Parcels point

[Ben Brown]

Looking good them units! What about a parcel van?

[naturol]

Looking good them units! What about a parcel van?

Just bought some 50' vans off the classifieds, so that frees up some CCTs for the DMUS

[Intercity 125]

Really great work, particularly on the RM95. Also liking the parcels unit, are the windows flush on the model? (they look sort of raised to me) as they are flush on the prototype.

[naturol]

Really great work, particularly on the RM95. Also liking the parcels unit, are the windows flush on the model? (they look sort of raised to me) as they are flush on the prototype.

Having only spent £10 on the lima unit, and with the intention of only dragging it by a Heljan parcel bubble car, the whole unit doesn't warrant any more than two evenings on it, with still a schedule of a minimum of three rakes of vans to detail, an EWS PCV set to build, and all the other associated layout extras to add the deadline for the august show in Swansea is drawing far to quickly.

So I'm happily settling with plated windows, the undercoat is not very forgiving, but the rail blue and weathering will mask any shortcomings, so I'm not bothered at this time.

The 2 bil will be a different kettle of fish, all the glazing is sunk back in the body shell, and plating over won't allow for the graffitti decals to sit smoothly, so I will need to fill all the apertures and rub down then paint, no short cuts there unfortunately.

 

Work has just gone mad, three two storey extension design projects came in this week plus a new loft conversion to start next week, my full time job work load increasing with a colleague on long term sick, and my google ad campaign for building plans as a pay per click started yesterday, something is going to have to give .

 

Roll on centreparcs in July. Yippee.

[naturol]

I went to see peter at lord and butler on the weekend, and temptation was laid before me in the form of a sound chipped Fleishmann small HO hi ab equipped permanent way MPV , nice model indeed.

Only to have a close friend and fellow modeller send me this video this evening of said unit running on his roundy roundy. Jealous ? Me? No way.

[naturol]

Spent ten mins here and there this week playing about with the 2bil, filled the window appetures with decorators filler,to get the flush window look, then primed and painted the coaches in rail blue having sanded down the filler, sprayed the roof and painted the fronts from all green to full yellow. Gloss varnished the shells then applied some hand made decals from the scale scenes range which I printed out and sealed. The lighter coloured decals need a white backing from a sheet of plain white transfer about A4 size cut down, sourced from fox transfers, applied with a little warm water, washing up liquid and PVA mixed in, then fixed down with micro sol. Blended in with some gel roll pens from hobby craft, the whole lot will be Matt varnished in a day or so when it's fully dried out. But I'm pleased so far, I had all the stuff to hand, and the unit was a tender. So a very cheap bit of unusual stock to stable on the layout on its way from Worthing to thej NRM for refurb.

[naturol]

Bought a pack of wire wool in the local pound shop Friday, and will use this to make all the brambles for along the side of the fences adjacent to the track. I will take a few pictures to show this very simple and cheap method of creating ground cover.great across board joints. Etc.

[naturol]

Treated myself to this as well, there was a sole example, and a match wagon at canton recently so just the one will do here as well.

[bobster]

Good idea with the 2Bil, looks good, and very different,

 

Cheers, Bob.

[naturol]

Not wanting to copy Richard (cradgebank) and his salmon tool container barrier wagon, which I must add is toptastic, for the the MFS wagons on the HOBC. I have an old Bachmann oba and a set of sides off a pipe wagon kit, which makes the ZAA a simple kit bash.

 

Except, no one told me how the Bachmann body was held onto the chassis, it took ten minutes to work out the wire prong on the buffers went through into the chassis and pinned it in place. Fortunately no permanent damage done to the chassis.

 

So based on the photos taken by Ben Brown ( above ) and attached I have began a quick scratch build project before the Argentina game against Holland.

 

Some chequer board plate plasticard next and the support stations from some styrene plastruct will have this done in a few hours.

 

Progress is shown.

 

Have been approached to exhibit it at a prestigious show this year in the north of England. So really have got to get a move on....... So been to b & q and had the fascia MDF cut and the back scene boards, sourced the fiddle yard track, so base board will advance more over the next week or so.

 

Have only got two weeks work on the loft conversion left in the evenings so that will free up time, and my son is off for the summer holidays with his mother so my Tuesdays, Friday evenings, and Saturdays will be empty for weeks. I surge of modelling mojo is stirring.

