HO Eine Sekundärbahn

[Tim Hale]

More waffle……now that the trees are out of their storage bin, I suppose that they should be ‘planted’ .

The on-line archive of small rural stations was helpful, it revealed that the station area had been cleared but later the railway company had often planted a sapling either side of most station buildings. Seventy years on and these had matured rather nicely and the aesthetic framing was noticeable.
The larger tree is in the far corner of the scene in an attempt to 'hide' the hard corner.

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Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

OK,

Today marks an end of the beginning, at long last I am taking a break, there are just a few chickens to place in the coop, a cottage to complete and a multitude of insignificant details to install, otherwise, the 'heavy lifting' that started in 2022 is done.

For the next few weeks, I will be mostly running trains.

Tim

 

[Richard Gawler]

I'll give you two days! Seriously Tim, you clearly enjoy your modelling and enjoy sharing it.

A slightly "distant" photo of the whole layout would be good if this is possible. I'm struggling to see how the different scenes go together.

See you soon

 

[Roger Pound]

Enjoy running trains, Tim - IMHO it's the best bit.

Roger

 

[Herb Garden]

The intention is not to copy, but to create a reasonable resemblance, nothing more. The pedants don't care what I do, they will always criticize, so I just build what suits me. WT does not seem to be home to this demographic, it is refreshingly tolerant of those who simply build, share or just plain do stuff.

As far as I'm concerned there is only one reason to make and play with toy trains: to have fun. That's why I do it. And it's nice to be part of a community that gets that.

A murrain on those who criticise for nothing but Thier own satisfaction!

 

[Richard Gawler]

Currently, the pedants on DSO are arguing about both the colour of cow dung and the quantity produced.

I have no dung photos so I'll go for a bridge instead. I took these two photos less than two minutes apart.


The colour of the brickwork and the timber hasn't changed a jot, but the way we perceive the colour certainly has. No wonder so many of us struggle with representing unpainted brick and timber.

Even if you build a fabulous lighting rig to reproduce sunlight or a cloudy sky or dusk at your chosen latitude and longitude, you will still have to decide upon the level of atmostpheric pollution and a specific viewing distance before you even start to paint anything *using a colour of your own making*. There is no right answer; and I suggest your critics are somewhat blinkered and unlikely to help. Better to post on WT

I can't comment on the quantity.

Edited as marked * * to add a boundary!

 

[Tim Hale]

I spent the last few days fettling a cheap Faller kit primarily due to a blizzard of vituperous German pedantry elsewhere, this is the result.

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The Faller cottage has a vague similarity to the Häcker family house (above) from Ergersheim preserved as building #12 at the Fränkische Freilandmuseum in Bad Windsheim. Maybe scratchbuilding is a much needed option, if not, maybe just the removal of the lower level of fachwerke? Below is the shell of the new kit and the original 'despised' Faller model.

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Due to both the odd nature of the kit and the available space on P'dorf there really wasn’t too much scope the lengthen the building as the sub-base of the scene is finished but it has lost the fachwerk (timber framing) below the top of the ground floor windows. It has been carefully stipled with AK Interactive Terrains acrylic, a texture normally used for roads etc. Buildings of this size were once common until the '70s when living in a two down one up became unacceptable, in 2016, we rented an Airbnb in Coburg which was best described as bijoux or just plain cozy.

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The cottage has received a dusting of weathering powders and the creeper inspired by building #12, the same pilgrimage to Fränkische Freilandmuseum resulted in an hour 'twitching' at the white storks that return each year to the same location of Bad Windsheim where they are greeted as old friends and woe betide anyone who interferes with them. The farm on P'dorf has a 'Futtersilo' for the sole purpose of providing a nesting site, it still needs the guano and parent, once I can devise a method of attaching the bird using v.thin wire and super glue.

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Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

Possibly, my favourite image

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White storks were summer visitors to our village, their arrival signified the end of winter and I used to watch them hunt in the meadows for frogs etc. They were friendly and if they were used to your presence, they might come close by and 'chat' by clacking their beaks, they mate for life and always return to their birthplace.

There is a re-introduction unit in Sussex, it would make me very happy to see them hunt in the Purlieu once more after 600 years.

Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

Today was spent weathering an ancient Hanomag B10 using the remains of 50+ years of bodging, the tyres were the result of slathering them with Tamiya mud coloured 'lipstick' but the rest was repeated washes of dirty water. Not comparable with Artitec but it was in the cupboard.

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The Hanomag was first introduced in the early '60s and was fundamental in the change in material handling. It could lift a cubic metre 3m to reach above the side of an open wagon then used to transport sugar beets etc.

Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

More faffing, this time the farm gets some attention, although not particularly interesting, the layout has a strong bias towards scenery.
The farm and its associated buildings occupies more real estate than the station in an effort to place a railway in the landscape though a bit tricky with so little room.
Btw, none of this impresses German modellers as it not made in Germany.

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[NHY 581]

Btw, none of this impresses German modellers as it not made in Germany.

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Hi Tim,

Do you mean the layout itself or the individual items which constitute it ?

Just struggling to understand what you mean by this.

Rob.

 

[Kane Clements]

I have no dung photos so I'll go for a bridge instead. I took these two photos less than two minutes apart.

View attachment 216852View attachment 216853
The colour of the brickwork and the timber hasn't changed a jot, but the way we perceive the colour certainly has. No wonder so many of us struggle with representing unpainted brick and timber.

