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.

Kensington Hill starting to take shape

This week work continued on the station and platform by including the fencing. I had to do some scratch-building of the fence towards the end of the ramp as the Ratio ramp fence was not long enough. a bit dodgy but beats paying for another set of fences! I am researching the platform lighting options on the Internet at the moment so work will probably slow down a bit on the station. I also have to make the station name boards and the entry stairs from the road side.

I also did some more work on the farm by making some tractor tracks through the new grass growth of Spring. Just for a bit of a laugh I have incorporated a scene between the farmer and farm hand. Old Granny Smith, the farmer's mother, has come along for a drive in the land rover. Yet to do on the farm is the boundary fencing and placement of the sheep.

I have also provided a photo of the previously mentioned EPBs.

The EPBs

Kensington Hill Station 1

Kensington Hill Station 2

Kensington Hill Station 3

Kensington Hill Station 4

Kensington Hill Station 5

Granny Smith goes for a drive

Discussion 1

Discussion 2

Discussion 3

Tracks 1

Tracks 2



Kensington Hill farm taking shape



EPBs installed

Following on from the torrential rain the other week and the corrective measure put into place on the outside of the shed, I started thinking about how best to protect the layouts (Illavearf and Beaver Springs) from future water penetration if an external screw rubber seal perished again. Other than completely sealing the shed's roof which was not on the financial agenda, I came up with my Environmental Protection Barriers (EPBs) solution. This was not overly expensive (all up about $10) and consisted of two 1.8x2.4m poly-tarps strung up between the shed's internal steel work and above the layouts. This way any water would flow away from the layouts (hopefully) and directly onto the shed floor. Also the EPBs have another environmental feature in that they keep wayward leaves, general muck and gecko crap that come into the shed off the layouts (hopefully).
Work progressed on the station platform through the week. I installed a LED into the waiting room area on Friday night and it looks good lit up. I coated the clear LED in Tamiya Clear Orange to give that incandescent bulb look. Once installed and tested, I was satisfied enough to glue the station building to the platform. This week hopefully will see me complete the station (fencing, stairs and signage) and then I few photos will be uploaded. Once this is installed on the layout, I can start the scenicing of the immediate area and Kensington Hill itself.

Torrential rain and the shed

Well the previous weekend and on the Monday the heavens opened up. Out my way we seemed to get quite a deluge. Normally my shed is pretty good with not letting rain in, except for under the tilt doors but the roof is pretty reliable. However the shear amount of rain and the swirling winds found a way in. Monday arvo I checked the shed upon getting home from work and found some leaks. They seemed to have gone through some of the roof sheeting screw bolts' holes, onto the rafters and dripped onto the floor in various locations. Lachlan's layout Beaver Springs copped a few drips towards the edge, but nothing that can't be fixed.


The earliest I could get to fixing these leaks was Saturday arvo just gone. It appears some of the sealing rubbers finally perished in the heat of last Summer and the rain found its way in through these. While on the roof, I checked the rest of the screws and if it looked dodgy silicone was liberally applied. As the long range forecast is for lots more rain over this Summer best to bog these up now when I can actually get on the roof and its not a furnace. Thus it wasn't a big weekend in the shed for modelling.


However through the week just gone, I was able to get out to the shed on Tuesday night (my version of Tuesday Nighters!) and complete the grassing of Kensington Hill. Looking good. I will get a photo or three up when I have done some more scenicing. Also I finished building my station platform and now just adding the Scalescenes paper effects to it. I have also decided to put a light or two into the station building itself so I will have to provision the access and wiring for this. As for the platform lights, I am seeing what I can do with these as well. A few photos of the station progress next time.

New addition to the Shed

This week I didn't get around to doing much. I made a couple of chimney pots for the station but have yet to paint these. My main quandary was the platform for Kensington Hill. I wasn't sure of the ramp angle and if two ramps were required by regulation or whether one would do. I posted a couple of question on the 'britrail' forum and was provided with some excellent answers. Yes I can only have one ramp which is 1 in 8. This seems to be validated by the 6 degree angle of the Ratio ramp fencing I will be using. So with this answered I will move forward with the platform.

I also received during the week the much awaited delivery of 2mm tower LEDs from DCC Concepts. The proto-whites will be installed in the NSWGR 44 class when I get a chance to do this (the workbench is getting very crowded!).

I also forgot to mention that about two weeks ago I received the long forgotten package from Auscision which contained a replacement headlight assembly for the CFCLA EL Class. No rush on getting this installed as I am still waiting for the sound decoder to be returned from MRRC ONCE ESU in the US has sorted out the config problem.

As mentioned in Beaver Springs, it was perfect Shed Weather. Unfortunately I didn't get around to putting more grass on the Hill. Hopefully this might be something to do one evening this week. The inability to spend some time on Illavearf was mostly as a result of doing some TV rearrangements. We received a Sony Trinitron TV from the In Laws as they had upgraded to a flat screen LED model. As the Sony was better than our current TV, this was moved downstairs to the study. The TV that was there was going to go to the shed, but was too big to locate anywhere practicable. However the missus agreed to let me take the small TV that the boys had been using as the relocated one in the study would be used by them.

So now I have a TV in the Shed (albeit only on analogue signal. Yet to install a digital decoder). All I need now is a fridge and I will be set as I have a microwave, kettle and sink!

The new addition with Bathurst on