Back on the ground

It's been a while. 

Those who follow my Facebook page will know that since the last blog entry for this layout, I had directed my energies towards readying my APA box layout for Trainfest in Milwaukee in early November. You will be able to read all about that in the winter issue of The Micro Model Railway Dispatch. So with Trainfest over, it's time to devote my energies for getting this layout presentable for The Micro Model Railroad Cartel Facebook challenge. It won't be finished (whatever layout truly is finished). But it should be presentable, and functional.

The first, and probably most important thing, is to get some ground cover down. As this is a light industrial running through muddy fields on panel track, the need for ballasting is pretty minimal. The track could be buried to the tops of the rails if I so desired. Though I am so proud of my modelled panel track that I don't necessarily want to bury it.

So, I covered the whole baseboard, except for where the buildings would be, with Woodland Scenics fine brown ballast. Good for ballast in 4mm scale, and N scale. For 16mm scale, I felt it would be a quite reasonable ground texture.. 

Ground cover work starts

At one point, from one angle with the lighting just right, it looked a little snowy.

I treated it just like regular ballasting, giving a good soaking with Woodland Scenics scenery cement. Now we wait for it to dry...

As of today, Sunday November 10th I have 10 days to the competition deadline. How much will I get done?

Don't believe what it says on the label...

For more years than I care to remember now, I have had this Noch Brickpaper in my bag of styrene sheets.  I like the look of the relief in the mortar courses and it's also quite photo-realistic. I thought I could make a use for it. Though so much time has passed since I bought it, that I can't remember what I use I had in mind for it. But I kept the product anyway, like you do...

A very nice looking product from Noch

The label says that it is for HO and TT scale. Though there's no way that it is for those scales. The bricks are even too big for O scale and G scale. Take a look at the close up below. You can also see how nice the product actually is.

Approximately 12mm x 3.5mm in size. Too big for G scale even

I naturally wondered how the size of the brick fared up in 16mm scale. Many modellers know that pre-1965 and also pre-metric system bricks could vary in size by manufacturer. So I felt that if this brick sheet was even close to any one size they would do. I was about to set to on some brick size research and I suddenly remembered that there was a drawing of some scale sized brick course in Roy C. Link's Crowsnest Tramway book. The easiest thing to do was measure that. What do you know? It was an exact match for size.

A building shell covered with the brick paper. The effect is good.

Spurred on by this, I immediately made up a building shell to fit the planned area. It's semi relief, so does not have the full depth of a building, then again, neither does the building next to it. But I think it'll be enough, and the overall effect is great. I'm out of stock of this brick paper now. So, I'll have see if I can find some more. It's been such a long time since I bought it I don't know if my local hobby shop still stocks it.

Clearly it does pay to keep hold of things even if you can't remember why you bought it.

Land Rover as a view block? Why not!

I love a Land Rover

A week or so ago now, my 1:18 scale Landrover arrived. A grand little model. OK, little is something of a misnomer in 1:18 scale. It's close to six inches (150mm) in length. But the series 1 Landy was a small vehicle. By todays standards anyway. 

However, it does eat up a fair bit of real estate on my micro as I found out when I put it where I wanted to, while testing things out on another blocking in session. If I were to put it where planned, it would eat up the space I had in mind for the workshop scene. It would block the view of the layout too much.

Testing out a rock face and the Land Rover

I was a little disappointed. I really wanted the Landy in the layout, and the workshop too, for that matter...

Wait a minute...

Did I just say the Landy was blocking the view?

Then why don't I use it as an intentional view block?

I've been struggling with how to hide the exit to the sector plate for a long time, ever since I started the project. Walls, fences, and now rock faces, have been considered. So why not a Land Rover? I put it in place. Not quite knowing what to expect. 

This is about as natural a looking scene as you can get.

Huddy is small and is easily hidden by the Land Rover

Seriously? Now doesn't that look the part? It only protrudes into the scene by about three inches (75mm) so doesn't eat up a lot of room. Huddy really squeezes by. The fact that the Landy is parked uphill adds another dimension to my mind. 

I'm not entirely sure about the rock face, I think it obstructs the rear building and the forced perspective it creates too much. and may try a fence again. Perhaps it's the unpainted colour of the foam. a duller, dirty rock face might just do it. 

