Well that never ran on the Welshpool & Llanfair!

In the stash of half finished items I discovered a Backwoods Miniature Diesel. It seemed a quick win to paint it and have it available to run on the layout. There was some work to be done as the base had warped from being too tight on the chassis. This necessitated filing off part of the Kato chassis, then ripping off the side frames and then applying some gentle heat to the body whilst some weights were forcing the body back into shape. Repainted it is an interesting item that can trundle round the layout as something different.

Wasp 2

I've continued with building stock for the layout and Wasp is making progress. After the quick initial build I was faced with installing 8 grab rails round the doors. I'm not sure I have ever done this before. I knew I had a Handrail Bending Jig from Bill Bedford Models so I dug it out and tried it but due to a lack of technique on my part the wire ended up more curved than right angles. I resorted to the old fashioned method of bending the wire in pliers and got the angle I needed. The jig is clearly good for consistency but I need to improve my technique.

I tried soldering the handrails but made more mess than wanted to resorted to superglue. First I made a spacer from plasticard, then inserted the handrail and then spotted some superglue on the front using a cocktail stick. Once set I added more superglue to the rear and scraped the superglue off the front.

Writing this article I realise I glued the handrails such that their outer faces are level when they should be the same distance off the panel, the ones on the doors stick out further because the doors are further out. They are not coming off now! Rivet counters can cringe when they see it go by.

Once that was done it was time for painting. I had a couple of goes with primer and settled on a standard Halfords' grey primer for the body and a WarHammer black primer for the base. First rookie mistake. Painting yellow over those colours is just hard. I should have used a white primer. Colours are subjective, combined with sunlight and ones own eyesight you never really know what you are looking at. Consequently I am a little free with my choice. The yellow was a WarHammer colour which was too thick. Eventually I remembered I had some thinners and the last couple of coats have gone on much better.

I had a Tamiya green which I started to brush paint but the finish wasn't smooth so I sanded that down, masked the loco and used a Humbrol Dark Green spray can which is not as dark green as I would like but it was handy. The side window frames were painted using a WarHammer silver, seriously thinned down and applied with a 00000 brush, yes there are 5 noughts in there. Whether the window frames are painted or aluminium in real life seems to depend on maintenance. For consistency I have painted all the side frames in silver and the front and rear frames are painted green though I am pretty sure that one of the side frames was green.

I'm left with underframe detail, glazing, windscreen wipers, roof fittings, coupling blocks and striping the yellow panel. Wish me luck!

More stock - Wasp

Although the layout is set in the early days of the WLLR I have been looking at the kit stash with a view to increasing the available stock. I have the 3 coaches to do but they invoke a level of trepidation. I've never built a Worsley Works scratch aid kit and don't really want the coaches to be first. Then I spotted the etch of Wasp. It's far too modern for the layout but, so far, there is nothing on the layout that screams a particular era. It fits on a Kato tram chassis and I just happened to have one of those as well.

It took a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon to solder up the pieces. The hardest part was deciding where two particular pieces went. In the end I realised they were bottom bracing for the cab unit. After that it was relatively quick to glue two pieces of plasticard together and then stick them to the roof with contact adhesive. I'm slightly concerned the fumes might attack the plastic but I used the glue sparingly. A file and several grades of sandpaper have been used to shape the roof. It doesn't have to be perfect.

There are several photos to be found on the internet but there is an excellent photo on flickr which is taken from above the railcar which shows the roof detail - the only photo I found of this.

Detailing commences

A relatively productive few days. First up was the boards that allow people to cross the race. These were simply done with coffee shop stirrers, scored, stained and painted. I did take care to add some cross rods to represent the supports that would have existed for the timbers. Presumably these might well have had a bracing effect for the girders in real life. A touch of the same paint used on the girders and track and you wouldn't know they were only glued to the underside of the coffee stirrer.

The second piece of work was the telegraph poles. These had been made by Andy from the 009 Wilts Group and were surplus from his layout so he kindly gave them to me. It took a while to go over the pictures and determine where they might have been in real life but I believe they are close. While wondering what to use as wire my wide reminded me we had bought some invisible thread for hanging bats in a church (don't ask...). Needless to say we couldn't find it - well it's invisible isn't it... Once it was found I strung it up, just wrapped round the insulators for now and taped through the opening at each side. I also ran a paintbrush down the thread, much like dry brushing and that has helped it stand out a bit. Currently it is taught because off the reel the thread is slightly twisted. I am wondering if over time it will lose the twistedness and I can reduce the taughtness and have it sag like in the real world.

