Patrick Davey

Wouldn't be surprised if the mischievous monks had stolen it from the Methodists!

Today I marked out the walls of the church on to the mount board and cut them out: they have been glued (sparingly) together temporarily to give me an idea of how the building is coming together….. so far so good!

Checking how the building looks in position.

The canopy has been added to the platform side of the building. I want to create a paved area on the same side, running the full length of the building, using DAS clay, then the whole assembly will be ready to fix permanently in position.

Good luck on the journey MV and don't forget to share progress pics! After building a layout which was in total 30ft long, I discovered the concept of 'micro' layouts which are generally accepted to have a scenic/operational area of no more than 4ft x 2ft (a fiddle yard is not counted in the area measurement). JB's stock suggestion above would fit nicely on a micro! Advantages are many, including not taking up too much space, lower build costs, up and running relatively quickly etc but the main disadvantage of course is that they don't aways accommodate uninterrupted running trains (although I have seen this achieved!) Whatever you do, enjoy!

My friend has produced the valances for me for the main platform canopy - laser cut in 1mm balsa, very fragile!! But broken parts will fit with my 'dilapidation' theme. Also, the sea wall between the railway and the (future) beach is under construction - good to reduce further the amount of visible bright white foam board. The wall will be capped with DAS coping stones then a wire fence.

Just noticing the 'trawling' pun here - sorry for being slow!! Never caught it....... must have been too deep.....

All good advice above. I feel very fortunate to be able to acquire a certain number of the amazing Irish models currently available, must be frustrating for anyone who isn't able to at the moment. I wonder would there be a market for a 'Railroad'-type Irish range.....?

A pleasure GM

The one with the belfry is an older model illustrating the cut and sanded windows, this one is much smaller, and will have a small bell tower at the apex of the front wall, a design feature of a lot of small barn-type churches

First a base coat of grey, then individual stones are picked out in varying shades of darker greys and some browns too, then a few washes of dark colours before dry brushing with white & black to highlight some detail. But I'm still experimenting!

Spot the difference! Before: After: Much better I think.

This post is definitely reeling them in!

Exceptional!

A familiar face has turned up at Clogherhead…..

The card mockup showed me the building was slightly too big so I reduced the dimensions and am much happier with the overall proportions now:

Very lovely model!

And we're off!

Looking ahead to the final major build of my current layout project now (does anyone else start a new build before finishing the previous one...?) and it's going to be a small church (well I thought it was going to be small......) St. Mary's Star of the Sea RC church, Clogherhead, Co. Louth. And yes, no such church exists or existed. It's in the style of the simple 'barn' churches which were common in Ireland. Unusually for me, I'm starting off with life-size drawings: Previously I made church windows by cutting and filing plasticard: ...but I'm not sure my wrists would be up for that this time so I have decided to use the fantastic products of York Modelmaking for this build. The images of the windows in the drawings are taken from the YM website to help me get an accurate idea of dimensions etc. A card mockup has been made: And this has been positioned on the layout to get an idea of how it will fit in: Looks like it will become the dominant feature of the layout and am not sure I'm totally happy about that so I might look at lowering the height a bit. It will have a fully detailed interior, with an altar (pre-Vatican 2), pews and a gallery. And I am already planning a series of totally insane posts about the clergy who officiated at the church so you have been warned...... Fr. Ray Codd and Fr. Finn Sharkey are looking forward to introducing themselves.........

The Ballynahinch branch train has got a bit lost!!! Fantastic Alan, just fantastic!!!

Cracking video - nice to see the diesels' smooth slow running. Enjoying the updates GL!

Excellent - love this!

A few views from around the station this evening, I am starting to get a sense of how it is going to look once the building has been fixed in position. The nameboard & boat feature will be sunk into the platform surface rather than sitting on top like it is at the moment. I have decided I don’t like the red brick platform walls, these will be replaced with dressed stone from Wills sheets - I’m still experimenting with painting these to get the desired effect.

Alan you have all the stock you need now to recreate Ballynahinch station!

Great to see these coming together so well Alan! Fair play to you for the patience required for this!