New project - Woody Bay

I've been quite busy lately with making some minor improvements to my locomotive rolling stock .......but there is a pressing matter to attend to.
Recently  Bachmann produced a " narrow gauge railway station " in a "kind of "4mm scale .
Based on Woody Bay this model is passable as such but is clearly not, as I've mentioned before, a scale model .
Outback Models in Australia have already produced models of all the buildings at Lynton , the  exception only being the cast concrete lamp huts .
Now that is done they have now invested considerable time in producing a model kit in laser cut card of Woody Bay. Presently Outback still don't know if they will release this kit but after some badgering by the Lynton station management they have kindly sent me a pre release kit for review.

Now I have to apologise in advance that as my engine improvements were in full swing this took a slight back seat . However I'm determined now to have a close look at the model kit and this will occupy my energies from hereon.

First up is a picture of how Outback have posed their completed sample. Mine arrived very promptly and looks already much more the scale model those of us require for a satisfactory Woody Bay.

 I intend to harmonise this model with that of my home made models of Lynton , and to achieve  this I will not use the stone paper or the roof paper supplied with the kit but use plastic card as per my other models. In the mock up below you will notice the chimney pots are not in their correct placing but  this should be easily rectified. Together also with my 3- D chimney pots arranged with Narrow Planet I hope to show how Woody Bay can be made with this kit.

So anyway let's see how the mock up looks to begin with ,

Lew

The engine Lew was the last Manning Wardle supplied to the line and arrived in Southern Green livery.
My model , as with Taw, is built on a Minitrix chassis . Both Lew and Taw are my original two home -made locomotives . Taw was built from the Rodney Stenning kit and Lew from the Roger Chivers kits. They are both now celebrating 15 years of life !
Compared to the latest kits I have by Backwoods they do show their vintage , but they are of some sentimental value to me and,as seen with Taw, I'm steadily trying to improve their looks.
Lew was an improvement for me in modelling terms as I used transfer lining instead of the bow pen as used on Taw. I hope this is evident from the pictures. Later this year we should see the offering of Heljans ready to run models which will, no doubt, make my efforts seem very antiquated.
Anyway for me there's more satisfaction in the build. However as Lew will not be in Heljans plans for the foreseeable future Lew will have to represented by my modest model .

Stoking the fire

Thought I'd share a couple of shots of Taw showing the effect produced by the light in the grate of Taw. A complete accident really . By leaving the light of the Minitrix chassis in situ I inadvertently created a rather nice effect. The only issue is the light only glows when power is applied. However I could say that , whilst not running, the fire doors are closed by the fireman.
Taking the photograph was an exercise in itself as I had to have the engine moving to create the glow whilst taking the picture.

Considering it was taken on a phone camera it's worked out quite well I think.

Cruelty of a close up

Taking a photograph of your work is often a good idea . Cruel , but let's you see what needs to be done.
Need I say more........

Cow Catcher round up

My model of Taw ,in Southern region paint scheme, required the distinctive Cow Catchers put on. I ordered a couple of sets from Parkside Dundas Models  which arrived ,it seemed , before I'd even pressed the " Pay Pal Pay Now"button - excellent service from Parkside Dundas . Here's the result of tonight's work , which I feel does make the model look more complete. Fiddly little things but in the end a big improvement to the look of the  model .

CWR lamp huts painted

I've managed to find a little time to paint the lamp huts. As these were of concrete construction I've used a grey acrylic to give the look of the concrete with slight weathering. The doors are painted in Humbrol 103 as an interpretation of the Southern green. I used some Carrs weathering powders to try and replicate a worn and weathered concrete look. Next is to add the enamel and metal signs.

Inside Outside final paint .

My old model of Taw has been undergoing a face - Lift by adding a false outside frame to the inside frame Minitrix chassis . A little bit of paint on these Dummy outside frames and a little paint here and there and she's now complete. Aside from all this armchair  modelling I really need to get back to progressing the actual layout itself.....hmm... More soon......

Shine a light

The CWR 3-D printed lamp huts arrived a little while ago and I have only just now got around to the construction. The build is very simple indeed and in fact I very impressed with how well the parts went together.

Usually, in plastic, such small models would require as much time to clean off the excess flash as the time taken to assemble. In this case I need not have worried. All the parts on dry assembly were a perfect fit except for the doors which required slight filing. I bought 2 kits as Lynton station had two, one near the goods shed and one adjacent to the ground frame. In  a mere 10 minutes both huts were assembled using the recommended usage of super glue. I've left one of the lamp huts with its door slightly open. The model kits are supplied ready with a primer . All that's left is to paint and add my etched signs provided by Narrow Planet .