With my wife's help the front drape was hemmed and tested. No photo of that as the light had started to go off. I also turned the black material I had bought into a dust cover so it wasn't wasted. This all took place in the lounge so it dawned on me that as the layout was downstairs I should probably check if it fitted in the car. Thankfully it does and I have a good idea how I will pack the car on future outings.

Ready to go?

This last week I have been finishing off the fascia. I had been putting it off for a couple of months whilst work and Christmas got in the way. What I also could not work out was exactly how the fascia should fit together. I had the idea that the front lighting beam should be removable for maintenance but it had already started to come loose from having manoeuvred the layout holding onto it.

Then the question was how to handle the 'wings' of the layout. The main board was designed to fit into the back of the car and to ensure there was no join in the visible part. Would these line up with the front or just be flat behind? Eventually I started cutting wood and it came together. The sides of the main fascia were glued on and braced with balsa. The bracing does not carry any load but is there to limit flexing.

The wings were cut and I selected a trapezium shape to try and limit the amount of flat surface the public would see and to help it stand out from the traditional square blob. I realised that I could effectively fix the wings to the sides of the main fascia by gluing strips of wood to the back of both boards and have then stick out. Imagine alternate pegs that push together by a lattice.

I then tried some velcro on the edge but it came away so a block of timber on the face of the wing provides the main weight support.

The next task was the front curtain. I went and bought some black material but it clashes with the muted green of the fascia so I will have to go out and buy another colour, probably grey.

The other task done is I have filled in the roof of the layout with mounting board. A layout like this is best viewed from just under eye level. My personal preference, however, is to set the layout height so people in wheelchairs and mobility scooters can see it. It means the majority of people have to stoop for the best view but many lean on barriers anyway. There isn't a good solution to this situation.

What I realised when standing up was that you could see down through the roof and that distracted from looking through the front s I filled it in.

Is it ready to go out now? Yes, I believe it is. I'll sort the curtain this week then there will be no bare boards visible and it runs. There is plenty to do on detailing and I need to build up enough stock but it can now go to exhibitions. I've contacted a couple of local shows and offered it as a fill-in should someone drop out at the last minute. A couple of shows should iron out anything I've missed!

A look back through this blog showed that I started this in Jan 2017 so a little over 2 years for a layout that has one track on it! I confess thought I had taken longer and wonder if I didn't start blogging until much later - who knows!

If you are interested then pop across to the Melin Dolryhd page on my website where there are details and an exhibition flyer you can download.

Static Grass

Eventually it had to be done - a first foray into static grass. However, there were a couple of steps to finish off first.

The first job was to finish the landscape round the mill. In the last post I was laying polyfilla mixed with brown acrylic paint and water to bed in the mill and raise the land. All went well but I needed to raise it a little more. No problem except that I used a new box of own brand filler from a value store and instead of drying solid it dried to powder so all needed to be scraped out and replaced with a more reputable filler.

The second job was to finish the river. I'd done it in two parts, left and right and just needed to put one last coat of Deluxe water. As in a previous post, this stuff dried way thinner than expected so one last coast was all it needed.Well blow me down, this coat went and dried all thick with a curved edge to it. There are definitely times when railway modelling can drive you to drink. There's no going back short of ripping up the whole river. It isn't bad but I know that before this last coat it looked better.

Anyway, time to try the static grass device. I'd bought a sieve version as recommended by the war gaming fraternity and after a bit of play I chucked down a layer of 2mm green over the whole area which made a huge difference.

After a trip to ExpoNG it was time to take the bull by the horns, throw caution to the winds and make more progress. I'd found Kathy Millatt's videos several months ago and saw her recommendation for War World Scenics Layering spray so I had a can along with many different sizes and colours of their range. I have to say I really like them and they were easy to use. Here's some photo's of what has been achieved so far. I hope you like them.

No going back

There is progress to report. The mill has finally been put in place and glued down. There is still work to do on the front openings and providing some chimneys but enough has been done to justify committing the building to the ground. A significant amount of multi purpose filler has been used to complete the burying and bring the ground up to the height of the front door. I always mix acrylic paint, burnt umber, into the filler so that if scraped, it doesn't show white. I could have added some black as well as this batch is drying lighter than before.

The mill wheel motor has been glued down but the housing is still loose.

Other work done includes the ballasting. The sleepers and rails were painted and then the ballast done. I've also added the stones to the right hand side of the river. Still some fettling to happen there before I can add the water on top. I do need to think how the side openings are going to be disguised!