Friday Update: Beaverbrook and Bear Creek…

Welcome to the first Friday Update of the new year and as the kids are still off school, we’ve had family visiting and it’s been my step daughters birthday this week I’m still not back in the office unlike many of you all, so todays update will focus on some of the modelling I’ve managed to squeeze in on my own projects over the holidays…

I’ve picked up a bunch of new readers this holiday, if the stats show anything, so if you’re not familiar with the blog there are generally four types of post: Friday updates share progress on commission and my own modelling, Commission posts show completed models, Layout design topics or schemes are a third and my personal modelling is the fourth.

Over the holidays I’ve not managed to work on quite as much as I’d hoped but it has on the whole been a welcome break from commissions which, although immensely enjoyable, do ‘fill my mojo’ up with other peoples interests and prototypes. That said, I did manage to design and source some new waterslide decals that have moved both Bear Creek, above, and Beaverbrook forwards. You will see in the photo above that the Shay, logging skeleton cars and pick up all now sport markings, which means these items can be progressed into weathering. I will ponder how to mimic the large quantity of bark and debris that seems to build up along the top surface of the log cars - so this will be an interesting distraction. The photo does also show that I’ve not progressed ground cover yet though!

On Beaverbrook I have knocked up an office building for the left hand end of the layout, deciding this would be modelled as a TerraTransport office. The basic structure was 40thou (1mm) styrene overlaid with Evergreen cladding. Window and door are clear styrene with white paint used to represent frames, applied on the outside of the material, and a British Rail waterslide transfer data panel used on the inside of the door to look like an opening times sign. Flicking through books I noticed that CN seemed to use large lighted name board signs on buildings in the Maritimes and so I’ve imagined that this is the case here, the TerraTransport logo and text are a waterslide decal on plasticard, with the edge touched in in black. Adding a sense of place, the CN name board has been removed (assumed replaced with a TT one) and is leaning against the building, this time waterslide on a much thinner piece of styrene.

Elsewhere on the layout I’ve been working on that second tree, which is beginning to look the part although I have a few stray hairs still to trim and I’m not sure about the trunk which seems too rough still but I don’t want to make it any thicker, I may try gently cutting into it with a blade and touching in with paint. Behind a newly arrived Rapido boxcar sits waiting for some weathering. I pre-ordered this months ago and was keen to see the design and manufacturing quality of their rolling stock. It seems well done, from these low angles you appreciate the underframe. That said, my Kadee 50ft car was a similar price and has as much detail and it’s finer, and the sprung underframe works. Mind neither has rotating axle end caps which I had on a pair of Kato trucks in the 1990s! Progress? Yes and no, it’s a great model, don’t get me wrong. It certainly will respond to a dark brown pin wash, some rust spotting and a dirty roof. I just need to find some photos to work from…

EDIT: one final thing, despite its small size and narrow scope my YouTube channel has somehow accrued over 100 subscribers! I plan on adding more videos this year and they seem to be appreciated, thank you all for the support.

So with the workbench live from Monday I’ve got a few pre-Christmas jobs to finish off and plenty of new stuff to share, some projects have stalled and need re-starting, others tick along. Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoy the variety of writing, prototypes and scales that you find here and it inspires or encourages you with your own model making. Until next time, more soon…