Some new Blogs added to My Blog List

I have added some more British based blog sites to my list.

Stuff all happened this week!

The title says it all. Apart from tidying up the modelling table nothing happened. I wasn't feeling well most of the week and by the end of each day was knackered. As for the weekend, too busy either taming the yard prior to Christmas (our house this year!) or doing Christmas shopping. The nearest I got to anything train related was spending about an hour this afternoon while it was teeming down rain with my sons building a Thomas wooden track on the lounge room floor and trying to get the toddler to understand that sitting on the tracks stops the trains from actually moving! Fun and games!

Well hopefully the two weeks off over the Christmas and New Year period will see some activity on the layouts. Until next week, Merry Christmas to all.

And the winner is.......

ME! Yep I won the Encouragement award for my model of Kensington Hill Station at the club's annual Christmas Modelling Competition on Saturday. I was able to finish the rear stairs and submit it for judging. I must admit I am pretty chuffed at the moment. The effort I put into this model has been justified!

Apart from the station nothing else was done the week just gone. Now that the station is finished, I can start tidying up my modelling table so that I can finish off some half completed projects left by the wayside for the last few months.

Station rear stairs

The trophy for the 2010 RMCQ Encouragement Award

Minimal effort this week

A busy week but not with modelling. However I was able to bodgy up some stairs for the station. These will be glued on in due course before this weekend's Club modelling competition. I have decided not to put fencing on the rear side platform as it would look to busy. Still wondering whether just to put handrails on the stairs.

On the Hill fencing project, I was able to position the farm gates then the fence posts either side of the gate posts. These fence posts will be the start of the fencing run. This will be very time consuming and a more than likely a slow process.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a few Model Rail DVDs from Telerail. They have a 3 for 2 offer, so three DVDs were purchased: Air Brush Expert (something I want to learn more about), Weathering Expert, and Western Branch Line Modelling. These arrived on Friday in the post but I only had time over the weekend to start watching the WBL modelling video.

This week I have to finish off the station ready for the club competition mentioned earlier.

Lights, camera, action!

Well let me explain the blog title.

Lights: I was able to install two station platform lampposts into Kensington Hill station through the week. I also temporarily wired them up to a couple of 9V batteries so that the lamps would glow to show the effect. On the subject of the station, I was also able to scratchbuild with the help of a software package, a printer and some styrene the station nameboards with a BR Western Region totem. They look pretty good in my opinion.

Camera: How else to show this blog! Also what I forgot to take to the running session yesterday!

Action: I was invited over to my good mate Craig's place on the other side of town (see Craig's Shed blog link) yesterday arvo for a running session on his NSWGR based layout "Cassino". My other mate PK was also in attendance. I thoroughly enjoyed taking the three trains from Grafton to Acacia Ridge, Acacia Ridge back to Grafton, and a final return trip to Acacia Ridge. I used Craig's radio handset which was a godsend for moving about his large layout. A cabled handset would have been a pain. Thanks Craig!

The only other thing I managed to do last week was paint the farm gates prior to installation. Hopefully this week if I can, but it is starting to get busy on the pre-Christmas social calendar front!

I only have the stairs to go on the station's rear before I will be finished, but I am also thinking of putting fencing around the rear 'platform' and some handrails on the stairs, but this will depend on how fiddly this may be. I will hopefully have something ready to enter into the Club's Christmas Competition on the 11th but time will tell.




Farm gates

 



Side closeup of lamp and nameboard

 


Station front with nameboards and lampposts




Station rear nameboard




Station rear with nameboards and lampposts



Productive week

The week started last Sunday when I was able to do some work on the layouts. On Lachlan's we did some more scenery. Please link off to Beaver Springs. On mine, I was able to get my AMBs - Anti Matthew Barriers up. These are simply perspex barriers to stop little fingers getting to places I don't want them to be!

