Kenekimura - Lockdown Layout

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Not too much obvious progress on the layout this weekend, but the loco shed is more or less complete.

 

 

The original structure was a little too high and narrow, so replacement ends were fashioned. The paint for the external walls is a mixture Railmatch concrete and Falcon Grey (the old British Rail engineering dark grey) - the concrete pain on its own is too pale. The doors are made from Slaters planked plasticard, lined out with microstrip. The main roof is again textured tin foil, this time painted grey, with some subtle weathering. Glazing is simply some clear plastic nabbed from some random packaging about to be thrown away.

 

 

The access road to the shed has been replaced; this time with some spare balsa wood originally intended for some buildings on our club H0 layout. edged with Pollyfilla. The base coat of paint has been added, but it, and the shed, still need properly bedding in (the door to the lean-to needs its steps etc.).

 

I may tackle the station next.

 

[cteno4]

40 minutes ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

Not too much obvious progress on the layout this weekend

LOL,

[bill937ca]

I like your progress.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Today, I started sketching out how the station building may look. Below are some very rough drawings to see how it may look. The basis for the structure is a small Tomytec wayside station.

 

 

Then the basic shape is made from paper. It is situated in the planned location on the layout.

 

 

 

Hopefully the superstructure will start during the week.

 

Also, I have been thinking about a name for the layout.

 

Kenekimura 検疫村 is one suggestion - roughly translated as Quarantine Village (to reflect on the reason for its creation - I have not ventured more then 2 feet from my property in five weeks...). Not too sure about the humour though...may not go down universally well. It sounds quite good as a name in it's own right though.

 

Another suggestion is Yonjuyobimura or Yonjunichimura - roughly 40 day village (due the the word quarantine deriving from 40 days of incarceration). The first is probably a hopeless mistranslation!

[disturbman]

I would go with the simplest name, just to keep it pronounceable and easy to remember and to read. The second suggestion is just too long and complicated to be useful.

Edited April 28, 2020 by disturbman

[Socimi]

I might have a suggestion...

 

"Kanmuri-Machi" or "Kanmuri-Yama"

 

Why?

 

Well, "corona" is Italian for "crown", and "crown" in Japanese is Kanmuri...

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Thanks for the suggestions. I agree the second two options are quite long and complicated. Kenekimura has the sort of advantage that it includes the work eki; kind of a nice throwback.

 

Kanmuri is certainly worth thinking about as a prefix. Quite subtle...

[Cat]

Off on a tangent from miniature gaming forums, somebody posted a great report of a solitaire game of a little known battle of the 1745 Jacobite Rising in Scotland: the Battle of Loch Doon!
: 3

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I'm sure I have heard of a layout under construction with a similar with that (or very similar name).

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Some scenic updates:

 

 

More greenery has been added to the 'country' end of the layout, as I have dug out my Grasmaster. The cruel camera highlights the various little gaps, white patches and bits missing.The glaring plain green along the backscene will have a wooded hillside image (not sure if I'll cull from the net, or will paint myself). Things like trees, larger bushes and catenary poles will be added towards the end.

 

 

The tunnel mouth has had some greenery added, and the shed is more or less ready for fitting (with the scenery being built up around it). I will get something wood to tidy up the edging of the layout. 

[Claude_Dreyfus]

In addition, there has been some update on the station building. This small structure will be right at the front of the layout, and is in quite a restricted space. Inspired by a Tomytec wayside station, it begins life as a sheet of plasticard.

 

 

To the right of the picture is the plank embossed plasticard used for the shed doors, as well as the trusty microstrip.

 

 

Here, the parts have been cut out, and the embossed plasticard has been added. The white gap will be filled by white microstrip. The top-left wall is an internal wall, with the serving window for the ticket office. The large doorways on the ends are the walkway through the building, past the serving window, and on to the platform.

 

 

Some of the tools of the trade. The white plasticard piece is one of the two main roof sections. There are 19 microstrip pieces on each section (2mm apart)...just to give the roof some depth. 

 

 

The first coat of paint added. The white strip may look scruffy, but will be covered by a white microstrip. The windows are made from individual microstrip pieces, some of the cross pieces are 2mm long. Once completed, they will be painted brown. Not sure how long it will take to complete (managing just over a window a day at present), nor my state of sanity once complete! Hopefully it'll be worth it.

 

Edited May 4, 2020 by Claude_Dreyfus
Added URL

[Claude_Dreyfus]

This weekend focus has very much been on the station.

 

The building has been assembled and painted, as this rather cruel photo shows (significantly enlarged, the building is only 3cm wide). The paint work isn't glossy, despite what the lighting suggests!