But what the heck, that's for another day.

Today it's Land Rover for the win!

A change of track?

The track is down, and after a few sprays of dull reds and browns. It looks like some rusty old track that's been laid in the country somewhere. 

But where? This really still isn't established yet. I've floated several ideas in the past few weeks. But we're really still no closer to getting the final subject really tied down. Peat. Shale oil. Sea Defences. No idea. Then I saw a post on Claus Neilsen’s Nystrup Gravel Blog about a Land Rover. Now I love Landy’s. The older the better. I have fond memories of riding in an old series 1 Landy with my dad as a child. A Landy on any layout of mine is a good idea. A Land Rover appears on my 00 scale “Nowhere Road Halt”. There are 1:18 scale Land Rovers out there. The temptation is strong. I even did a little quick sketch throwing a Landy in there.

I'm a little unsure of the size that a Landy would take up. A short wheelbase series 1 isn't very big, but in this scale is about 5" long. It would fit in the front corner area that I've drawn it in and it would certainly present an unusual view block. I doubt that the workshop would fit there to though. In that case it could be moved to the rear. 

But putting the Landy in there reminded me of home and my other great rail interest. The Potato Railways of Lincolnshire. I've been planning a Potato Railway scheme for the longest time. Yes. there's even a blog for it out there, untouched for two years. There were about 140 miles of railways serving potato farms in Lincolnshire. The majority of the miles were taken up by two systems. Nocton Estates, near Lincoln and Fleet Farms near Holbeach in the south of the county. But most of the lines were short, barely a couple of miles long, sometimes only a few hundred yards. Lines that ran from the middle of a field to a loading dock alongside a road. Hand worked or horse worked.  There's a fascinating book on the subject by Stewart Squires, that will tell you everything you need to know about even the shortest of lines.

The book contains many inspirational images that I have imagined schemes around. But nothing has stuck. Perhaps in this instance I’ve been trying too hard. I do sense a germ of inspiration here though. I think I need to take another look at Mr Squires book and see what I can find.

LocoRemote “Huddy” part 2

Proceeding quietly in the background as I design the layout. Is the making of “Huddy”. The initial assembly was wonderful. All the parts fitted together perfectly, which really impressed me.

It sat for a few weeks while I decided what colour to paint it. Green? Blue? Red? I didn’t know. In the end I plumped for Red. Revel Italian Red to be exact. I thought this gave more of a Ransomes and Rapier feel to it.  The loco is pretty well finished now so I can share these pictures with you.

The HUDDY wording was picked out with a gold paint marker

There's little light weathering on the skip frame as well.

Picking the brake wheel out in white is a touch that I like. The black box you can see under the skip frame houses the motor

All in all, I think it looks quite passable.

I have a driver lined up for Huddy. He's from Narrow Minded Rail Works. He sits well in the cab, and looks like he could be holding onto the brake wheel or more probably resting his hand on the loco bonnet. There is even space under his feet for pedals which is a detail I'd like to get in.

The driver will be handed over to my wife for painting

The WiFi Control PCB and battery are a snug fit

The simple drive set up

The loco is powered by a small motor that sits under the skip frame. You can see the box that surrounds the motor in one of the photographs and it drives both axels by means of rubber bands, technically they are nitrile O rings, but that doesn't sound as warm and friendly. It's a snug fit as is all the control  gear and battery as you can see from the photograph. You think that it all won't fit in there but it does. And the LocoRemote control works very well indeed. Slow speed running is impressive and as there's no current to pick up from the track  it's all very smooth and faultless.

As a first 3D printed kit in 16mm scale it was a great experience. Simple to build and plenty of room to add details to suit. I have two other LocoRemote kits to build and I'm really looking forward to them.

Baseboard Construction

(This is reproduced from one of my other blogs. This recounts how I built the baseboard from foamcore board)

Gone are the days of wood being needed to build model railway baseboards. Even more so in the world of Micro layouts. 
Wood still has its place of course, like in the APA box and baseboard kits. But there are plenty of alternatives available, like pink and other coloured insulation foams. Gator foam and foam core board. 

Not everyone has the ability or facilities to work with wood. These newer, lighter materials are a boon.
I have been experimenting for quite some time with foam core board. Some people pass it off as a poor alternative to gator foam. They find the wood fibre surface of gator foam superior.
Gator foam is of course, quite expensive, so you might as well use wood if you're going to spend that much money. 

