New front door

Today I've been making doors. Not exactly riveting stuff but I think they look much better than my previous cardboard attempts on my original engine shed. I'm trying to improve my modelling all the time with each new project. This door alone took me 2 hours of plastic scribing. I used wills Tongue and groove boarding for the basic shape. However the Wills sheets only have this on one side. For the inside face of the door I used a scribing tool to create the impression of the boarding. Evergreen strip was used for the interior frame strengthening. Details are made from platicard offcuts left over from making the window sills of the engine shed. In the final picture I have simply posed the door in place .

Heljans first picture of Manning Wardle

Yesterday Heljan produced some pictures of their forthcoming new release. It's their first venture into narrow gauge and will be of the Lynton Manning Wardle. With their approval I'm granted permission to share the first pictures of the model in development. The locomotive is shown running round what appears to be 12 inch curves and not in a full paint finish. The finished model is expected mid 2016 according to Heljan .
Here she is,

Mind the gap !

Progress continues at Lynton with the rebuilding of the engine shed. The concrete base has been poured into situ and all seems level. Concerns were raised by an inspector of works from a nearby railway that from his experience the loading gauge of the locomotive Lyn might seriously challenge the construction. So Eric and Ernie were enlisted to prepare Lyn in steam and carefully bring Lyn up to the construction . All seems well , and given the opportunity for some overtime pay Eric and Ernie went home to their box happy.

Pit - torial

A catch up with progress in pictures only today....

Shed loads of trouble

I've made a start on the Shed diorama only to be troubled by exactly how long the pit in the shed was? No quality  printed photograph evidence was able to clear this problem up. As a member of the Lynton and Barnstple modelling forum some help was forthcoming . A good healthy debate was had by all on the Forum to try and make sense of what appeared to be contradictory information. Contributions of other photographs gradually produced a sort of consensus. One consensus being I shouldn't use the Peco N gauge inspection pit! Anyway here is the start. I am to lengthen the Interior pit a little as it seems it ran the full length of the shed, so that's one alteration. This might have been covered over later in its life, with (possibly ) boarding. Hence it was not easy to see in these published photographs whether the pit actually existed internally . Anyway for now a quick shot of the overall Diorama base and the frowned upon pack of the Peco inspection pit. Purists look away ! 

Pizza (in) Place

So just a few pictures to show how the shed will look in situ. As I wish to make this a stand alone diorama I need my ruler to check sizing. The scenery looks terrible here as it's the original landscaping  all torn up during my modifications. The rock faces were never finished or painted properly and the odd vegetables on the embankment are only there to show how they might look once the allotment on the hillside is prepared.  So please ignore the absolute shambles as it is. The track that runs beyond the shed in a southerly direction will be extended as well as the coaling stage modelled. More cutting back of the embankment will be required .

Shed takes shape

Further work on the shed has seen the Pizza tray take on a new more meaningful purpose in life.
In fact I've been quite pleased with using this way of making a building as an experiment. At times there were delicate stages, such as the Evostick melting the wall, or the door uprights in danger of going their separate ways . But in the end , as more and more plastic was added , the whole thing rose up in the cook like a pizza base should. Management is so far very pleased.

Pizza Hut ( Shed)

I've made a start on a new version of the engine shed that was based at Lynton station  My first model was made several years ago and intended to be the original version before modification. On re visiting this little model it became clear that something was not quite right. Armed again with Measured And Drawn and a new technique of using Pizza trays ( thanks to my hungry kids) I marked out as below the dimensions by copying and pasting the drawings onto said Pizza base. Turning West side wall in reverse gave me the matching sides I required. New blade on my knife and cutting began. I intend to use plastic card to cover the shell , random stone by Slaters to match my other buildings. I also wish to make the shed a stand alone diaroma with an inspection pit and fitted track so that The whole unit can be lifted out of the layout when not in use.

Decorator required

Well nearly done. The station building is now nearly complete. I still need to add a few extra details such as the piping out of the roof  but now I just need to paint it. The last run on the building ....many years after starting .

L

Room with a view

So after a while away from modelling I'm back and so is my modelling Mojo. I've had a bit of time today remodelling the first floor frontage to the station. Removing the tiled front was a bit nerve wracking thinking I might damage all I'd achieved so far. I needn't have worried the front tiles (Wills) came off quite easily with a modelling knife to gently prise away. So progress so far is shown after a nice 2 hours listening to music and the rain pouring down outside .

Lamps for Lynton

Langley models lamps have received some paint ready for installation . I still need to add the telephone insulators that sat atop the lamps  before putting in situ.

These Langley lamps come supplied with clear glass covers . However I've removed these as they seemed far too over scale.

The benefits of a thorough book

 When I first built my model of the station building there wasn't the book " Measured and Drawn " to consult. Instead my research was based on a 7mm layout and the station building as I t exits today. Maybe if I had paid more attention I would have seen then in its original form that slate was not so abundant on the station front. So now I have other alterations to make courtesy of better research. Oh well , now how to rectify this ?

"Base -ics"

Lynton station building base needed some basic improvement so I have carefully created a more solid base using plastic sheet. This has improved the solidity of the structure enormously .
My plan is to seat the building into the platform by the same thickness of this base. Let's see how this works out ....

On the underside there's now better clearance for my rudimentary internal lighting wire . Another plus! 

Framing the station

After some time not reporting any news here I'm pleased to now update on some changes I've made to the station building.The original model was made way back in 2001. Looking at the model more closely I could see some updating and improvements were in order. I've added framing to doors for one thing and taken the opportunity to improve the stability of what was in essence a fairly flimsily built  card model.
The door framing is shown here

And finally .....Yeo heads for Lynton

Yeo heads off in the morning sunshine.....