Messing About in Boats

Many thanks to Ratty from Wind in the Willows for today's title.

Work and paperwork that goes with it has got the better of me this week and restricted the daily update.

However, there was still some 15 minutes a day of model work going on. 

Finally some black card was placed behind the windows of the dairy. The tanks for the milk were painted white (this took a couple of coats over a couple of days) and the tanks for the fuel depot were painted silver.

Friday to Sunday saw some time messing about in boats. I dug out the boxes of boats from the harbour kit and did some painting. Here's the result.

I haven't finished all the details and if you zoom in you can see the blue tac holding people in place. In the marina area there is still a heap of things to do:
1. Paint the benches brown.
2. Paint the kiosk blue. I was thinking two or three shades. Maybe some fish if I get excited.
3. Stick a sign on the kiosk.
4. Put a menu board on the kiosk.
5. Deck out the interior of the kiosk.
6. Install lights in the kiosk.
7. Pain the oars for the row boats.
8. Install lights on the marina (and the platform).
9. Add some greenery around the marina.

I was going to build a boat shed (roughly underneath where the blue rail tanker is in the top photo) but I think that would crowd out the space too much.

I'm about to start week seven of the 15 minute a day challenge and I reckon this list will give me some ideas for my fifteen minutes.

I reckon that this week I should try and run a train or two on it as well.

Until next time.

Sign Writing

What you can't see is the glazing added to the windows from Peco points packaging. As soon as I find the black cardboard, I'll place that behind. I still want to try to paint the backscene so the building will be blue-tacked on until that is done. However, today's effort is the sign. It was made using Publisher and printed on photo paper and sprayed with a matte varnish.

I bought a couple of structures of eBay which I hope will be a good cheap solution to the awning. 

I was also thinking of what I could do in my spare siding at the rear of the layout. It has the potential to store a few wagons underneath the higher levels of the main layout. If the layout is moved then it might need something to stop the wagons from falling off. I reckon that I might be able to do something with a Dapol engine shed.

I should be able to get 15 minutes tomorrow. Thursday and Friday will be a different kettle of fish. Saturday and Sunday should see some time caught up.

Until next time.

Sometimes Progress Moves Quickly, Other Times, She Snoozes.

It was mentioned to me that the post hasn't been updated since Monday. I've had to be a bit liberal this week with my fifteen minutes. Tuesday was spent in a hobby shop buying paint and styrene. The paint is for the diary doors and the styrene is for the fish co-op which is on the same side of the harbour as the dairy.

Wednesday was spent with another coat of paint on the windows and I started the doors.

Thursday was much the same. But i had to deal with some over painting issues. I used the same tin of paint that I use for my bricks to paint over the wrong paint and noticed that the paint from the tin was darker. The reason was that when I painted the dairy ages ago, I purposely left some white paint in the airbrush to tone down the bricks. Check out the difference below.

I painted a few patches on to see if I could blend them in a bit. I decided to repaint he whole brick work again. The top floor and left section was Wednesday night. I finished it on Thursday. Below it is in place on Friday.

Saturday was a busy day and this morning I am tackling bits that you probably won't see. It's those little bits under the top of the window frame.

There was a bit of retouching and retouching to do. I know a bad workman blames his tools. I normally blame the lack of skills and knowledge for myself but in this case my top quality paint brush sadly no longer cuts the mustard. It has served me well. It's now as shabby as an old toothbrush. Next time instead of buying one, I'll buy two or three. In the meantime, the paint work on the dairy is done. I need to put up a sign for the Sapphire Coast Dairy Co-op and start work on the tin roofed awning. And paint the fence. And paint the tanks... and the back scene maybe...

Until next time.

More Painting

Another coat of paint on the windows of the dairy was applied today. I have change my mind with the doors and I will paint them brown. A job for tomorrow.

