What did you do today on your layout? (HO and other scales)

[MichiK]

This weekend I've been working on my Aozoradensya 103ish Z Shorty kit. The basic bodies are finished with just very few details still missing. The rooves still require the most work...

 

 

[Sheffie]

103ish. Nice 🙂

[MichiK]

Thank you, Sheffie!

[GDorsett]

Display comes closer to completion. Needs catenary, but I lack any at the moment, so it's grass, ballast, and rusty rails.

 

 

Close enough.

[marknewton]

This coming weekend I’m off to the Central Coast of NSW for the 14th Australian Narrow Gauge Convention.

 

https://www.austnarrowgaugeconvention.com/

 

I’ve been invited to give a presentation on the 762mm gauge railways of Japan. I also intend to talk about modelling Japan rail in general, so I’m taking my photo plank and a selection of 1/80th scale models to display. So today I finally got around to putting a permanent fascia on the thing to make it look presentable.

 

 

All that’s left for me to do is choose which models to take and pack them. I’ve got a nice selection of the Tomix HOn30 range ready to go. Apart from myself, there’s another presenter who’s going to talk about the railways of Taiwan. I think it will be a great weekend, I’m really excited to be involved.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2019 by marknewton

[cteno4]

Congrats mark! 

 

Nice job on the facia, the green went into perfect blank space on my eye there when I first looked at it looking for the facia specifically! Just what you want. Really a nice clean scene to display the trains. Kudos!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[marknewton]

Thanks Jeff. I wanted a colour that would “disappear”, and I think this one does. I can’t take credit for the choice, it was my wife Paula who suggested it. Here’s a better view of the plank with all its fascia attached. I did a very poor job of aligning the corners as you can see, but it will do for the time being. I need to think of a way to attach the fascia pieces, fill and smooth the corners, then paint them without mucking up the scenery.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

 

[Sheffie]

I bet some bathroom sealing caulk would go into those cracks, and it’s easy to find a formula that takes paint nicely 

[disturbman]

What is the fascia made of?

If wood, why not a simple wood putty or wood filler? They could also be used to cover whatever you decide to use to attach the fascia to the frame.

[cteno4]

Always good to have a colorist in the family!

 

the important part you nailed on the silhouette of your scene profile, this is where the eye will really catch if not done cleanly.

 

small tube of wood puddy is your friend. Interior paints don’t do well over caulking with time, exterior paints can better deal with their flexing, but better a hard drying putty so it’s an even, solid, and sandable surface.

 

Painting tends to bring out the imperfections in seams like that. Our eyes really like natural wood and will overlook a lot of small issues like this but when painted it catches every little ding and crack. On exhibit work we use this trick all the time as the natural finished woods will keep this eye not catching for a much longer time whereas the solid painted surfaces will look bad with just a few dings and more construction imperfections will show up. Even using wood dyes and other finishes instead of paint to bring in color and leave some of the natural grain help this. When we need totally solid we usually go to laminates to make a clean surface that’s harder to mar with use and give clean sharp edges and transitions that can hide any joint imperfections more than a coat of paint.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Started working on my World Kougei H0j Hokutan Railway number 2 steam locomotive kit.

 

In good ol' World Kougei fashion, it's a bit of a puzzle to figure everything out, especially since some parts are mislabeled and others aren't included (not according to the parts list either, but the building instructions still say you need to use them). Also had to cut a piece off of the frame, otherwise there would've been a good change if short circuits down the line. Soldering is going well enough, but of course, the locomotive is smaller than I thought, so installing a decoder and speaker is going to be a bit of a challenge. Smoke is probably going to be out of the question, but I was pretty sure I didn't want to add that anyway. I don't have any pictures to share yet, but I'll see if I can get some tomorrow.

 

Another issue is that I don't actually have any track to run it on. Since it's H0j, it needs TT track (12 mm), but that's a scale I don't have any trains in (yet …)

 

[Nick_Burman]

1 hour ago, Martijn Meerts said:

Another issue is that I don't actually have any track to run it on. Since it's H0j, it needs TT track (12 mm), but that's a scale I don't have any trains in (yet …)

 

 

An oval of Tillig TT track will soon sort that out...

 

Cheers NB

[Welshbloke]

It may also be worth looking up Bemo or Peco HOm track, the sleepers will be closer to scale that way.

[GDorsett]

Could you use narrow gauge HO track?

[Martijn Meerts]

I'll probably get an oval of the Tillig TT rack with the roadbed, it's basically the TT version of Unitrack, so should be pretty stable for testing purposes.

 

For the actual layout I was planning on hand laying the visible track at least, this will give me the most flexibility. I have this scene in mind where there's a really narrow bridge and the regular gauge and narrow gauge lines will need to share the track on the bridge, so it needs to be dual gauge. Haven't done that much research yet though, I'll finish this locomotive first, and see where to go from there.

 

Anyway, some pictures:

 

Base frame and wheels:

 

 

Frame with motor mount and wheels installed:

 

 

Testing some parts of the shell:

 

[kevsmiththai]

Well, I've taken the plunge over the last couple of days and got stuck into my new Japanese Z scale exhibition layout. Cheekily, I'm going to call it 'Hakuho' as very very few British railway modellers will get the reference!

 

Although I can run my 'Republic Steel' layout in JR guise and it looks very effective with D51s pulling long hopper trains and the C62s and C11s on passenger trains I want to do something more typical of JR in the 50's and 60's. I also want to show the U.K modellers that rural Japan is not very different in looks to British railway scenes around that era.

