Amberleigh Scenery

Well a steady days modelling on Saturday. We managed to finish most of the scenery and get some of the track ballasted. The platelayers hut was glued down and the little Amberleigh Halt was added. During gluing the halt sown I knocked off the shelter, so am going to have to re-glue this!!

This was my first 'serious' attempt at building a little test-track or diorama. Some things went really well, others not so. The biggest let down was using some cheap PVA glue, which in places has dried white. This is a little bit of a nightmare and needs addressing, especially on the ballasted track. I also used some ballast that was a little bit whiter than I had anticipated. So the track certainly needs toning down a bit. My son also beautifully decorated a hillside and I managed to scrape some of it with the lead from a lamp we were using! I also used some static grass applied from a puffer bottle. This has not really worked properly but still looks ok.

However, these things aside I think it is starting to shape up. I will give the track a clean and get rid of that white staining on the scenery and also finish the ballast etc. The biggest joy has been the learning through doing. It is not perfect, but I am learning how to get things to look better, which will hopefully stand me in good stead. Am looking forward to getting this nearly finished this week. The photographs do not look great, mainly due to bad light, but will post some better ones later in the week.

Some Amberleigh Progress

Another week passes and it has been too busy. Little modelling has been achieved. A few transfers added to the Walrus and the first coats of paint on the second walrus and the lamprey. These will be definitely finished next week, so photographs of these will go up on my blog.

The one thing that did get a little bit of attention was the scenery on Amberleigh. Some of the grass was finished behind the station and the first couple of trees were added. The rest of the plaster bandage was painted brown and it is all set for a big day of modelling with my son tomorrow. We aim to get the ballast done, finish the scenery at the front of the layout and drill all the holes for the fences, trees and signs. We might even get the little Amberleigh Halt glued into place. I can't wait to get stuck into this project tomorrow......will put up some photographs of the results at the end of the weekend

Chivers lamprey

Well very little modelling going on at the moment. I have nearly finished building another lamprey from chivers, only some handrails to add. These really are great little kits and easy to build. I have a growing rake of grampus, crab and lamprey wagons. Other than this work on my little layout 'Amberleigh' has been very slow. A little bit of painting, some slightly wonky station steps and point rodding added. But thats all. Hopefully the pace will pick up a little soon. Life is very busy and stressful at the moment, so it is difficult to find motivation to get modelling done in the evenings.

On the plus side it is also my birthday this weekend, so I am hoping for a nice present or two!!

A lamprey and a salmon wagon

It has definitely been a funny week this one. I have spent a lot of it up in York with work, however I am unfortunately facing the dole queue at xmas, what a nightmare. The upside of this is, I have plenty of old kits to build, and plenty of new stock to detail, some I am ashamed to say, have never come out of their box!! Anyway, it looks like I will have plenty of time on my hands soon.

Work has been slow to non-existent on Amberleigh recently, but a little scenery has come on. I also took delivery of some static grass and a puffer bottle last week. I have painted most of the plaster bandage, so soon the scenery will get finished. My son and I are planning a big landscaping weekend. I have to finish up fixing the electrics first and get the light for the station and buffer stop done. Once we get the platform in and point rodding we can ballast the track, do the landscape then hey presto, ready for xmas.

Playing around the other night I found one of my lamprey wagons I had long since forgotten about and a salmon wagon with cranes. I coupled these up to my class 25 to have a quick look at them on the developing Amberleigh layout. They are giving me a taste for what the finished layout will look like.

Odds and bobs

A whole week at home and many modelling projects on the go. Amberleigh is coming along, with some of the track glued into place at the weekend. I am powering the rails from dropper wires attached to the powerbus that runs underneath the layout. We also tried a little bit of scenery modelling at the weekend, with not great results! I must not have mixed the earth undercoat properly, as it seemed very faint and the end result is a little white. The whole thing needs a little painting and sorting out!! hey ho, it is all learning. I am very tempted to get some static grass on top of this, but the price is so expensive. I might use the puffer bottle from gaugemaster in order to save some money.


The intercity mark 1s were coupled up to my class 47 and I think that they look great!!! I am looking forward to getting the layout up and running (layout?, it is really the operational scenic plinth for my blog!!) It is nearing that point of critical mass, where things will start to take shape really quickly. Seeing some mk1s behind class 33s, 31s and the odd 47, modelled in my beloved devon countryside.


I have ordered the decals for the walrus wagon, but the exact decals for a walrus in the 1980s do not really exist. Some walruses were renamed YGV, which is avaliale on the cambrian decal sheet, but the walrus name is not avaliable as a transfer. So I am waiting on the latest modelmaster releases to see if the new transfer range includes decals for walruses, and also crabs, lampreys and whales, all of which I am building at the moment or plan to in the near future. So finishing the walrus has stalled a little while I wait on these decals.

Weathering mk 1 coaches

Did not manage another post over the weekend, due to a rather nasty computer virus. However, that is now dealt with, and I have managed to finish the weathering of my BSK Mk 1, in intercity livery. The photographs also show an earlier attempt at weathering an intercity rbr mk1, as a comparison (RBR on right, BSK on left). At the time I was happy with the rbr weathering, but the lack of weathering of the door frames now makes it really stick out to me. Problem is, now I can see it, I see it on every model. My recently finished NSE 108 might have to go back into the workshop......as well as every other Mk1 I own!!

Anyway, back to the BSK Mk1, running in weathered black into the door frames then a vertical streaking of very thin frame dirt on the sides was combined with painting then weathering the underframe. I think this has worked wonders (maybe I am biased!!), but I am very happy with how this model turned out.

On other matters I am hunting down some transfers for the walrus wagons to finish this little project. Then I will move onto building the whale wagons and detailing the class 08 and 20. Has anyone out there built a cambrian whale yet??..Also have my son for half term, so except for the time when I am working, I hope Amberleigh will progress.........

Walruses and sealions

(Top = second cambrian walrus, not painted: Middle = first cambrian walrus painted; Bottom = Bachmann sealion, suitably dirtied up)

A great days modelling yesterday. The mk1 is nearly finished, save for some roof weathering, will put up a post of this later today. However, yesterday I finished the building of the second walrus (about time) and the first walrus is ready for transfers, with glossed varnish applied for the transfers to be put on today. There is a little bit of painting left to do, such as handrails, etc, but should be finished within a week. BTW if anyone reading knows where to get transfers from to finish this model off please get in touch.....

The photographs show the second walrus built, the first walrus kit nearly painted, and an earlier painted sealion. This is going to make a great engineers train when it is finished. There are two more sealions to weather and I hope to build two whale wagons between now and xmas. I have some kit built mermaids, dogfish, and catfish already built to add to this train, as well some heljan dogfish about to enter my workshop. I definitely enjoy modelling engineering wagons!

Anyhow, modelling is cracking on at a pace this weekend....will put up a post of the finished BSK and also the little halt for Amberleigh soon.