Over the past few years, I've been working with foam core board to see how it performs over time. I've built a few test baseboards, using differing methods of construction. The largest being 20" x 30". It has been in storage for a couple of years and it has remained flat, level and square in all that time. 

There are a few different makes of foam core board and my successful experiments have been with (for US modellers) Elmers. 

They have a whole range of foam core boards available in craft stores here in the US. The white both sides with a white foam core is the most popular. There is a black both sides with a black core that I find a superior product and much prefer. Then there are a range of colours. A grey board and blue board, would be relevant in micro layout applications. I've used these for layout frames and sky backscenes. These boards are a nominal 5mm thick. There is also a 11mm thick cork faced board that I use for baseboard surfaces. 

What follows is a short description of my construction method. It has its roots in a method of construction from the seminal English Proto4 (finescale 4mm) layout "Heckmondwike". One of the first layouts to break with the English baseboard tradition of frames made of 2" x 1" pine with 1/2" chipboard surfaces, and use plywood in all aspects of the baseboard construction. Frame and surface. At least that's what I remember. It has really stuck with me. So I present my adaptation here.

The board I have used here is the Elmers Black/white with white foam core. My preferred board is Black, black, and black core. But I thought the contrasting colours would help in the photographs. 

The cutting surface is a section of counter top that is flat and square. A big help in cutting. The finished baseboard will be 19" square, simply because that is the size of the 10mm foam core I had.

A set of strips are cut oversize. Two for each side of the baseboard.

If you are as bad at cutting and measuring as I am, then you'll be thankful you cut the strips too long.

I think you can see how this is developing here. The depth of the thinner strip is 11mm less (the depth of the cork faced board), than the outer strip. The baseboard will rest on this.

This is where things got complicated for me. One lapse in concentration and you've cut a strip the thickness of the foam too narrow, or too wide, and need to cut it again. The layered, intertwined corners add to the strength of the finished unit.

Joints are glued and pinned while they set. I use an extra strength wood glue for this.

My chosen baseboard surface is the 11mm cork faced board. (Seen here in a layout planning exercise) Being thicker helps the rigidity of the finished baseboard. This thickness needs to be borne in mind during construction.

Once set, I fixed some cross braces in the back. This will guard against any tendency towards twisting or sagging of the baseboard surface.

Voilá! A square, lightweight, warp free, foam core baseboard. Construction is quick and easy. The whole process only took a couple of hours. Some concentration is needed when you are working out how the stepped sides fit inside the ends, so that you can cut the strips to the right size the first time. The voice of experience speaks here. Though it might have been easier if I hadn't made a square baseboard...

The method, is quick, easy and clean. It works for me. I hope it works for you.

Back to the sketchbook

 I made a trip to my local hobby shop (Hub Hobby in Richfield, MN. A 40 mile trip) on Saturday to get some paints to finish off “Huddy”, more on that when it’s finished. While I was there I was rootling through the 1:18 automobile shelves. Let’s face it 1:18 scale is as near as dammit the same as 1:19.05 for 16mm scale. I was still rather keen on a suitably sized car on the layout. A Landy (Land Rover) would be nice, but not surprisingly there wasn’t one around. But what I did see was this:

Do these 1:18 scale tools hold the key to the layout?

Tools. 1:18 scale workshop tools no less. In my blockings in. I had mooted the idea of a workshop in the distance. I like the idea of a workshop scene. I had a very nice one on Purespring Watercress, 

Purespring Watercress workshop

It garnered a lot of attention. Perhaps another one would be in order. With almost scale sized tools, it would be a lot easier. Tool chests, Air compressor, Welding equipment. I looked further and I find that there’s a lot of 1:18 scale automotive workshop equipment out there. 

My mind went to the sketchbook. Now that I have blocked in photo’s that I was very happy with. I could use those as a basis for my iPad musings.

A front three-quarter vision of the layout with workshop

Only the layout operator will get to see this view of the layout

Looking at these I think a workshop scene is a really good idea, and right now I really like the idea of scratch building a 16mm scale pillar drill. It will probably be easier than making a Land Rover.

A workshop scene it is then.