Through the week I progressively hand drilled the holes in the fence posts and come Saturday night I was able to paint them a wood colour from the Humbrol range. The brown plastic didn't seem realistic to me, but hopefully the wood colour paint will. Mr Mackie read my blog last week re the use of the fishing/nylon line as fencing wire and suggested I use copper wire. He kindly supplied a small roll of the stuff that is very fine and I will use it and then probably paint it a rusty colour. I will be using the gates from the Ratio ramp set as the farm gates for the Hill farm. I will however paint these the same wood colour as the fence posts.

I finally settled on what I was going to spend my tax refund on. More Aussie (NSWGR) outline gear. I decided against purchasing a 49 Class in favour of some more rollingstock and another 44 Class.

So I ordered from Tom’s Hobbies:
1 x TrainOrama 4480 - Mk2 Western Division Tuscan (On Sale ),
1 x TrainOrama BWH Wagons Pack 9 - NSWGR Grey,
1 x TrainOrama BWH Wagons Pack 10 - NSWGR Grey, &
1 x TrainOrama RU, BWH, FHG variety pack

http://www.tomshobbies.com.au/index.php/locomotives/keywords/locomotives-trainorama44/2
http://www.tomshobbies.com.au/index.php/rolling-stock/keywords/rollingstock-trainoramabwh
http://www.tomshobbies.com.au/index.php/rolling-stock/keywords/rollingstock-trainoramavarietywagonspacks

So I should now be right for a wheat train!

Well that is the tax refund spent and the last of the big purchases for this year!

Hopefully these should arrive in the next couple of days.

Yesterday I was also able to spend an hour on Illavearf by grassing the area around where the signal box is to go and the edge siding. It may look as though I have been heavy handed on this siding but I was trying to give the impression of a less used siding than the other one. Modelling note: I tried the 4/1 water.glue mix but this was too watery. So I used 100% glue on the horizontal.

Well that is about it for this week. Some photos of the above statements are below.



Perspex barrier 1




Perspex barrier 2




Newly grassed area




Siding grassed




Buffer end




Grass close up




Fence posts newly painted, sprue with original colour on the left
and wood paint on the right, the farm gate (from Ratio ramp set)
yet to be painted



Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

For all my ardent followers out there in the ether, sorry for no update last week but I was on a sanity break up at Noosaville. Okay it isn't quite beside the sea, but the Noosa River is close enough. So what has been happening in the last two weeks? Well I finally resolved the issue with MRRC of the dodgy Select decoder. After much toing and froing between Oz, the US and Germany, the sound config of the decoder wasn't fixed in a reasonable time. So Gary at MRRC offered a refund on the decoder which I accepted. This whole episode has left me a tad disappointed in the Select decoder. Now the other problem is that I have to put back the old electrics board in the EL Class, or put in a non sound decoder.

I also stumbled on an Aussie Ebay shop, Craftsman Scale Accessories, whilst researching lamp posts. They had a 10 pack of 12 volt grain of wheat lamps that looked rather good for a very good price ($17.50 + postage), so I placed an order. Within three days I had them but then was off on hols. I will place at least two on the station platform.

I was also able to do some minor modelling on hols. One afternoon was wet and anticipating such a scenario had packed one of Lachlan's building kits. So I spent some quality time (all of maybe five minutes) with my eldest before he left me for a nap, so I finished off the ranch house for him (another anticipated scenario!). For myself I also took with me the Ratio fence posts I will be using around the Hill farm. Ratio suggest gluing the wire (actually fishing line) to the posts, but I considered a better look of drilling holes through the posts. I was able to drill 12 posts at five holes each before my eyes started to blur! I only have 24 posts to go! I will also paint the posts I better shade of brown than the brown plastic to better suggest timber posts. Same for the fence wire. The clear fishing line won't cut the mustard, so I will paint them a rusty colour to better simulate real wire.

I received my tax refund the other day, so I am looking around for the next big purchase. NSWGR 49 Class or something from the UK or both. Maybe some second hand wheat wagons from Mr Mackie (??) or Trainorama variety pack or both (??). Some vids maybe (??). Some things to think about while at work this week ;-)

Until next time, ciao.