Mol's Photo Plank

[Mol_PMB]

I've made a start on an extremely small layout, which I'll describe in this thread. It's 600mm long and 200mm wide, with just a single track.

The idea is to test out a few ideas for track construction and scenery, to give me somewhere to photograph model rolling stock, and to help me decide whether to take the plunge into 21mm.

I spent an hour in the workshop using a few offcuts to make the basic carcass, which looks like this:

The base is 12mm ply, with two strips of 20mm squre softwood on top, and a surface of 9mm sundeala board. There's also a scenery former of sundeala board at the back. All these are glued and screwed together and the sundeala has had a coat of dilute PVA over all the exposed surfaces. At a later stage I intend to add some end profiles and a little backscene board.

The plan is to have a very gently curved single track running the length of the board, with lower ground in front and higher ground behind, as if the line is skirting a low hill. The scenery will be rough grassland and gorse bushes. Hopefully that will look good for photos.

The slight twist is that the track will be dual gauge 16.5mm and 21mm, so I can see how I feel about each option. My intention is to use code 75 flat bottom rail spiked to a laser-cut wooden sleeper base. We'll see how that works! Here's a photo of the first attempt. I've used 2mm MDF as a base to raise the track above the scenery, and then cut the sleeper base from 2mm ply. There are some good and bad features!

I was dumb enough to put the ply in the laser cutter the wrong way round, so the grain goes across the sleepers rather than along them. That's easily fixed and the machine is now cutting me a new panel that's correct.

The fine track pins are a snug push-fit into the laser-cut holes in the sleepers, and I'm hoping that this will be sufficient to set everything to gauge. However, driving them through the MDF is hard work. I may abandon the MDF and use cork instead. The pins are quite long so they'll go right through into the sundeala board and hopefully that will hold the rails firmly.

[Mol_PMB]

The revised version looks better and it's much easier to tap the pins in now, but they're nice and firm when through into the board.

In some ways I'm glad the MDF didn't work, because switching to the cork made me think about the ballast profile that CIE used on its secondary lines, and how best to replicate that. Hence the two strips of cork with a gap between. I'll just have to be a bit careful to ensure that the 'narrow gauge' rail is adequately supported.

Photos from Ernie's excellent albums as usual, I'm looking at the track here not the trains:

As I said, the idea of the tiny layout is to try out ideas, they may not all work!

Cheers,

Mol

[murphaph]

Looking good! Can't wait to see the progress.

[Mol_PMB]

I've added some end profiles, chicken wire as a surface for the scenery, and the cork strips where the track will go. The tapered blocks at the ends are bigger than they need to be to secure the end profiles, but will give the option of planting a tree at each end if I choose to do that later.

I'll leave it be now, for the glue to set, and have another go at it after work tomorrow.

Hopefully I should be receiving two parcels tomorrow, which will progress this further. I'll need rails and pins before too long, though I'll do the ground surfacing first.

Cheers,

Mol

[Metrovik]

This guy has gotten further than me on a layout in the space of 3 hours!

Looks nice though.....

[Mol_PMB]

I’m cheating though, by making a tiny layout! And I don’t think I’ll ever match Darius’s pace at making nice models. 

[Mol_PMB]

To improve the taste, I have dipped the layout in chocolate!

This is a variant of the old papier mache approach. I still use strips of newspaper, but the 'chocolate' is a mix of Artex plaster powder, brown poster paint, PVA glue and water. I've put about 6 layers of newspaper on so far and will see how it looks tomorrow.

Annoyingly, I've forgotten to do the electrical wiring first! I was going to put in some track feeds and a short lead connected to the chicken wire to use for earthing when applying the static grass. Never mind, I have a work-around for both.

 

Several parcels have arrived today, making me wonder if I've spent too much recently!

From the West I have received a box of new Irish books that I ordered from the RPSI, and a set of 3 IRM corrugated open wagons. From the East I have some track components and another baby GM, this time 149 of the new batch, also supertrain livery. That's definitely enough locos for now, the three of them together would almost fill my layout end to end! But at least I have one of each class that are clearest in my childhood memories. Though I do recall once seeing a little black shunter pottering around Limerick, which at that time can only have been G611. And then there were the trips north of the border...

[Mol_PMB]

I've been making some more progress on the photo plank today. A slight frustration is the code 75 rail which was supposed to arrive yesterday still hasn't turned up. So I've had to focus on other things.

Firstly I put the final layers of brown gunk on the 'ground' and topped it with a sprinkle of fine brown ballast which I find is a good foundation for subsequent scenic treatments. This will need a few days to set hard and then I'll shake or brush off any loose bits:

Next I painted the panels of sleepers. A coat of sanding sealer followed by a sprayed coat of mid-brown. Once that was dry I used a palette of grey, black, brown and bauxite to brush-paint some more varied colours. This is still wet but will hopefully dry to something that looks plausible:

My childhood memories of Ireland include a lot of Gorse and Fuschia. They flower at opposite ends of the year so I can't have both in bloom, and have decided to go for the Gorse. Using Eddie's excellent photos as inspiration, I'd like a bit more than the first image, but not as much as the last!

 

 

To try and make some Gorse bushes, I'm experimenting as follows.

1. Take an offcut of sea foam. Also some fine florists' wire, and bend a loop into one end:

2. Dip the looped end of the wire in superglue, hook it over the first branch in the sea foam,and let the glue stick the wire to the main stalk. Repeat until you have enough bushes for a thicket:

3. Set up the static grass machine, and a small tub of PVA diluted to a cream. Attach the earth lead to the wire 'stalk' of a bush, and dunk the top of the bush in the glue.

4. Tap off excess glue, and then apply static grass, turning the bush so it is well covered. I used 6mm dark green static grass.

