Goods shed surrounds

I've enjoyed the scenery work of late. So thought it about time to locate the Goods Shed base in its location. I've built the shed in two parts, sort of. What I mean is that the base is separate from the walls so that the interior can be modelled as well and especially to ease the pain of painting.


So armed with the base of the shed I mixed up some sculptamold to form the base around the shed. I slopped on the mix making sure not to get it in the area of the four corner posts. I built the shed with four posts in the corners exactly the same size, and the rest were 2mm shorter. I did this to take into account my poor cutting skills. I thought  it alot easier to site a building on four posts and mask the shorter posts with groundwork, rather than sanding a bit off this one, then that one...you get the idea.


I marked the location of the four corner posts and then formed the base around them. I pressed the base into the damp sculptamold leaving an impression in it of where all the posts would be located. 


After it had cured it was out with the paint as a base coat, then gravel for the area of unloading, and access road along the side of the line. I used more of the Chucks QLD river sand for this, it has a nice even tone about it and the grains are fairly fine. I normally put down the watered down PVA first then sprinkle the 'gravel over it so that it soaks up the glue. Then if I need to add more gravel then I can put more glue on top of what is already laid and it soaks through just fine.


All this work on gravel had me looking at the ballast on the front module. Time to make some progress here. The gravel is a mix of chucks N scale, ash (that's been ground down in my handy dandy Target $15 mortar and pestle, a little too coarse in its purchased state), and some pale coloured soil that I grabbed from a roadworks site some years ago now. I don't do anything too complex, just add a bit of this and that, however I do normally add a 50/50 mix of ballast and the soil mixed together rather than ballast on its own.  So down with the gravel/soil/ash and flatten it out and move it about with a 1/2 inch paint brush. Wet the lot down with a spray of 'wet' water then glue it down with white glue mix. 


I want to add a bit more into this scene so there is a side story going on at the same time as the scenery, that being detail bits. I don't know about you but I think there would be a fair number of you that have been collecting things 'for that spot on the layout'. You know the old drums, crates, timber, milk cans, brooms, bicycles, vehicles, carts, the list goes on. Anyway I pulled out a fair number the other day and got some undercoat on them so that they were one step closer to being on the layout also. 


That's about it, have a good week, 
Oorroo! Geoff.

Evans Gap Loading Bank

The loading bank at Evans Gap has been a little plain for a while, with the intention of 'messing' it up being on the ever growing list of 'jobs to do'. It has been a bit of a distraction from the construction of the Goods Shed which is still in progress. I like being able to switch from one thing to another, it keeps you fresh and enthusiastic I think.


The loading bank has been reinforced with some timber retaining walls, as the ground around Evans Gap is not exactly flat. There's a little bit more to do with the actual gravel drive looking a little too pristine at the moment. 


Anyway thought I should show you just what I've been doing as it's been awhile since posting.

A bit of a plug to for those of you interested in Model Railway Shows, there is one being put together by the New England Club and the Rotary Club of Moree. The show is on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd of April, 2012. If you were at the Inverell Show a few years back, then you'll have some idea of what standard the New England Club bring to the General Public. We should be there as well, first show for the year, gonna be a great start to 2012 I think.


Well enough chatter, gotta get back to the Goods Shed! 


Oorroo! Geoff.

G1b Goods Shed pt1

The G1b project has begun. I wanted to add a little detail to the construction of this model as it will be located, front and centre on the Evans' Gap side of the layout. The budget of pioneer lines meant that the adage I've used to describe them as 'just enough to get the job done' , certainly applies here.

I enjoy the look of the detail of O scale board by board construction, and I try to do what's possible for HO. There are plenty of scale lumbers around, but I prefer the Kappler range supplied by Warren at Gwydir Valley Models (link in my suppliers list). I have a Data Sheet plan of this shed and I use them to build over during construction. I've used a simple construction method, floor planking down first, and tensioned together. then on top mounted the joists, then the bearers. Once this had all glued together I gave it a quick stain, with dilute india ink, and a little teak on the underside, then a teak stain on the top.

