[Robin]

45 seconds of fun – part 2 – Early planning, making decisions

With no experience at all, everything was very new, and I took some time to learn what the options were, and make a choice based on nothing but gut-feeling. Mostly I watched YouTube, without judgement, just getting an idea of what could be done. I particularly enjoyed Luke Towan’s channel, he’s Australian, so a bit closer to home, although he is an artist, and I’m definitely not, so I knew that I’d have to curb my expectations a lot. He does say ‘simply do this’ a lot, but none of it turns out simple to me.

Deciding on a scale had to be the first port of call. I knew it wasn’t going to be larger than HO, as I couldn’t imagine how I’d fit a big layout in my workshop. I considered availability and ease of use, which would really have meant HO, except that I really loved the smaller scales. So the decision came down to N or NZ120. A lot of local resources were available for NZ120, but I knew that there was more choice with N at the time. So the final decision came down to how much of the line I could actually fit into 2.4 metres. I still have these polygons in Google Earth showing how much each scale would cover, and N won simply because of the extra coverage.

Would I make the same decision now that I’ve working on the layout for a couple of years? See the upcoming chapter What I’ve Learnt – Mostly What I Got Wrong…

I chose AnyRail to plan the track, and went looking for some resources on how to choose N scale track. The consensus was that Peco Streamline was a good choice, and that code 80 was easier for beginners, but code 55 was more prototypical. So I chose code 55.

Way back then, I could hop on the train and go into Wellington, then a 5 minute walk would take me to Hobby City. They didn’t have a huge selection, but I did enjoy browsing around once a week. The cost of things was a bit of a shock at first, and I knew that my budget meant I’d be buying the track over time – I needed a lot of turnouts, and could only afford a couple a month. Since then, Hobby City has gone, and there isn’t any model railway store in Wellington or the Hutt Valley.

I began the layout long before I ever got to visit the museum, with the help of plenty of online resources, and by sticking my camera over the fence one day. I’d settled on a layout size of 240cm by 60cm, and started with two sheets of plywood from Bunnings and a pack of insulation board, also from Bunnings, an Expol 1200 x 600 x 25mm Handy Pack of 10 polystyrene insulation sheets. This gave me enough to model the hillside. I carved these with a cheap hot wire foam cutter and covered it with Sculptamold.

Maybe not the most economical solution, but it made sense to me at the time. Just a quick comment on my budget may help here – I retired 3 years ago, with not much saved having had to live on my savings during covid, which really hit my business hard. So basically I live on superannuation. Luckily I pay very little rent, and I can manage quite well, and even save a little, but my model railway budget does vary depending on what is going on in my life. I try to stick to $200 a month.

Choosing between DC and DCC really came down to the cost, and my lack of any skills with wiring etc. I started with a cheap second-hand DC controller, but since then I’ve upgraded to the Hornby HM6000 with app. Still just simple DC, but a lot more realistic with inertia control and even sound via the app, via a Bluetooth speaker.

Other decisions include a 3D printer (Elegoo Mars 3 resin printer), and an airbush for painting. I’ll cover the airbrush later in Mostly What I Got Wrong….

Early pics of the layout shaping using polystyrene.

[Robin]

Apologies to those who replied to my previous posts, which I’ve now deleted and reposted as a discussion, now that I know how things work. Sorry about that.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 4 weeks ago by  Robin.

[Robin]

The far end of the layout was used as a test, I completed this before I began the actual station area. Although this isn’t complete here.

[Robin]

I popped some polygons into Google Earth to get a good idea of how much of the museum line I could actually fit into my chosen layout size.

[Robin]

Matching the real-life museum, and rolling stock

One of the showpieces at the museum is C847, a beautifully restored 2-6-2 C-class steam locomotive. (This is not currently operating, awaiting some work.) There’s a Bachmann 2-6-2 available, but my budget meant it would be a while before I could buy this, so I bought a Bachmann 0-6-0 on TradeMe. I love this, it has a sloped tender kind of like C847 (if you squint), and looks the part on my layout. I have since bought a second-hand 2-6-2, in the hope that I could swap out the tender for the sloped one, but this has been a bit of an issue, with a huge amount of swearing just trying to get all the wheels of the new loco and tender on the track. I have seen an O scale(?) C class loco on TradeMe, beautifully hand-crafted, I think it went for just over $1000. I was tempted to take a drastic change in direction when I saw this, but that was really just a dream.

