4mm Frosty Mornings - a layout rebuild in 6 months!

[Rippers]

Given the level of interest in our current layout project and the thread on the upgrade of the Outwell Village not to mention the number of questions each has encouraged.
I thought I would push the boat out and show what arrived next in the workshop and what proved to be a far more challenging (though fun never the less project) for us.

To which may I introduce to you the.........



..........project!

A little background....

One upon a time a modeller of this fair land ........well another land next to this one!......(who out of respect for his privacy we will henceforth refer to as Martin!).... had a trainset that he was a bit sad about. He wanted a trainset just like his friends had but somehow what he had just wasnt the same.........

Fortunately Mrs Martin knew how said friends like a fun challenge so a plan was hatched between us to turn his frown upside down...........


Which in turn led to this behemothand its associated detrius being prized from his grasp and transported across the country to our playroom........





Now heres the thing ...few of us had even seen this model before its arival and we had no plans in place what so ever.

How hard could it be?............. we figured worse come to worse we could just not tell him and set fire to it and then build a new layout!

 

[Rippers]

First job...............


No sence rushing these things..........






10 minutes pondering the pros and cons of our latest challenge over tea and cake and we had a plan...........

The plan was yes we can improve it (or destroy it in the process) but in doing so we wouldnt let the owner know what it was!.................. we would let him find out as we went along!!

 

[Rippers]

Step one was 'carefully note, dismantle and remove to storage' ...........

.......this is our patent method of speeding up that process........

............especially when it isnt our layout!

 

[marsa69]

Is that the free gift tool from the first edition of that new railway mag thingymajiggy?

 

[Ressaldar]

Is that he free gift tool from the first edition of that new railway mag thingymajiggy?

..and applied by the hand of god?

cheers

Mike

 

[Rippers]

Is that the free gift tool from the first edition of that new railway mag thingymajiggy?

Yup - its our universal problem solving tool.........

 

[lancer1027]

Commonly known as a " force it " tool.

 

[Heather Kay]

AKA the Birmingham Screwdriver.

 

[Rippers]

With the few small savable details put safely out of the way diassembly progressed at quite a rate that first evening..... we are nothing if not keen when it comes to knocking things to pieces.........


The distillery end was the first to be identifed as in need of some light adjustment so as to improve the ballance of the scenic area and improve the fiddleyard arangement........



Within minutes the entire area was history................and within hours Martin was freeking at the video clip we sent him of some of Colins deft hammer work on the layouts scenics......



Brutal work and not for the squeemish!





Mind we were in such a hurry with the demilition we forgot to warn the locals.........

 

[Broad Sword]

Whilst I was attempting to do my bit I was aware of a whining noise which I put down to my old woodworking teacher turning in his grave!

He would have demanded that I should have used a mallet and not a hammer even if I was using the side of the head!

 

[Rippers]

After a couple of hours we were pretty much left with a layout like this as a start...........



The nice station building (work of a certain Mr Rushby) put up the biggest fight against out efforts to disloge it from its foundations............... it seemed to have been welded on.



But was finally banished in an undamaged state thanks to Alans deft work with a wallpaper scraper!



Which left us to finish by cutting back the rails at this end (which previously ended at the sky!).


The model we knew had started its life as a commission job from a professional builder and as built was strong had excellent trackwork (handbuilt pointwork by Martin we were led to believe) which gave us a really good base from which to start.

Unfortunately , it was really really heavy (its construction was old fashioned solid timber and more suited to much larger boards and large teams and not a small and quick to deal with 2 man in a car job). The difficulties further compounded by some odd ideas on the underpinnings and some really impractical electrics which actually prevented a lot of the operational moves you would want to do.....

As such we realised that in order to nudge the layout towards it true potential and make it easier to handle and exhibit then modifications we would have to be made to the substructure, lighting, fiddleyard and electrics on top of the changes to the buildings and scenics we initially identified..

Which put any thoughts of the quick 6 week make over of the uninspiring scenics we initially planned right out of the window.

Helped in part at this point by a rather timely email request to supply a layout for the BRM Doncaster show a few months later......... which like our plans we kept from Martin as another supprise of which he had many yet to come!)

By the time we finished it has to be said just the bare skeleton of that original model still existed . The finished layout would turn out not only look and runs differently to how it did but it is now displayed and transported in a much different way.

(in retospect we went so far with it we really should have ditched it and started from scratch!)

 

[Rippers]

Well given this isnt a live rebuild I can quickly wind on two or three weeks .............


By which time a road overbridge was taking shape across the centre of the secenic section so as to divide up the scene and add some interest to the otherwise open area.



Scratch built in plasticard to a GNoSR pattern...... (no Wills girders for speed here thank you very much!...........and plastic sheet is cheaper......we are from Yorkshire you know!)



Note also the backscenes have been rubbed right back to the wood - they were initally coated in what appeared to be a thick coat of light blue Santex style exterior paint and were like rough sandpaper to the touch.......... Broadsword put quite a few hours in getting rid of it!............... still the exercise was good for him!




