and fine scatter, plus some other weeds. These are created by carefully wiping PVA over the tops of the grass fibres and then adding fine scatter on top of this, before vacuuming the whole area afterwards to remove any excess. Other work has focussed on covering for the point rodding as per SLNCR in Eniskillen. Meanwhile, seven small hawthorn [ish] trees have been made, hopefully to blend in with the painted back scene across baseboards two and one. The final picture should give an idea of where this is going.