Friday, 20 September 2024

Stockyard fences

I'm still working on the roundhouse project but here's another small project that is on the go. 

One of the new modules needs a stockyard. I aim to have one at each end of the railroad. Most of the stockyard fences I salvaged from the old layout are fences made by Peco. They are flexible, and for some reason, possibly this same flexibility meant that the previous paint job was flaking. I gave them another undercoat of white and then brushed on a black wash. This gives a mottled grey, mimicking weathered wood. 

The next step will be to add this to the layout, which I'll post about later. 



Friday, 6 September 2024

Stone Roundhouse Scratchbuild Part 3

 After sorting out the jig and wall template for the front and far side of the roundhouse, I added the layer of clay and started carving. This went faster than I expected. I could have benefited from a smaller pick, as the one I had was quite long (from my workshop) making it a little harder to use with finesse. 

As it dried, I test-fitted some doors from my two-stall engine house from the old layout, which I used as a template for the engine doors. I would like to be able to have some of the doors be able to open and shut, but I'm not sure yet how I would make a resilient hinge that is also discrete. I will keep researching this and may initially just glue them open.

The prototype roundhouse has supporting columns in between each stall and on the edges of the roundhouse. At this stage I don't think I'll add these. Because they will be thin they will be more difficult to carve and additionally, it would likely draw more attention to my uneven stall spacing.