A Second of My Life

It's been a week of my fifteen minutes a day on the layout challenge. 

One thing that I have learnt is that 15 minutes isn't long but it can grow to more time sometimes. Everything seems to take longer than I think it will. Having goals for the next day is a good idea. Planning two or three days a head can be efficient but sometimes tasks are put on hold to get more stuff. 

And, when stamping out cobblestones, each on is a second of my life. I'm hoping that I still have more seconds than I need. 

I still have plenty to stamp out. I got this idea from Model Rail's Chris Nevard. I coated the plywood with PVA and put Das modelling clay on top. I then use some brass square tubing to pressing the stones. It was used to good effect on Nevard's Brew House Quay. 

The local climate wasn't conducive to airbrushing outside on Saturday so I worked on the station building instead. 

This is now ready for assembly this week. 

I would have posted this yesterday but the Blogger app keeps crashing on my phone. 

Today's work was to airbrush the stairs and jetties and fish and chip kiosk. I also painted the pontoon for the passenger ferry and some balsa for the bollards or piles (those poles which stop boats from hitting the pier walls). I painted the kiosk white on the inside and outside. I'd like to put some lights and interior in eventually. 

I finished the evening with painting exposed areas of the ply with a mix of student acrylic raw sienna and burnt umber. This will create a base colour for when the grass is put down. I'm not sure as to whether I put some light ballast between the tracks or use more Das to give the impression of a light branch where the track has sunk into the ground.  However, here is the section that I've been working on. 

I think the jetties and pontoon might need a bit of weathering down to lighten up the timber. I've used a spare jetty to create a loading platform for the dairy.

This week is pretty busy. I won't have any time tomorrow and Tuesday could be a bit tight. I'm hoping to keep going with some more cobblestones. 

Until next time. 

Fish and Chips

This evening's effort was fairly quick but a bit more than 15 minutes. I put some steps on the jetties and built the fish and chip kiosk. Everything built this week will need some paint. I reckon the steps from the platform can be white, the jetties can be weathered black and the kiosk can be a light blue. 

Tomorrow nights staff dinner is going to cut into things but I'm hoping Saturday morning can make up for it. 

Jetties

I need add some steps from the tarmac to the jetties but ran out of time today. I can airbrush these on Saturday morning. 

Some Stairs

Today's effort was short. The first task was to install a new point to the left of the far station to provide access to a new siding which will be on the main layout. The siding will go to some grain silos. Trains on the main layout will shunt off the main and propel empty hoppers for loading into the station. The rail tractor at the marina will swap the hoppers over.

The other task was to assemble a set of steps with a railing. I picked up a pack of stairs and ladders from Hobbyland in Hornsby a while ago and were placed in one of those hard to find safe places.  These will need painting which I hope to get to on Saturday. The brick work on the platform needs a bit of work. 

Tomorrow will be tight but I hope to sort out the jetties, especially as I found the box with these in while looking for the stairs. 

Until then. 

Today's Work

I started with a plan and found my 15 minutes went for more like 45 minutes. 

The first thing I did was to put brick paper on the loading platform/station and topped it with tarmac from Scalescenes. This took longer than I hoped. It'll need a bit of a touch up later.  The next was to top the marina with with tarmac as well. Finally, I dry brushed the station building with burnt umber. 

Here are the results.

Tomorrow's plan will be to give a similar treatment to the main platform. I'll also look at getting some stairs from the marina platform to the marina. I also need to put a new point in for when it is connected to the main layout after reworking the layout. I could look at constructing the marina jetties.  I reckon that Saturday morning will be a good time to put down the Das for the cobblestones, mentioned in an earlier post, as that will take more time. 

Until next time. 

15 Minutes a Day

Check out this clip: Matt Cutts 30 Day Challenge

It doesn't have anything to do with model railways but I like the idea of setting aside some time to do something that you enjoy.

15 minutes a day isn't that hard to find these days, not really. Some of us will spend that time alone on the can, or checking social media sites. Sometimes at the same time.

