Thank you for the update Gormo, my condolences to Mrs Gormo and her brother. I hope I get to see my 93rd birthday!! Good to have you back mate!! Cheers, Pete.
G`day Folks, I am back into my railway once again and progressing with my triple tunnel portal project. As mentioned some weeks back, I didn`t leave enough clearance for standard tunnel portals when the track went down, so to achieve the end result, I need to tighten things up considerably and reduce clearances. Just updating where I was up to............ I have been using 5mm thick foam board and I scribe same to create stone courses. The mortar is created by going over the indentations with a white water colour pencil. And we finish up with something like this This is where it`s at today.........internal walls fitted and all three portals set in position. It all looks a bit ordinary at the moment, however it will come up trumps in the end. You may notice some of the internal walls are set 5mm lower than the top of the outer walls, plus some walls have internal ledges. This is to allow the scenery that sits on top of the tunnels, to sit down inside the outer walls. There will also be capping on top of the outer walls as well. I also still need to make two retaining walls. One for the double track portal and one for a single track portal at the bottom of the pic below. A quick video showing the clearances, although they are tight, they do work. The tunnels are best viewed from the side, so they will appear nearly normal to the uninformed viewer, and actually the only way to get a proper view of them is from the drivers cab. So I`m not too precious about them. More as it happens Gormo
G`day Folks, Retaining walls complete and pastel colour added to suggest stone work. The retaining wall on the left has been packed from behind with polystyrene. The tops of all three tunnel portals have had soot / smoke stains added. A view from the side. The retaining wall in the foreground will be filled in from behind with polystyrene to form a hill. The variation in the colour of the stones looks more realistic than the flat grey / black offered by the card. I`m not sure if I mentioned this before, but once the mortar lines are scored into the card and after the mortar is added in with a white water colour pencil, the card is then sanded lightly to give a rough surface. The rough surface is ideal for chalk pastels. Polystyrene being used to form the base for the scenery. The next layer that goes on top of this layer needs to be removable, so I`m still working on this problem as it also needs to cover the three tunnels. Probably a card or ply base would be the most logical place to start, but I`ll sleep on it and see what comes around...?? Another short video below to convince myself that the trains come and go from somewhere other than the fiddle yard. Well they do come the fiddle yard, but the idea is to try and make it look like they go out through the shed wall to God knows where ?, rather than curve around to the yard. Gormo
Thanks Phil, Yes it`s good to get cracking again and the main thing is that it is a distraction from everyday life for a while. Gormo
Thanks Gary, Yes it`s getting there. I can just about visualize how it`s going to look when complete. The plan is to have lots of trees as a scenic break along the back wall leading up to and on top of the retaining wall and then more trees on top of the tunnels forming a scenic break between GCJ and Bamford. It looks good in my head, but we`ll see how it goes in reality... Gormo
Your head visualises well ! Everything that you have come up with in your mind and you have initiated on the layout is simply stunning. Cheers, Gary.
