Semi Detached Houses for Wadden

With the terraced housing underway the side of the layout where the three bed semi's will go was looking rather bare. I therefore decided to add a couple of temporary houses using the Metcalfe kit by splitting it in two. The side wall was made from thick card I had and Mecalfe brick paper. The garages and walls came from the kit and the long hedge is cheap pan scourer with a little paint added. Due to its abrasive nature only use a very old or cheap brush. The picket fence is Wills (again half a packet was of a different fence type am unlikely to use, it's like only being able to buy a DVD of the latest film in a twin pack with a film you have no interest in)  The lawns  are static grass flock and the flowers a mix of different scenic foam flocks.

The whole thing was built on a section of foam board at home and then glued sparing to the layout so it can be removed when the final buildings are scratch built.

I think it fills the space nicely and I have acquired a pre war Reilly for the drive. I will also try to get a couple of people painted for them as well.

And another thing

Yet another frustration with Wills plastic I just had to blog. This time it's the Wills York paving SSMP208.

I'm just paving the area in front of my station and not only do you have to file off those frustrating little lugs at the end of the sheet but when I come to add a little strip to the edge with Wills Period York Paving SS77, not only is it a completely different thickness but the paving stones are different sizes and don't line up!! 

Why produce two forms of paving, both in York stone and yet not make them compatible? 

Railway Figures

Being a wargamer the thing that always catches my eye are the figures. If done correctly I feel they really set the scene and period of the layout. Now while there is nothing wrong with prepainted figures, there are some that are so dreadfull they make me wince, especially if stuck on thick peices of clear plastic. I was also surprised when I recently went to the finescale show in Stoke Mandeville where there were two superb layouts not a living sole on them. 

The majority of figures used on my railway are from Dart Castings. These are unpainted white metal figures which are very well proportioned anatomically and although they do a some modern era figures a large part of the range is suitable for the 1920's to 60's, which includes the period that I am modelling. 

All the figures are painted in acrylics as are most war games figures. Why acrylics? Two reasons, firstly acrylics are water based and generally odourless. I use Vallejo, Inscribe, Life Colour, Games Workshop and others. Secondly they dry quickly. You can paint a colour on a figure and generally by the time you have washed your brush out open your next colour you can paint over the top. This means you can mix a base colour with a lighter colour and highlight almost straight away. I have the excellent DVD by Geoff Taylor on how to scratch build buildings but when he tells you to paint the motar colour in enamels and set it aside for 24 hours I find myself asking why would you want to use such a slow drying medium for this purpose when it has no particular advantages over acrylics. I can paint the mortar colour and be dry brushing on the brick colour within an half an hour. Enamels do have their place though, they give a hard and smooth finish and will always be my first choice for a loco if the colour is available.

I hope you like the photos of my figures. More will be added in time for the layouts next outing, which will be the Tolworth Showtrain exhibition in November. This will be the layouts last outing for a while as I want to concentrate on scratch building the goods shed and other structures before it goes out on display again.

Back scene for the railway

The last missing essential for almost every exhibition layout is a back scene.  As with the rest of the layout I wanted to keep this simple and light. The disadvantage of course is the loss of robustness, however even the thinnest ply starts to get heavy quite quickly and you still need to protect the surface if it is painted or papered although permanently fixing them to the layout is one possible solution, however this can also the increase the width between the boards when they are bolted together.

I decided to use a plastic sheeting put under laminate flooring. This is a square section plastic corrugate like that used for estate agents 'For Sale' signs. I chose the thicker of the two thicknesses available, which was about 3mm and full size 2400mm sheet was relatively inexpensive at under a tenner. This was sufficient  to put a 30mm curtain around the front and sides with some to spare. 

The plastic is held against the edge of the layout with 6mm bolts but having set the layout up at a couple of shows these will be changes to 13mm bolts, the same as the rest of the layout. this is not for strength but simplicity, so whatever bolt you pick up it will be the right size.Strangely when I looked at a packet of ten washers in B&Q they were almost the same price as a packet of ten bolts with washers and nuts!?!

The ribbing does show slightly but the idea is to cover with card that can be painted with sky blue and clouds initially, then further detail can be added to complement the scenery once its in place. Velcro strips across the joins have also been employed to keep the panels together.