Yesterday I had a trail of painting the back scene. I believe that artists call this a study. I found the idea on Chris Lyon's YouTube channel CNLVN. I didn't have the right yellow but I had a crack at using yellow ochre instead. I used a bit of grey cardboard as a canvas. I might try some lighter art paper next time. An other thought is taking some photos and stitching them together in Photoshop and printing them of on paper. I'll need to look at my photo collection or go for a drive and take some new ones. 

Today's work was boring so here are a couple from yesterday.

Down at the Dairy

I spent a bit of time today with the Walthers Interstate Fuel and Oil kit open. I think by the end of the kit I will have used it in at least three different industry sites. Two of these will be on Billabong Marina. The fuel depot is an obvious location  and I will be using the ends of a couple of tanks and a wall of the depot building here. I have already used the two standing tanks on other layouts and will recycle them on the main layout. The last venue is the dairy. While looking at dairies I found that they have large tanks to store milk. At least I think that is what they are for. A good example of this is at Casino in NSW. I have been past that dairy a couple of times and it can be seen easily on Google Earth's street view.

While I could have built a couple more tanks for the dairy, the extreme low relief means that they won't fit. The solution was to cut the parts in half and put them together. Here they are with the fences propped up. 

A bit of off white paint and they will look the part. It wasn't too difficult, just time consuming. I am beginning to think that similar treatment with silver fuel tanks, but not as tall, might be a good idea to give some height to the fuel depot.

Tomorrow night I will carry on with some more window painting.

Until then.

Desk Work

At what stage do you call it quits on a project and start again?

The operator's station has had a couple of coats of paint. Don't zoom in too much. The paint work is hideous. However it may have to do for now. I have some thin ply that I can use for another attempt later.

Apart from a couple of busy days that have knocked out my fifteen minute schedule, I have been painting the dairy bit by bit. I've a couple more coats of paint on the windows. 

I reckon that I have a two or three more coats to go. I have picked up a couple to fences recently. The may provide a bit of depth in a narrow space.

Tomorrow will see another coat of paint on the windows and doors and may be a sign on the top.

Beginning Week 4

I stopped and had a review tonight before I started.

This is week 1, right at the start of the 15 minute challenge.

Quite often I think that I'm not achieving too much but realistically I am.

I took a few photos with my proper camera and not the phone. However, I've changed my laptop and have not been able to transfer certain imaging software across to my working device. (That's the next job tonight.)

After the pics, out came the vacuum cleaner. The layout looks much cleaner now.

Here's the section I did yesterday with the excess grass removed. It's a good example of before and after the static grass, with my swagman sitting on a rock. I have better rocks which look more appropriate. I want to add some fallen branches and a campfire too. And I'll need to paint him. The swaggie is a figure from the Preiser range and originally is a cyclist, however, I've bent his arms and legs.

The next image is the station building in place. My main layout is in the background. My aim for the station building is to stick some LEDs and interiors into it. People could peer through the doors and windows to the inside.

Yesterday I said that I would focus on the rear of the layout before the front. However, I couldn't resist seeing what I could do with some of the static grass areas which I put down last night. Out came my old box of scatter material. There are a few different shades of green here.

This is the head shunt for arriving trains. It also doubles for the cattle yard. The loading platform will be built later. To the right is a bit of a throw back to the days of old. I have used lichen. Is that still fashionable? I don't think that it looks bad. It's a nice colour and hides the edge of the cliff edge. I also need to paint the framework and sides of the baseboard to make it look prettier. May be this weekend.

The last image is of the dairy. The paintwork needs finishing. It needs glazing and behind the windows I will stick black paper. Signs need to be added and then it will be glued to the back board. But before that happens, I'm not sure if I want to paint a back scene across the back. I'm feeling that I will need to create a study of this. A couple of fences around the industries might help too.

I also want to create and shelter which will protect the loading platform and go across the track. I could put a light or two in the shelter for night time shunting.

Tomorrow's plan? Finish the paintwork on the dairy.

Until then.