 

John peck from precision decals is making up the Express Parcels, and Newspaper decals for the DMU stock so I'm not panicking yet.

 

Thanks all for the interest.

 

Paul.

[br2975]

Spent ten mins here and there this week playing about with the 2bil, filled the window appetures with decorators filler,to get the flush window look, then primed and painted the coaches in rail blue having sanded down the filler, sprayed the roof and painted the fronts from all green to full yellow. Gloss varnished the shells then applied some hand made decals from the scale scenes range which I printed out and sealed. The lighter coloured decals need a white backing from a sheet of plain white transfer about A4 size cut down, sourced from fox transfers, applied with a little warm water, washing up liquid and PVA mixed in, then fixed down with micro sol. Blended in with some gel roll pens from hobby craft, the whole lot will be Matt varnished in a day or so when it's fully dried out. But I'm pleased so far, I had all the stuff to hand, and the unit was a tender. So a very cheap bit of unusual stock to stable on the layout on its way from Worthing to thej NRM for refurb.

 

You've broken my heart treating a 2-Bil like that.

.

Big Brother

[naturol]

As this is a cheap build, with the intention of reduce, reuse and recycle, the ZAA conversion has been undertaken with Cambrian parts and styrene already in my possession, I wanted to use chequered plate but couldn't be bothered buying it, I sound like Carl pilkington now.

The paint is from citadel war hammer colours from my boys set. So no exact matches there, but it's close enough,

However......... I went to see my mate Villis, who runs a picture framing business in Penarth today, and he gave me a cracking landscape skyline picture of Cardiff, plus a download of an evening shot taken across the Cardiff bay barrage, it measures around 5' long and about 8" deep, so I can chop it up for the back scene, not the best pictures but a progress update none the less.

 

Bear in mind I won't be using the waterline............,just the city scale.

[naturol]

My transfers are ready to go on the lima 117. And also for a class 108. And as if by magic. Hattons are banging them out cheap at £59.00 notes, so , guess what was in the parcel, parcel force dropped off for parcel point today? Ha.

[naturol]

Next up a 105/101 hybrid in a mix of blue and blue/grey, but that is a bit pricey at the moment, but you know there will be a deal soon at a retailer.

No work on the boards now for the next two weeks, five surveys and plans to be drawn up, and the dormer to finish.

[Ben Brown]

It's Coming along nicely now Paul. Like the ZAA wagon to, liking the hybrid idea too something a bit different.

[naturol]

Centreparcs done and dusted, wallet empty. Tempers frayed, but the trade off for me paying, cooking, leading, jumping,swimming, shouting, and stressing is a weekend of indulgence.

So the boards came out of the garage and into the sunshine to have the new back scene and frontage boards added, cut from a single sheet of 6mm MDF bought at B&Q,

Picture scene added and buildings for the first time fixed down.

Back in the garage for the evening and resting above Ranelagh bridge the first glimpse of the final draft is now evident.

[naturol]

Whilst this was underway I also made up some more bramble bushes to put alongside the fences and concrete panels, made from wire wool bought in the pound shop in penarth, this was teased into lengths about 12" long, first, by pulling the wool length ways in half,

If you keep the wool apart and open stranded it separates very easily, if you just try to pull it apart at 12" intervals it will just slice into your fingers,

The wool is then sprayed a few times with a mixture of different aerosol paints, primer red first to bulk it up. Then undercoat grey, both from halfords, then Matt black, again halfords, a brown colour, I used humbrol, and then a touch of green,

As well as giving the brambles colour it also bulks up the fibres.

Next job is to spray a permanent adhesive over the wool whilst it is lying on a newspaper, I use carpet glue, or spray mount, or the hobby craft permanent version, as in the picture.

Then lightly dust the wool in place with a light green flock,

Next spread a thin layer of dark green leaf scatter onto a newspaper and roll the wool into this until all the adhesive is fixed to various flock.

 

Finally spray the whole length with a cheap hair spray to fix the flock and seal the adhesive.

 

I am yet to have any problems with short circuits from the wire but be careful when you place it onto the layout.

 

Fix it down with supa glue and accelerator, and bish bosh instant brambles.

