Fablewood (Coed Y Chwedlau)

[David Hennessey]

30/10/2015

A minor update. Work continues on shaping the hills and cuttings around Fablewood, but some attention has been paid to the station and goods yard as well. Plus, some additions to the rolling stock have been made.

Before we begin, here's an overview of the present state of Fablewood's construction...




Work is currently going on, with cuttings and hillsides around almost the four corners of the layout; two cuttings to disguise the entrances to the fiddle yard, a hill-side on the left of the layout, and a small roundel on the right. These have been made using a pink styro-foam material, cut, shaped and glued. They have yet to receive some filler, plaster, paint and scenics, but other than that, progress is satisfactory at present.












The level crossing has had some attention; unsatisfied with the shambolic first effort, I removed the original ramps and replaced them with more smoother looking ones. I'll admit that the shapes of the ramps aren't exactly perfect, but at least they look a lot more presentable than the previous installments (Using a stanley knife may have had something to do with it!). They will get another coat of black paint, once a road has been mapped and painted out from there to the main station and goods yard.




Speaking of goods, some more pieces of rolling stock for the carrying of freight have been put together. Following a recent visit to Wigan, a pair of 009 Society exclusive kits were put together; one ex RNAD van and one ex RNAD flat wagon were assembled and painted in custom colours. The van is in crimson red and black, while the flat wagon is plain wood, with black and 'rusting' steel fittings.

Also, five Parkside Dundas slate wagons are also in the works. One of them (still being worked on as we speak), is seen here on show alongside the two already completed wagon kits.




In the station area, the two Dapol lamp posts have been replaced with some P&D Marsh Models gas lamps; painted red with cream glass. These look more fitting than the Dapol ones, and will hopefully stay in place without breaking off!




Finally for now, the platform edges of the main station and goods yard have been 'trimmed' back somewhat...






It is intended for Fablewood to make it's exhibition debut (albeit, as a 'work in progress' piece) at the one-day Rainhill show on Saturday 28th November 2015. A few more bits and bobs to do before then and afterwards as well, but progress nonetheless... More to follow soon. Comments welcomed as always.

[gastwo]

I'm following along with interest David. Keep it coming.

What are you sticking the pink foam with?

And as a matter of interest, we have just exhibited 'Teifi Gorge' as being still work-in-progress, and it seems to generate more interest and questions than a completed layout, so be prepared to spend a lot of time talking!

ATB
Shaun.

[David Hennessey]

I'm following along with interest David. Keep it coming.

What are you sticking the pink foam with?

And as a matter of interest, we have just exhibited 'Teifi Gorge' as being still work-in-progress, and it seems to generate more interest and questions than a completed layout, so be prepared to spend a lot of time talking!

ATB
Shaun.

Thanks Shaun!

So far, I've used ordinary PVA glue to stick the pieces together (and will probably do the same when fixing the pieces to the baseboard eventually; I'm still doing a few bits and bobs on them to get the angles just right, and that they look a lot more smoother). I'll also use filler to cover up any gaps, before applying plaster, paint and scenics on top.

And thanks for the heads-up, with regard to showing a work-in-progress to the public. I'd better prepare some notes then!  :D

[David Hennessey]

11th and 13th November 2015

The last two days have been spent getting plastered... Literally! :D

The hills and cuttings on Fablewood so far, have been covered in plaster material. This was possible, using P.O.P Bandage material picked up from Todmorden Model Supplies at a recent show in Southport:




Strips of the stuff were cut to the required lengths, applied using water and left to dry (a messy process, as you will gather!). Thus:




Apart from small pieces to cover any gaps on the hillsides and/or cuttings, one layer of the plaster material was used. Any excess plaster was carefully cut away before paint was applied.




One example of the hills, before the plaster was applied:




Once the plaster was dry, the hills and cuttings were put into position, on a 'dummy run' to see where they are best placed. The 'inward' shapes are still being moved around, to decide where it is best suited (and the example pictured below, may not necessarily reflect the final placement)...



Afterwards, some colours were applied. B&Q 'tester' paint was used; 'Dark Chocolate Matt' (which looks fairly convincing as earth soil, but I'll let you be the judge of that. It will all eventually be covered in scenic flock anyway; this was something to hide the natural white plaster I used).










