My Last Modelling for a few Months

Yep, tomorrow I head off to a big place where I will hop into a big aluminium drink can (willingly) and then be hurled at great speed to the other side of the world.

So with that on the cards I thought it best to squeeze in my last look at the Brisbane modelling scene and head on out to the AMRA's Brisbane Model Train Show at the RNA grounds in Brisbane. The big permanent marquee is fantastic! All the layouts and shops under one big roof - it make it look so much bigger and better.

I spent the morning walking around checking out the shops and layouts and a heck of a lot of talkin' to mates in the modelling fraternity. I was able to control the hot feel of the wallet and the tingling in the finger tips to a great extent and only walked out with a pile of Mount Albert timber from The Railcar and a set of 4 RSH 4 wheel wagons from Ron at Eureka Models.

There were lots of layouts to look at but here are three that I have not seen before. The first set of photos is of an Aussi layout of a NSW area in HO scale - Bullenbung Creek

The next layout is an Australian flavoured freelance layout in On30, called Willy's Creek. It might not be a huge layout but the detail and scope of it is just fantastic - love it!

Now the third layout was in O scale of NSW in flavour. The chap only just got the thing running this morning before the show started - it is that new. He says more work still to be done, but I reckon for a small O scale layout it presents very well and is enjoyable to look at. So here is Gilbert Sidings, an O scale fictitious NSW are based layout.

Oh, and why not - here is a cute small layout that uses T gauge track and rolling stock in a case. I haven't seen this one before either. It is not actually T gauge in scale as it models something like 7-1/4" track - pretty damned neat I reckon.

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

Today I took down some of my HO Mopac motive power and a bunch of wagons and decided I'd have another run at lunch time. This is my last run for a few months while I head overseas for a bit of R&R, which funny enough, will involve riding a lot of trains in Wales, Scotland and Norway.

So I started the day with a splash of colour - some more greens. I did more grass work at the end of the peninsula. While I was at it, Bruce Hagaman got out some colours and his easel and played Rembrandt a bit with the backdrop for the top of the helix.

Phil was at it for a bit pulling wheels and hubs off both the N and HO trailers as it was noted they were running hot in Bundaberg. Turns out the bearings were OK, it was the brake drums. The brakes were playing up and had scored the drums. So some machining down the road and they were back on by the end of the day - thanks Phil.

Barry P got into a bit more foam work over to the right of the station as well.

President Plod and Bruce H were at it getting the kit ready for the RMCQ to attend the AMRA show on the weekend.

B1, B2 and myself got the N scale layout into the trailer ready for AMRA as well.

Pastel Yellow, maybe Fluorescent Yellow or perhaps Cantaloupe

Choices, choices choices. That is what I played with yesterday at the club. With only a few hours to play since the club monthly meeting was on later in the day and hence reduced play hours on the layout, I played with colours in my mind but also on the layout.

Since I had added a large patch the other day of greens to the Little Aspley area, I thought I'd look at possible colours for the rolling hills which inhabit the area from Little Aspley down to the base of the peninsula. I got out a range of colours we have at the club of fine ground foams.

Above we see last weeks effort of a full luxurious green rolling hills.

There were the Woodland Scenics, Burnt Grass, Weeds, Green Grass and Yellow Grass. Also the JTT Burnt Grass and Green Grass. So I had 5 or six colours to play with. So I laid down two patches about a square foot or more starting with the sieved dry dirt from our local creek to give a nice brown natural base to start with.

Similar colours to the first picture, but with some of the Yellow Grass thrown in for a drier grassland look.

So a good brushing of 50/50 white glue and water with a few drops of detergent was placed on the hills and the fine dry dirt sprinkled around to give a full coverage of the area I was working on. Then a spraying of wet water which I made from about a liter of water and a cup of isopropyl alchohol, to make it soak in fast, was applied over the dirt to soak in. I then used my artistic flair to apply the various shades of foam over the area (visualize handfuls of foam "thrown" around, but with panache and elegance - LOL).

And finally a lot more of the yellow, making for a very dry looking pasture.

Once the foam was down, another spray of the wet water and out with my little Xuron bottle with the hypodermic needle top. This I used to dispense the same 505/50 water white glue mix over all the foam until I could see it wet. Then I sprinkled on a bit more of the various foams to "keep it fluffy" and not make it look too unnatural when dry.

Looking towards the mounts and the drier climate.

To top it off I skewered the hills and poked in a few trees to make it look a bit like something and left it for people to see and make comments as well as allow us to make a decision, if needed, of colours. I reckon they both came up good and added to that of the other week, we could feather the colours from the very green at the top of the peninsula, down to the dry yellow look at the base of the peninsula where the mountain resides.

I also decided (on behalf of the N scalers) to donate a pile of Pine Trees to the HO'ers. So I planted them on the original set of hills at the base of the two peninsulas. Looks much better I reckon.

Peter A was also working more on the area for the new bridges. He's been doing a lot on the bridges at home and gave a showing on the day - NICE.

Oh and a quick bit of foam work I did was to complete a gap that existed in the foam next to the mainline near the mountain.

Till Wednesday - bye for now.