Having given up on doing anything with the line in the garden until spring now (too much to do...), I have made a start on some indoor projects for the winter which I can get on with at my leisure when have some time spare.
I want to put some more detailed scenic items out when I am running the railway, so have decided to produce some dioramas that will be fixed to a suitable sized piece of plywood and can be put outside when needed and then put indoors, under cover, when not needed. Given the weather at the moment, this sort of thing wouldn't last very long if it was outside for any length of time! Each of the pieces of plywood is tailored to fit onto a suitably located slab of slate or paving material which will remain in situ on the railway all year round.
The first one I produced was a bit of a mixture of items, surrounding a rotating bar signal to protect movements onto the branch line off the main circuit, which was made from odd bits of wood/wire/plasticard. I had aquired a figure of a man with a pneumatic drill, so I thought he could be positioned on this base as well, so I scratchbuilt a compressor trailer from odd bits of plasticard and electrical cable and put him with it. A traincrew call box was made out of odds and ends , as were a set of barriers to go round the man digging the hole, and then a selection of Bachmann track tools, some spare Aristocraft sleepers and a couple of other figures were added to complete the scene.
The second one is a fuelling pont from a variety of odds and ends - A Hartland tanker body, a commercially available diecast fuel pump, odd bits of wood and plasticard to make the support for the tank and the adjacent hut and a shampoo bottle from a hotel used as a basis for the electrical cabinet! The oil drums are actually commercially available items turned from wood which have been painted up accordingly. It still needs some notices to be made to finish the job off properly.
The fuel pump is 1/18 scale and a bit big for 1/22.5, but I used a couple of the cheap "Golden Compass" figures I picked up about 12 months ago which are also a bit too big, so you don't really notice the difference, particularly as no other items will be placed adjacent (apart from passing rolling stock)
I've got another 2 to produce in the coming months (apart from some major rolling stock projects) so will post some pictures when they are completed.
I want to put some more detailed scenic items out when I am running the railway, so have decided to produce some dioramas that will be fixed to a suitable sized piece of plywood and can be put outside when needed and then put indoors, under cover, when not needed. Given the weather at the moment, this sort of thing wouldn't last very long if it was outside for any length of time! Each of the pieces of plywood is tailored to fit onto a suitably located slab of slate or paving material which will remain in situ on the railway all year round.
The first one I produced was a bit of a mixture of items, surrounding a rotating bar signal to protect movements onto the branch line off the main circuit, which was made from odd bits of wood/wire/plasticard. I had aquired a figure of a man with a pneumatic drill, so I thought he could be positioned on this base as well, so I scratchbuilt a compressor trailer from odd bits of plasticard and electrical cable and put him with it. A traincrew call box was made out of odds and ends , as were a set of barriers to go round the man digging the hole, and then a selection of Bachmann track tools, some spare Aristocraft sleepers and a couple of other figures were added to complete the scene.
The second one is a fuelling pont from a variety of odds and ends - A Hartland tanker body, a commercially available diecast fuel pump, odd bits of wood and plasticard to make the support for the tank and the adjacent hut and a shampoo bottle from a hotel used as a basis for the electrical cabinet! The oil drums are actually commercially available items turned from wood which have been painted up accordingly. It still needs some notices to be made to finish the job off properly.
The fuel pump is 1/18 scale and a bit big for 1/22.5, but I used a couple of the cheap "Golden Compass" figures I picked up about 12 months ago which are also a bit too big, so you don't really notice the difference, particularly as no other items will be placed adjacent (apart from passing rolling stock)
I've got another 2 to produce in the coming months (apart from some major rolling stock projects) so will post some pictures when they are completed.
