Captain Kernow's layouts

[Captain Kernow]

John F came round for a visit a few days ago, so I took the opportunity of putting many of the completed buildings out on the layout (all except the goods shed will eventually be permanently attached to the layout):









The card will eventually receive suitable scenic treatment and the gaps between the building walls and the card will be filled.

Some trains were then run.

NCB locos were 'plated' to run as far as Callow Lane from the nearby Frog Lane colliery:

 

[MarkR]

Hi Tim,
What superb pictures, full of atmosphere!
Mark

 

[NHY 581]

That looks pretty fab.

Rob

 

[simond]

Like that lots. The row of terrace backs, and the bridge. Just great.

 

[cbrailways]

Yes, well done CK. I think the thing that makes it is that the levels of the buildings are staggered in height rather than like on most models on flat ground. Given me some food for thought on my low relief background. Oh, and I like the point rodding as well (but you would expect me to say that wouldn't you).

 

[Mike Garwood]

Fair play Tim, fair play!

Mike

 

[Khris]

Just looks Superb!

Khris

 

[Captain Kernow]

I've been slowly working on the landscaping and pavements, all of which are close to the baseboard joins between the two scenic boards.

The first bit of the embankment next to the road bridge now done. The road bridge itself is on one board and the bit of embankment shown is on the next. This means that the retaining wall for the bridge (which is covered in this photo with some protective card) is not on the same board as the bridge itself. The cling film stops the Polyfilla and PVA mix gluing the join up:



Following a question on RMWeb, I have now decided to put a camber on the road, albeit only a rather gentle one and only on the 'main' road over the bridge itself.

Some thin card was first glued down the middle of the road:


Another piece of card (thinner than the Daler board used previously) was then cut to shape and glued on top:


The pavement sections were not glued down at the time.

 

[Captain Kernow]

Next up was to paint and weather the pavement sections and also to glue the chip shop in place on it's bespoke base.

The chip shop is a modified Hornby Skaledale 'Ben's Bookshop'.

The chip shop ended up with four long, spindly legs glued into the resin, made of 2mm brass rod. These locate in corresponding holes in the laminated Dalerboard base unit.

The base unit was glued in place a few weeks ago with PVA and a few days ago, I finally glued the chip shop into the base unit, using epoxy:


The pavement sections (made up from laminated plasticard and scribed with the Olfa cutter) were then painted, with a base coat of Halfords grey primer and then various Precision Paints concrete and similar hues hand painted on. When this was fully dry, it was weathered and dulled down using a water colour wash and allowed to dry. It was then given a coat of Humbrol Matt Acrylic Varnish. I will probably use a few powders on both pavements and road, once I have painted the road.

The pavement sections were then glued in place using Evostick contact adhesive:

 

[Captain Kernow]

I've been quite busy for the last few weeks, doing a few jobs to assist Re6/6 with the exhibiting of 'Parkend Marsh Sidings' at the 'Mini-Scaleforum' day near Teignmouth last weekend. This included building two cottages (one still unfinished) and sorting out a few more wagons, particularly 16t minerals.

Prior to that, I had started building another (very) low relief factory for Callow Lane, to fill a gap between the two overbridges.

It's based on a new Scalescenes kit for a rail-served factory (although it won't be rail-served on Callow Lane):


I shall only be using one of the outside walls, although that will have full relief and associated detail. I had only made a start cutting the basic shape out from Dalerboard, before suspending work to do the jobs for 'Parkend Marsh Sidings':


Here are some of the 16t minerals posed in front of it:




Now that the show has taken place, I've re-started work on the low-relief factory and have started to glue the Scalescenes brick paper on the front. Because this is a modification of their original design, this has involved a bit of 'cut & shut' with the brickpaper:


It will all be weathered to a more grimy finish in due course.

 

[Captain Kernow]

A pause in shunting on a Radnorshire byway:

 

[Captain Kernow]

The (very) low relief factory is finished now and is shown here, temporarily in place, prior to weathering:


Some weathering (with powders) applied:




I also got the iron railings out, that I prepared a few years ago and trial-fitted them on the top of the retaining wall:


Sorry this is a bit out of focus, but hopefully the intended arrangement is clear:

 

[Phil O]

Looks good Tim, what did you use for the engineers blue? It looks good!

 

[Captain Kernow]

Looks good Tim, what did you use for the engineers blue? It looks good!

Thanks Phil.

If you mean the engineers blue brick on the factory, most of it is as supplied in the Scalescenes kit, although I did use some of this on the base, where I extended it slightly beyond what the kit provided - https://scalescenes.com/product/dark-blue-brick/

 

[Phil O]

Thanks Tim, I had hoped that you had painted the engineers blue brick, but I will bear the Scalescenes brick paper in mind.

 

[Captain Kernow]

Precision do a decent engineers blue brick colour, which I have used on some of the plasticard structures, such as the capping bricks on the retaining walls.

 

[Phil O]

Thanks for the info, Tim, I will look out for some when I next go to an exhibition or two.

 

[Mike Garwood]

Tim
Who's spear fencing did you use and how did you get it to sit straight to the downward road. I looked at Masokits GWR spear fencing, but couldn't see a way of making it straight to the road. I'm asking as there is a considerable amount of this type of fencing on Park Road which is at the back of my proposed layout Hengoed. Trying to get all my ducks in a row before I cut the first sod.

Mike

 

[matto21]

I really love the Howard Scenics houses - I have a couple of kits but have never got around to building them. They look superb!

 

[Captain Kernow]

Tim
Who's spear fencing did you use and how did you get it to sit straight to the downward road. I looked at Masokits GWR spear fencing, but couldn't see a way of making it straight to the road. I'm asking as there is a considerable amount of this type of fencing on Park Road which is at the back of my proposed layout Hengoed. Trying to get all my ducks in a row before I cut the first sod.

Mike

Hi Mike,
It's been over seven years since I prepared the fencing, but it may well have been Scalelink stuff.

What I did to secure it (it's only temporarily in place in the above photos), was to solder short lengths of 0.45mm (or similar) rod to some of the protrusions at the bottom of each panel and drill matching holes in the plasticard engineers blue brick capping stones, that run the length of the brick retaining walls.

The intention is to epoxy the fence panels in place, once the cottages are permanently attached and bedded in (possible small amounts of filler will be required for this, also some vegetation growth along the base of the buildings, to represent something slightly down-at-heel).