My plan has always been to design and print as much as I can, all the buildings etc, and maybe some of the rolling stock.

I still plan to design and print a couple of other locos, De508 and R.M.30, the Standard railcar. I will need to learn a lot in the meantime, though. I will certainly be looking for advice here when I get around to these projects. I have a couple of partly finished Aa carriages, which proves the concept of printing my own, but not quite up to the quality I need eventually.

I started with the station buildings, there’s a cute little ticket office, and a couple of little sheds, one serves as a photo and information display, and the other is a restored and furnished track-side hut. Oh, and a toilet block. The biggest building is the workshop/shed, 3 tracks wide, and 2 more tracks in a lean-to.

My first project was the ticket office. One YouTube video suggested that a project like this may take a couple of goes, but I think I’m probably up to iteration number 12. The current version was printed just so I could change the colour, as the museum office had been repainted since I started.

The next project was a bit simpler, the water tank and shed. The shed used some ideas I learnt from many tries at the office, and the tank was just separate prints for the tank and tower, painted and glued, with a fine 40 link per inch chain. This is one of my favourite prints, it seems that anything which doesn’t rely on straight edges and faces has less chance of printing issues, and any minor errors won’t show up as much. Plus the simple paint job is quite effective.

It was always important that I include the creek at the front of the layout, as the station and track are carefully designed to fit between the hill and the stream. Although this is named the Silverstream Railway Museum, the included water-way is in fact Hull’s Creek.

One of the most difficult tasks was deciding how to model the vegetation. The museum sits below a bush and forest-clad spur, and bordering the museum has been mostly replanted with native bush. It was important to get this right, and I’m still working on it. There’s a lot of information, mainly on YouTube, covering different ways of making vegetation, but none of it really relates to New Zealand native bush. I’ve seen layouts at shows with some amazing native bush, but I don’t really have the artistry to produce something like that.

Woodland Scenics probably has the biggest range of scenic products, and they do have some lovely stuff, but it is quite expensive. The bulk of the bush on my layout is their Clump Foliage light green, mixed in with various foliage mostly from Scenic Textures. This is NZ-based, although their stock is a bit hit and miss. I did have a pack of 3 different coloured clump foliage, but I haven’t managed to find this again, and will need to figure something else to match the colours I’ve already used. This does a fair job of representing the new growth at the museum.

We are very lucky to have Scenic Textures here, I understand this is produced on the Kapiti Coast, and I sometimes see them at all the local shows. I know that the pharmacy at Paraparaumu has a lot of their stuff available.

Ferns have been a bit of a headache, especially the mamaku. These large ferns are quite prevalent at the museum having been left when the pine was cleared. I have a few different products on the layout, but nothing which really represents these iconic trees. The vegetation is about 80% finished.

[Lawrence]

Firstly, thanks for sharing your journey.

I completely get the urge to do your own thing (I’m ‘guilty’ of it myself). However, reading your posts I’m struck by how much easier you could have made life by joining a club and/or availing yourself of available resources.

Many of the problems you outline are common to most of us, and all of them have been ‘solved’ to various degrees, and a variety of approaches. There’s no obligation to follow worn paths of course, but at least if you know what others have done you have the choice, or possibly inspiration, to chart your own course.

This won’t suit you directly as they are too large, but this is how I do tree ferns: https://nzfinescale.com/growing-things-tree-ferns/. There’s no reason why a similar approach wouldn’t work in a smaller scale. While it could be viable to do it yourself, there are various local purveyors of etched parts who might be interested in offering such things in N/NZ120. There’s laser cut paper and other ideas too.

nzfinescale.com

Growing things: Tree ferns – NEW ZEALAND FINESCALE

Growing things: Tree ferns – NEW ZEALAND FINESCALE

[Robin]

Thanks for that link, Lawrence, that is just fantastic work. The last shot is a perfect representation of the ‘real’ New Zealand bush.