(During this process, two coats of the paint were applied, to try and cover up any white bits showing up.)

Here's how some of them look in position, with a piece of rolling stock used for clearance purposes.






Finally for now, a strange object taking the form of a blue Police box, was recently discovered on the platform end of Fablewood station. Has a certain 'Time Lord' materialised in the wrong place? Could there be daleks, cybermen or even yeti nearby? :D




(Oh okay, you lot win! The Police box is from the Hornby 'Skaledale' range, as is the bench positioned between the two station gas lamps.)

A reminder (in case you missed my last update) that Fablewood will be exhibited as a 'show-you-how' piece at the 009 Society's forthcoming one day event in Rainhill, on Saturday 28th November 2015.

More progress to follow. Comments welcomed as always.

[David Hennessey]

15th November 2015

As an aside from plastering and painting the hills and cuttings on Fablewood, I turned my attention back to decorating the station. Using pieces of Metcalf paving stones and edges, I laid some on the 'outside' area of the station...





(The telephone box is a 00 scale 'Gilbow' product, acquired from Wigan 2015)


A bizarre mix of Oxford Diecast vehicles from my old 00 scale layout were drafted in, to form the basis of a station car park (which is currently in the planning stages, and the shot below may not necessarily reflect the final outcome)...

A bizarre mix of Oxford Diecast from my 00 scale layout were drafted in, to form the basis of a station car park (which is currently in the planning stages, and the shot below may not necessarily reflect the final outcome)...




Various shapes of paving stone was used (so please excuse the unorthodox mix), to line the bottom edges of the station, up to the access ramp. To stick them into position, a thin layer of PVA glue was used. A fairly big gap has been left to place a scenic feature inside. It was also a good excuse to give the 'Police' box somewhere permanent to be positioned!












A few snaps of the completed pavement:






More to follow. Comments welcomed as always.

[tedp]

David - I read through your tale from the beginning, and you have come a long way from the bare scenic boards you started with. What you have done shows it is perfectly possible to build a working 009 model railway using (mainly) RTR and kit-built items. I suppose by now you are happy with the running properties of the stock and the track. You made errors and corrected them just like we all do - well done!

The ballasting you did a few months ago looks very neat, as does all your scenic work. However, I feel it is still looking rather too neat.

If you don't mind me giving you advice, going on from here I would concentrate on two things. First, weather the ballast, the platforms, the fences and the pavement using water colour paint, and second, break up the straight lines and hard contours in the layout.

You need landscape contours flowing more naturally and fences and stone walls going up and down with the contours, then lots of green - trees, weeds and bushes. These will change your layout into a natural scene. The hill contours for instance seem to be growing out of the flat baseboard. Fill in the abrupt changes with plaster or any other filler material so the contours become softer.

Scenery modelling is about the texture of the ground surface. Here are a few examples of real scenery along the Welsh Highland Railway. Note the rough jumble along the right-of-way.







This is something none of us can copy, not even the most experienced scenery builder. But we can try to come close to it, using simple materials. When I built Nixnie, a smaller layout than yours, I used two packs of Heki 'forest in a box' trees and a few packs of Woodlands ground foam. There was some poisonous coloured Busch ground foam which I toned down with ochre paint. If you want to go that way, have a look at this page on the Dutch Group website, from paragraph 13 (scroll down): http://www.009dutch.nl/archive/2011/pages/enixnie2.htm. It's no more difficult that the ballasting you did, and a lot more fun!

Again I hope you don't mind me giving unasked-for advice...

[David Hennessey]

David - I read through your tale from the beginning, and you have come a long way from the bare scenic boards you started with. What you have done shows it is perfectly possible to build a working 009 model railway using (mainly) RTR and kit-built items. I suppose by now you are happy with the running properties of the stock and the track. You made errors and corrected them just like we all do - well done!

The ballasting you did a few months ago looks very neat, as does all your scenic work. However, I feel it is still looking rather too neat.

If you don't mind me giving you advice, going on from here I would concentrate on two things. First, weather the ballast, the platforms, the fences and the pavement using water colour paint, and second, break up the straight lines and hard contours in the layout.