Next its on to the wall construction, built over the plan also. To keep things moving along I've undercoated the corrugated campbells siding, ready to mount around the building once the walls are in place.

This photo is not of a G1b, but does show the exterior colour that I'm going for. This is the goods shed at Canowindra NSW. I will be modelling the shed with the doors open so that a glimpse of the interior is possible.

OK now this shot is of interior of the Manilla Goods shed. The interior bracing, and door detail is what I'm after. Been a while since the 'maid' worked here I think.

I took these photos through holes in the iron, or through smashed windows in the end office. If any of you venture to this location, please don't make the same mistake I did and wear a jacket that cobblers pegs attach to in their thousands! (yep! no exaggeration either!) Check out the subtle weathering of the timber colour onto the iron, just how can we do this in HO?

So here's the plan and one end on it. I just had an idea for the second side. Rather than building the other side on top of the existing one, which may well damage the first one, especially when I separate both; I've made a colour copy of the reverse of the constructed side. Now I'll try and build a second side on the copy.

Yep, came up ok, so on to the front and rear walls. I think that will have to do for now,

Ooroo! Geoff.

Station gets electric

Following on from earlier todays post, I've hooked up some electricity to the station to see how it goes for brightness. This shot has the internal and external lights on, and don't the locals love it!
I was a little concerned that the LED was a little large for this application, however when it's on it seems ok. None of the layout lights are on, so I imagine that when they are, it will be less obvious.
The 9 volt battery is not to scale! Just getting in first with that one, anyway that'll do,

Geoff.

Evans Gap Station progress

Now that the weather is warmer all the yard jobs have been getting in the way of the modelling pursuits. However the 'endless' spring list seems to be a little shorter now so I can get back to the modelling bench.

The station building at Black Mountain has a great light on the end of it, as I've mentioned in previous posts. So it is the first job on the to do list. I've used some .080" brass tube for the light support post and a couple of pieces of wire (.040") some brass strip, a tichy train group light fixture, and some magnet wire. The photos tell the story so far.

The Tichy Train Group light is a great moulding and just the size I was after, I hollowed it out a little bit as it's moulded solid with a bulb protruding to paint. Then drilled out the centre .080" to allow it to thread onto the brass tube. The bend was done around my pin vice giving about a 2 foot diameter to it.
Here you can see the universal jig (blue tac ;-)) that I use to solder on the two mounting wires to the back of the tube. You can see the brass strip on the RHS already drilled out, and under the wires are two lines that are the distance apart that the holes in the strip are.
Another technical jig in use for this one as well. I just had to make sure the balsa was thicker than the distance on the model between the wall and the outside of the roofing.
Here's all the brass bits together, a trial fit before painting. The last job is to trim the mounting wires so that they don't foul the 'inner' wall on the inside of this outer shell. It's all had a bit of undercoat , including the magnet wire so that it looks the part disappearing into the woodwork on the building. I have a mini LED to attach once this is all dry, then it will be mounted.

Naming boards on the station building are the next job. Ages ago Mike gave me an article he'd written about how to print a black background with white lettering using 'word'. I've used it several times, even for making up wagon codes when there wasn't a decal suitable. The jist of it is that you do a background shading of whatever level you like. Obviously for a black background you make it 100%, then make the lettering white in colour, simple really and it works a treat!

Font, size, etc are all that you need to play around with, even bold comes in handy, especially if you get down to a font size of 4. (you can highlight the font size and type over it to get lower than the default settings) If your doing a wagon I found printing the 'decals' in several colours or levels of shading enabled you to match the colour to what ever colour of grey your wagons are coloured in. If you have some matt spray, or artist fixative it's worth giving the paper a hit before cutting and gluing to the boards so that the black doesn't smudge.

That'll do for now, I'll bore you with some photos when it's all together,

Ooroo, Geoff.