 

 

 

The viewing side (again massively enlarged, it is 5cm long). This is more or less complete now. Just some final detailing, plus some fettling as is about to be fitted down.

 

As I mentioned before, space on the layout is tight at the front; both for the building and the platform - which will easily accommodate two carriages. The platform is made from the usual 20thou plasticard. The canopy roof is purloined from an old Greenmax tram stop.

 

 

The whole structure has been given a coat of spray undercoat; which helps give a key for painting the smooth plastic, but also gives some extra texture. Next up will be a visit to the paint shop during the course of next week.

 

 

The final picture shows the platform and the station building.The building will be on a balsa base, which accounts for the step between platform and building (that won't be there on the layout!). 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Claude_Dreyfus
Missing Picture

[AhmadKane]

On 5/5/2020 at 2:28 AM, Claude_Dreyfus said:

Some scenic updates:

 

 

More greenery has been added to the 'country' end of the layout, as I have dug out my Grasmaster. The cruel camera highlights the various little gaps, white patches and bits missing.The glaring plain green along the backscene will have a wooded hillside image (not sure if I'll cull from the net, or will paint myself). Things like trees, larger bushes and catenary poles will be added towards the end.

 

 

The tunnel mouth has had some greenery added, and the shed is more or less ready for fitting (with the scenery being built up around it). I will get something wood to tidy up the edging of the layout. 

I have to say the detail is just phenomenal. Great work! 😄

[NXCALE]

17 hours ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

This weekend focus has very much been on the station.

 

The building has been assembled and painted, as this rather cruel photo shows (significantly enlarged, the building is only 3cm wide). The paint work isn't glossy, despite what the lighting suggests!

 

 

 

The viewing side (again massively enlarged, it is 5cm long). This is more or less complete now. Just some final detailing, plus some fettling as is about to be fitted down.

 

As I mentioned before, space on the layout is tight at the front; both for the building and the platform - which will easily accommodate two carriages. The platform is made from the usual 20thou plasticard. The canopy roof is purloined from an old Greenmax tram stop.

 

 

The whole structure has been given a coat of spray undercoat; which helps give a key for painting the smooth plastic, but also gives some extra texture. Next up will be a visit to the paint shop during the course of next week.

 

 

The final picture shows the platform and the station building.The building will be on a balsa base, which accounts for the step between platform and building (that won't be there on the layout!). 

Great job. The station looks well done, pretty much like the Tomytec Building Collection 019 Station B (Link: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10068702)

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Today I have been mainly looking at getting the platform and station building fitted.

 

The platform, including fence and canopy have been painted a dark concrete colour as a base. The edging has a slightly lighter additional coat, followed by a light weathering of Railmatch 'Sleeper Grime' along the base. The canopy is a darker shade of grey, which I have used on the roofs of some of the other buildings. The white stripe along the platform edge is from a Kato road marking set - sealed down with Mattcote. A bench from a Kato platform accessory kit has also been added.

 

Once dried, both platform and building were fitted down. The road access was also put down; helping to blend the station building. Final task will be to relay the ballast to abut the platform edge.

 

As the weather was nice, I hauled the layout out to the garden for a few photos in the later afternoon sun. 

 

 

 

 

Looks odd without the catenary; and I really need to tidy those level crossings up!

 

Now the station is more or less complete (lots of detailing and fettling still required), attention will now turns to the industry which will occupy the bare area in the background of the photos.

 

Finally, I have settled on the name - Kenekimura.

[ranger10178]

Looks fantastic! I'm really enjoying following the progress of your layout!

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Thanks. Hopefully you will get to see the layout when complete...hopefully it will make its way onto the exhibition circuit in the next year or so; assuming everything returns.

 

It is evolving as I am finding lots of little jobs to do before cracking on with the industrial structures. I have been checking sizes; it needs to have presence, but I don't want it overpowering the layout. I have also given myself an awkward space to play with.

 

The two main jobs today have been bugging me for a while.

 

First up are the scruffy edges. These have been covered with a layer of Polyfilla, which at least protect the vulnerable polystyrene form work. This took a little while, but looks okay. It will look far better after painting, but that will have to wait as my preferred choice of blackboard paint has died...I did not properly seal the paint tin lid! 🤬

 

The second is sorting out the level crossing, which just looked messy and uneven. The edges adjoining the track were trimmed and replaced with plasticard. A quick spray with undercoat/primer and more Polyfilla was used to blend with the existing road surface. I do need to think about crossing gates, but I don't have anything in my various boxes of bits. I may have a bash a trying to build some myself (which may need to be the option as the road width isn't 'standard').

