Coming along nicely mate, love the wireing, as Allan said its easy once you get it finnished.

Phill

Great to see you having a great day together with your sons Marty

And progress on the layout aswell

My son lives in marble arch London so not much chance of him helping me:lol:

I will say that is the thing when your children move away you dont discourage them for obvious reasons but privately i do miss him being around talking on the phone is just not the same

cheers Brian

 

A handy pair to have about Marty!  Mine mean well but are too young to be let loose like that!

Christmas!!! I don't think so John. But I'm aiming to maintain the pace.

Always nice to have sons (or daughters) visit, something I have to consider when I haven't been to see my mum for a while. :roll:

I was pretty lucky to have the lads join in, their social calendars are pretty full.

…anyway…

I like polystyrene for the way it can be layered together, glued with liquid nails and sculpted. (Must learn to keep fingers out of the way when sculpting with a bread knife! Thank goodness for band-aids. sigh)

But by gum it's messy…
The hill is progressing nicely, here's some pictures of progress.

Still working on it, some more to add on the left near the backboard, some more sculpting and shaping needed, some more around the river and tracks around the base. This photo also shows how the polystyrene sticks to everything.




Vacuum cleaner hose on the door handle, plastic garbage bag on the floor, what freaking mess. Tracy stuck her head around the door, shook her head and then went upstairs to bed, muttering…




Still, lots of fun and really pleased with the result so far.
The hill was planned to be a view block between the cassette/ pentrecourt halt/ altycefan part of the layout and the Henllan station.
It was also hoped that it would disguise the sharp curve that is now under the tunnel on the right.
Northern side…





Western End… Henllan Station on the right.





Southern side (still under construction).
Taken from head height if you are standing, by the time it gets trees on top of it, it will be a very effective view block, especially as the plan is to operate the layout sitting down.





And closer in, the potential for some modelling and photography is looking good too.








Enjoyable but a different method or material for the next hill I think…

Constructive criticism, suggestions and questions welcome as always.

Static electricity certainly makes it stick, but it comes off easily.  Can't add anything constructive by way of advice - only encouragement. :thumbs

Thanks Max,

So, if I put a strong enough charge on the metal rubbish bin and place the bin under the work area … ;-)

Nice to see another winter layout, even if your snow is a tad overscale

Bags of scenic potential, judging by those last five shots. Hurry up, will you?

Mike

What do they say… oh yes…

"I'm doing it Sybil"  :thumbs

hill ,hill what hill i see no hill, a bloody great mountain is what i see!!!sheesh.
glad you are enjoying yourself Marty it does look good.

mutley:cool:

[user=15]owen69[/user] wrote:

hill ,hill what hill i see no hill, a bloody great mountain is what i see!

Yeah, she's pretty impressive when veiwed by the mark I eyeball at track level as the last photo shows, however, not really a mountain.

Way back when I was planning the layout I did some calculations based on the topographic map of the area I am modelling and decided that although the gorge at Altycefan was pretty spectacular, the surrounding hills, modelled to scale, really didn't give me the "railway in a scene" that I was after.

So I've exaggerated the contour height by 50% to give the surrounding hills a bit more Oomph and to convey the impression a little better.

 Always fun Owen.

I find a 'Dustbuster' type vac. a boon in these situations.

You will know about the danger of adhesives, Marty.
A drop of the wrong type will melt the whole mountain (and give off a form of cyanide).

Good work!

Thanks Peter,

The vacuum cleaner is a permanent resident in the layout room at the moment. I'm thinking of leaving it running while I'm sculpting… maybe even gaffa taping the nozzle to my bread knife!!!

[user=394]dolfelin[/user] wrote:

You will know about the danger of adhesives, Marty. and give off a form of cyanide

Is that what the smell was!!!

I did a test patch to start with to see how it would go. Seemed to work OK without eating away the polystyrene so it was full steam ahead.

 

Good luck with that.
Check it after a month!

The idea has merit, Marty.  Remember how high the rim of the bin will be though.

[user=394]ddolfelin[/user] wrote:

Good luck with that.
Check it after a month!

I really should read the instructions … From the selleys web site - Not for use on polyethylene, polypropylene, Teflon, silicone or polystyrene.

As you say, I think I'll go and do some track laying on the Newcastle Emlyn station for a while and see what happens.

Thanks for the heads up.

Aah, further down it says… Use LIQUID NAILS MIRROR METAL GLASS for mirrors and LIQUID NAILS FAST for polystyrene.

It just happens, because the 3 pack was on special and "fast" means less waiting time, I bought the liquid nails FAST.

Even so, I think I'll leave it for a while and see.


 

Have you tried a hot wire cutter, Marty?
Much less mess!

No, but Tracy has been encouraging me to go out and buy one. :roll: :thumbs:thumbs

 

I may have missed this point Marty, but do you have an access point should something derail? not that it will off course given your meticulous trackwork, but you might get a bogie failure or suchlike ;-)

Didn't know GWR tracks ran so close to K2 :lol:

[user=33]Lawrence[/user] wrote:

I may have missed this point Marty, but do you have an access point should something derail? not that it will off course given your meticulous trackwork, but you might get a bogie failure or suchlike ;-)

Hi Lawrence,

The hill has hollow sections  where the track is accessible from underneath the benchwork.
I built the polystyrene slabs up a bit like an igloo.
So, when, not if, I do get a derailment in the tunnel, the passengers will see the giant hand to the rescue…

[user=33]Lawrence[/user] wrote:

Didn't know GWR tracks ran so close to K2 :lol:

 Jealous, that's wot you lot are :chicken

 

Looooooooooooooooking Marty

How are you going to seal it all, if you use plaster/ modrock in patches that will also bond all the polystyrene together.

I am so looking forward to you starting work on the ground area, just so much to learn from :thumbs