So, I can finally put up on here some good news that came my way in the Spring- a regular run of articles in British Railway Modelling! Since Feb, when I was asked to do a little selection of projects, I've been quietly beavering away on a rather varied selection of model-making for them, and the first one is now on the shelves.
The first article is a Top 10 piece on railway stations, and the features to be spotted on preserved lines.
To be honest, it ended up turning practically into an advertising feature for the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, with about half the shots taken there, but given I love the line, no bad thing.
Having photographed lots of the features around railways (including these nice new bins), I wanted to build a photography set for the header of the article. You know, some actual model making here on the model making blog. Shocking.
When I started these projects, the idea was to have everything designed to fit inside a shoebox-sized Really Useful Box, on a roughly A4-sized board. Mission creep being what it is of course, only one of the four builds ended up fulfilling this criteria, but hey-ho.
I'd originally designed this one to fold in half, so I'd have a nice long board for the photographs.
I had to break off a bit from the project though to finish some stuff for Hornby, and do the boring old Day Job, then with limited time left when I restarted it all, I realised that I needed to speed up completion for this particular BRM build if I was going to manage a fancy location shoot whilst we were in Wales. The overcomplicated hinged board idea went out the window, in favour of a more basic board, this time in a Wrapping Paper Box. Still small enough to carry out to location, but no faffing with bolts, hinges, and wing-nuts.
I wanted to create a sort of scene that a beginner could do on a budget, so had a hunt around bargain bins and second-hand stalls in model shops for the bits and pieces to include.
Packing foam hillsides and scenery, Dapol platform, Hornby bridge and halt.
The bridge was undercoated then drybrushed with various shades.
The station building needed to be small and simple; the Hornby Halt is one of my favourites. This one was an absolute bargain in one of the regular sales Hornby have, in fact I think with my loyalty points I might not have even needed to pay more than a couple of quid for this.
A quick repaint with Humbrol and Citadel acrylics, then weathering with Citadel Nuln Oil.
The board was finished in time for shooting some pics whilst up in Wales. The other models I built for BRM were mostly shot at home with an A1 backdrop, but this layout was a little too big for that.
The greenery was a right mix, some surprisingly good quality trees in bulk bought online, and a dive into the box of odds and ends of scatters, static grass, and hedges.
I needed a hillside where I could get a nice sky in shot, so went up into a spot I used to use a lot, just outside upper Penrhyndeudraeth. It's been the background for a few shoots in recent years, everything from Airfix Quick-Build cars to Captain Scarlet aircraft, to garden-scale trains.
Full-sized train passing the shoot location, Merddin Emrys trundling past on the way to Porthmadog.
Oooh look! On the cover!
And in the mag- very nice, and very much appreciated that they wanted me for the mag.
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A bit of a bonus; a build by Amy, my wife, to help with the project.
One of the features of the project I'd photographed, and wanted to represent on the model, was a playground. We know (from the experience of our three) that two of the best are Oxenhope...
...and Tanybwlch.
Amy wanted a go at doing some kits, and Metcalfe kits fitted the bill nicely.
Quality laser-cut kits, as usual by our experience with them.
And installed on the model; all it needs is some giddy kiddies hurling themselves down the slides with a wanton disregard for the possibility of broken legs and arms (again, from experience...)
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