Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

Well gentlemen,
Julie did have a good birthday....lots of nice gifts from family and friends and me.
Thanks for the tips fellas......I`ll try and stay more in tune with the signals from now on. You guys obviously understand all that subtle stuff, so if I ever need to know anything along those lines I`ll know who to ask in the future.....
http://www.clickGormo
PS.....made some head stones tonight.......no!!!!...not for you guys!!!!!.... they`re model head stones....Sheeeeesh!!!!

 

No worries Toto................just a bit of fun as usual.

Well another big day coming up. We`re babysitting the two little grandsons today and I`ve made a promise we`ll run trains.........Oh boy !!!!....We`ll be stuffed by tonight!!!!!

Keeping watch on two of them in the train room on my own.......not easy.....they like to flick all the switches......there could be trains going everywhere.

The older of the two had his first go at changing points and running trains on Sunday just gone, and now he`s bustin` to have another go. Well folks.....that`s why I`m building this bloomin` railway I guess.?

It`s also good, I feel, to challenge the little guys mentally. Things are made too easy for people these days and we all need mental stimulation, but not something too easy, we need to work at it to develop and gain confidence.......so that`s what this is all about.

These little kids of ours are very sharp little codgers so it won`t take them long to work it out and then it will be interesting to see what they can do with it.

And I`ll have the fun of watching them do it.

http://www.clickGormo

 

G`day Folks,

Well we survived the day and had lots of fun with the little people.

Our four year old was running trains and changing points and isolating trains under close instruction and the little two year old was watching his brother and throwing some of the point levers with his gran keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn`t take a tumble off the chair.

Later on the four year old and myself made a big bush from foam rubber and flocking and twigs and that will be placed on the railway before his next running session.

I`m over trains tonight......tired out I think from today`s duties, however I have some progress pics for you all.

The paving is fixed down for the back wall background.



A couple of trees fixed in place, one commercial, one home made,....stone walls, grass, bushes and some head stones.



The stone wall has had some more colour treatment and is bedded down pretty well.



Head stones made from iced lolly / paddle pop sticks. There`s still a few more of them to go.



This section of the church yard is a bit overgrown



And Toto......I just brushed brown acrylic straight onto the ply wood base and covered it with static grass. Once the grass is down, the brown literally disappears.

More as it happens.

http://www.clickGormo

 

Thanks Guys,

And thanks Gary.....I`ll keep that in mind about the distance between headstones. I was thinking of trying to download some pics of headstones front on and miniaturize them and stick them over the pop sticks. Just to get a bit more authenticity.

Toto, the Gormo home made tree is the one on the left leaning against the church.

My little mates watch the Gormo`s Shed episodes at home with their Dad. They are my most honest critics. The 4 year old commented on my episode about tools and he got straight to the point and said " Pop that was boring".... and in a most sincere way of course. All I could do was laugh and take it on board as you do with little ones. They actually enjoy the Just Running Trains episodes the most.

So when we went out into the shed the other day......the oldest was saying we`re going into Gormo`s Shed and then when we got in there they insisted I put on my railway cap as well. They wanted the full Gormo`s Shed live experience. It might all sound pretty ordinary and a little amusing, but it`s actually a joy for me having these little guys around.

Well folks I am currently building my mini grassinator as mentioned in an earlier post, however I am stealing time at the moment as we are unbelievably busy at the moment. I am in the process of trying to sell my Mother`s villa and at the same time go half shares with my sister in buying a home unit/ apartment here in Sydney plus we are still dealing with solicitors regarding my Mother`s estate. Days at the moment, are spent trawling the internet looking at potential properties for sale. We are doing inspections tomorrow (Saturday)....there`s another day gone.

Add in babysitting, part time work and the normal tasks of life and I don`t seem to have time to scratch myself. Finding a home for my sister is the most worrying aspect of the whole deal but we are getting there and working our way through it all.

These things are sent to try us sometimes ,but we must soldier on, as all will be resolved before you know it.

So I apologize in advance for any posts or questions that I don`t reply to quickly, but I will try and keep up my presence here as normal.

I suspect the little grassinator will be the subject of next Fridays Gormo`s Shed.....if it works.????

http://www.clickGormo

 

G`day Gary,

Thanks mate......I will take you up on your offer of the pics.

I am trying to replicate All Saints church in Great Chesterford Essex. I have been there and most of the headstones are corroded by the ravages of time and weather and are barely readable.



You can see they are quite old and simple in their style so anything like the pics would be great.



I am assuming that nobody has been buried in the church yard for a very long time.



My Great, Great Grandfather and Grandmother are buried in this church yard so it`s a bit special to me.

http://www.clickGormo

 

G`day Folks,

Well I have been snatching moments here and there and continuing to add scenic items to the railway.

Some of you will probably have seen the mini grassinator I made to help with grassing some of the more difficult areas on the layout.

http://www.platform1mrc.com/view_topic.php?id=949&forum_id=67

It has been a great help with some of the tight spots, however I`ve been adding other elements to the scene as well......litttle bits here and there and now it`s starting to turn into a reasonable amount of changes.

So here is the latest update for GCJ.

Some more background has been added. There are four separate elements in the background and some overlap others to achieve the look we have here. Quite reasonable results can be had from poaching photographs from any source to build up a whole scene. Some photo manipulation and re-sizing is required but it`s well worth the trouble because you can build a unique background.



The little cottages on the left come from one of my own photographs taken in Castle Combe in the UK. Pity about the rough surface on the wall.???.....oh well....it`s not so noticeable to the naked eye.



I`m just starting on a Superquick shop and working out how far to go with a makeover on it. There`s another one to go with it as well.



The church steeple at the back of the shop at the end of the street is new too. I`m just trying to break up the sky line and insinuate there is a lot more town behind this little scene.



The church still requires more work. I want to build a cast iron fence sitting on a low stone wall for the front of the church and more grass and paths are required too. Some garden beds would be nice as well.



The polystyrene stone wall allowed me to bend it around to the shape I wanted.



Well life is still really busy at the moment so my updates will be less frequent for a while but there will be updates. Working on the railway is my little oasis of peace at the moment so even 15mins here and there spent adding things eventually adds up to progress.

http://www.clickGormo

 

Thanks Toto,

The perspective is trial and error in most cases. More so with the foreground buildings, the long distance scenic, rolling landscape pics are usually not a problem. The two little cottages and the estate agent building were originally printed out to correct scale. I usually measure the height of the doorways once it`s printed out.



Then I`ve put the print out in place to check it and assessed the look of it. Decided it was too big and didn`t quite look right so re-printed it but scaled it down in the printer options to produce a slightly smaller building. The height of the doorway on the estate agent building is actually a scale 6 feet. It`s just enough to suggest the buildings are set back a little way from the Metcalfe models.

The buildings along the wall behind the church used a similar method. I guess the idea is to compliment the scene rather than dominate it.



Anyway the internet is full of useful pictures that can be used for backgrounds. You just have to put in the time and have a critical eye in terms of size, colour style etc.

The truth be known.....my backgrounds are from the UK but they are from all different parts of the UK and scenes are just blended together to suggest a scene somewhere in England.

Now??????.......back to the hunt for property and various other tedious pastimes.
http://www.clickGormo

EDIT......here`s an example of blending buildings from different sources and adding all sorts of mods to create a unique background........although this was never used.???

 

Thanks Gary,

It`s trial and error as I said.....but it`s worth doing I think???

http://www.clickGormo