Will Vale Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hi all, I'm not sure if this should be in this forum or Ready for Inspection, since it's ready for inspection but is also a choo choo. I guess railways are never finished, so maybe here's better. I've been tarting up one end of my 4mm exhibition layout based on the rebuilt Whitemoor Yard in March. It's not dead-on accurate but I think the details are pretty close. It's mainly been an excuse to do some East Anglian scenery and form some sort of connection with the area in which I grew up. I have the usual Peco track/DCC/Hornby/Bachmann combination for the operating bits, but nearly all the fittings and details are scratch built. (click for bigger) I guess the next thing to do is clean the track properly (the layout's been in a cupboard for a year and a half) and do some test running to make sure I haven't gummed anything up with the extra scenics. Expect progress to be glacial on that front... Cheers, Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 (edited) Looks great - your trackwork is excellent! More pics? Edited April 10, 2012 by AndyC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 Thanks Andy, that's very kind of you. The track is just Peco code 75 with the naff bits snipped off the points, and the timbers extended to carry the point machines and levers. If you click through any of the pictures you can see them all on Flickr, but I've added a couple more below which are the result of playing with focus stacking for most of today. It's very time consuming and it can be hard to eliminate all the blur, but it allows pictures which would otherwise be impossible with the lens I'm using: It's a long shot by Will Vale, on Flickr And of course I couldn't resist getting the giant penny out Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 And of course I couldn't resist getting the giant penny out The weathering on that is rubbish Love the effect on those engineering dept wagons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richey Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Will, Can I ask you what products and techniques you're using for grass and weeds? They look great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 Sure - the grass is Noch Wildgras (6mm fibres) in two colours, applied without static using . I really like it, it gives a better result than the grass tools and doesn't cost anything. A friend of mine tried it and didn't get on with it at all, so YMMV - there's definitely a knack to it so it might take practice.The wetter grass by the drain is different shades of grass mat cut up into small pieces and jigsawed together following an article in Continental Modeller by a Dutch group called the Modelspoorteam (if I remember right - the layout was Vinkeveen). The plants are scratchbuilt from a variety of things - Christmas decorations, fine stranded wire, florists wire, brush bristles, various colours of scatter, and some Mininatur grass tufts and Noch Laub (leaf) material. I don't like the grass tufts on their own much, but they made nice structure for sugarbeet plants under the leaf material. There's also a bit of Woodland Scenics foliage (the fine leaf stuff which comes on branches) here and there, and some Mininatur foliage net for the brambles. I think the cow parsley took the most effort - each plant is like a tiny model tree made from twisted wire. There's a stand of rosebay willowherb on the other module which was quite easy to do, but you need a lot of stalks to get the right look. HTH, Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewE Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Excellent ground work. My father and my son are both building layouts at the moment and in between my normanl modelling I am helping them both with the scenery. When we all go to model railway shows my main interest is the scenery & groundwork rather than the trains as this makes or breaks a loyout to my mind. Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IainA Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Will Like the others have said, great stuff, and your goundwork is sensational. I particulalry like the section of retaining wall and all the "widlife" tumbling down, inspirational! Off now to look at your flickr account! Regards Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 Thanks again, I must admit the groundwork is one of my favourite bits. That and painting concrete, I really like painting concrete for reasons that I don't entirely understand. The retaining wall is a great prototype - the real one was built as a view-block for the houses around Whitemoor Yard when they re-opened it. It's an earth (or concrete?) bank inside a wooden form, with bags of soil wired to the outside so plants would grow. Great fun to build - an excuse for all kinds of weeds You can see it in which is taken from the Norwood Road bridge.Cheers, Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandX Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 (edited) Kept looking for the actual model photos until I eventually got it! Awesome work, Sir! Edited April 10, 2012 by BrandX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad 10 Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Superb work, great attention to detail. something that (I find) is lacking in some railway modelling. 1st Class Richard McC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benskipper Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 That is special. Echo the veiws on the track work et al. A labour of love and beautifully done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madam I'm Adam Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Will I like the way you try to recreate actual plants rather than generic 'looks like vegetation' Most excellent. Adam the gardener Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'V' Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Not been looking in Britmodeller for a while and find this !! Superb workmanship and the wild vegetation looks just right. I'm currently building a 20' x 7' overall size (operating well in the centre) I'll be delighted if I can get anything like this quality. I find landscape scenics so relaxing after trying to get aircraft 'right' it's all in the imagination with no rigid rules so long as it looks right. 'V' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Will, AWESOME work ...The yard looks AMAZING.. NICELY done Sir. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted June 16, 2012 Author Share Posted June 16, 2012 Thanks folks, much appreciated! I find landscape scenics so relaxing after trying to get aircraft'right' it's all in the imagination with no rigid rules so long as it looks right. I know what you mean, but I find that only goes so far - if you get in too deep (as I did) you can worry about what sugarbeet plants look like a couple of months before the campaign, what the correct row spacing is, etc. etc. I think I figured out the row spacing by going through "for sale" listings for beet seed drills on the internet. Madness! IMHO the really nice thing about scenery is perhaps that because the edges are soft it's pretty easy to rip bits out, redo, and blend it together afterwards. I still need to clean up the end of my field, apparently the "lands" at the ends of the rows are a bit too small, and the farmer would be unhappy about the risk of taking out the weir with his tractor. According to someone who knows more about these things than me, naturally Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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