Hamley Circuit

Discussion in 'Members Personal Layouts' started by Dr Tony, Sep 17, 2019.

  1. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    Had the second running of the layout yesterday. It was a quieter day at the markets, and I didn't have a constant flow of little controllers coming through, there were some break times for me and the locos, which, on reflection was quite nice.
    Pleased to say that no technical hitches were experienced, no loco, wagon or track work issues appeared. The rides, now on latching switches instead of momentary stood up to the rigours of being on for much longer periods of time.
    I was also able to test some other locos for suitability and audience reaction, like a giant (relative) to every other engine, Tri-ang class 37, this thing will run round the track forever with its build, but mine sure is noisy, but the kids loved it. Also an old Polly or Nelly 0-4-0 with the motor wired in reverse, have to remember to switch the polarity on that track for it.
    In a month I didn't manage to get too much update to the scenery, most of the effort was on the figures, which tend to disappear, plus I didn't end up using more than half of them. The lego board changed of course, and a station was added, which worked very well, adding a station to each world is a possibility and would work very well with the youngsters. This Lego board proves popular, and there is no immediate need to make this too permanent.
    I have some more performers, but i think i need to build a stage for them as the figures are little tricky to get planted in the grass. The dinosaurs were in a "Petting Zoo", with a sign to be built, declaring that it is run by Joe Mascis and sons, will see how many people get the Dinosaur Jr. and name connection.
    Was easier loading it all this time in the back of the dual-cab, could have made the layout twice as big.
    Thinking I'll probably give the layout a break for the next couple of months, give some variety in the activities there for kids and also allowing me to concentrate on other things, like why the markets seemed quiet this time. Unless I get an invite to take it somewhere else. Still need to fill out the gardens of the Mr Men houses, make more figures and make a tunnel in the Minecraft world.
    There is also some rolling stock maintenance to see to. I have just re-watched Gormo's video on making traction tyres from bullfrog snot. Getting replacement tyres for some locos is very hard in the country, unless you want to pay $80 or so postage from overseas for what is a tiny packet. I can't possibly think of what I would need for my OO layouts that would make $80 of postage worthwhile, they are essentially in care and maintenance mode now, with all major purchases made, I would rather spend that money on the Aussie layouts, both being built and still to come.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
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  2. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    Finished (I think) populating the carnival board. Also got up the sign for the petting zoo, and scratch built some stages for the performers with some extra left overs.
    IMG_20210620_175002~2.jpg
    IMG_20210620_175021~2.jpg
    IMG_20210620_175044~2.jpg

    Now might move back to a "proper" layout for a bit, back to an Aussie one as they seem to need a bit of a boost around these parts.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
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  3. Chris Doroszenko

    Chris Doroszenko Lost in the spare room Full Member

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    This has been great to read...awesome job on the layout. hours of fun to be had by you and the kids.
     
  4. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    Been a while since any work on this, covid put a halt to any outings on it last year. The markets have now started up again and after a few stock clearances the stage is now clear for activities for kids on the day, so the May markets should see the first outing.
    I always like to make some change so it's not always the same. Time to work on a forgotten corner. Using a piece of survey equipment to hold the joint down while the glue sets.
    I have made a small tunnel to, or in this case a mine, but I still need to photograph that.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
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  5. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    And here's a pic of the "tunnel" or mineshaft entrance if you like, plenty of clearance here. Not sure about raised pantographs, but those locos need not run on this layout.
    This tunnel top has to be removable for the units to fit together for storage and transport. The front simply rests on the "hill" and the rear is held by the backboard as there is no width for any support next to the outer track.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
  6. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    All going well it will have another outing tomorrow at the usual markets. I have also been doing some work on the Mr Men board, some nice gates for Mr Chatterbox and Mr Bump, as well as a rusty gate off a hinge for Mr Messy. Some touch ups to the turf was needed, and some bushes were added. Scraggly ones for Mr Mean and some pink ones for Misters Silly and Nonsense. The pink ones were a lot of fun. This layout being cartoony lends itself to new techniques. Foam rubber was cut (hacked) to the shape of story book bushes, was then spray painted a base colour, then flocking of the coloured foliage was applied using the hairspray technique. In this case, pink!
    IMG_20220602_214540~2.jpg

    IMG_20220602_214632~2.jpg

    Now for some last minute loco maintenance.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
  7. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    Brilliant Tony....:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:
    I know at least one of my Grandkids is young enough to appreciate these little worlds of magic and fantasy......I`m sure he would love it.
    Well done.
    :tophat:Gormo
     
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  8. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    This has got to be the most colourful and fun layout going. It's a credit to you Tony. :tophat:

    Cheers, Gary.
     