5. Repeat. Note the use of a tub to recover static grass for re-use, as 90% of it would otherwise go to waste.

These are now left alone for the glue to set.

What I can't decide is whether the next stage is the flowers (using fine yellow ground foam) or whether I should add a layer of dark green ground foam first, and then the flowers after that.

If I was working in a larger scale I'd probably use the green foam first, but in 4mm scale I suspect it'll be best to go straight to the flowers.

Of course I could have just bought some of these, but where's the fun in that? I think my method gives a better impression of the spiky shape of a gorse bush.

https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/k-m-model-gorse-bushes-assorted-pack-of-12

[Mol_PMB]

A bit more progress on the plank today. I've glued down the sleeper bases, and my gorse is now in flower (a few months early).

For the gorse, I mixed up some creamy dilute PVA with a drop of washing up liquid, and used a flat brush to dab this on the tips of the stalks (see previous post):

Then I sprinkled on some yellow ground foam. The first one I did looked a bit bright, so for the others I blended in some buff as well.

I put them in warm place to dry, and then shook off any loose yellow bits.

Here's a couple positioned on the cutting side to give an idea of the effect:

This photo also nicely shows the subtle variations in sleeper colour.

I'm a bit stuck now until I get the rails, because I want to do the rails and then the ballast before I start adding static grass and foliage.

Meanwhile I'm trying to decide whether the railway boundary at the top of the cutting will be marked by a post-and-wire fence, or a dry-stone wall.

[Mol_PMB]

My pack of code 75 flat-bottom rail arrived this morning so I have given it a coat of primer, soldered on some power feeds and spiked it down to the sleepers.

Then I thought I'd better test the electrical connections before ballasting, and that was also an opportunity to test 007. Here it is ticking over on the photo plank:

 

A view along the plank showing the track construction and the gentle curve. All my rolling stock is presently 'narrow' OO gauge but I plan to convert a few things to 21mm broad gauge, starting with a wagon or two.

To give an idea of what will fit on the plank. here's 007 with a Cravens coach, and with a rake of three trucks. So it's long enough to pose a loco with the first bit of a train, to provide some context.

Looking at these photos, 007 is crying out for some weathering, so that's another job to tackle in the next few weeks!

But first, I'll get the track ballasted and once that's set I can make more progress with the grass and gorse.

 

[Mol_PMB]

Ballast laid dry, carefully using a teaspoon and a flat brush to get the right profile:

Then sprayed with a mist of water (with a drop of washing up liquid) to dampen the ballast, followed by applying dilute PVA with an eye-dropper:

This will take a few days to set, so I'll have to be patient!

[Mol_PMB]

The ballast stuck well, and so this afternoon I gave the track a light airbrushing to blend in the colours. Then I set to work with the static grass machine.

I started with some patches of dark green, the same as I used on the gorse bushes, and the bushes themselves will be planted in these areas so the under-layer of dark green gives them a bit more depth.

Then I covered almost all the rest in a paler green grass, leaving just a few gaps where I'll put some other type of bush or bramble. This now needs the glue to set overnight before I hoover off the excess and start applying localised additions of different coloured grass and flock. Anyway, it's starting to look the part now that it's not entirely brown!

Edited November 15 by Mol_PMB

[LNERW1]

Saw the grass down on The 21mm thread- it looks lovely, far better than I could do of course, but a man can dream... You work very fast!

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks! It's a tiny layout so it's easy to make good progress.

It turns out that I didn't make enough gorse bushes. I'll have to cultivate some more!

[Galteemore]

Perfect start to 21mm gauge which will hopefully inspire a few others !! 

[LNERW1]

55 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Perfect start to 21mm gauge which will hopefully inspire a few others !! 

Im already inspired- just not skilled enough lol.

[Galteemore]

3 minutes ago, LNERW1 said:

Im already inspired- just not skilled enough lol.

Don’t let that put you off. You have more skills than you know / just need to practice them! 

[Mol_PMB]

2 hours ago, LNERW1 said:

Im already inspired- just not skilled enough lol.

Skills can be leant with practice, and over time you can build up a collection of tools and equipment too. 
When I first started modelling Irish railways I wasn’t skilled enough, but over time I’ve developed my skills. It can be very satisfying! Let me know if you would be interested in more details of how I’ve done anything shown here 

[Mol_PMB]

Not much progress on the plank itself today, but I've started propagating some more bushes.

• The dark green ones on the left will be more gorse,and will have the yellow flowers added as before.
• The small buff ones in the middle will represent some dead bits of gorse and will fill some gaps in and around the 'living' ones.
• The other green ones on the right will have some green flock leaves added, to represent some other sorts of bush.

I've got a busy few days at work coming up, but hopefully I'll get these finished and planted later next week.

[Mol_PMB]

The vegetation on the photo plank is now almost complete. All the bushes and shrubs are in place, though I may still add a bit more localised texture to the grassy areas, and trim the edges.

I am working on a fence for the top of the cutting but at present the holes are marked with cocktail sticks while I prepare the fenceposts.

I also plan to fit a plain grey backscene so you don't have to look at all the mess behind!

[Mol_PMB]

I'm going to call this finished, for now at least:

To add a bit of colour, I got the baby GMs out of their boxes for the first time. These both need some work (renumbering, weathering, DCC chips, probably regauging) but I want to finish off a few more wagons first.

149 is from the current Murphy Models batch, and is in late 1970s / early 1980s condition with tablet catchers:

Factory-weathered 190 is from the first Bachmann batch, and is in mid-late 1980s condition without tablet catchers, but with SA suffix to its numbers and electrification flashes:

 

[exciecoachbuilder]

Love it...