Charlton Micro layout - further progress

A short update on the developing micro layout that I am  building.  I have nearly finished all of the boring jobs!  Not quite, but a large amount of progress has been made.  The back scenes are now all attached and require painting. Given the narrow width of the of the baseboards (1ft) it would have taken too much space to have a curving backboard, so I have settled with 90 degree angle in each corner.  Not ideal but I hope I will be able to disguise it.

Back scenes in place, ready for painting

General overview of the micro

The fiddle yard has been built and has a small area for continuation of a siding on the scenic side at the front. Being only 3ft long it is a very tight fit.  The entrance to the fiddle yard is a thin piece of back scene with a small hole cut into it (obviously!).  Rather than have a tunnel I am going to try to disguise this as much as possible, but not worry too much about it. The powerbus has been extended under the fiddle yard and some track has been temporarily laid down.

The small entrance to the fiddle yard

So now there are two last jobs.  The first is to install the point motors, I am using the Gaugemaster PM10s with frog juicers.  A simple fix for a small DCC layout and all seems to be working well.  The CDU is installed and it is just a case of placing the motors under the boards and wiring them up - although this is a pet hate of mine!  The second thing to do is is lay two sets of points into the fiddle yard and glue these down properly.  Just one more weekend of soldering and fixing and then the whole layout should be 100% operational!

  

Just testing out some the positioning of the buildings....

So time for the buildings.  I have some resin buildings to use, and these will be supplemented with a bit of basic scratchbuilding.  I am not great at making buildings, so each attempt gets a little bit better.  I have to make the station, which is a job to start at the end of next week.  However, I am pretty happy with the current level of progress and my aim is to finish the layout by the end of February.  I had originally gone for a Christmas date - but that now seems unduly optimistic.  The great thing about small layouts is that you can seem to make progress quickly!

A quick video of the layout working....

Now to get some type 2 sound decoders to run on a class 22 and 25.  I have finished the western.....now I wonder about a warship......this layout is definitely going to be pure BR blue and plenty of sound....

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas

See you in the new year

The western front - Heljan class 52 ready for service

I have finally just about to managed to finish off the Western detailing project I have been working on for a while (2 years or so!!).  It has been a really fun project and overall I am pretty happy with how it has turned out.  However, the longevity of the project and the stop/start nature of it meant that I lost some of the parts along the way, as well as a bit of momentum.

The finished locomotive running around the microlayout.

The locomotive is for use on the my Devon based withered arm layouts, that are struggling through the 1970s.  The model is the Heljan version, which I think is an excellent model by and large.  I replaced the original wheels with Ultrascale versions which has improved the running characteristics of the locomotive no end.  All painting and weathering was done with railmatch enamels via the air brush.  Faded blue was spayed on the body, as well as matt white from a paintbrush to replicate paint chips.The model has been fitted with a loksound decoder, with the Howes sound files.  I really like the Howe sound recordings on this one - I think it sounds it great, although I will turn the volume down a bit to about 75% of its current level when I have the track operational on the new Charlton micro layout.  I attempted to model the locomotive towards the end of its working life and it is therefore pretty grimy.

The finished locomotive posed on the micro layout.

Jobs that have been finished off this week are the adding of windscreen wipers, some detailing of the windscreens and a bit of wheel painting and then cleaning.  Small jobs that do make a big difference.  So below are some finished photographs of the Western.  I have also included some photographs of the locomotive in its various stages of painting and detailing.

The cab showing the weathered front.

With the lights working.

Body side, showing faded paint and open windows.

Detail of the bodywork a bit closer up.

The body shell during painting and weathering from the airbrush.

Reassembled locomotive, before final detailing.

The first stage of weathering involved splashing white paint over the body work and then hand brushing some grime over the body, before wiping some of it off with cotton buds.

As it looked from the box, a second hand model.