Even if you build a fabulous lighting rig to reproduce sunlight or a cloudy sky or dusk at your chosen latitude and longitude, you will still have to decide upon the level of atmostpheric pollution and a specific viewing distance before you even start to paint anything *using a colour of your own making*. There is no right answer; and I suggest your critics are somewhat blinkered and unlikely to help. Better to post on WT

I can't comment on the quantity.

Edited as marked * * to add a boundary!

Hi Tim.

It looks as if the light changed between the pictures. Also if you look at the top one the sky is a bit blown out whereas the second has a blue sky and nicely defined clouds. Probably the settings changed as well if you were on Auto.

You are right about the fickle nature of light and therefore colour. I'm a keen photographer and whilst Light Room is ones friend producing images that are 'true to life' can be a struggle. It is also dependent on the media one is outputting to inc choice of paper.

I figure the same goes for modelling. For instance if you make a building out of card and paint it the texture will affect the way the light is reflected and therefore the colour is perceived compared to say plastic.

 

[Richard Gawler]

It looks as if the light changed between the pictures. Also if you look at the top one the sky is a bit blown out whereas the second has a blue sky and nicely defined clouds. Probably the settings changed as well if you were on Auto.

Yes the camera was in its program mode, as our eyes are all the time. The idea was to show how difficult it is to identify and mix colours so they can appear to be what we are expecting. I think it would be nigh impossible to choose colours so that, given the right lighting rig, you could reproduce both appearances here.

Unfortunately, the post from which I quoted (which referred to the colour of dung) was heavily edited and now seems to have been deleted altogether. In the circumstances, my post may be irrelevant.

 

[Tim Hale]

Early morn in the workshop, just found a couple of rusty oil drums and coal baskets to adorn the coal stage scene. It is removable as a unit due to its fragility and the potential of irreperable damage.

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Another bit of frippery, a water tap outside the locoshed, at just 8mm tall, it is easily overlooked.

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Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

As a follow-up to Monday's comment "Btw, none of this impresses German modellers as it not made in Germany." An administrator from another forum suggested that I change horses and the result was as predictable as it was pleasant, it simply proves that certain audiences are more interested in the person than the modelling.

Moving on, the layout is now in the 20% stage where 80% of the effort is needed. Today's task is the chicken coop at the bottom of the cottage's garden, made much easier by Loctite Gel to keep the chooks in place.

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Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

Whilst being at a loose end, I thought it appropriate to get on with some weathering of the few road vehicles littering P'dorf starting with the farm as it is the view from the workshop......All are rather old Wiking models with a resin driver from Artitec, for some odd reason Wiking rarely supply drivers for thier agricultural offerings and tractor drivers are difficult to source.

A pet peeve is the lack of mud on model farms, something that decorates our car from late September until early May up to the level of the windows. A smear of Tamiya mud 'lipstick' is worked into the crevices of all tyres and underpinings followed by a wash of muck from Ammo around the usual places.

The Deutz F40 is hauling a hi-capacity trailer of sugar beet (Juweela) that will be loaded into open wagons (post 289) in the goods yard.

All the road vehicles will receive similar treatment but to a lesser degree as I want to show that agriculture is a messy necessity.

Tim

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[Tim Hale]

When building a layout, there is a risk of cliche modelling (buses on bridges etc.) and the same applies to foreign subjects except it is the 'shiny building' for German outline amongst other howlers.
To avoid this, before commencing P'Dorf there was a list of 'essentials' so that even without the railway, the location would be obvious to those who knew....

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A raid on the family photo album revealed such gems as fly-posters on certain buildings (above), a profusion of green tractors and religious artefacts, the latter was important as even before the economic miracle began, the wayside shrines were always decorated with flowers and festivals were common place. Rather than too obvious there are two such featues on P'dorf, appropriately beside the road to the farm and tucked away at the edge of the station yard where it also served a boundary marker for the parish.

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I am aware of my peculiar obsession with the area, it provides me a great deal of comfort as we are no longer* permitted foreign travel so P'Dorf is a acceptable substitute which demands a certain amount of delving back into the past memories.

Tim

*£104 per day travel insurance

 

[Tim Hale]

Having committed myself to 'no shiny stuff' on P'Dorf, the wagon fleet looked a bit too new. A nice Cotman sable chisel and some Ammo Trackside wash later, everything began to improve. However, the flat roofed Gh03 has only received a wash of brown on the roof whilst the bodywork is receiving repeated layers of MIG sun bleach wash, it is very subtle and hardly noticeable until viewed from both sides.

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Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

Yesterday, we trundled down to urban Poole, such a lovely journey for the first twenty-five miles through the Dorset hinterland.

Couldn't help but look at the roadside flora, not a great deal of variety in colours in June, lots of whites, yellow but it was their random and not-so-random distribution that intrigued, not so much the individual plants amongst the grasses but the swathes of one type in a seemingly planned strip.

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On return, an attempt was made to replicate the white plants amongst the grass, not separate from the surrounding grasses but a definite strip of densely packed white.

The next challenge is going to be blue corn flowers

Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

Hi,

For the last few months I have been ignoring my deterioration and I suppose that this post is inevitable as recent events have had a profound effect and life is becoming increasingly difficult.

Pottendorf will be one of the first casualties.

Tim