Friday Update: Twenty-nine Ten Twenty-one…

Half term everywhere, well I guess nearly everywhere, so a quieter week on the bench, I did get a few commissions progressed at the start of the week though, and I’ve pushed a few if my own projects forwards as well, so not quite a bumper update but still worth grabbing a cuppa…

It’s fantastic to see Lyd2 coming together, this is the first chance to see the potential when I popped the nearly finished body on the nearly finished chassis for the first time since both were mostly painted. The roof is still loose, there are no couplings or exhaust pipe but otherwise, it’s looking almost complete. The bodywork has been sealed with dull-cote and the custom etched plates from Custom Nameplate Studio (the new name for Narrow Planet custom etched plates) are a great touch, especially the wonderful works plates. I’m looking forward to finishing this one off, it’s going to look awesome! The custom designed chassis block really does make the locomotive, and in a way that I’m able to offer a bespoke chassis at a fraction of he price of a custom designed etched metal one. 

This Ozark Miniaures logging caboose in 1/20 is nearly done too, just a bit of detailing and toning down with a touch of weathering. A really nice touch are the sprung axle boxes, the scratch aid nature of the kit suits the logging feel, I’ve deliberately cut the plastic roof skin to have overlapping badly fitted ends, which adds to the Backwoods character. This should be crossing the line next week too…

The Code 55 test piece is now painted and ballasted. I’ll do a post on this when it’s finished.

On my own projects, the code 55 trial has been ballasted in earth and some greenery added, this has been an interesting experiment and I’ve struggled with my desire for neatness and process vs the more artistic approach others follow. The trial isn’t over yet, I’m hoping to get some coloured tile grout to play with in terms of ‘filling in’ some of the gaps and making the track feel like it’s buried in the ground rather than floating on top. I hope this will further improve the feel of light weight rail…

Weighing down the road, which has been placed over some cork sections to introduce a camber and the start of the wavy up and down, such a feature of the prototype.

On Beaverbrook the first section of mounting board has been formed and glued in place. The road here needs to undulate along the length of the layout, it’s a feature of the prototype I’m keen to replicate. I felt that styrene would need to many joints and plaster too difficult to get a smooth surface, so mounting board seems to offer a good solution. The crossings are giving me a few concerns, but I’ll get the plain road sections in first before working about that, once these are in then I can being on ground surfaces, track preparation and ballast, my favourite stages...

Finally, the railway are running a four car hybrid 104/108 this half term. I took the kids down to watch it and despite being just a DMU it out on a good performance accelerating hard from the station in the village, we watched from the old picnic area beyond the Barmouth signal box, so that’s two train experiences this week if you  consider this and the Welshpool. Perhaps you can fit in a visit to one of our heritage rail museums or railways this weekend,  I’m sure they would appreciate our business. More soon…