You need landscape contours flowing more naturally and fences and stone walls going up and down with the contours, then lots of green - trees, weeds and bushes. These will change your layout into a natural scene. The hill contours for instance seem to be growing out of the flat baseboard. Fill in the abrupt changes with plaster or any other filler material so the contours become softer.

Scenery modelling is about the texture of the ground surface. Here are a few examples of real scenery along the Welsh Highland Railway. Note the rough jumble along the right-of-way.







This is something none of us can copy, not even the most experienced scenery builder. But we can try to come close to it, using simple materials. When I built Nixnie, a smaller layout than yours, I used two packs of Heki 'forest in a box' trees and a few packs of Woodlands ground foam. There was some poisonous coloured Busch ground foam which I toned down with ochre paint. If you want to go that way, have a look at this page on the Dutch Group website, from paragraph 13 (scroll down): http://www.009dutch.nl/archive/2011/pages/enixnie2.htm. It's no more difficult that the ballasting you did, and a lot more fun!

Again I hope you don't mind me giving unasked-for advice...

Hello Ted. Many thanks for your kind comments and suggestions; there is still a long way to go before the whole thing is completed, but the labours are gradually beginning to bear fruit.

A few points:

1) I intend to weather the ballast in the station area and goods yard anyway. Not sure yet how I'll weather the platforms and pavements though, but I might work around it...

2) Good tips for the scenics. To add on to what you've already suggested, I've got a mix of Gaugemaster and Woodland Scenics materials to be going on with.

Finally, good snaps form the Welsh Highland; must do another trip from Caernarfon to Porthmadog (without the slight indignity of being dragged into Harbour Station backwards! :D )

Thank you once again for commenting!

[David Hennessey]

19th November 2015

Work to get Fablewood ready for it's exhibitiond debut in less than a week's time, is continuing as best as possible...

Work on decorating the station contines, as gass lamps to the outside walls are fitted. Here is one of the lamp brackets (from Langley Models), after being painted in red, and superglued to the side of the building:



(Three more to follow)


The time had come to fit some fencing around the station car park. I did this by drilling 3mm holes as evenly as possible, so that the fencing (leftover from a previous project) could be fitted.






Whilst I was doing this, I used the same 3mm drill to make a small hole in one of the hillsides and plant one of my tree trunks in it:




The time had also come, to map and paint out a road from the level crossing, past the station and cottages, and up to the goods yard. This was done using plain black emulsion paint:












Another fence was positioned near the hill, on the top left hand corner of the layout, using the same drilling technique as before. Not exactly perfect admittedly, but it should at least fit in with the landscape...




Finally for now, the car park planning continues. But this shot below, shows what is likely to be the final outcome (even if the cars look like they're crammed in a bit tight)...




More to follow. Comments welcomed as always.

[DeadHorse]

Re: Gas lamp brackets. They are sited far too low. A person exiting from one of the doorways would likely be 'face-planted', and if the door opens outward with the hinges on the wrong side then the glass would have a very limited life and the local glaziers end up spending their holidays in Majorca every few months. :-)

[David Hennessey]

Re: Gas lamp brackets. They are sited far too low. A person exiting from one of the doorways would likely be 'face-planted', and if the door opens outward with the hinges on the wrong side then the glass would have a very limited life and the local glaziers end up spending their holidays in Majorca every few months. :-)

Thanks for the pointer DeadHorse. As we speak, I'm resurfacing the station building, having removed the brackets from the original position. They need a touch-up with paint anyway, before being put in a more higher position...

[David Hennessey]

21st November 2015

As already described previously, I was trying to plan out a small car park for Fablewood station, plus two reserved spaces for the occupants of the cottages across the road. Today saw me painting out the parking spaces, with a few minor errors made along the way...

To start with, I laid down strips of masking tape, leaving small lined gaps as to where I would paint them (using Humbrol's plain white matt):






With the spaces marked out, painting commenced.








After the paint had dried, the masking tape was lifted, to leave a white line behind. In the instance of the 'reserved' spaces, a line was painted down the middle, and two capital 'R' letters painted in the middle of both spaces.








