Track Building (1/35)

With cork underlay glued in place only too little spare time and a lack of rail spikes have prevented me from getting some track down on my new module. This week saw the post man deliver a little pack with rail spikes from KBscale and with some time to spare this weekend, I got half the track down in no time.

I took advantage of prototype practice when designing the connections of the track panels. The point where two panels met was in real life a weak point and a solid wooden sleeper placed underneath could help bring stability to the track. Dummy fish plates will be glued in place later.

Most of the track on the module are steel sleepered panels from James Coldicott. I decided to make the first half length of track with wooden sleepers and Peco code 100 rail as on the neighbouring module. The transition between code 100 and the code 83 rail used in the panels was made up with a wooden sleeper fitted with brass shims to bring the code 83 rail in height with the Peco profiles. The rail ends were soldered together. The track panels are connected in pretty much the same way. A wooden sleeper under the rail ends, a slice of thin brass under both rail ends, add heat and solder and I have what I hope will be a solid connection.

Nystrup Gravel is now a little longer! Where the Coldicott track panel needed to be bent, I removed the resin 'web' under the rail profiles.  I have dared to portray the track a bit more crooked than I have before. Testing will show whether I over did it. No ballasting before I know if the track works!

Unfocused Progress (1/35)

Spring is developing in full here in Denmark and contributes to outdoor activities in the garden and on the 1:1 railway. I'm still making progress on my modelling, anyway. Unfocused it is, though,

This weekend I have been making good progress on the double cab Ford. The cargo bed is now assembled and the chassis painted. The finishing of the cab is somewhat slowed down by my ambition of fitting a three man crew to the lorry. The figures are basically done now and only needs some painting, but I haven't found out how to fit them in their seats and bring upper and lower cab parts together around them.

I'm still working on the cab. On the outside the surface is almost sanded smooth and ready for the fitting of details. The interior is painted and the dash board fitted with decals. Now I'm wondering how to fit the figures I have built.

After my December move I'm not short of boxes to sort. I'm still finding interesting stuff I had forgotten I had. Sunday morning was spent drinking coffee in my little greenhouse while reading the article 'Kotanga' from Continental Modeller from June 1991 about a 9 mm scale industrial railway model. The newest book in my library underlined the long history of modelling narrow gauge railways.

Inspirational reading - and relaxing. The Continental Modeller article is one of a few 'harvested' from my old collection of Railway Modeller and Continental Modeller. Only those selected articles are now filed - the rest of the magazines were disposed of.

Working on Module (1/35)

With most of the planning for the new module done work has now begun. I have been adapting the end profile to make it fit the bridge module. Nothing major - just five minutes with the power saw, some insulation foam, knife and plaster. After a test fit I went over the profile again and added a little more filler where needed.

I have also glued down the cork underlay. At each module end I fitted two brass screws. When laying track I solder the rail ends to the screws, thus making sure the rail ends are properly fixed and won't come off too easily in case of an accident. Next step is to lay the James Coldicott steel sleepered track panels. 

Gluing down cork. Weights from a variety of sources - a slice of 60 kg/m rail. three steel balls from a wagon turntable ball race and a bucket of gravel for ballasting. Spring has arrived in Denmark and I can work outside again!

I am also currently trying to cast brick wall segments from plaster in a silicone mould from Diorama Debris. I hope to use the plaster segments for the brick wall that separates Bankes Bakelit from Nystrup Gravel's track.

Silicone moulds for bricks and brick wall.