[Lawrence]

Cheers. There’s other stuff on my blog about the bush modelling. One thing you may find helpful is the idea of recolouring trees/bush. Off the shelf foliage is seldom the shade we want. I often use air-brushed ink for this, but cheap spray can paint can work with care (not my original idea by any means). You can use it to achieve overall tonal variation in foliage or just brighten up the outer growing tips. Either way some variety in leaf colour makes foliage look a lot more realistic for relatively little effort or cost.

[Robin]

Here’s an early shot of the vegetation. The creek runs along the front of the layout.

[Lewis]

This is great, thanks for sharing Robin

[Robin]

3D design, printing, painting and weathering

I had decided early on that I’d use an airbrush, as I just don’t have the eyesight, dexterity, artistry or patience to use a paint brush. When designing for the airbrush it works best for me to print each colour separately, then painted before assembly. These can all be printed at the same time, just separate models. Sometimes masking tape works when painting, sometimes it just makes a mess. When I try to add any little touches with a brush I invariably make a mess. there’s a photo below showing a real world/model comparison, and you can see the mess I make sometimes — this particular building faces the back of the layout, though, so it isn’t important to have it perfect.

I do love using the airbrush though, after a false start with a budget brush – see ‘Mostly What I Got Wrong’ coming soon.

I have used Discreet 3D Studio Max for a long time to design my flight simulator scenery, and this was always a good choice when the subscription was paid for by the business, but now that I’ve retired I have to think long and hard before renewing the subscription each year, as the NZ$450 is quite an expense on a pension. Still, I will probably renew again this year, otherwise I’d have to learn to use something different. I’m getting too old to change.

3D printing was another learning experience, mainly because of the logistics of printing – the smell and fumes, washing and curing. Turns out much of the year it’s too cold in my work area, so having an area specifically for printing would make a lot more sense. But perseverance has meant that I can mostly get a reasonable result.

The very big shed was the exception to this, it needed to be printed in sections, to fit on the print plate. Getting large pieces to fit together well is almost impossible for me, so in the end I printed each end and a few trusses, and built the rest of the biggest section from cardboard, with some purchased sheets of 1:200 corrugated plastic. Very new to me, but worked out quite well. The lean-to was reprinted using a better resin and temperature control, and I’ve yet to reprint the metal-clad section which hangs off the back – I dropped the first one and broke it.

Getting things to fit together takes a lot of trial and error, and plenty of sanding. I’ve settled on ‘snap-in” windows and doors, which have an internal extrusion which fits against the inside wall. This keeps the glue away from the outside, and saves a lot of mess.

My resin printer does a great job, but still has limitations. The biggest issue is that the faces which face(!) the build plate are almost never as even and tidy as the rest, and can droop a bit. I’m getting a better result after of lot of tweaking, but I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of this without using a better printer.

Lately I’ve been on a buying spree, grabbing some second-hand rolling stock which represents some of the stuff they have lying around rusting. As we’re getting close to winter, I should have time to ‘finish’ the layout, after 2 years work so far. I know that people put a lot of work into weathering, but so far I’ve just worked on the rusty bits and pieces lying around the museum. Painting rust on things is fun, taking nice new-looking wagons and just covering them with rust, followed by a black wash. Sure, a couple of my rusty wagons are actually wood, but that don’t worry me none.

Most of the photos which illustrate this post follow in individual comments which is a simple way of adding captions.

[Robin]

The front left section of the big shed is my first attempt at using cardboard as the 3D print was causing too many issues. The front and internal struts are 3D printed, but the rest is cardboard with a layer of plastic 1:200 corrugated sheets I bought online.

The leanto is made from 2 3D prints sanded and joined, as the length is too much for my printer. The rear section worked well, but needs to be reprinted as I broke it. As this is a 10-hour print I may need to wait for summer.

The rolling stock are cheap models with some rust paint and a black wash. The flat car is a very rough representation of a real life car, complete with a load of rusty bogies.

[Robin]

A snap-in window to make things simple.