  9. Andy_Sollis

    Andy_Sollis Staff Member Moderator

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    And some older kids!! Takes me right back to my childhood.. I was waiting for Mr Tickle to appear!

    Brilliant work Tony!
    Andy
     
  10. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    I saw there was a new Bachmann model of Daisy the diesel railcar out, but when it costs over $230 here (and to add insult to injury it still comes in basically a disposable blister pack rather than a proper box). I decided to get an old triang 2 car version up and running. Close enough for this really. These have the somewhat bulletproof triang power bogie, which I had to modify by changing out the ribbed wheels for some more reliably conductive wheels, an overhaul of all the couplers and the motor. Should be a good addition and add to the colour on the day.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
    Last edited: Jul 20, 2022
  11. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    While I'm on rolling stock for this layout I might as well keep going. Duck has developed a 'waddle' due to traction tyres that are disintegrating. Finding replacement ones in this country is hard and/or expensive, especially the postage bit.
    So I decided to try Gormo's advice and get some Bullfrog Snot and give that a go. An excellent tutorial can be found here:
    https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index.php?threads/episode-55-17-bullfrog-snot.1430/
    After watching the video through it seemed obvious that a practice run on a don't care loco would be a great idea. Found an old Lima 44 with missing tyres that was just perfect as a patient.
    Clamp the thing upside down in the vice and clip on wires from a controller straight to the motor or pick-ups.
    The idea is to do it at 'yard speed', well this is easier said than done with a Lima pancake motor and a Powermite controller I have on the bench for testing things. I really need to make an easier connection to run a decent controller for this, like my gauge master.
    The Lima pancake motors do run better when they are warmed up a bit, and eventually a workable speed was found. Following all the tips i managed to make a tyre that tested quite well, tonight's task was to make the second. Once it has dried tomorrow I will give it a running test. I did a running test this morning and it ran quite well with only one tyre done, no lumps and decent enough grip for a test.
    Time will tell how long this tyre will last, the instructions say that the tyres will wear naturally and will be needed to be re-done. Having this done on some u-drive locos will be a very good test I feel.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
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  12. Vinylelpea

    Vinylelpea Full Member

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    Thanks for the update on the bulldog snot. Much appreciated. That railcar should come up a treat.
    Phil from Australia
     
  13. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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  14. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    Thanks Gary,
    But half of those places don't actually have them in stock, one of the ones that does seems to enjoy very high prices on shipping to Oz, at least on eBay, so i assume it would also be like that through the shop direct, pity, as I have got stuff from them in the past, a very useful supplier.
    Duck is now done and running very well, no waddle at all. Also cleaned all the internal contacts and performed full service. The old Lima 44 got both its tyres and now runs very well too.
    Put on a typical load for Duck using my newly weighted and loaded open wagons, complete with real coal. So the Bullfrog Snot certainly seems grippy enough.
    Time will tell, but I expect Duck will get a lot of use on this layout, so I should be able to report some meaningful results back. However, I have just signed my son up for cricket this summer, so there goes most saturdays, where I would be running this layout.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
  15. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    It's time to focus a little on the 4th board (world) for this layout. My wife's idea was to have something more skewed towards a young female audience. The idea is fairy garden. Now this is a bit uncharted territory for me. But there are plenty of (larger) scale ones around in various neighbourhoods that I can get inspiration from, maybe my neices can help too.
    One building which we picked up 2nd hand at a market day seems to be just perfect. A vintage Faller mill with operating water wheel. Now the motor for this was damaged and not working, plus it runs on 16V AC, which I do not run to this layout. So I found a 3V DC geared motor that just fits inside. This will allow it to run on batteries, which makes wiring and compliance easier. I can't see myself using this building on any other layout anytime soon, but dressed up with lots of greenery and flowers it should work very well in a fairy garden.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
  16. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    Keeping with the fairy garden world, I picked these containers/toys a while ago. They are originally from McDonald's happy meals, my son of course had no interest but I could see the possibilities, modellers eye going here.
    I didn't take a real before photo, but suffice to say that the bottom part is clear with some sort of printed paper sleeve, which I discarded. It had a hole for one window. The top was quite textured, but only done in the one colour. So firstly I spray primered the whole things, then started picking out the colours. I can buy houses like this at $15-$20 each, but why spend good modelling money on that when I can just repurpose something.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
  17. jakesdad13

    jakesdad13 Staff Member Moderator

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    Proper upcycling Tony, nice work!!