I've tried a photo a day challenge several times and by the end of the time I am running out of ideas. However, with a model railway there is always something to do.

The idea behind this is that in the last four and half months, not much has happened on the layout.

Here is where I am now.

It should be much more advanced than this. Since the last blog post, I have added the back board, put stones on the causeway, made the platform and the little operators station with the car cards boxes and the mouse holder which will hold the digital controller.

So for the next 10 weeks I am aiming to spend 15 minutes a day on the little layout that I call Billabong Marina.

One reason to to advance the layout. Another reason is that I find model railways relaxing and an artistic outlet. The next ten weeks will be hectic for me with work and other commitments so this will force me to chill out for a bit in a useful way and not sitting in a small room while on Facebook or YouTube.

I know already that next week I am going to fail on Monday and Tuesday. My diary has given me this bad news. However, I will have more time on other days to make up for it.

Some days my 15 minutes may billow out to 30 or 60 minutes.

Having such a limited time means that I will need to be organised. I've spent a bit of time organising the layout space and tidying that up so I am good to go. I have a dedicated space in the house so I can just walk away when I need to and then pick up again later. Although that seems to be what I do a lot and start new projects with out tidying up from the last one. Over the next ten weeks I am hoping this may change as well as finish the started projects.

With such a short time each day, I need to plan what I am going to do. I've written a list of small tasks. Some may be quick and others not, but a plan is a good place to start.

Today, I dry brushed a half built Peco station building with raw sienna paint.

Tomorrow, I will dry brush it with burnt umber. Tuesday, I hope to paint the quoins and sills grey. Wednesday, I hope to assemble the rest of the kit. I have already painted the windows, doors and roof.

I've carved the station platforms from timber so they need to be covered. I'm going to use Scalescenes brick paper. I had printed some earlier and I have sprayed some varnish on the sheets to seal the ink onto the paper. So, that can be a tomorrow job too. I need to print off some tarmac and platform edging as well. This can be a tonight job while I'm doing other computer stuff.

I am an operator over a model maker so it is not going to be a fine scale model but I do want it to look right, even if the harbour is going to be a little crowded with fishing boats, ferries and cargo vessels.

I hope you'll join me throughout the ten weeks and keep checking in to see the progress and can I encourage you to try something similar.

That's all for tonight. I hope to see you tomorrow.

26 Days Later

Not really 26 days later. I haven't done much in the past couple of weeks due to work. 

The quay walls were cut from Wills plastic as I had bought a fair number of packs when a local hobby shop was closing down a few years ago. I was saving them for a project like this. This was part of the reason to choose this over the Scalescenes dock edge. The other is mentioned later. 

The walls were dry brushed with raw sienna and then dry brushed the next day with burnt umber. 

The girder sides for the bridge were painted and glued in place. The next step was to start putting rocks onto the causeway. 

These were glued in place with 1:3 Matte Mod Podge to water mix with a drop of dishwashing liquid. It was applied using a plastic syringe. Matte Mod Podge was recommended over PVA in a YouTube clip by Luke Towan of Boulder Creek Railroad as PVA leaves things looking a bit too glossy. 

The white chalky mess is from the bag of rocks. They were a bit dusty. 

When I chose to use the Wills plastic for the quay walls, I then needed to consider what I would use for the tops to bed the tracks into. I had planned to use Scalescenes products however, UK modeller Chris Nevard, used Das modeling clay and created cobble stones with a pen. At the same closing down sale that I bought the Wills stone sheets, I also purchased a couple of packs of Das. This is the other reason that I mentioned above. 

Time for an experiment. I pinned a short piece of track to an off cut of timber and spread some Das. I used a length of squarish brass tube to make the cobblestones. 

This image was taken just after I put the Das on. It dries white. After it dried I found that it wasn't sticking too well to the timber. A bit of PVA soon fixed that. I haven't put the Das on yet as I think that I might need to plan some of the building and place them first. 

Other tasks have included hooking up this layout extension to the rest of the incomplete layout. I also finished laying the track on the lower staging level on the main layout. 

Until next time.