Rock on!

The next stage in my model railway was to add a tunnel section, the idea was to create a cliff edge across the rear quarter with space for a small airbase on top of the cliff and the train track tunnel section going into the cliff. I found an old sheet of blue insulation foam so used this to form my rocky outcrop.

 

This section is open from behind so de-railed trains can be recovered if required. I went with the following method to create the rocks which seemed to work well:

1. Shape and form of the rock formations created by cutting blue insulation foam board to shape and gluing together using PVA.
2. Rock like texture added by 'attacking' the blue foam with a saw/knife/fingernails, basically just tear it up! I tried to stick to straight line patterns to create the look I was after.
3. Add some 'mud' to hide joins and add further texture. The 'mud' was created by mixing plaster, sand and PVA.
4. Base coat the whole lot. I used a grey primer I had lying around, this acted as a good seal and base colour.
5. Dark wash and light high-light(s) to bring out the texture. I used acrylic paints here with a black wash and light grey then white highlights.
6. Finish of with a bit of mossy foliage.

Acylic varnish nightmare...

So I came across a couple of old models I must have made about 20 yrs ago (now I feel old!), they were not amazing quality but worth salvaging, models were the airfix airfield emergency set, a fire truck and an ambulance, I figured if I could tart them up a bit they'd go nicely on my airfield section I'm planning for a corner of my railway layout.

Both models were very dusty but this cleaned off ok with a damp paintbrush, some parts were damaged but after a bit of gluing and filling they were ok. They were basically painted so my plan was to do some washes and drybrushing and see how they turned out.

First up was the ambulance which didn't turn out to bad, its not the best but from a distance looks good, my highlighting style is pretty extreme (too much time spent painting space marines!) but I like the effect. Originally the model was a light brown colour so I washed with a darker brown, then dry-brushed light brown, yellow, then white, in decreasing amounts. Finally the larger panels were repainted to get rid of wayward dry-brushing and the model was given a coat of matt varnish (Hornby spray varnish).

Next up was my fire truck, I followed a similar process but this time because the paint job wasn't very good a re-did the base coat with a gloss red (enamel paint) before washing and dry-brushing with acrylic (purely because of the various colours I had available). You wont be able to tell from the phot but it looked quite good!

Finally I sprayed with Hornby Acrylic varnish........ then to my horror all the paintwork blistered, almost instantly. This resulted in one ruined model which is now sin the bin!

I'm assuming that the acrylic varnish reacted with the enamel paint.

A bit of Google research and this problem is mentioned on a number of sites including here
 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/53133-acrylic-varnish-over-enamel-paint/
 Seems the solvent in the acrylic varnish causes the reaction, chalk this one up to experience. Going forward I think I will avoid using enamel paints, my experience with painting miniatures using acrylics has definitely converted me, easier to clean, quicker to dry and I don't really like the high gloss finish that enamels can achieve anyway.

Ballasting model railway track

Its been a while but I've managed to make some progress on the railway track! I've ballasted the track. I spent some time researching the various methods people have used, there's a wealth of information on the internet, in the end this is how I did it:

Materials:
PVA glue
Sharp sand
Water
Large syringe
Teaspoon!

Step 1:
Poured the sand into position and brushed it into place, the sand was quite moist out of the bag so easy to form into place.

 

Step 2:
By the time all of the sand was in place it had dried out, I wanted it wet to help the glue soak though all of the grains so I gave it a good soaking with a fine mist, taking care not to blow it out of position!

 

Step 3:
Glued it in place. I used PVA glue watered down to a consistency of milk. I started by using a large syringe to drop the glue onto the wet sand but this was taking AGES so I used a teaspoon to carefully pour the glue into the centre of the track, whilst this was soaking in I used the syringe to add glue to the edges of the ballast

Step 4:
Let it dry, I left mine for days because I was busy doing other stuff but I think it was good and solid after 24hrs. A quick sweep to get rid of loose stuff and job done!

Thoughts

This was a very cheap method, I allready had sand and glue so to me it was free! If not you can pick up a bag of sharp sand for a few quid from a builders merchant and this will be enough to last you a lifetime!

I quite like the irregularity of grain size but purists out there may wish to sieve the sand first as there are some larger stones in the mix, I found though that most of the larger stones didn't bond as well as the sand and hence got swept away at the end.

Next step is to weather the tracks, my plan for this is to spray the lot (track and ballast) and maybe wash and highlight depending on how it ends up looking.

Space saving model railway

Now unless you live alone or in a castle I’d imagine that like myself you probably haven’t got limitless space to play with, fill up with models, store stuff, etc. Don’t get me wrong, my family are the most important thing in my life but having a family does mean making some sacrifices such as money and time (both mentioned previously), space is another such commodity. It is also true that doing anything without the support (or at least tolerance) of your nearest and dearest is only going to end one way (badly in case you were wondering!), therefore I decided early on that I’m going to avoid taking over the house with models and miniatures and consciously try to minimize the impact of my hobbies without limiting my ambitions (too much)!