    Pete.
     
  18. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    Well, the 10 year old and myself have come up with a rough plan for the fairy garden layout. We have been watching the local series of Lego Masters, and one of the main things that stuck with us for making any sort of modelling scene is that the story that you tell is also important, otherwise it's just a collection of stuff.
    To that end we have decided to make a factory, powered by glitter!!
    The premise is, we have an old coal loading staithe with a crane. This will be re-dressed so that it handles glitter rather than coal. Glitter will arrive (and go round and round) as a load in an open wagon on the inner loop. The train can stop and "unload" the glitter. Originally it was to be loaded into HO scale dump trucks, but i have found a packet of appropriate looking giant ladybugs, so a cart being pulled by ladybugs will add a bit rather than the trucks.
    They will then convey loads of glitter along a track and dump it all in a lake of glitter. A river will flow from the lake, down to the powered water wheel, the glitter river will then go off into the distance.
    There will be some houses, lots of figures with fairy wings added and lots of trees. A station will be there too, I am going to dress up a platform that I got with an AMRI NSW station (for Mt Yatala) as I will be making by own platform for that layout. The building on here now will not be used here, doesn't look right at all. Might modify a Peco station building, they look about right.
    This scene won't be mounted permanently to this board, instead it will be on the thick foam board with a thing sheet of ply glued to the bottom for durability. This allows me to have some height differences and to make it all a bit taller than would normally be possible in my storage and transport methods. I have just got a new pencil type hot wire cutter, so will be keen to make landforms with this.
    The water wheel will power a factory, which at this moment, is poised to be making magic wands for the fairies.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
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  19. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    The next mini-project on this is the waterwheel. This needs to be painted as it looks very dull and not part of a fairy garden, or indeed a kid focussed layout. Roof was painted some other coloured than marbled plastic, went for the more realistic brown tiles/shingles, but maybe i could have gone for something bolder. Picked out various other things in various colours, trying to be colourful but not going overboard.
    This building has some vines glued to it as well, perfect for a fairy garden. Trouble is, they are very crude, glob-like things in a dull colour that don't really add anything to the scene. Had inspiration over the weekend, and painted down the centre of each strand a thin line of a much lighter green, this has given it a bit of a centre and leaves effect that i am quite happy with, makes it look much better.
    Once that was done i put some flowers on them. I used my ground foam made by the method from Gormo in various colours just for this purpose. A bit painstaking, poured a squirt of tacky PVA into a lid, then dipped a toothpick into that placing a tiny dot on the vine, once i had enough dots i then separated a tiny bit of the foam with a pair of needle nose pliers, placing "flowers" on the vines.
    The fairy garden "world" shares a storage unit with the carnival "world", while this was out i decided that i would make this board a bit more polished. There were some gaps between the ballast and the static grass. Note to self: take the advice and grass first then ballast, as the ballast is more flexible in application and you won't be left with gaps.
    I used a few different techniques to cover this strip gap. I used some long strips of static grass "tuft" with good success. I used normal circle tufts of grass which got a little painful, as it will require a lot of them. I then used some larger rocks (found on Moonbi Hill near Tamworth, goes quite well with the Tasmanian beach sand ballast) I also had some coarse foam so decided to put that to good use, gluing that down with the diluted Mod Podge matt glue, so far so good. The part just in front of the eye dropper on the track is the "before i have added section". To the left of that is the foam and to the right is the coarser ballast. The static grass is to the right.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
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  20. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    Keeping the pace up with this despite the fact that I have another layout under construction, cricket season and a new puppy arriving tomorrow...
    I won't be able to exhibit this layout at its normal place until at least April next year but if i can get this board done then my creative juices can be concentrated on my other layout.
    For the station on the fairy garden world I picked up a Peco shelter and hut kit that certainly has potential. The shop also had reduced to a very cheap amount a Heljan kit of a platform canopy, but even at the crazy low price I think this is going to be the better end product.
    Of course, I am not painting it like the box, it may even get a grass roof! Watch this space.
    Cheers
    Tony
     

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