O Gauge Buildings Continued

Over the weekend, I managed to get the two end boards for the layout set up in the lounge. These are the two boards that have had minimal scenery applied so far and it is time to make a start on these. The first task was to place the buildings that I have made onto the layout and see how they fit within the overall space. First up I popped the little  shelter onto the platform. It fits really well, although it is potentially a little to wide - some modellers licence will have to be applied. However, the little shelter looks quite empty on the platform - just what I wanted to achieve - it does feel quite big and empty which I was really pleased with. However, the platform does look somewhat monochrome at the moment, despite layering in a lot of colour when I painted it. So a job for the next two weeks will be to attack the platform with some dry brushing - to add a little tonal variation.

The platform shelter - this works quite nicely I think, 

but the platform needs some tonal variation added.

The quay masters cottage was also placed at the edge of the layout to act as a scenic break for for the fiddle stick exit. The positioning of the cottage right against the edge of the baseboard does not look quite right - and it is a tight squeeze to fit the cottage onto the space provided. However, it does create a good scenic break and there is definitely a feeling of the railway running through a small built up area.

The quay masters cottage acting as a scenic break at the edge of the layout.

On the other side of the tracks will be three buildings, which are all part of the dairy platform and offices. I rearranged these severeal times to try to achieve the best fit. The main dairy building has been painted in some somewhat garish colours - but I thought maybe in keeping with some of the hideous 1960's colour schemes that were around! There is still plenty of detailing to go in order to finish this building. The other larger warehouse on the left will be modelled as an abandoned structure from the pre-railway use of the quay side; however it is currently too wide for the layout. This is a consequence of having to place the backscene away from the baseboard edge. So the saw is going to come out again for this building!

Main office diary building painted in a somewhat garish colour scheme. There is a lot of detailing still to go for this building.

The small diary siding - other smaller buildings / structures will be squeezed around these buildings once they are finally finished.

The smaller building on the platform is the delivery office for the dairy and this will be positioned between the two larger buildings. Having now placed this building on the layout, part of the roof I painted in a light grey colour now sticks out like a sore thumb. So one future task will be toning this part of the roof down with some dry brushing.

For the next month or so, I have a clear programme of modelling tasks to progress the detailing of the layout. The list is:

a) Dry brush the platform to add a little tonal variation.
b) Dry brush the roof of the small diary office building to add some tonal variation.
c) Finish off the larger dairy building.
d) Narrow the larger diary warehouse so it fits onto the layout.
e) Finish the water at the quay side.
f) Add some basic vegetation to these two baseboards, weeds, grass etc.
g) Add the backscene.

h) Glue these buildings into place and wire the electrics for lighting into some battery boxes with swtiches under the layout.

I aim to work through these tasks over the next few weeks, however as always in life there are plenty of other non-modelling tasks that require my time. If I can finish off adding the backscene and doing the quay water, these are major milestones for completion of the layout and are tasks that I have been been putting off somewhat. It is now time to crack on with them, during the weeks leading up to xmas.

Heljan O Gauge Class 33 DCC fitting and reassembly - part I

I am finally in a position where I can start to put up the layout in the lounge later today. The last of the numerous guests we have had this summer have returned home. It has been brilliant to have had some many visitors this year but it is has also meant that I have not had the time or the space to put up the layout. Anyhow, one task I wanted to complete before a serious bout of layout scenery detailing, was the re-assembling of the Heljan class 33. I purchased this locomotive at a bargain price in BR green and proceeded to completely strip it down. The locomotive had the bogies / fuel tank removed and weathered separately, whilst the body shell had the glazing, handrails and cabs removed before a bath of superstrip. The repaint of the body went a little wrong, courtesy of using the wrong air pressure on a new compressor by mistake; however the final finish is acceptable (for now), although I might revisit it in the future. 

Repainted body shell - it has turned out OK but is by no means perfect.

With the repaint complete I was waiting for a clear day to reassemble the chassis. In common with the overall project, this initially proved to be a real headache, although I did manage to finish it in the end! The first issue was reattaching the sideframes to the bogies. I tried to force these on and ended up damaging one of them. I subsequently realised that the bogie had to be unscrewed from underneath the chassis block, to enable the bogies to be replaced. Typically I knocked some detailing off one of the bogies and whilst this is now glued back on, it will need touching up with some paint later today. I also managed to fit the speaker into the fuel tank - but it was a tight squeeze.

The painting on the bogie sideframes had turned out well I think.

Fuel tank back in place - a largish speaker has been squeezed into the tank.

The wiring up of the DCC chip was also a bit of a headache to start with. The Heljan PCB board made little sense on first inspection; this was primarily due to the polarity of the wires not being marked marked on the PCB board - so for example there are two labels for the track feeds on both sides. What is entirely unclear from the PCB board labelling, is that the wire polarity was reversed on either side of the model. So for bogie A the positive track was feed was black, whilst on bogie B it was red! Luckily, I found a brilliant guide for understanding the wiring (https://www.modernimageogauge.co.uk/crompton.html) and after a few false starts, the rewiring was relatively easy. I then set up the DCC test track and had a little play - fortunately everything was OK and the locomotive started chugging around. The only issue I currently have, is that I cannot independently operate the tail lights from the re-wiring I have done. This is a minor annoyance and I am not sure if there is a solution for this - a little bit of internet searching will be undertaken today to see if anyone else has had the same problem.

The Heljan PCB board...the markings left a lot to be desired.

The DCC chip installed.

The chassis being test run on the micro-layout (not the most exciting video in the world!)

So today is a modelling day. The glazing needs to be re-installed into the body shell, alongside applying the transfers for the headcodes on the front glazing and the handrails  need a light wash of grime, before regluing. The cabs, lighting conduits and driver also need fixing into place. Hopefully, by the end of today I will have another fully working locomotive - well at least that is the plan. Then I will start make a start on setting up the layout, ready for a good running session next weekend.