Lisbon

With the need to dismantle Morfa and a desire to keep my playroom reasonably tidy I can't say that I've done a lot of model making recently. Odds and ends have crossed my workbench, the latest being to motorise a couple of die cast Lisbon trams. Inspiration came from a trip to Lisbon last October. It's a beautiful city with fantastic architecture, agreeable climate and an exquisite tram system. Here's the real thing .....

 

 

 

.... and the models.

 

 

HO scale die cast Lisbon trams are sold widely in the city's tourist souvenir shops for about ten euros. They're a cut above the usual tourist tat and are easy to transform into a working model. After dismantling a suitably sized aperture has to cut in the brown underframe unit to accommodate a Kato 11-104 mechanism. The underside of the cream seat unit requires abrading away flush with the bottom of the seat squabs. Then its a case of careful reassembly and crafting a couple of chassis retaining lugs from plasticard. Total cost a touch under twenty quid and an hours work.

Coming to a halt

Events have caught up with the  recent reinvigoration of Morfa. A vague notion that we might at some future time decide to downsize from the rambling chapel which is our and Morfa's home has galloped very quickly into view with the result that estate agents have been instructed and work on Morfa has come to a halt. For the moment I'm continuing to enjoy running trains through the broad brush roughed out landscape. Further construction has stopped, and Morfa will develop no further. Here are a few photos of how it looks at the moment.

The stone embankment was created by spreading Heritage non clumping cat litter along the slope between the tracks and the lower ground and water levels. Once I was happy with how it looked I dropped on a pva and water mix with a pipette which set hard after a few days.

Mojo Risin'

It looks like my strategy of putting the layout blogs in suspended animation has worked, at least as far as Morfa is concerned. Also added into the mix was a dredged up memory of covering the basic landmass with dyed flannelette sheeting. This combined with the sticky balls has led to rapid progress, which has buoyed up my enthusiasm to the point where progress has been close to full tilt. Have a few photos.

The kiss of death

I don't know why it is but each time I've started a layout specific blog the project seems to splutter to an undignified halt. I've sort of made up my mind to try a new approach, and to post progress here rather than there. Of course it will somewhat spoil any continuity, but with luck at least there'll be something to read with some regularity in one place. So while I won't be taking down, Morfa, The Ganllwyd Tram and En Vacances, I also won't be adding to them.

By way of recompense here is one of the latest views on Morfa, showing the current scenic progress on the Abertafol curve. By choosing a careful angle I've managed to give an impression that matters are more advanced than they really are, but never mind it does hint at how things might be.

My resin casting blog/website Rushby's Resins bucks this trend and will be updated as and when new products emerge. Hopefully this month I'll have news of the latest resin kit as a start has been made on masters and moulds.

Not taking things seriously

Lately most of my model making has been focussed on the narrow gauge world. It's been skewed this way partly due to uncertainty about the long term future of Morfa, my big EM gauge trainset and partly because of the momentum that my resin casting business 'Rushby's Resins' has gained. I'm only now beginning to redress the balance by indulging in a bit of HO standard gauge modelling. Currently on my workbench is a representation of a Czechoslovakian diesel shunter, taking shape from the butchered remains of a cheap Piko train set loco. 

Here's what it looked like before I started.

Here's what it looks like now.

It's a way of being finished, but I'm already very happy with how it's shaping up. The whole point of this tale isn't about how well I've done, but what liberties I'm taking with the model. Comparing what I've done with what the real thing looks like reveals differences, which in the normal scheme of things there would be an expectation that I would address. The narrow gauge world is to a large extent very tolerant of models that look like a particular loco, wagon or carriage, but which aren't slavish copies. It's intrigued me why this should be so, and if it would be possible to apply similar practises to standard gauge models. If pressed to justify this methodology I point at paintings where much is left out or simplified, yet the essence of the subject is there, clear as day. It's difficult to judge whether this non-finescale approach will work, but if I look at my narrow gauge models then I believe that it can and should.

For your viewing pleasure

Last week I was sent a DVD, Right Track 19, Layout Planning and Design, to review. Now I'm a print and paper chap at heart, and while I have a DVD player it gathers dust, so what would I make of it? I watched it (2 hours, 25 minutes) in a couple of sessions, and enjoyed it. However sayings it's good, you should consider buying it isn't much of a review so lets look at it in a bit more detail.

What's it about?

The DVD takes the viewer through the stages that Paul and Paul use to develop a layout design from an inspiring subject, test it, and refine it to produce a finished layout. On the way subjects like coupling choice, perspective and backscene are covered too.

Who's if for?

I had wondered just who the DVD was aimed at; in part it assumes some prior knowledge of both model and prototype practice, yet the worked examples are perhaps smaller in scale than an established enthusiast might normally choose. On reflection though I think it's pitched pretty much spot on. It would take a newcomer to the hobby who wonders why his or her collection of models doesn't look like a real railway and doesn't please the eye, a long way in their quest towards a better layout. It would equally work for the established model maker, expert at the mechanics of construction but unsure of their artistic abilities to create a pleasing and coherent design.

 Those with ambitions greater than the scope of the small project layout, illustrated under construction above, should easily be able to extrapolate the concepts and process to a much larger scheme. Though shown in their finished state, Paul Marshall-Potter gives a tour of two larger layouts to demonstrate how such thinking has been applied.

What's it like to watch

Even though it's easy enough to digest in big chunks the DVD is broken down into several 'chapters' making it simple to dip in and out, or to go back and refresh ones memory of a particular piece. Both presenters deliver in a pleasant and engaging manner to camera, not always a strong suit of the railway enthusiast video. I particularly enjoyed the first half of the DVD, the initial stages of working up a design being an interest of mine. Paul Lunn explains this process with clarity and crispness. Both presenters discuss the mock up stage, where 2-D plan becomes a full sized simple 3-D realisation. It was good to see personal preferences coming into play here, as each argued the case for a particular size or site for a structure. Paul Marshall-Potter takes this a stage further turning a full sized mock up into an actual layout, showing the further refinement undertaken along the way.

 

I reckon that most modellers would get a lot out of the DVD, certainly those who haven't really considered design beyond track plan would. I'm going to lend my copy to a mate, a beginner whose present layout has evolved from a circuit to include loco depot and branch line. He's shortly going to embark on a rebuild, I've no hesitation that he'll find this DVD to be of benefit.

To order or for further information go to the Activity Media website.

Tidy like

This week I have mostly been tidying up. I'm not sure how it happened but the big empty space that was my playroom had evolved into a cluttered mess. Admittedly it had taken seven years to get there, but perhaps it was the slow, steady, incremental progression to it's awful state that had blinded me to what was happening. It took a trip out to Birmingham Museum to make the penny drop that I'd be happier and more motivated if I did something about it. Various plans were hatched, some included the dismantling of my big trainset 'Morfa'. In the end a less drastic course of action was taken. It's taken a week or so to get half way through the tidying but already I'm more motivated to get up there and do things. Here are before and after photos.