Une Petite Loco

I decided just over a week ago to dust down my boxed rpi kit for an 042 T Weidknecht-Decauville, having bought it from the late Mike South some time back. It has always struck me that the kit was largely RTR, based solely on the fact that the chassis was complete. However I suddenly realized that there was a bag of bits in the box, some of which didn't mean anything to me.

A quick call for help on the 7mm NGA Yahoo! Group, and within hours Eric Fresné of Voie Libre had provided me with the instructions. My French is not brilliant, but once I'd realized that BabelFish and Google Translate were more of a hindrance than a help (neither could cope with 'portemine' - a pin-vice), I got stuck in. In fact as Eric had done before me I found that there were errors in the original (despite sneers from the distaff side that it was more likely to be my translation that was wrong).

Two 0.6mm drills have been consumed so far, having only been obtained earlier in the week from Pennyfarthing Tools in Salisbury (local Aladdin's Cave). And more by luck than judgement only one small part has been lost in the tufts of the carpet, ironically given that at the said Pennyfarthing Tools someone had talked about losing small items, and I'd confessed that I was still to get around to making a jeweller's apron!

Poor photograph I know, but the work so far is here ...

Somewhere near Cheddar ...

Thinking about the layout overnight, I wondered what the rocky outcrop would look like. A quick Google revealed that the limestone in the Cheddar region of the Mendips, where Steve's fictional quarry is set, dips by 20 degrees to the South East. Hence the layers of polystyrene on the face into which the tunnel portal will be set. There's a lot of plaster to be applied yet, but we think the result will work okay.

A Tunnel Too Far?

Well 40 hours or so later, here's the tunnel portal to date. Painted as described earlier, I roughened it with a little Tamiya weathering paint (sand and green), some Woodland Scenics dark green foliage, and Modelmates soot black. I may add a small amount of ink to highlight the coping mortar, and perhaps some green/yellow blemishes. It also needs some 'furniture' - a number plate, and perhaps some cabling. I'll be putting the tunnel in situ this weekend.

I'm not sure I want to go through all this again, but my next major modelling effort will be the L&B company offices. This comprises at least 10 times the amount of brickwork. Deep joy!

Bricking It

The tunnel portal job continues, and I like how it's beginning to look even if it is a tedious thing to do. I'm using the technique described by Chris Pilton in Cottage Modelling for Pendon (Wild Swan), although instead of display board and watercolours I'm using Slater's embossed brick and acrylic paints.

I suspect this is what is making it so tedious: watercolour tends to flow more easily on paper than does acrylic straight from the tube on plastic. At this stage of the game I don't want to change technique, but I may do a small sampler to see how a drop more water in the mix helps.

Anyhow, the palette I'm using (slightly different to Chris Pilton's suggestion, because I couldn't get exact matches) is: Red Iron Oxide; Raw Sienna; Naphthol Red Light; Burnt Sienna; Raw Umber; and Cadmium Orange. The slightly random way I've attacked the painting is down to the fact that my patience and eyesight can't take much more than 30 minutes of this at any sitting. If I were to start at one place and work systematically across, then the joins would probably be obvious.

Meanwhile, Steve has taken on the building of the turnouts, and the troubling 3-way version will be 2 consecutive 2-ways instead. Thank heavens for KBScale kits!

Making the Landscape

I'd forgotten how tedious painting individual bricks (a la Pendon) was. So last weekend when I ought to have been installing the tunnel portal I made in January, I ended up making the cliff face into which the tunnel will fit. This takes the pressure off painting, but then brings making a 3-way turnout higher up the job list.

Making Tracks

This shot is the same end of the test track pictured last month, but now with 014, 00, and 0-gauge track in place. Problems with isolating the rails when soldered to tag strip made me change to choc-block connectors instead, removing the problem. I can now get on with making rolling stock and motive power, although in the immediate future I'll be painting the tunnel portal shown in my last post, and making a 3-way turnout. Fun!

Tunnel Portal

At some point over the New Year I agreed to make a tunnel portal for Steve's quarry layout. This is where I've got to so far. Wings may or may not be added: it needs trying out on the board first. I'll then paint as per Pendon Cottage Modelling. The walls at the back will follow the curve of the track (to the left on entering the tunnel).

The detail shows the 4-brick archway. I think if I were to start again, I'd make the archway first and cut the facing to match, rather than the other way around as I did. I wouldn't use English Bond brickwork either, except as a source of headers for the arch.

Board Construction [2]

A quick view of the damage possible to the top board when it sits within rather than on top of the side members. This is now supported underneath by a glued-in piece of ply, and the surface covered with cork underlay ready for the test tracks.

Board Construction [1]

Long time no see ... but at last I have started building something. The pictured frame was to have been the base for a diorama of Cabourg. Making it was meant to be a practice run at Barry Norman's baseboard technique (as per RightTrack DVD, rather than his book Landscape Modelling) as well as to provide a test track for rolling stock.

In the end I scrapped this version (it warped because I didn't construct it well) and did another. In both cases I made the inner and outer plywood layers different heights in order to provide a 'lip' to contain the top sheet. This wasn't a good idea, as it meant less of the side frames were in contact with the top sheet.