Meanwhile, back in the main car park, it was discovered that the horizontal lines were too long, stretching up to the tracks, where the fence runs over. It was decided at that point to scale them back a bit...






Afterwards, I designated one of the spaces (the one nearest to the pavement) as a 'disabled' bay. Before painting, I fashioned a template of the 'disabled person' insignia, using a piece of brick sheet card:




As with the lining earlier on, the template was stuck down with masking tape, and white paint applied. Once dried, I went round the edges with black paint, to smarten it up a bit.






And thus, the various Oxford Diecast vehicles now had somewhere to park!






More to do... Comments welcomed as always.

[tedp]

21st November 2015

...

....

More to do... Comments welcomed as always.

Good idea to use masking tape and a template for the road markings, David. By the way, what kind of fence did you use along the parking lot? It looks like thick card to me, or is it plastic?

I suppose you are gearing up for the exibition next weekend?

[David Hennessey]

Good idea to use masking tape and a template for the road markings, David.

Thanks again Ted!

By the way, what kind of fence did you use along the parking lot? It looks like thick card to me, or is it plastic?

With regard to the fencing, it was leftover from my previous model railway project (in 00 scale); it was some plastic fencing that was given to me by my uncle. I have no idea who made it, but it came in very handy then, as it has done now. I've also used Peco's flexible fencing (albeit, across the road), but more on that in the next update...

I suppose you are gearing up for the exibition next weekend?

Absolutely! All hands to the pumps, to get as much as possible done. I'm not rushing though; there are still a few grey areas to work on, and a lot more time needed to get almost everything right. I'll make it happen though, don't you worry!  :D

Thanks again for your kind comments Ted!

[David Hennessey]

22nd November 2015

On Sunday 22nd November 2015, some leftover paving pieces from the station area, were used to create an area around the cottage foyer, and along the front walls. The paving won't go all the way along, as the fencing will eventually get in the way. Here is a snapshot of some of the pieces being laid:




26th and 27th November 2015

Two days before the 2015 show at Rainhill, and one more vital component (for the moment) was put into place; the backscene. This was achieved using suitable pieces of 30mm thick hardboard from B&Q, cut and shaped accordingly, painted, and then screwed and glued into place. Gaps were provided for the entrance and exits to the fiddle yard, but I went a bit overboard with the clearances...




















The backscene around the fiddle yard was propped up with small wooden blocks, screws, pins and 'No More Nails' adhesive glue. On the morning of the Rainhill show, some hitchen was laid down, to cover the unsightly gap at the bottom of the backscene.

(Footnote - Unfortunately, the above combination didn't quite hold out strong enough; shortly after the Rainhill show the following day, the backboard around the fiddle yard fell apart, whilst the layout was being transported home, and caused some damage to the station fencing and lamp posts. Luckily, it is minimal and repairable; the re-erection of the backboard and the station fencing and lamp posts, will be carried out in due course, employing more stronger methods. There is more work to be done around the backscene anyway, but more on that soon...)


28th November 2015

With ten months of solid construction under it's belt, Fablewood made it's exhibition debut (albeit as a 'work-in-progress' piece) in fine style at a one-day event hosted by the 009 Society, as a side show of the Rainhill MRC's annual Christmas exhibition, on Saturday 28th November 2015. Despite a few minor niggles (mostly a few locos with big cylinders catching on the point motor pins, or needing a helping hand on a few bits of track), the layout's performance was excellent, and drew a great deal of admiration and positive commentary, from fellow exhibitors and the general public. It was a great pleasure to finally get Fablewood out onto the exhibition circuit, and it was even more humbling to receive such kind and sincere words and advice from a lot of people (modeller or otherwise). Of course, there is still some way to go before the layout is completed, but it was nice to have my work so far being appreciated.

(At this point, I wish to thank Stan and other members present on this day, for their kind comments and support so far. Your words and advice are kindly appreciated.)

A selection of snaps from the event follows, including some of a a few visiting engines supplementing the resident trio for the day. (See if you can guess what they are!)






































More to follow, in due course. Comments welcomed as always.

[Scott Rixon]

Just played catchup on this thread to see what you have been doing, very nice. You've got a great little layout coming together and great that you have been able to exhibit it, something I'd like to do one day.