 

More detailing bits were added around the station as well. A bit of fence and the first of the signals (retrieved from Kanjiyama...although I seem to have mislaid the very useful ground signals...they'll turn up no doubt). Also erected are the first of the catenary poles. These are from the goods yard on Yamanouchi Oshika (our old club layout). Also an ornament flowerbed has turned up on the platform.

 

Around the town a few trees (in blossom behind the shop, and by the shrine) have sprouted and a small shrine has been added. Extra little details that should really come at the end have also appeared...another telephone pole for example. Finally, more ground work has been added; bushes and the like.

 

 

Mr Nakamura waits patiently for ED62 6 to pass by light engine. This Tomix ED62 was the poor unfortunate that had the argument with the garage floor. Much fiddling ensued to put it back together again; which included fixing the broken front valance, replacing the coupling (the original being written off) and fixing the resultant poor running - I had replaced the dislodged bogie back to front. It now runs as sweetly as before its altercation fortunately...which is good as this loco will be one of the workhorses of the layout.

 

 

Overall view of the town, with the trees starting to appear in the background. The very bare area to the front of the layout, in front of the platform, will just be bushes, wasteland and detritus. My Polyfilla edging can clearly be seen here (it'll look better when painted!). Mr Nakamura needed to keep his wits about him given the lack of warning lights and barriers!

 

 

The late afternoon sun catches the town. All is quiet, but shops are open.

[AhmadKane]

22 hours ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

 

The late afternoon sun catches the town. All is quiet, but shops are open.

 

I saw your post on the Facebook group, and I thought that was you!. 

 

The light effect is good when you put it outside. I really like the way the tracks curve around the towns, it really blends in

[Claude_Dreyfus]

So, the Cement Works.

 

As I have mentioned, the space is rather limited, so it would need to be a small structure. Today the ground work has started, with the undercoat for the hardstanding painted, as well as some of the track in-fills. The grey area between the middle and bottom siding is a sheet of plasticard primed and painted.  

 

 

The main building will occupy the area marked out by the balsa wood. The loading area for the cement is where the track in fill is located. Within the main structure the following processes need to be accommodated.

• Crush the limestone
• Blend crushed limestone with gypsum and clay
• Fire in kiln
• Crush and grade clinker
• Store for loading onto wagons

Quite a lot of steps to carry out in a small area.

 

Then there is how the raw materials are delivered. These will be via a mixture of road and rail; items such as the gypsum would be lower volume so likely to arrive by road. The limestone is likely to arrive by rail, as is the coal used by the kiln.

 

This all may seem a little anal, but I like some basis in reality (or plausibility) on the layout.  

 

It is at this point I will admit to a bit of a cheat. I have been looking at pictures of cement silos with a view to building a couple. As part of this research I came across a company called Red Imp Models; who make a kit of a cement silo.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333183387904?ul_noapp=true

 

With two priced at less than £10.00, that was a good deal, so a couple turned up today. I'll construct them this weekend.

 

 

The first of the buildings has been fixed down for the cement works. A small office block (flat roofed structure on the left) has been installed. The smaller structure above it is currently just placed...need to see if there is any space available before that gets fitted down.

 

 

Also, the base scenic layer has been added between the yard and the main line. This will be quite an open area, so just a few small trees and scrubby bushes. 

[Cat]

Coming along nicely.

And ooh, that Red Imp Silo does look nice.  We just picked up a Faller portable silo kit which will work pretty well here with a bit of splicing the two silos together for height and finding a safety ladder to add on.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

A change of plan today (I have an extra day due to a bank holiday). I was going to start on the cement works; instead I finished off the electrics and carried out a couple of other niggling jobs.

 

I have finally dealt with the exposed pink foam landscape structure. A thin piece of hardboard, offcut from an old kitchen unit was trimmed and fitted with wood glue and screws. There is a similar fascia at the other end. The massive gap between the tunnel mouth and the rock face has been filled. Also, the Polyfilla edging has since been painted and covered with the base flock cover. 

 

 

Next up was to finish the electrics - mainly tidying things up and completing the mini control panel for the point switches.

 

The bulk of yesterday's activity was to wire up the point motors and switches. 

 

I wanted the layout to be as simple as possible to operate; but without complicated wiring. Control is provided by my trusty old Gaugemaster twin controller, one dial to power the main line and one for the yard. The four points are controlled by three switches - the point from the main line and to the loco shed are wired to a single switch as both points would work in tandem anyway. The toggle switches switch in the direction of 'travel' (so the top switch clicking up would set the point to the main line).