[Robin]

Comparing the real building with my model, you can see how the difference between the bits which have been painted with the airbrush, and the mess I make with a tiny brush on the windows. Luckily this building would never be seen up-close, as it faces the back of the layout.

[Robin]

Here’s a handy app I found for my phone, I tell it which paints I own (after paying for it to unlock all the palettes). I just have to sample a colour in photoshop, and enter the colour code into the app, and it gives me a few ways to mix the colour using my paints.

Ok, it ain’t perfect, as one thing I know is if you mix too many paints you invariably end up with brown, but if you restrict it to 2 or 3 paints then it does a reasonable job. It’s called Color Mixer in the Google Store.

[Robin]

Here’s a handy app I found for my phone, I tell it which paints I own (after paying for it to unlock all the palettes). I just have to sample a colour in photoshop, and enter the colour code into the app, and it gives me a few ways to mix the colour using my paints.

Ok, it ain’t perfect, as one thing I know is if you mix too many paints you invariably end up with brown, but if you restrict it to 2 or 3 paints then it does a reasonable job. It’s called Color Mixer in the Google Store.

[Lawrence]

That’s a pretty reasonable looking building. Well done.

The thing about projects of that sort are that there are many ways to attack it. The choice of method will be a choice thing determined by many personal factors. If you are happy with it, then you tick the box and move on. If you’re not, you cast around for other methods. At least that’s my experience.

There’s quite a few ways to achieve small fine windows, for example, and while 3d prints are probably a reasonable approach for the reveals, you are pushing your luck to get fine frames to print well. I rejected that approach in 1:64.

[Robin]

Things I learnt – mostly what I got wrong

I’ve learnt a few things about trains. This was inevitable, as I’m firmly on the autism spectrum and once I start to research something I find it hard to stop. Anything newer than the 1950s still doesn’t do much for me, though.

I’ve learnt that there’s a huge community of model train folk out there in the world, and most of them model either British or American rail, even if they live in New Zealand. I’ve learnt that New Zealand has an amazing rail history, with plenty of kiwi ingenuity used to build some unique infrastructure.

Things don’t always turn out the way you planned. Who would have thought that using code-55 N scale rail joiners would result in so much swearing and wastage. (Since typing this I discovered that some ‘batches’ of joiners work better than others, even though they all come from the same manufacturer.) N scale was probably a reasonable choice when I was 60, but since then my eyesight had deteriorated, so my next project will be bigger. My grandson, who is not yet 3, has started saying ‘for goodness’ sake’ whenever he gets frustrated, and I’m pretty sure that’s just from watching me try and rerail my loco and passenger cars.

I bought a budget airbrush, but the first one stopped working, so I returned it and bought something slightly more expensive, but still budget. A few months ago I decided that this wasn’t working out, and that I should have listened to all the advice – buy a quality airbrush. Last month I was in Brisbane, I walked into a model shop and found an Iwata Revolution airbrush for AU$200, which was about $100 saving on the NZ price. The Revolution is an entry-level Iwata, but still built to the same quality standards, and has made a huge difference to my painting. So listen when people say don’t try to save money on a brush. I do have a cheap compressor which does the job, though, so I haven’t ended up spending a fortune on this.

One thing which I didn’t realise when I started was that some of the layout won’t really be visible. The lovely little ticket office which I spent so much time on is pretty much hidden by the verandah. I reprinted it with less of an overhang, but it still doesn’t show up as a showpiece of the railway. Oh, well.

Same goes for the buildings on the far side of the big shed, you just don’t get to see them unless you go outside and peer through the window, or open the sliding door if it’s warm enough. I’ve recently shifted the layout upstairs from the workshop, where it was even worse, stuck against the wall so there was no way to see down the side of the shed.

Of course another issue is the single track layout, I really enjoy using the app to send my little engine up and down the track, complete with sounds, and it is designed as a sort of shunting layout, with a run-around track and 5 switches to the sheds, but sometimes I wonder if it might not have been better to have something which just runs round and round. The run-around is used at the museum to switch ends of the train for the return journey, but my layout doesn’t go as far as the end of the line, so there’s no way to switch the loco to the back of the train at the far end.