Patrick Davey

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!

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!