 

The panel itself is simply wood, screwed to the backboard (for ease of maintenance if required). All was tested and works well...I think that's it for the electrics!

 

 

There still needs to be a lick of paint to the left side just to neaten it all up.

 

Finally, I wanted to get the backscene done. It was going to be an image grabbed off the internet, however during the preamble chat to a work meeting a colleague mentioned 'The Joy of Painting', which is currently being shown on the BBC (Bob Ross is most certainly a calming individual to watch). Some of his techniques struck a chord with me - perhaps I could try something similar to provide a mountainous backscene. I am quite pleased how it turned out...and glad that I didn't use the picture as I am trying to avoid paper/thin card as it can ripple in the shed during the winter (partly why I don't use the Sankai kits (with the exception of the little shrine), or build structures out of card).

 

 

Trees are starting to crop up now...and there will be a few more trees along the ridge immediately in front of the backscene, but not too many.

 

Now, to get on with the cement works! 

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Right, the cement works.

 

Various sketches and measurements have been kicking around for a little while now, but this is the time to bite the bullet and get on with it. In the event, the main building was shortened a little to 15cm in length. There were a couple of reasons for this. I could go on about building size ratios etc. but in reality my metal rule is 30cm long, as are the plasticard sheets...so I can get to walls out of a length-wise strip.

 

Construction is my usual method of 20thou pasticard, with the side walls double thickness for stability. The walls were then scored to represent the concrete sections used to construct the building. It was given a spray of undercoat for texture, then painted with Railmatch 'BR Wagon Grey'. The window frames are microstrip backed by clear plastic. Weathering was also applied at this point (the small door has yet to be added also).

 

 

The first structure in place. The second structure and loading bay is immediately behind. The two silos will be located the other side of the balsa base.

 

The whole next to the larger door isn't a window, it is for the conveyor to load the raw materials for the cement process.

 

 

The main door will be for unloading smaller commodities (such as the blend items - clay, gypsum) as well as loading bagged cement.

 

 

Once the roof is on, not a lot of the contents will be seen, but I thought I would add something. This bears no resemblance to a real cement manufacturing process I'm sure, but it looks industrial enough (perhaps more like a distillery? The parts are a combination of balsa wood and an old airlock used for my winemaking. Currently seen here in white undercoat.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Claude_Dreyfus

[AhmadKane]

37 minutes ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

Right, the cement works.

 

-snip-

 

My house in Jakarta is actually close to two cement works. Holcim and Tiga Roda (I think). Couple of suggestions, normally cement works do not have the cement already bagged unless its a distribution depot. Even so they normally have silos to store the cement against humidity and anything that may hurt the quality. Its either a tall silo like the ones for grain and rice factories, or a pile of cement that has a conveyor belt to load unto the trucks. Maybe there could be a structure behind the works for the silo, and have a ceperate structure that enables the cement to be loaded unto, or unloaded from the train. 

 

But that's if the structure would produce and bag cements. If not this could be a simple cement packaging area. Unload unto the factory to the silo where it is bagged and transported via trucks

[Claude_Dreyfus]

5 minutes ago, AhmadKane said:

 

My house in Jakarta is actually close to two cement works. Holcim and Tiga Roda (I think). Couple of suggestions, normally cement works do not have the cement already bagged unless its a distribution depot. Even so they normally have silos to store the cement against humidity and anything that may hurt the quality. Its either a tall silo like the ones for grain and rice factories, or a pile of cement that has a conveyor belt to load unto the trucks. Maybe there could be a structure behind the works for the silo, and have a ceperate structure that enables the cement to be loaded unto, or unloaded from the train. 

 

But that's if the structure would produce and bag cements. If not this could be a simple cement packaging area. Unload unto the factory to the silo where it is bagged and transported via trucks

 

Thanks for the comment. I have a couple of silo kits ready for construction, but it sounds like will be a case of one or the other - loading into wagons/cement tankers or bagging and loading into box van/covered lorries.

[AhmadKane]

Just now, Claude_Dreyfus said:

 

Thanks for the comment. I have a couple of silo kits ready for construction, but it sounds like will be a case of one or the other - loading into wagons/cement tankers or bagging and loading into box van/covered lorries.

 

Maybe it could be a case of a large operation in what looks like a small storeroom? So that corporate spies don't know what's really going on. For all we know, the entire operation of that building might expand under or through the support walls. Some 007 top secret large scale cement work operation going on in the middle of a tiny Japanese village