Pots of paint to paint a shed.

Well normally painting a shed would mean I  would be in the Garden and a pot of B&Q's finest green. It would be Summer and a beer in hand. Here ,on the other hand , yes , a beer in hand but indoors , whilst Britians longest downpour in memory continues unabated. Time to ponder about how do I try and recreate the look of the stone finish to this shed?
    Many years ago I managed to persuade the family that a summer holiday in North Devon would be a good idea. A certain railway station was visited and a close photograph of the stone wall construction at Woody Bay was taken ( the trip also enabled me to study Barnstaple Town by the way).

 I've started the painting by an under cost of Halfords plastic grey Primer. After this a quick wash with acrylic white ,which was quickly then rubbed off leaving only white in the mortar coarse. Using various acrylics I've tried to copy the colours of the walling. Surprising to me is the high level of reds and Browns. I started the painting on the unseen side of the shed ( North) in case of drastic alterations.
Now , to be honest the jury is out on the finish I've managed and I'm looking over what has been achieved . To me it still looks too bright and fussy?  Perhaps more subtle use of the acrylics is in order and also a weathering afterwards.....let's see what more beer and pondering will deliver.

Engine shed progress

A little more work and the engine shed begins to take shape. For the benefits of the picture the shed is held together here with good old Blu Tac . Compared to my previous model of the shed this now looks correct and with the right proportions.

The next job will be to add the poster rails that hung vertically on the station side. The whole construction sits on a plywood base so that it can be a stand alone diorama.

Running in board

The running in board was made with a photograph of the actual board and here it is shown in-situ on the platform. Please ignore the unfinished ballast and the water pipe not yet bedded in. All the ballast was ripped up during the recent modifications , which gave me the opportunity to do some repacking under the sleepers. The reason for this was that unfortunately , as I built the layout using Sundeala, it tends  to warp a little. So this means a little bit of TLC to the track work is required on occasion, "just like the real thing" as they say. 

Putting the scene together

I had a few idle moments positioning the signal cabin , lamp hut and running in board in their approximate locations the other night. Most of my modelling at present is focused on the buildings meaning modelling at a desk, and not much activity on the actual layout. In fact this was perhaps my first venture up to the layout in several months .
When looking at these pictures you need to disregard the loosely laid look of the layout and the abundance of torn up scenics laid in ruin since modifying the track layout into the station. There is so much work yet to put right. For example, the exposed rock faces are still in native plaster and the ballasting is half removed due to track relaying. At the front of the layout , the hillside is still bare plaster. The track was also not aligned properly at the baseboard joins either!

Taw repaint complete

Thanks indeed to Brian again for another superb job completed. The pictures say it all.

Glazing over .....literally.

Yes indeed .... Glazing over making windows. My least favourite job.
 A little modest progress for the engine shed by making the 4 windows. I tried a new system this time whereby I positioned a scale 4 mm drawing of the windows behind some clear acetate and then built up the window frames following the drawing underneath. I don't know why I never tried this before as it was a much simpler and quicker way to get the job done. Within the hour four windows were released from their sellotape confines. Now all I need to do is just a little trimming and put them in place . Success , and hopefully I need not be daunted by glazing again.

Taw repaint

My model of Taw , purchased on eBay , is in for a repaint. She will be repainted in a prototypical colour scheme of the Lynton and Barnstaple private era period 1903 - 1913. When purchased the model was in a Holly green colour and red colour which was not a livery carried at any period of the lines history. Here she is being repainted.