This brings me on to todays topic, my plans and progress on a model railway. I uncovered a very old 00 gauge train set when we moved house, it was mine when I was younger and it passed down to me before that, I seem to recall that I used to have it mounted on some chipboard in my parents loft but it never got any further than that. There’s a bit of track a couple of non-functioning trains, some varied rolling stock and some rather tired cardboard buildings. In keeping with my ethos of spending as little money as possible and not wasting space my plan is to create a model railway that fits on a window sill in our guest bedroom, I’m going to re-use as much of the existing stuff as possible. 

I figure that the model railway should form the basis for a number of interesting modelling projects that can be completed as and when I feel like it . I’ve also decided to theme the railway (loosely) around WWII, therefore it will double as somewhere to display any models I might be making in the future.

Our house, being very old has pretty thick walls and the window sills are a good 750mm deep, so plenty of space to fill with something! I have this vision of a track going though mountains with a little station area loading troops, maybe a small base with some tanks and aeroplanes flying overhead.....we’ll see how it develops.

So as previously mentioned, I intend to use the railway as a starting point for a number of modelling projects in the future, with that in mind I am quite keen to get the essentials in place sooner rather than later, if I can get the baseboard and track sorted, track wired up and working, and track ballasted and board painted reasonably soon the rest can follow in time. My available space is really a bit too tight to fit a looped track in, but I really wanted one so, that’s what I have done! I reasoned I'm only going to be using small trains (0-2-0, 0-4-0) so a tight radius turn shouldn’t be so much of a problem, it may look a bit unrealistic but I’m not aiming for 100% realism, more of an interesting display area for other modelling projects. So I decided to squeeze in a loop with a passing section for a platform and a siding area for goods/military use, I also wanted to vary the height of the track a little because this looks a lot more interesting than a flat layout.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve managed to make some good progress. The base board is build, I used 12mm MDF as the base and then built up a loop around the outside with scrap timber, this also stiffens up the board. I’ve added slopes at a reasonable gradient (approx 4%) down into the centre for the sidings and to a raised section in one of the corners. For the slopes I used used thin plywood sat on wooden blocks of varying height and faired in with car filler. All timber was glued and screwed and when completed the board felt very solid.

I've used thin (approx 3mm) packing foam cut into strips and glued to the board for the track underlay, and then painted the whole lot with grey primer. I'm not sure how well this underlay will work but its got to be better than nothing and its free and I'm not fussed about a noise free track, just trying to damp out any resonate rattles.

The track has been laid, I’ve had to pin it in place which won't make for a quiet track but proved necessary because of the tight loops. The track sections themselves were not in great condition but luckily I managed to cobble enough together without having to buy any more which was good. 

I’ve been round and soldered every track joint, this was a pain but much easy with a soldering gun as opposed to an iron. I added the wiring, including jumpers across points to ensure continuity where necessary. Its been wired as two seperate circuits, the main loop as one and the siding area as another. I’ve also managed to coax one of the old trains into life, it runs (just about) so I’ve been able to use this to check the track at this stage. There were a few sticking points and sections that derailed the train initially but after a bit more filling with solder and filing into shape I’ve got the whole track working and ready to be ballasted.

The board is now in-situ on its window sill, where it is nicely tucked away and ready for further development. I can draw the curtains and its like I was never there!

The (re)beginning...

So here goes, during my youth I loved model making (generally WWII aircraft), painting miniatures, and playing Warhammer 40K, then girls, drink, cars, uni and all that stuff came along and these hobbies took a bit of a back seat! Now here I am, a bit older (maybe wiser) and settled into life I realised recently that I do pretty much nothing creative, and I miss it. I happened across an old airfix kit (it was a Mustang) and sat down and built it, which I enjoyed so much I popped into the local model shop in my lunch break the next day to buy a couple of paints and finished it off that night.Its not amazing but I was reasonably pleased for my first attempt.

Now I’m a firm believer in the importance of being healthy, both in the body and mind and hence if something brings you a bot of enjoyment (without destroying your body!) then its no bad thing, therefore I’ve decided to rekindle my previous hobbies and this blog will charter my progress, not sure where it will end up or whether it will be worth reading but everything has to start somewhere!

I should probably say that spare time and cash are commodities I no longer have, looking back to my childhood I realise now just how much spare time I did have, and no longer do!  I’m now married, a father of two girls (currently aged 2 & 6), working 8 hrs+ a day with a 2hr commute each way and have recently moved in to a beautiful old farm cottage in Angus (Scotland) with a long list of home improvements to do. This coupled with a love of staying fit and strong, mountain biking, and generally being outdoors leaves me with pretty much no spare time or cash. Therefore these adventures in miniature will always err on the side of thrifty and we shall have to see how much time I get to spend on projects.....