Anglicizing a German! - Part 1

Now, as you may have noted on my previous blog entry, I've bought a little NG shunter from Liliput.
Today I decided on some surgery to make it look a little more British. I did away with the glazing and chopped off the window frame and gave it an initial coat of green. The paint is still drying in the photos, and it will  need at least one more coat.

 

I have to say this is the finest locomotive I think I have ever bought! The whole thing is designed in a brilliant way - the cab just lifts off (held by two lugs attached on the glazing) and so does the bonnet. The chassis is fitted with a flywheel for smooth running and I think I'm right in saying it even has working lights!

Things what I 'ave bought!

I finally got round to making some purchases! I've been umming and aahing about what I should buy for quite a long time now. After finally having made up my mind I decided to plump for the following:

Acquisition no. 1 Steiermischen Landesbahn diesel shunter VL6 is seen here after having arrived from Germany after a certain lack of motive power on the RAF NG Railway at Calshot. It is surprising to note that it is a brand new engine although it looks like some modifications may have to be made in order for the loco to be used on the line.

Here she is seen on a temporary bit of track on the spit undergoing trials with some old repainted stock. The model is absolutely exquisite - the tiny wiper blades are simply fantastic. I'm sure she will run as good as she looks too.

And with my thumb for scale! (sorry about the orientation of the photo).

Acquisition no. 2 - Seen in the background is a little Pug 0-4-0 dock shunter. Shipped down all the way from 'oop North' we can see her hauling a rather grimy tanker outside the Belfast lattice truss hangar.

Acquisition no. 3 - 'Level crossing hut'. I couldn't resist this little gem of a model! It will be used on the new extension as a guard hut for the RAF. 

Acquisition no. 4 - Esso tankers (x3)(weathered). These were another impulse buy! Knowing Fawley was such a big refinery, I guessed I might need a few of these on the Calshot branch. They look the business and are nicely weighted.

A close up of 51235. What a cracker of a model. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this model and I can't wait to see it running on the layout!

Below are some initial 3D visualisations of the new extension:

In the background, the 'holes in the sky' will be covered by trees which will symbol the personnel camp at Eaglehurst (the terminus of the RAF NG railway). There will be a seaplane apron at the front with the sea, beach and perhaps even a couple beach huts visible in the foreground. In the mid area there will be a stream running from left to right with a SG line behind it. A personnel platform will also be provided. I will need to make a new backscene for all this. Oh yes, and the cruncher - I've got until the 30th April. Nothing like a deadline etc etc!...

Wrecking a seaplane - Abandoned but not forgotten

Wrecking a seaplane

I seem to be on a roll with my modelling this week! Here's today's work turning that Catalina into an abandoned wreck. Still much more to do but it is getting there. These photos have been taken on a piece of mount-board with a backscene propped up behind. I hope you enjoy looking at this set and I would appreciate any comments, good or bad (as long as they're constructive negative comments!). The paint peeling off has been created using a sandpaper attachment on a Dremel. Weathering is with watercolour pencils (again!).

Extension V.2 continued...

Extension V.2 continued...

 Originally the layout was built to be transported in a small car, however, it doesn't fit!

Therefore I have had to use my dad's van which has ample room in both width, length and height. If I was to start this again (which I won't  ;) ) I would double-check the room available in the car BEFORE building the layout.

Speaking about designing it for transport, here is a possible way of transporting the layout using castors:

Now I just need to convince myself and my dad that building an extension is a good idea...!

V.2 Operation Mirror Image

Despite my status update earlier, I'm still planning an extension, not just a fiddle yard. Here's my latest plan after a thought struck me earlier. It occurred to me that my abnormally-shaped plan for my extension would be hell to transport! So, I took the original layout and mirrored it and came up with this:

This design allows me to stack the two boards on top of one another. I'd have to create a square off section for the original board to make it easier to connect the two board. The join would be approximately where the tail fin of the seaplane is. The controls will be concealed in the hangar at the bottom of the diagram. Not sure what I'm going to do with the backscene though...

Oh, and while I'm here, here are a couple snaps with the second layer of paint on the seaplane:

I'll be interested to hear your point of view on the extension plan. I'm not sure how accurate the plan is because it is not drawn to scale, but it should give a general idea. The big green rectangle is a sports field for the RAF base. Also visible is the standard gauge platform and also the NG engine shed (based upon the one at Eaglehurst).

Preliminary sketch, how not to paint a seaplane and more weathering

Hello again,

Here's a sketch of the possible extension. The existing hangar will be extended and will have an apron sitting next to it along with yet another slipway. I have also shown the beached seaplane at the back (will be the Catalina in the photos below) and the beach, trees (forming the scenic break) and locomotive shed.

These next photos show the freshly painted Catalina. The painting is of poor standard and I still have another coat to go on. Also, I will need to add the glazing, paint the wheels and props. Then it will have a battered about look (not quite as drastic, but not far off something like this: Beached Catalina) Will be an interesting weathering challenge!

I hope you have enjoyed these set of photos. If you require any more information please do leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible!

Thanks for looking,

Jam

How to get carried away...

... or, 'Yes, it's me, Mr Indecisive!'

It's fair to say that I have not exactly made any sort of progress on the layout for well over a month, probably more in fact. I've had far too much stuff going on lately to even comprehend touching the layout let alone working on it.

So today I wanted to change that and find some time to do some modelling. Unfortunately, things didn't go to plan and I couldn't find my mojo! Suffice to say, nothing got done.

I think that the reasoning behind this is because I am getting a bit bored with the layout. Perhaps even fed up. Fed up that it's still not working that well, fed up that I have to prod locos every 15 seconds, fed up that I can't uncouple automatically and fed up of problems that I generally can't solve!

So, I wrote a list of some of the annoying things that hadn't been completed (click for larger size):

I straight away ignored no.1 and focused on no.2.
So I decided to start fiddling with Paint.NET. The original plan was to just add a fiddle yard on. However, as you will see I got a bit carried away and built a whole new extension. This came about from the simple desire to both portray more of Calshot, and run trains for longer than 5ft and make it look as if they actually went somewhere. I've always absolutely loved little branch lines - you know, those quiet little backwater lines with ageing coaching stock and diminutive little tank engines pulling short freight trains with flanges squealing and couplings clattering.

So I've added in a little bit more SG. I've also added in the fiddle yard design and also a beached seaplane. The hangar has been extended to behind the control panel and there is a NG loco shed with trees forming the scenic break. So I ask the question I always seem to ask you folk - What now?!