4mm Chris' Trainsets

Chris Nevard

Chris Nevard

Western Thunderer
T minus just over 4 weeks, here is the state of play. Lots to do, for starters the pub needs a rear and the smelly pond needs something wet and smelling in it. Maybe I should wait until Railex and wring out one of the whiffers and drain it/him into the pond?

This shot, albeit very wide angle (18mm lens on a full frame DSLR) has not been messed about with. The backscene is a huge print, not some kind of post exposure manipulation which is all rather yawn these days...
nevard_130424_PGCH_DSC_5860_WEB.jpg

The chimney, wasn't really needed, but old collieries had all sorts of physical redundant links with the past and I wanted to see what could be done with 4 sheets of A4 printer paper rolled up with plenty pf PVA into a cone, a layer of Das followed by a quick manipulate with various items more at home in the kitchen and then popped into the oven for 30 mins at 150 c to dry out the Das. It's far from perfect, pretty rough actually, but hopefully it works, and more importantly for me was a quick fix. All in all, apart from drying was around 2.5 hours work.

nevard_130424_PGCH_DSC_5842_WEB.jpg
 
Chris Nevard

Chris Nevard

Western Thunderer
You're a kind man Iak63 - my modelling is a very broad stroke and very bish bash bosh always with an aim for a quick result, and probably best if not looked at too closely. But hopefully the over all effect work just. For that reason I could never embrace EM/P4 because I cannot tell the difference between mm and inches most of the time...

Today's progress was to sort out the built in lighting, with these shots being taken under it. I'm writing about it for Muddle Rail so cannot give to much away other than at 400 iso the exposure is 1/125 at f5.6. Though I might wind down the brightness a little for Railex. But saying that, the layout is great for sufferers of SAD and will hopefully attract people at shows much like a street light on a dark night as does to moths. The brightness might well deter the odd balls that we all enjoy at shows who live behind curtains during the week in a dark and damp top floor bedsit in a huge house owned by an alcoholic widow playing with their 'Hornby' on a sheet of eight by four when not moaning about the price and quality of ready to run on RMweb (I'll be struck down for saying that).

Also this evening, the back of the pub (in undercoat in these snaps), which was previously a semi-low relief building now has a rear wall and an outbuilding. The outbuilding is a small pub brewery, hence the chimney sticking up into the air out of the back.

Tomorrow, time permitting I'll finish off painting the pub, bed it in, and add glazing before tackling the stinking Iron Pyrites discoloured pond at the rear along with building up some earthworks between that and the retaining wall which carries the narrow gauge spoil line aloft.

Another screen also needs to be built, that will be mounted where the blue sliding doors are on the pit head building.

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iak63

iak63

Western Thunderer
Chris, ones broad brush works better than some fine brushes if you ken my meaning...

Your stuff "breaths" life whilst some finer scale layouts have as much life as a boiled lobster... Just because its "all" right does nae mean it "looks" right to my eyes...

I'm part of the group reasponsible for a very large " blue Beastie" and its look and feel matters as much to me as its fidelity - just its such a Beeg b*gg*r mind!

Well that's my S4Soc cred down the lavvie then....

Sláinte
 
Chris Nevard

Chris Nevard

Western Thunderer
By the late summer 1966 the colliery was using an ex - Templecombe pannier tank No. 4631. Steam had ended on the mainline so NBR type 2 diesel hydraulics saw use on BR metals....

nevard_130428_PGCH_IMG_3668_WEB.jpg
nevard_130427_PGCH_IMG_3643_WEB.jpg These shots totally un-manipulated other than a JPEG conversion from the RAW files, and were taken under the layout's new own lighting rig.

The rather excellent telegraph poles are from Express Models - a rare (for me) worthy indulgence I hope.
 
Phil.c

Phil.c

Western Thunderer
Great modeling and pictures as usual Chris...but I think you've done this sort of thing before Lol!

I think that no matter how good we think our latest models are we get knocked back a bit when we view our pictures, they seem to show up what our eyes don't see, in my case anyway!

Phil
 
Chris Nevard

Chris Nevard

Western Thunderer
Bless all you kind people! Photography is a great tool. Earlier it took a photo to pick up the cladding that had popped on the screen roof in the distance. A dab of superglue and masking tape did he job over dinner/tea.

Today I was working on the fiddle yard exit in the distance and the barrow crossing using some coffee stirrers. They look a little clumsy so a little extra static grass will help here. Note the narrow gauge tubs over the right hand fiddleyard exit. The only fartarsing about is the smoke from the engine, it is from a real pannier tank though.
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Phil.c

Phil.c

Western Thunderer
Chris, when are you going to add cables to those sheaves....i'm worried about lack of production lol.

Phil
 
Chris Nevard

Chris Nevard

Western Thunderer
I've alot of work to do still, I don't think this is bad going for just 4 months down the line.
On the workbench there's another screen
Point levers and rodding etc still to add
Flashing around the chimney on the boozer
People; though I'm not a fan of them in their static poses with the inevitable layer of fine dust that makes then look like corpses or aliens so might pass on them. Loco crews excepted.
After RAILEX I'll replace the engine house on the right with something a little more 'Somerset' in feel, it's too big and crude - being a hacked about and clad Skaledale thing.
And I need to built 2 fiddle yards with split height access from the various exit points (4)/

A couple of fresh snaps:

nevard_130430_PGCH_DSC_5914_WEB.jpg

The BWT feels a little Wenfordbridge esque...
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S

Simon Dunkley

Guest
Not wishing to be rude, Chris, as this is a general point, but the 7F picture works for me, whereas the Beattie well-tank and pannier shots don't, as they reveal more of the fact that this is a model. One thing that could be done, is to fill the gaps in the PCB timbers before laying and painting the points (if they are not pcb, something must have clouted the timbers very heavily! Also, head-on shots tend to show the over scale wheel widths, etc - less so on the pannier shot, as there is more shadow there (maybe this is the solution?)

These points are made as observations, maybe a critique, rather than out and out criticism, as otherwise they are superb shots.
 
Neil

Neil

Western Thunderer
I like all three shots, but I'd sort of agree with Dunks conclusion regarding realism but have a different reason why that might be so. For me it's not the track or the wheel tread widths but the well and pannier tanks themselves. Because they fill the frame my eye focusses on their machine made perfection (in a quality of production rather than a scale sense) which rather fights against my knowledge of the reality of heavy engineering and the subtle imperfections that nature provides which the rest of the model captures so well.
 
Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
You know what I think it is? Steam locos tend to be wet and oily creatures. The Beattie and Pannier both look a little too dry, if you see what I mean. Like they've been in a dust storm.
 
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