Actually this is not really worth a post.. but it's my first activity in months: sleepers painting and weathering in Elmslohe station. I coatted the sleepers of the H0 Tillig Elite rails in a mixture of Humbrol 33 black and 98 chocolate brown to get rid of the shiny appearance. After a night drying time, I drybrushed white over the sleepers giving them a weathered finish.
Just a quick update from the paint shop. The bridge parts got their first layers. The stone work was primed with Tamiya grey primer. The steel girder bridge received so far two coats of various Revell and Humbrol colours (dark green, white, bronze green, ...). To be continued.
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| Overview of the bridge location. Looking at the Ikea Billy holes, I realise that I really need to do something about the fascia and background soon. |
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| Really happy with the bridge colour so far. More layers and weathering to come. |
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| One of the prototype images that I use as example for my own bridge colour scheme. |
The siding of the Kiesgrube Klieben line is spanned by a standard gauge railway bridge. I have started construction by adapting an Auhagen kit (No. 11441). I lowered it substantially and adapted it to fit into the dedicated space on the micro-layout. In a next step, the bridge will get a new colour scheme. The plate girder parts will get a green coat and the stone buttresses will get a more realistic stone finish. And of course an embankment needs to be built. The open front part will ultimately be covered by the fascia.
A delivery from Minitrains brought a new, red Gmeinder (Art. No. 5012) and a variety of cars to support the operations to my Kiesgrube Klieben.
I continued with working on the tracks of the narrow gauge micro layout. With the sleepers and rails painted, ballasting was the next job on the list. I opted for a light coloured mix of different Woodland Scenics ballast, namely 873 Fine Buff (biggest content), 874 Fine Light Grey and 875 Fine Grey. For the first time I used Woodland Scenics "Scenic Cement" to glue the ballast down. I must say it worked really well. It is of course more expensive than the traditional method using wood glue, water and a drop of washing up liquid, but it is very efficient.
I left some ballast on the sleepers in some spots that I normally would have carefully brushed away. This to reflect a little less maintained track bed. Finally, I greened the roadbed up with materials from various suppliers. Once everything was dry I removed any ballast on spots where it should not sit. In this process often the rust paint also comes off, leaving annoying, shiny silvery spots. I touched up these spots with Humbrol 113. On a next layout I might do the painting of the rails with Humbrol 113 only after everything is ballasted. With the current method I seem to have to do the painting twice.. I am curious if that would be a more time saving approach.
I will still go over everything with another round of weathering, but so far I am really pleased with the effect.
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| "Catching-up" on the newly ballasted narrow gauge line. |
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| The ballast is mixed. Let's start the fun.. |
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| First stage completed. Now the detail work starts with removing ballast in the wrong spots, filling up "holes", adding plants, re-painting spots, ... |
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| Letting it dry. The shiny appearance will disappear once the Scenic Cement is dry. |
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| The Peco tracks after step 1. |
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| After step 2 with the tracks dry-brushed |
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| Drybrushed Peco tracks. |
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| The first test run after step 3, the painting of the rails with Humbrol 113. |
After weeks filled with work and other hobbies and model railroading on the back-burner, except for reading and planning, I finally picked up the shovel again and started with a new build. The Elmslohe H0 layout is still in its infancy with tracks laid and wiring done, but without any scenery. And I somehow cannot get myself to start with ballasting and similar tasks. Instead, re-fitting my decades-old, little H0e diesel with a new motor and decoder, re-painting and weathering her, provided lots of fun. So the decision was taken to build her a home; in the form of a micro-layout that is extendable with fiddle yards.
I laid Peco industrial narrow gauge flex track (SL-400) and two turnouts (SL-E492) on a 75 x 30 x 0.8 cm board and 44 x 18 mm frame. This size fits perfectly into the Ikea Billy shelf beside my work-desk. As written before, I like small layouts that are operational at the flick of of a switch, providing fun for a short break. Once finished, the little layout will provide a nice opportunity to shunt some skips with narrow gauge diesel engines. With fiddle yards added I could also exhibit the layout at club events (once exhibitions will be allowed again...).
The concept of the small layout is to show a section of a 760 mm industrial narrow gauge line for sand, gravel, stones, etc. I drew inspiration from images like the ones from Messers. Dachkeramik Meyer-Holsen in Ostwestfalen, However, I will go for a time period of probably the 1960s.
Here some images from Meyer-Holsen:
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| I like the heaps of sand and the way the excavator sits between them. |
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| I might hide one entrance to a fiddle yard with a comparable bridge. |
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| Source: Bloustod Teglvaerk |
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| Source: Bloustod Teglvaerk |
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| Source: drehscheibe-online |
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| Segrahner Kieswerke. Source: Der Eisenbahnfotograf |
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| Source: Buntbahn |
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| Bridge view. |
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| Trying different shots. The magazine stores also important liquids for the workers.. |
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| View down the line. |
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| Total overview. |
