Patrick Davey

Mr. Weaver decided to have the mill carpentry team construct a life-size nativity scene for the season. Happy Christmas from Brookhall Mill

Interior progress…….

Don’t worry Leslie, once the interior is complete, there will be no confusion as to where headquarters lies! In fact, the coastal location of this church is very appropriate, when one thinks of ‘The Holy Sea…..’

It’s actually a swarm of bees…..

I am afraid the interior won’t be quite as ornate…..

Front wall pebbledashed and floor going in:

Great models, and I really like that shade of green!

Looking superb!!

Delighted to pick up these two fantastic books, both written by two esteemed members of this forum! @airfixfan’s lovely ‘The Ballycastle Railway Remembered’ - great to see such a collection of photos, many of which are new to me! And @GNRi1959’s ‘Omagh Railway Station - A Journey Through Time’, a comprehensive history of Omagh GNR station, again with many incredible photos including my favourite which is a rare 1915 view of the GNR’s ambulance train. Many congrats to both Jim and Tony on these wonderful books - can’t wait to lose myself in them to escape the madness of the season!

The second wall has now been decorated, and the building has to stand on its 'face' until the scatter sets. Seeing two walls together gives a better idea of how the finished building will look.

That's the word I was looking for!!!!!

Morning update…… SUCCESS!!! No warping of the walls

So the first wall has been surfaced with scatter material. Happy with the look, it remains to be seen if the structure remains intact at sunrise! Sealing with neat PVA: Scatter added: Close up of a window:

Initially I had planned on a white main colour scheme for the church, with dark grey quoins and window surrounds etc but the plans have changed slightly and the colour scheme will now be a light grey rendered effect for the main walls with dark grey quoins and white window frames and surrounds. I an going to try something risky for the render: scatter material ie grey ballast applied in the same way as track ballast and therein lies the risk - if the mount board absorbs too much water then the building will buckle so sealing with neat PVA will be required. Here is the current state of play: These close ups are very unforgiving..... much filling with DAS will be required around the quoins but the quoins indicate the depth for the scatter material to fill so hopefully it works!!! It'll be a slow process though because each wall will have to dry thoroughly before I can move onto the next one.

Superb!!!

Well, I overestimated the number of quoins needed because I can’t count but anyway, they are all in place now, and the walls of the building have been assembled:

A good start for sure, keep the pics coming and enjoy the trip!

I have tried making quoins various ways over the years and for this church build I’m trying a new way - each quoin is made from two pieces of mount board glued together, one 7mm long and the other 3.5mm long - both are supposed to be 5mm high. I have calculated that I need 81 of these for the church and I have just spent 3 hours making them. Once the glue (Roket card glue) sets they will each need trimmed to ensure each quoin is the same height across both pieces. It could still all go wrong…..

According to my wife, I never listen to anyone else’s suggestions, so to prove her wrong, I was thinking about what @Northroader said earlier in this thread and I have given the church a bell tower

This week I have been working on the paved area on the platform side of the station building. DAS clay was spread over thick card and held flat until it set. Then the clay was scribed to represent large paving slabs, then painted before thin beads of glue were spread between the slabs and scatter material added. More of the scatter material will be removed before the final effect is achieved.

Windows have been fixed into the church walls and a little seasonal addition has been constructed.

The passengers ended up staying the night at the mill and the hospitality was so good they don’t want to leave this morning. One of them wasn’t totally happy and said it was lucky it was only 1949 because if it had been 2023 he would be moaning about it on X and phoning Stephen Nolan.

Due to multiple bizarre shunting errors at Castlewellan, Banbridge and Lisburn, a BCDR carriage has somehow ended up at Brookhall Mill and Mr. Weaver is currently on the phone to both Amiens Street and Queen’s Quay frantically trying to get it sorted! The offending carriage has been moved to The Ammo Platform for the time being and its unfortunate passengers must remain at the mill until they can be rescued….

Seriously impressive work as always David!

Very kind words MV - thank you and good luck with your project!