Up Rode the Squatter

A couple of days of painting and more gluing and the squatter is mounted on his thoroughbred.

I know, he is a bit close to the fence but I haven't much room to work with. He needs to be here to sneak up on the jolly swagman waiting for his billy to boil.

The slightly out of focus beige blob is the swagman's tuckerbag stuffed with a jumbuck.

...and from an earlier post, troopers one, two, three.

Troopers One Two Three

The policemen are painted and placed into position.

They are taking the long way around to have a chat to the swagman. They should have caught the train instead of walking.

The next step is the squatter mounted on a thoroughbred. I have a Keroby Models drover which I bought a number of years ago. I did try to bend his legs to sit on a rock to be my swagman but that did not end well.

Time for some glue.

Until next time.

Swanning About

I have to admit that I was wondering what happened to May, that I nearly missed June.

Here’s what has been happening.

I added swans. Being a Swans fan, it seemed appropriate.

The Modpodge which I used wasn’t too kind to me and you can see the bit that was added on top of the previous layer. I had. Some bubbles form as well. I think that the Modpodge became a bit thicker as I kept using it for the water. I have put another layer around to soften the difference but it is still noticeable.

Another thing which I thought that I should add were some troopers - or policemen.

I looked around for some suitable boys in blue and found a set of Austrian Policemen. They look a bit Victorian but with a bit of blue paint on their hats, they look more New South Wales.

I also painted some paramedics. The printed detail on them was fantastic.

Now they look blue.

They will need a silver reflective stripe on the legs and a couple of badges but that's a job for another day.

Until next time.

Now Adding Water

I started adding the Mod-Podge for the water.

This is just a thin coat. When it dries, I put another over the top and build it up.

In other stuff...

Went on a bit of a tour of the Sydney Trains network yesterday. Here are some photos from the day. I enjoyed riding on the S-sets. The trip to Carlingford reminded me of the old days when the lights trip and the carriage goes dark for a little while. They're not long for the network now. I think they run on weekdays only as the TripView app had Millenium sets on the weekends.

Enjoy the pictures. Until next time.

Some More Gardening

Here's my problem.

I didn't do a good paint job on the station building. The outside is great but it doesn't stop light coming through the plastic. I made the building two years ago and since then, I have learned one or two things. I painted the inside with thick coats of paint. This is working but I can't reach above the installed windows. You can see the light leaking out in the image below. I probably would have been better off not doing anything in the first place.

Now I feel the need to somehow block the bits of wall where the light is coming through at different strengths. Hopefully this would make it look prettier as well. The solution is a garden.

Using some scrap Wills stone wall left over from the wharf walls, I fashioned two garden beds. You can see them in the image above.

I painted them and then filled them with some foamy stuff which came with the plants. See below.

The garden beds are about 2mm high and 2mm wide. The next step after painting the foam brown, was to attach them to the building and fill them with flowers.

The plants are a mix of Noch laser cut plants and plants from MP Scenery Products. I bought up big during the Liverpool Exhibition a few years ago and like most kits we think we will need one day, the end up sitting in a box somewhere.

Now the front of the station building looks like this.

If you look inside the station master's office you can see a couple of posters, a set of drawers and a fire extinguisher. Leaning up against the toilets to the right is a green bike. The hedges were glued down as well.

Another thing that you can't see is the paint on the wood on the side of the layout. It's a bit of an Indian red shade of brown.

The final thing to comment on today is my swaggy. He now has a jumbuck in his tucker bag.

The tucker bag is a Model Scenes mail bag which was give a quick coat of Model Master wood paint. I have to say that I am loving my conversion from enamel paint to acrylic paint. It dries so quickly. Some other bags were painted a light shade of brown for the station.

Can I fit in a squatter mounted on his thoroughbred or troopers one, two, three? I don't think that I have enough room in this part of the layout.

Want to know the real story behind Waltzing Matilda? Check out this episode of Richard Fidler's Conversations from ABC Radio. I heard it a couple of years ago and found it fascinating. Find it here: http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/waltzing-matilda-the-story-behind-the-song/7754384

Until next time.

Station Work

Today, I painted the inside of the station building. I reckon it'll take a couple of days to dry as I brushed it on before I can do another coat. There maybe many coats.

The next bit of work which was really simple was to make a hedge. It's made but not glued on as I need to be able to move the station building to paint the inside but it is ready to glue into place.

I used some scatter material which I had bought years ago when Peter Leggett's Asquith Model Railways was around. I had been convinced to buy some really coarse stuff as  would need  a mix of textures. It had been sitting in a box for years. Now I had a chance to use it.

How did I make the said hedge?

I'll let this bloke below tell you, after all, I got the idea from him.

Here's the result.

Might be time to light a fire and put the billy on.

Until next time.

Lots of Stuff

I was talking to a mate today and he said that it would be good to finish my layout as not many layouts get finished. Is a layout ever finished though?

My plan for finishing by 26th April won't come into fruition. This is because of the way that I want to add the water. I'm going to use Mod Podge. I've used PVA before and built it up with layers. I've seen demonstration using Mod Podge on the internet. At the Forrestville Exhibition in March, one of the exhibitors said that he thought it had a better shine than PVA. The tutorial suggests that all of the scenic flock stuff be sorted out first and then add a layer of Mod Podge every day for ten days.

That's going to make me miss the deadline.

I'm not too worried though. I've been marching on regardless.

The easiest thing to sort out was the cattle dock. I decided that one of those English styles on a platform would be good. The cattle dock is one bogie wagon long and about an inch wide. 2.54mm isn't very wide. There have also been some mention of late in the US modelling press about how useful it is to model a cattle yard on the edge of your layout. This was my plan for this siding all along. The platform offers protection for the BCW from the big abyss and floor. I used a bit of timer from an old control panel which was the right length, some tarmac and brick paper previously downloaded from Scalescenes and some fence which were part of a job lot donation which someone was giving away on Facebook. The cows came from the same lot as well. They won't be there all the time.

The interior of the station building is sort of complete.

The walls were painted and then glued together. The bit on the left is with the painted middle layer to provide a door. The bit on the right is before it gets assembled. I found some ole travel posets online and reduced them to an appropriate size.

Lights were installed but not hooked up. A couple of people were added to the station - one in the waiting room, one buying a ticket and a station master selling a ticket. The whole thing was lightly glued into place.

The station sign was made using a Model Scene station sign but I haven't taken a picture of that. The station furniture has been painted and awaiting placement.

The next task was to put in more lights on and then make them work.

Done. The station lights are great. The warm yellow lights are great in the station building and under the milk depot shelter. The lights on the fish co-op and the fish and chip shop can be seen from space.

There was one other problem too...

It's a rookie mistake but the paint doesn't block out the light so it comes through the plastic walls. I'll need to paint the interior with some of the Railey cream paint. I also didn't add too much detail to the interior of the station master's office as you couldn't see much. With the lights on, now you can. This will need more work.

With the lights working, the swaggy can now boil his billy.

The fire is a tea light candle LED. A regular exhibitor at exhibitions, Ian Williamson, told me this idea. He'd placed one inside a 44 gallon drum with holes drilled into it. The effect was good and cheap to create.

Until next time.