Well thanks mate... I have just got over a significant hurdle today by making the ply base to go over the tunnels. It doesn`t look much when you see it fitted here below in the pic, however these tunnel portals are not set at 90 degrees to each other, so you have to be careful how you mark it out. In fact this sheet of ply is take two, because I stuffed up take one and got the third angle wrong......Duhhh!!!....oh well I never said I was perfect.....far from it actually, but if it doesn`t work the first time, just keep going until you get it right.... Now this rather insignificant piece of ply is the key piece of the scenery puzzle that actually makes the rest of the scenic build in this area quite easy. I just have to build up layers of polystyrene on the ply and work my way towards the upper board on the right ( Bamford ), where I will rise up and over that board to form a hill on the edge of Bamford. That will be my scenic break, plus the whole section will be able to lift off for access to the underneath. I may have to do some adjustments on the background on the wall too, but we`ll deal with that later on....first things first. Gormo
Hey Gormo, Amazing how good the scored foam board stonework looks and the weathering is perfect. I like it better than the more uniform plastic brick sheeting (which ain't cheap) for this application. Tunnel portals were always very grubby during the steam era, not just the tops of the arches. Certainly an approach I will have a go at in the future. Chris
G`day Chris and thanks for your comments. Yes the foam board has a lot of potential, however requires a good deal of time to scribe it`s surface. The pay off being a bespoke wall at very little cost. I`ll have to have another look at some pics of tunnel portals and work out how much more grime to add. It`s easy enough to do with the pastels. In the meantime I`ve prepared the Bamford board to receive the scenery that will sit on it from GCJ tunnels. There was a thin skin of plaster in the section , so I had to remove that to give me a nice flat surface to work on. I cut a line through the plaster with the Dremel, a couple of inches back from the track and then proceeded to remove the unwanted plaster with a chisel. The plaster breaks away at the cut line and leaves the rest of the plaster intact. It`s a messy job Most plaster is removed at this stage And after a clean up and a vacuum, the area is ready I`ve checked the line of sight from the far right hand end of Bamford and I`m confident I should be able to hide the hole in the wall entry successfully. It will be just out of view suggesting there is more railway traveling through countryside beyond the tree line......hopefully..???? Anyhow.......the shed beckons Gormo
Where the ply base meets the polystyrene infill on the base section, if you put a shallow level of thin styrene up to the edge then, after the scenics have been put in, put some fencing along the edge with weeds/long grass at the bottom of the fence, it should completely hide the join. Pete.
Great minds think alike Pete.... Yes mate the fence is a good idea and it should work well.......some bushes as well as weeds etc. should do the job and create the illusion of a seamless join. The lift off section has been under weights overnight after the sections of polystyrene had been glued in place. When I get some time later on today, I will be sculpting the hill with a hot wire to bring it down towards it`s final shape. Loose parts stacked before gluing. Under weights Gormo
G`day Folks, The gluing seemed to be successful after the weights were removed. That then allowed me to get stuck into it with the hot wire cutter and shape it into a more believable form. I may still touch it up a bit more before the plaster goes on. It`s good to let it sit a while and study it before committing to the final version. This is the view from the far end of Bamford, and we`ve "almost" completely obscured the mouse hole in the back wall....so job done there. Once the greenery starts to grow on the white hill the illusion will be complete. Just looking at these pictures now I`m still thinking about shaving a bit more off the hill, so more observation and assessment required. I have to be careful here and not lose sight of the fact that a similar height hill will be opposite this one in the back corner behind the signal box, so it`s important to keep the scene balanced for want of a better term. As usual.....I`ll sleep on it. Gormo
G`day Folks, Progressing along with the tunnels has seen the ground level dealt with beside the tracks in the tunnels and just outside of them down to the end of the station platform. My track was put down over strips of this carpet underlay, so laying it in between and beside tracks makes the whole thing look a bit better. The underlay is simply glued with PVA........in most places it is a tight fit between the tracks so no weights were required to keep it place whilst the glue dried. The colour of the underlay is not ideal as a base, so it was then painted with some Burnt Umber and Black artists acrylics to tone it all down. I need to ballast the tracks now and then onto the rest of the terrain against the wall, although not necessarily in that order. The plan is to have a low hill starting from the end of the retaining wall at the tunnel, gradually decreasing in height as it moves towards a base ground level at the end of the station platform. At some stage I will add some wall capping to the tunnels which will add a bit more depth and presence to the structures. My research has shown that there are some quite ornate adornments on some tunnels, but I will try and strike some sort of compromise on that project because I don`t have the luxury of space. All areas of these new hills will be heavily forested and also will have dense undergrowth. There is also a plan to have a GWR Signal Box up at this end of the station platforms as well So folks.......plenty to do, but bit by bit it is transforming this end of the layout. More as it happens Gormo
Great progress Gormo!...just realised I had not subbed to your channel ...but I am sure I have as I have watched your show before a few times...got me stumped...Anyways enjoying the rebuild process... On another note...I just ripped up the carpet in my living room and found a pile of that underlay you used as ground around the tunnels...I was going to make my own ground foam but found mold had eaten through it...mite explain my health recently... Take care and Kind regards Chris
Thanks Chris, Yes mate....mold is the hidden enemy and can play havoc with your health.......it`s good you got rid of it. The ground foam is easy enough to make, I actually made some this afternoon......it`s a five minute job. Gormo