A rainy Sunday afternoon

It was raining on Sunday afternoon, and rather than go swimming in a river with friends, I spent a while working on the pizza layout.  My two year old was fascinated and sat watching me, asking questions, and telling me what she thought I should add next.  Her ideas were surprisingly similar to some of my plans.  I spent a while cutting the polystyrene to get the shape of the cutting right.  It obviously made a difference as my wife looked at it and observed that "it looks like a landscape now".  Since last time I blogged about the pizza I've also added some card edging and started painting the bridge.  I think I've got the effect of mortar which has gone black with age, but I need dry brush the bricks, and possibly add some newer mortar.  Looking at some pictures of bridges shows that the bricks end up a variety of colours, browns, greens, dark greys and off white all featuring as well as some newer bricks which are still brick colour.  I was going to add a photo, but I've not managed to take one this week.  Hopefully I'll spend some more time building stuff next week and I'll post some pictures then.

Painting flint and other progress

Last time I blogged about the pizza I was trying to work out the best way to make it rotate and was ready to try painting the flint wall. I've not thought any more about rotating and I've been putting off the painting. A few weeks ago I had a go at painting and wasn't at all happy with the results. After a third attempt I'm still not happy but since the wall is going to have plants growing up it I may leave it. I've also put some more polystyrene in between the card framework. The theory is that they'll be something under shell of the landscape which should make planting trees easier. I've covered the who lot is masking tape and also slapped some dirty black paint over the track. The bridge now has some retaining walls on the inside of the curve. I'll add some wooden planks to hold up the steeper bits of embankment either side. I've also put the first layer of glue on the pond - but I touched it before it was dry and there is a finger print. I'll know for the next layer.

Clay and Jalapeños

It's been far too long since I last blogged about doing any modelling so I've decided that I'd better post something. The pizza layout has been left on top of an old chest of draws in our spare room for a while. I dug it out the other day and found something that I'd forgotten that I'd done. I had been thinking about making a base which the layout would site on which would allow it to be rotated. I decided to use a stereo and jack in the centre of the layout to supply power and act as the axis of rotation. I used the lid from a jar of jalapeños to attach the plug to. The layout does rotate but it's rather wobbly as I expected. I'll build a base with some runners about two thirds of the way out to take most of the layouts weight. I've not worked out exactly how that will work yet bu I have an idea after reading Nigel Burkin's article on building a fiddle yard. He made the sector plate part of the yard slide on plasicard - the same thing would probably work for rotating the pizza.

I also made some progress with the scenery over the weekend. A trip to Hobby Craft to get picture frames also allowed me to get some Das modelling clay. I tried out building a wall and some steps and then decided to do the level crossing and the area around the pond too. We'll have to see if I can paint the wall to look like flint and building the cottage will be more of a challenge! I've taken a couple of photos but my camera doesn't want to talk to my computer tonight so I'll try again tomorrow.

A mock up

On the pizza layout I've added some more bits of cardboard to for the base of the hill and built a mock up of the cottage. It's not got a roof but it gives a better idea of what the finished layout will look like and has helped me think about how the cottage should look. I'm still thinking about how to model flint. I don't think the Wills cobblestone walling sheet it going to work after comparing the size and density of the pattern to some real flint walls.

Wills sheets:



A flint wall:



So I need a new plan. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Bridge

I've been making a bridge out of Wills plastic sheet. I read John de Frayssinet's article on building the East Lyn Viaduct for tips on how to use Wills sheet as I've never used it before. The trouble is I keep realising I don't know enough about how bridges are constructed and having to check things which has slowed me down. I've got one entrance finished an the other is nearly done. The only thing I've not decided is what to do about the tops of the walls; thought I've had a look at some bridges near where I work and have some ideas.

Pizza construction

I've made some progress with my pizza - track is laid on foamcore and I've started building up where the road will go using card. A cottage will go where the wire is with the duck pond in the bottom right.

I'm also planning on trying to scratch build a couple of more British looking coaches to run - my current design is slightly longer than the Egger-Bahn coaches. The design might need changing to make them fit round the curves.

Pizza Progress

Whilst waiting for a train I came up with a rough plan. The track will circle a cottage and a duck pond. The scenery will slope up towards the back of the pizza so that about half the circle is in a cutting. At the highest point there will be a brick bridge over the track. A road will cross the bridge, go down past the cottage and there'll be a level crossing at the front of the layout.

Over the weekend I bought a 36" length of peco track, some track pins and fishplates. I also checked out base materials in B&Q but didn't buy anything as wood only comes in massive sheets and I don't have anywhere to store the excess. When I got home I searched the garden sheds and found some chipboard that was left over from adding shelves to the wardrobe. It's the white laminated stuff so not the most obvious choice by it's not going to get used for anything else. I marked out my plan on this and borrowed a coping saw from a friend.

Pizza?

Inspired by the latest scrapbook on Carl Arendt's site I'm now thinking of making a pizza layout first. It will give me a chance to practice my modelling skills and won't use any points. It will also give me a loop of track to test locomotives on and it will be easier to move (hopefully moving house soon).