4mm Lynton & Lynmouth - 4mm scale, 8mm gauge.

Tim Watson

Western Thunderer
I have always had a soft spot for the Lynton & Barnstable railway: a narrow gauge railway but with standard gauge style. Over the last couple of years we have holidayed a few times in N Devon, visited the area and, of course, the preserved railway itself. A grand little line, that is becoming a great success with outstandingly pretty countryside around it. Many of you will know that the line closed in the mid 1930s but had a significant investment by the Southern Railway in the ‘20s, before closure. There is a massive amount of information available on the line.

Anyway, following this N Devon inspiration, I have acquired some 4mm scale L&B bits and pieces. I have started a diorama of Lynton, usually working in the camper van when we are away - and with a very slow rate of progress; at this stage it is just the engine shed area to see if I like it (the shed is on the left in this image).


An Australian company, Outback Models, has made some very reasonable printed and laser cut card kits of the buildings at Lynton and that is the basis for this model. Printed paper kits can be significantly improved by extra embossing, as shown by the stonework and corrugated iron roof. There is a lot of weathering and detailing yet to be done.


The engine shed track has been made to correct gauge, 8mm, with code 40 FB rail - OO9 looks rather crude when representing a 2’ line - and the area has been blocked in with grey paint.


Quite a different style of modelling to CF, but it will be quite fun to start adding the details and learn some new scenic techniques for rocks and moorland. Quite a good distraction for the time being, from not being able to work on CF.

Tim
 

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
A lovely prototype, Tim.

The line's a favourite of mine but I've so far resisted the temptation to go off on a tangent and build a layout...........but will watch this with interest.

Not too much you understand, just enough.....


Rob.
 
Making a splash.

Tim Watson

Western Thunderer

I have cropped and enlarged this interesting picture of the Barnstable-end doors at Lynton. The ash had been shovelled out of the ash pit, but a leaking hose pipe has evidently made a couple of puddles - something well worth simulating...

I don’t think I have ever seen model puddles that were totally convincing, perhaps due to a varnish meniscus, non shiny surface to the water or maybe they’re just in the wrong place. So I put my thinking cap on: in fact this little project is helping me to practice some quite useful techniques. To represent the puddle I first of all gouged out a depression from the card surface and painted it dark gray.


This was then filled with epoxy resin (Araldite Precision) to an excess, taking care to mix the resin without air bubbles and to let it stand under a lamp for a short while to become nice and runny.


The top of the water was then represented by a microscope slide cover slip which is 170um thick, gently laid down on the resin, with just a little pressure to squeeze out any excess.


Once the resin had cured, the coverslip was broken away with the edge of a scalpel. Somewhat annoyingly, this actually took some of the surrounding earth away as well, whilst the cover glass remained stuck to the main puddle.


The ground was therefore made good with a coloured plaster slurry to just above the top of the coverslip.


Now obviously a loco shed area would be covered in ash and this was represented by ground up ash from my miniature traction engine.
Whilst ash powder can be held in place by a layer of PVA glue to some extent, a more natural effect can be produced by using sprayed matt varnish to help lock the loose ash together. This would also represent the surface where the puddle has started to dry out. However, I didn’t want matt water over the whole puddle, so this was covered with PVA glue, incorporating a strip of paper to remove it more easily after the spraying.


The end result gives a glass-like reflection from the water - funny that - and avoids problems of menisci and an irregular surface. The building itself needs further work around the roof (just resting in place in these images) and more details.



Quite a lot of work for two little puddles, do you think it was worth it?


Tim
 

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
Looks effective Tim, and if you enjoyed doing it and seeing the finished puddles then it's well worth it.
 

Tim Watson

Western Thunderer
Interesting how the puddle draws people to put their finger on it. A bit like kids jumping into a puddle perhaps.

Tim
 
Sign of the times

Tim Watson

Western Thunderer
I have made good progress today on the enamel signs on the engine shed. I have trawled the internet for near equivalent images of prototype enamel signs to those shown in the L&B bible, Measured & Drawn, as well as any photos of the station that I have on file. These images were then captured as a photo with a screen shot and then cropped to the border, with other image distortions corrected using the iPad photo manipulation software: it is remarkably powerful, with clever adjustments for distortions inherent with a phone camera lens. This image shows one of the rather poorer specimens.


In fact quite a lot of the prototype signs showed major damage and rusting and so they were cleaned up and touched up after importing the photos into NotePad Pro, a drawing package, again on the iPad: looks pretty crude at this magnification!


These rectified images were again re-saved into ‘Photos’ to then be imported into a slide in PowerPoint on my laptop. Photos can easily be manipulated for exact size in PowerPoint and borders of the correct colour re-instated, where these were cropped. The slide was made up of all the enamel signs I could find for Lynton and one extra for self promotion: this was finally saved as a PDF that can be printed off on an A4 sheet at correct size for 4mm scale.



The signs were run off at high resolution on matt photo quality paper on my inkjet printer. I am not convinced that signs should be glossy in this scale: the photographic effect of the enamel is sufficient. The sheet was given a light spray with Tamiya light grey undercoat to seal it on the back and the edges touched in with a felt tip pen once the signs were cut out.




The signs in use at Lynton varied over time and they certainly give a lovely splash of colour to an otherwise quite lacklustre building. The image manipulation is pretty basic stuff, but you have the advantage that all the errors reduce as the items get printed to scale size.

Tim
 

Tim Watson

Western Thunderer
It’s a scorching hot day at Lynton, but the engine shed is a few degrees cooler in the shade.


Come the evening, the new electric light installed by the Southern Railway, gives a bit of help to see repairs.

I’d like as many fivers as the number of times my hand has been caught in the Tommy bar on the blacksmiths vice, when I was a kid.


Tim
 
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Tim Watson

Western Thunderer
It’s a scorching hot day at Lynton, but the engine shed is a few degrees cooler in the shade.


Come the evening, the new electric light installed by the Southern Railway, gives a bit of help to see repairs.

I’d like as many fivers as the number of times my hand has been caught in the Tommy bar on the blacksmiths vice, when I was a kid.

Tim
 
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