[naturol]

Also underway is the kibri kit I'm going to bash into an MFS D wagon part of the HOBC, I must thank Cradgebank for the idea though.

Having built the match wagon based on Bens pictures also on the thread,

It has been reduced in length and glued back together, this is again a passing resemblance model just to make up a short train to run with the HOBC and match wagon, I previously built the tool wagon based on an article in Rail Express, so it should look the part.

 

Popped down to see peter at Land B but alas, no Y25 bogies yet, so it will remain static for a while,

 

Good news my purchases from Muddy blues will be here Monday ish so more movement on the DMU front.

[Ben Brown]

I'm looking forward to seeing trains running on it now .

[yorkie_pudd]

With the front fascia in place the full concept of NP comes into full play, and definitely gives a different viewing approach that's normally done. the steel wool bush turned out really good or should that be brillo-ant work (groan button applied)

[naturol]

Started to put some green detail here and there on the layout. Watched an exhibitor at a show some time ago making grass tufts simulating long grass amongst other foliage, so this is me having a go.

Using Nock 12mm static grass fibres these were teased between the thumb and forefinger and rolled into sausage strips containing around 20-30 fibres,

Next cut the fibres flat with scissors at one end.

Put a small spoldge of PVA on a tile or glass panel ( so you can I easily remove once dry). about 1-2mm dia.

Push the fibres into the glue and then tap down with your finger to make sure they are all in the glue.

Carry on, and on, leave about 25 mm between each tuft for ease of construction.

I made around 50 tufts in about half hour or so, they will be ready I tomorow.

[naturol]

Bit of a spending spree today, found some cracking bogies on the PH designs website, thanks to Mr. Harvey himself for the link, but as if by magic, I had told a mate about the kibri kit and he has a spare set of Bachmann bogies, freebies.....yippee,

Bought a sheet of Sundeala for the fiddle yard baseboard top, also ordered a set of transfers from fox for the parcel red star logos, craftsman kits for the oleo buffers ( thanks to muddy blues for that one) for the lima DMUs, more plasticard and peco track pins etc,

Roughed out a track plan for the fiddle yard on the Sundeala with some code 100 small radii points already in the stock room....

 

Also blagged a few hours in the Barry docks container terminal on the 15th august to picture the EWS container train/ poly bulks being unloaded! see the other thread for the DOW layout that will be next on the work bench.

 

And was then forwarded this image for future use..... What a cracking model that will make with some crafty transfers.

 

It's a Network Rail van pictured on the M5 over the weekend. Thanks to Simon M. For that one.

[naturol]

12" to the ft, scratch building is almost complete, about 2 hours work tomorow which includes fixing the down pipe to the tile cladding,

Carpets in on Monday and then up for sale on Tuesday. Will be glad to see the Back of this one, but it's been so beneficial I'm doing to the other one I own next door. But the tenants have just signed a new six month agreement so that can wait.

But.....have been given the nod that the decision on my planning approval on my home should be made next week, so that could mean the start of the new office for my drawing work, utility room and Railway room.

Again another one I'll build myself. But the layout is currently in the garage that needs to be demolished as part of the works, so have arranged to have the loft boarded and the old velux windows from the dormer conversion grafted onto this roof. That means that parcel point can go upstairs for the final run in to completion. Recon on around a month left of work to complete it.

[naturol]

Progress on the rolling stock front this week has seen the lima 117 receive transfers and the ballast MFS-D receive bogies an some paint / detail . Still a bit more to do though like buffers and more paint. But it's taking shape. And the Bachmann 108 got some fox transfers too.

If I can squeeze in an hour tomorow some scenic work on the over growth of grass will start.

[naturol]

Good few hours on the layout today, got the electro static grass tea strainer out and did the lawns and long grass on the lines, glued down the Sundeala for the fiddle yard and started laying track there, no point motors good old digit control there, spent the last half hour adding a bit of colour and the hydraulic pipes to the MFS wagon, also some mesh on the roof and the buffers, bit more detailing and transfers then ready for weathering.

 

I intend out shopping the weathering to Brian Tucker, see his abercynon layout on here, so I will give him a whole rake of stuff to do, expect it to be around 20 odd pieces of stock possibly more,

 

Only one shot tonight of the MFS.

Be better if I added the picture.