 

it is going to be small, just 1220 mm x 760 mm and the plan will be for it to be split into four scenes. First will be the small wayside station of 'Hakuho' itself. The two lines running through it are two different railways. The outer track will have OHL to allow me to run Electric locos and the inner one will be steam and diesel only. Both lines will be Bi-Directional. There are crossovers at either end of the platform to allow trains to cross over. This will be the nominal front of the layout at shows. The rear of the layout will be the hidden sidings except that, as I did with Shasta, they will be fully scenically finished as a large marshalling yard. At one end the scene will be a more urban setting with a row of shops flanking the railway and it is here that the main lines will start to diverge into the roads of the sidings. I'm still pondering about the other end but there is no rush yet.

 

to the horror of some of my fellow Southern Pacific Z modellers I took the decision to scrap the extension board on Shasta. The board featured the Dunsmuir depot at the front and a full extra four foot of sidings at the back so I could run four metre long freight  trains in Z but to  be honest it wasn't really working out. Transportation with the extra board meant borrowing one of the call-out vans from work and there are no show bookings for Shasta in its long form.

 

 

All of the scenery was removed (you will see these trees again!) and the track recovered using copious amount of warm soapy water to loosen the ballast. The board has the advantage that it already has a wheeled flight case and I have taken off the hinged legs used when it was inserted into Shasta. So for now it is sat on my usual steel trestles ready for its transformation.

 

Early days

So here is the initial layout for 'Hakuho' with just one siding and a small shed. Buildings are by Sankei except the overbridge that came with a resin cast C57 as some sort of collectable. Marklin points and a mix of Peco and Marklin track. At either end of this section will be overbridges to act as a scenic break. rising up from the back of the station will be dense woodland with just a few other buildings. The former turntable pit will morph into some sort of lake with a waterfall going into it and a stream coming out.

 

 

As I said very early days and I'll keep updating as I go along

 

Kev

 

[MichiK]

 

All of a sudden, changing sheets has lost much of its terrors..

..after only a few years!

 

[MichiK]

20 hours ago, kevsmiththai said:

I also want to show the U.K modellers that rural Japan is not very different in looks to British railway scenes around that era.

 

 

I was just thinking:

One could make the buildings removable and have two complete sets of them: One british style and one japanese?

And next to it a US/canadian/Hokkaido styled layout...

Andandand....

[kevsmiththai]

The Kingspan mountains

 

 

Lots more carving before the hard shell goes on.

 

Bridge at the rear is a road bridge going into a tunnel that acts as a scenic break to the first urban scene. Embankment in the foreground will be an an abandoned branch line also going into dummy tunnel. you'll see I've started carving two access roads into the hillside, one going down to the station yard and the other going up to a shrine and temple in the forest. Two waterfalls will cascade down into the lake . I've yet to decide the route of the stream that will go from the lake down to the river. This is going to be a dropped section of the board in the corner nearest the camera.

 

(Kingspan is the trade name of the building insulation foam I use for scenery, most of which I've acquired by rooting through skips on building sites !)

 

Kev

[cteno4]

1 hour ago, kevsmiththai said:

Kingspan is the trade name of the building insulation foam I use for scenery, most of which I've acquired by rooting through skips on building sites !

 

Perfect name! Here it would be ForumulaR mountains — Dupont’s brand name for their foam insulation.

 

Yes I’ve done the same! A huge house went up a few years ago down the street and I asked the contractor if I could have the scraps and he had the crew put the foam next to the dumpster so they didn’t get crushed by 2x4s and I didn’t have to go dumpster diving! 

 

Jeff

[marknewton]

I didn’t do a very good job of explaining my problem with the fascia on the photo plank. What I should have done was attach and finish the fascia as soon as I’d established the contours of the landscape. In other words when I’d got to this stage:

 

 

But I rushed ahead with the scenery because I didn’t have any suitable material on hand to make the fascia. I won’t make that mistake again. 

 

When I did make the fascia I painted the individual panels before attaching them so I wouldn’t get overspray on the scenery. That’s why I couldn’t use putty or filler to clean up the corners after attaching them. To avoid having visible fastenings and more holes to hide I attached the panels with the hot glue gun.

 

Anyway the whole point of the exercise was to learn some new techniques and develop my scenery building skills, so it’s served its purpose. Thanks to everyone who’s posted good advice. I’ll do better next time following that.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

I’ve been gradually tidying up my fleet of Kato D51s, all of which I’ve bought second-hand. Some of them are missing small details such as the cab and smoke deflector handrails. So I’ve been replacing those where necessary, and adding a few extra details. Most engines fitted with smoke diverters had small pneumatic cylinders to operate the diverter. On this engine I’ve used a slightly modified door engine from a Tomix 485 series, which is very similar in appearance to the mechanism that the real loco carried.

 

 

Still to be fitted are handrails made from phosphor bronze wire. Then I think some weathering will be the go.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Kiha66]

Love those HO D51s!  They've been on my wishlist for a while, I hope kato re-releases them at some point.  Great work with the detail parts, how do you go about touching up the paint once they've been installed?

[miyakoji]

16 hours ago, marknewton said:

Most engines fitted with smoke diverters had small pneumatic cylinders to operate the diverter.

 

I've seen these but have never read any detailed information.  Based on the shape I assume they channeled smoke directly behind them, horizontally.  Is that correct?  Was this for operation in tunnels?

[GDorsett]

I'm not sure about Japan, but in America, it really depended on the road/model. Some deflected the smoke up by raising the whole stack vertically (such as on the Santa Fe Texas Class) while others had a movable shield that sent the smoke backwards for tunnel and high fire-risk areas (large Union Pacific locomotives such as Northerns, Challengers, and Big Boys).