Sunday, December 21, 2014

Festive Festivities

Not much modelling going on what with the end of the School year, the start of the Christmas season and the preparations for a massive renovation (which will add two bedrooms to the house – so more of a rebuild than a renovation but for accounting purposes…).

Stuff is being done however – Thursday nights I have been going to a mates place and getting on with my UFOs in the soldering pile.  I have been working on 5 Thompson Suburbans from Etched Pixels (although I think it might be the Ultima side of the Island) and then there is next year’s Area Group Challenge which I have started. 

I hope to post some pictures in the next couple of days on the Thompson’s but in the meantime, Merry Christmas to all  - I hope Santa brings you something railway related amongst the gifts and mementos.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Swallow’s End – a first attempt at a 2mm layout

Long time readers will know I tried building a 2mm Scale layout whilst still teaching in Longreach way back in 2011.  The last entry on the topic was in October of that year when I was ripping it all up to start again on the basis that I wasn’t happy with how it was going.

So that is what I did.  I took everything off back to the paint and repainted.  There it sat, un-touched though the move home and the fit out of the shed.  I did do a bit at one point and painted the white bits brown – one of the issues I had with the first attempt was the dirt wasn’t hiding the white board underneath so I fixed that.  I then cut 3mm ply out to match the track plan as shown below:

Swallow's End Mk 2 (1)

It was like this for sometime – actually more than some time as I looked at the date for this photo is May 2012!!  I didn’t realise it was quite that long ago.  The ply is intended to allow for the ground to be below the rail level a little bit although I am thinking it will all be up there – but it does allow for the ground to rise to the track bed rather than being too high.

Anyway, I got all the bits done – the gap between the two sets of track was filled too – and there it sat for a little while longer.  Say 2 years!  Since the August Australasian Gathering, I have been determined to get “something” running for the 2015 Gathering so have put a bit of time in.  The results are these:

IMG_2016

Some foam terra forming has taken shape at the fiddle yard end (must get around to building said fiddle yard!).  Naturally this is white rendering the painting pointless!  I have since covered it with the first round of plaster – I am going to do an over layer than put brown filler over it all so that once again there isn’t white bits.

IMG_2017

Plates for structures which need to be at the height of the rail (like my Cattle Dock) have been put it.  The rail here has been glued down – only because one of the other 2mm Scale Association members in our LAG has managed to start something for the 2015 Gathering as well and he had track down so I had to!

I have also done something about the platform base in balsa wood.  It will be covered with Scalescenes sheets on manila folders (which I seem to have rather a lot of now that I have tided my desk at work). 

Further progress has taken place but I haven’t taken any decent photos – will sort that out hopefully later in the week.