Bombo's Finest

Yesterday I was able to pop into Hobbyland in Hornsby to check out what ballast they have and picked up a couple of bags of Bombo ballast. My mate's father in law used to work there. The colour is a real dirty brown and just perfect for old dirty ballast that you would find on old branch lines and sidings if they were ballasted. They had a really fine grade which was even better. 

Tonight in my fifteen minutes ( more like half an hour), I ballasted a short section of track.

The point took the longest as I needed to make sure that I didn't get grit or glue in the wrong places like my last ballasting effort. For the glue I used a 1:3 ratio mix of Mod Podge Matte to water with a couple of drops of detergent and applied it with a 6 mL medicine syringe from the local chemist, except with the ballast inbetween the point blades. Here I used the handle of a fine paint brush. I dipped it into the glue and touched the ballast. As the glue is "wet", it runs freely off the brush and through the ballast.

I have ordered some static grass so it will be able to fill in the ply bits soon. I probably should spend fifteen minutes soon testing my static grass applicator. 

Tomorrow night I will put down more ballast and Das clay on the wharf front.

Until then.

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.