From Llangunllo to Llanbister Rd.

Geoff

Western Thunderer
Looks great Geoff, I think taking the time to make the trees really does pay off! Btw what paint do you use for your rail sides?

Thank you Mike, the trees didn't take too long to make as I bought the wire armatures, and foliage in from........
Wire Tree Armatures (round tree)

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Eight armatures came in at under £7, so its hardly worth making your own. Once untangled and shaped they were given a few coats of my own brew of Polyfilla / PVA bark mix. It was then a simple case of painting the bark, and adding teased foliage.

I use a mix of Humbrol matt enamel dark, and light earth, when painting my rail. The so called rust paints have too much red in them for my liking.

Geoff
 

MikeH_83

Member
8 for £7! That's a bargin, Might have to get some myself. I'd be slightly worried that they might not be tall enough as model railway trees have a habit of being quite small, But then again not all trees are very tall and these provide a quicker base to work from which would save some time!
 

Geoff

Western Thunderer
The trouble with tall trees Mike, is that they can easily overpower scenes, but you can always cheat like me, and plant them on higher ground if you want a bit more height ;)

Geoff
 

Geoff

Western Thunderer
Despite the distractions of Easter egg hunts, and a houseful of grandchildren I've still managed to press on with a little modelling.P1150988 (800x394).jpg

The footbridge is wooden, as I hope to maintain a rural feels, but due to problems with reflections I had to use stone supports rather than timber posts. Nothing has been secured in place yet as the jury is still out, I plan on adding more weed, and long grass to the loop, and siding should I persevere with the idea.

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Our eldest grandson, just can't get his head around things, and I confused him even more when I ran a train out of the fiddle yard. As its reflection headed off in the opposite direction, the trouble is, he now thinks I can do magic :(

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Mirrors certainly throw up some interesting scenes, even if they show the stone piers being of different width.

Geoff
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
One way to disguise the layout running into a fiddle yard is to carry the scenery into the first 10cm or so into fiddle yard and illuminate it.

US modeller Bob Smaus achieved this on his HO layout and a photograph is here

The staging (fiddle) yard is immediately behind the bridge which forms the scenic break. The sky above the bridge is the scenic break and Bob carried some scenery into the staging yard behind the bridge and lit this area giving the impression of no break in the scenery without the use of mirrors.

The full description is the the July 2002 issue of Model Railroader.
 

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Dave, I think you've got the wrong end of the stick buddy :eek:

Geoff is disguising the opposite end of the fiddle yard having scenic'd the whole damn thing! He's taken what Bob Smaus did to another level and extended it so the whole fiddel yard is scenic, thus opening up a whole new set of vista that would otherwise be lost to just train storage.

I guess we can chalk your comments up to just how effective Geoff's work is :D

Steve
 

PMP

Western Thunderer
I like that a lot, you’ve nailed the track end join alignment really well, that’s usually the giveaway with mirrors on those I’ve seen.
 

Geoff

Western Thunderer
Thanks for your comments chaps, and for the link Dave, but as Steve points out you have got the wrong end of the stick.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a couple to explain what I'm doing more clearly.

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This view taken above the fiddle yard is looking in the other direction. The rear section of the roof on the large building is removed during operating sessions to allow easy access to the lever frame, and has not been refitted correctly. The other building is removable so the camera can be swung into action.

Geoff
 

Geoff

Western Thunderer
I like that a lot, you’ve nailed the track end join alignment really well, that’s usually the giveaway with mirrors on those I’ve seen.

Cheers Paul, the joint still isn't perfect from some angles but should be acceptable once everything is firmly stuck in place. At least its better than the track hitting a slice of hillside head on.

Geoff
 

Alan

Western Thunderer
Your use of a mirror Geoff has got me thinking. I too might extend some scenery onto the fiddle yard.
 

Geoff

Western Thunderer
Thanks for the explanation Geoff, all makes sense now.

No problem Dave, I should have posted those snaps earlier :)

Your use of a mirror Geoff has got me thinking. I too might extend some scenery onto the fiddle yard.

John Dornom made good use of mirrors in his 7mm scale roundhouse Alan, see MRJ 109 /113 if you've got them. Carefully used they could make your stabling point look twice the size. John used mirror card, which I found to be too dull. I also tried a mirror coated plastikard, but that gave too much distortion, like the 'Hall of Mirrors' that you come across at fair grounds :) In the end I settled for a shatterproof acrylic mirror, which are widely available on ebay for a couple of quid.

Geoff
 

Geoff

Western Thunderer
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Holidays and general chores have being eating into my modelling time since my last update. The ongoing saga of modifying Ratio fencing also slowed progress, in fact it still is, each section taking around an hour of my time. To help relieve the boredom I completed, and installed a pair of new ground signals, and replaced the signal wire posts with some rather neat castings, all being sourced from MSE.

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I've also made up some station lamps, using the posts from the Gaugemaster/ DCC Concepts lamps, and vacuum formed lanterns from Langley Models, castings for the lantern tops coming from the same stable. The Gaugemaster lanterns are unfortunately too large for 4mm scale and perhaps more suited to 'S' or 7mm scale.

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The station as it looks today with the first sections of fencing in place and lamps on the platform.

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The Railcar has also gained some modified MJT etched windscreen wipers.

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Geoff
 

Brian T

Western Thunderer
Hi Geoff

I`m slowly working my way through all the pages at the moment,and rather than 'liking' each one as i go, i thought i`d just but a couple of big`s one here!
LIKE....LIKE...VERY MUCH LIKE.....

I used to follow your blog,and was mightly dissapointed,but sympathetic as to your reason`s why you stopped

But now i know your here,i can once again drool over your suberb modeling!.

Cheers,
Brian.
 
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matto21

Western Thunderer
As inspirational as ever Geoff. Always been a big fan of your trees too so looking forward to seeing more progress with them.

Matt
 

Geoff

Western Thunderer
Thank you for your kind comments Brian and welcome to the forum, and thanks to you as well Matt.
Sorry to say that despite having all the materials to hand I've not made any further progress with the trees, in fact I've hardly done any modelling at all of late. I have however opened my wallet and bought one of these , Flockbox. My experiments so far are producing good results, and a few electrical shocks, my fault I hasten to add!

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For my first attempt, I created the long grass tufts around the base of the platelayers hut, and those beside 1455 in the photo below.

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Geoff
 
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