Gundah Junction

Thanks for your kind words Kevin.
The trouble I saw with using sandpaper was how to joint it, every layout that I have seen there has been a joint somewhere, and in Sydney's humidity, it is inevitable that stuck down paper like this, no matter how we done, will peel up somewhere, usually in a very noticeable place.
Also, i can naturally vary the colours I put into the "gravel" for regional variation.
Cheers
Tony

 

More progress, getting to the end of the buildings. There are all magneted down to the board, so easily removable. The finer details are now being added, like drainpipes, steps, phone boxes, loading gauges etc.
Also made up a double size backboard. This is removable and sticks up 500mm high. Why so high? so when being transported or stored it can double as a cover, as the depth of the plank is 500mm. I have also made a small stub backboard out of the offcuts. This is there to prevent me damaging the back of the layout (buildings are very close) as it walk across the back of it to get around the car.
Have to get the courage to to the grass now, I'm pretty happy with my previous attempts, but it's been a while.

Cheers
Tony

 

Finally got around to some grassing, have used a combination of flock and static grass, in some different colours. Used the flock around the village houses where the lawns would be manicured a bit and the static grass away from these areas. The temperature in Sydney has been quite high in the last few days, over 36 here, so good for glue drying.
Have also added the large backboard, only painted in white primer at the moment, this will also double as a dust cover holder as the layout lives in the garage, now that it is grassed cleaning becomes a little harder. With the backboards up I decided it was time to play with the camera again.

The pub has a couple of executive express cars outside of it, a Rover P6 and a Triumph 2500, a Mini drives past with an old Austin 7 belonging to the publican in the carspace. A phone box is nearby so the characters inside can call for a lift home instead should they need it. A Sentinel doing some shunting comes into view.

As the train passes.

An overall view, it's hard to get it all in in the garage, it's first exhibition will make this a lot easier.
Then a play with the HDR phone camera

Here the local Singer repairman is at the goods platform waiting for his order of parts.
There is still lots to do, but it feels that all the main work is done, the buildings, the ground, roads and track are all done, it's just the extra little things, like people, plants, trees, coal for the coal shop, hose for the water column etc.

 

The value of a new perspective.
Moving the layout around this afternoon on its new mobile workbench allowed me to look at the layout from the left hand end, which until now has been difficult as this end has been up against a cupboard. I was modifying the support for the dustcover when I noticed this.

The ballast job was not quite up to scratch. Luckily the trackwork crew were able to be called in at short notice (due to me leaving all the ballasting stuff all over the workbench), and a fix was performed in minutes.
Goes to show that you can never look at a layout too much
Cheers
Tony

 

Can't help it, the Aussies invade again.

This time a Gonnian built 43 class diesel, these were made in Newcastle, just around the corner from where I used to live. It had an Alco diesel prime mover with GE running gear, and a cab design that was only on very few locos in the world. Only one of these locos survives, same number as this one and it is down at the Thirlmere museum in Sydney. This loco has not seen service for a little while, hopefully it will be back soon. It is towing another Gonnian built rail vehicle, an NRY refrigerator car.
Cheers
Tony

 

The fencers have arrived.
Been dragging my feet somewhat lately, but with the purchase of a few nice green scenic items for the layout I regained my enthusiasm and started the final bits of the layout.
First fence was a line fence to stop people and errant pets from wandering onto the line. This is a Peco product that one packet of worked out to be just the right length. Drilled in the uprights with a small drill in the pin vice. Once again I am doing this after the grass works. Much like the time I did this before, this process leaves lots of little bits of sawdust from the drill bit around each hole. I had hoped that using the pin vice as it is slower would have been neater than the cordless drill as it is slower, maybe it just concentrated all the shavings in one place...
What did surprise me was how tough the grass is. I removed the wood very laboriously using tweezers and placing the bits in the bottle cap as I went from hole to hole. The bottle cap stopped me having to reach over the layout with each crumb of sawdust, would have taken even longer. I pulled up surprisingly few bits of the static grass by this method. I was even game to use a bit of masking tape to get more dust up at once, and this didn't seem to remove much grass either.

I then moved onto my other project, the hedge.
I might have detailed this in my workbench thread, but here it is in context. The hedge is made from strips of Coles brand (cheap) green scourer pad, similar to scotchbrite. I made them 13mm high, about 1m high in the real world. I then sprayed them with cheap hairspray, then dipped all sides except for the base in a tray of finely ground up green foam. Once this was done it was sprayed again to seal it.
To place on the layout toothpicks were cut so about 10mm of the pointy end was sticking up, the rest was jammed into the board. The hedges were simply pushed onto the toothpicks and these seem very solid.

Ignore the old tree in the churchyard, trying to get an idea of what size and shape would look good there.
Next up paling fences between properties and a picket fence out the front of the house.
Cheers
Tony

 

Been a while since I posted anything here on this thread. But I have not been inactive, far from it, just doing stuff that has really slow progress.
I have got to the stage of adding people, as they really add to the scene so much. It started off with a play-ground, which just really didn't seem right being empty, and has extended to hopefully the whole thing.
I wasn't really happy about forking out the best part of $30AUD for 6 or so people, and then there is not much choice, there are so many packets of people in the model shop, but they spread themselves all over the place, not sure how many pack of Austrian guards from the 1950s and another pack from the 1960s, are going to be sold here, but I guess someone might be interested in that. They were rather dusty in the shop though.
I have also seen those cheap Chinese people from eBay (over) used on layouts, these have quite a variety, but you have to buy a lot of packets from different makers/sellers to avoid too much repetition. But the real issue with these is the rather gaudy colours they come in.
So I decided to go down the paint myself route, first with some Dapol people, their ones of the right height for OO, and some eBay ones.
It has taken a long time...
The tip I have heard, which I employed here is to paint them in the order that you would dress a person. Start with the skin, then trousers and or shirt depending on the figure, then jacket, shoes, hair, finally hat.
It is very fiddly and time consuming, but strangely addictive and I didn't get too bored.
Quite happy with the results, and I have some unique people, in at least terms of clothing colour, if not skin colour yet, that's next.

Cheers
Tony

 

While I was painting human figures I got a little carried away and painted something with 4 legs

Tied him up to the pole so he doesn't wander onto the tracks.