Whereas at the fiddleyard entrance end the Distillery scene was being reworked and re-sited on the third of the main scenic boards (the layout consisted of four 4ft by 18inch boards) so as to leave the fiddleyard board which it initially occupied most of the front of free and clear.



Notice how the layout is now looking less open with the changes we were making....... (yes that is Outwell at the back still undergoing its work - we can multitask!)



It wasnt only the infrastructure and landform that were undergoing changes at this point as structures such as this GNoSR Goodshed and grounded van body seen here in early stages were also under construction in this case by Tappa and Steve 1....




and we were still having a lot of fun..........

 

[Rippers]

Moving on a few weeks and the scenics were well on........



The landforms were all stripped back to plaster and new hairy matting added (longer for the embankments and shorter in the fields (as opposed to all the same as original............. a detail a lot of layout builders overlook! ).



The backscenes were primed and given an good coating of white emulsion and a handpainted backdrop based on photo of the area in which the layout is set added to give some depth to what is quite a narrow scenic area.



Note how adding the roadbridge, fencing and differing vegitation breaks up the scene when compared with the layout in the 'as delivered' photos.



At the station end the re-positioned station building and associated details were going in and the new loading bay (ex cattle dock) was taking shape.



The roadway slopes down and curves away into the backscene (the hedging both hiding the join and carrying on onto the backdrop so as to give the impression that the road carries on towards the station.



Because of the lack of depth on the scenic section the handpainted backdrop was deliberatley done so as to show distant hills features rather than anything close so as to give the impression of depth.

Changing the scenics is changing the look though isnt it?

 

[Rippers]

Still with me?...............good!

Following quickly on with the addition of some colour to the grasswork and bushes and the planting of a few trees to break up the scene (the area in which the layout was set was moorland but like with the NYMR the lines course tended to follow valley bottoms and more fertile areas where the landscape was a lot more rich in trees and greenery).


Enhanced further we hoped by the addition of the signalling and such small ancilary details as the roadsigns and telegraph poles. (the latter like the trees give the model some all important height as we felt the model as delivered was a bit flat)



The re-worked and repositioned distillery scene now well bedded in (what isnt apparent from this angle is the fact that the original low relief buildings had been dismantled (well they fell apart if we are honest!) and rebuilt in part as full depth structures)


Notice too in some of the shots that the patchy stained woodwork of the frontage has been filled, rubbed down, primed and given a couple of good coats of a gloss black.

The station area too is starting to develop but still lacking the characterful goodshed and signal box of correct patterns needed to complete the look.



So there you are we hope that you agree that it was worth our while to do this.

 

[BrushType4]

You've made a really big difference

 

[iak63]

I had forgotten all about this re-jig/re-mould/re-modelling project.
Small steps led to significant change for the better...

 

[iploffy]

Very nicely done

 

[lancer1027]

A very nice layout and what a transformation from the original.

Rob

 

[Rippers]

A very nice layout and what a transformation from the original.

Rob

Ah but I was teasing..........that wasnt the end of the story...........!!

You see I have a theory about 4mm scale exhibitions and exhibition layouts based on 25 plus years of designing and showing them on a rather busy circuit awash with a lot of similar layouts. (other theories are avalable!)

namely

In that to truly stand out for the crowd you have to either build the extraordinary or build the ordinary but presented in an extraordinary way.

Especially when like us you have a base a bit out of the way. Ordinary BLT and the like?....... no thanks mate 'I can get a similar one of those from 5 mile down the road for threepence'........... unusual layout 'cor like your trainset mate please can you bring it 200 miles to here'.........

Now I freely admit that I have been lucky. My passion for the offbeat prototype has led me to design some unusual layouts (Walker Marine, Carlton Metals and Hospital Gates to name but 3) all of which have stagered me in their popularity. But there again all were prototype based but wierd and wacky ideas.

On the other hand Martins trainset though set in the lesser seen pretops diesel era (when liveries were mixed and plentiful) was still on the face of it a pretty bog standard run round loop and couple of sidings blt.

So it was time for some off the wall thinking............

Now the layout is nominally set around easter 1967 (the latter year for much of the rail traffic in the area). When in fact the region was be-set by a later wintery snap with many protype shots showing the area blanketed in snow..........idea (err no been done scenics well on anyway).

Hence the alternative..............

a morning with a jolly good heavy frost (Hoare Frost if you will).

 

[Rippers]

Supprise!!

It took a bit of experimenting but by way of a happy accident after nearly giving up the idea I was able to make the layout seen above look like this in less than an hour...........



Welcome to a chilly morning in 'Kinfrosty' as we now tend to call it!


Note the mist hanging over the fields on the backscene........... hope that steam heating works!

and now you can see why so little greenery was added to the trees and bushes (depicted in early bud)

You cant tell from the pictures but we actually added a very fine glitter substance called Angel Dust (used for card making) to the frost coatings which actually gives it a very slight frost like sparkle........



Postie obviously keeping in the warm of his van (scorching the hairs from his left leg whilst the right leg freezes if the heater works the same as it did in my Minor Van).






Nows hows that for changing the look of the layout from how it was received?