Tuesday 27 November 2012

Way & Works

Today the Way & works branch received their first delivery of sleepers and rail. Hopefully the order will be enough to complete the A box module. Both rail (code 55 micro engineering ) and sleepers were bought from Fast Tracks in Canada. Below are that stats.

52.57 meters of rail
400 PC Crossover sleepers
800 PC Sleepers
2000 Wood Turnout sleepers
5000 Wood Sleepers

Thats a total of 8,200 sleepers! Happy track laying time ahead. Here is a progress photo of my Vr Y class (Spirit Design) that is in production. I will post more on this later on when i have painted and the headlights and marker lights. Click the photos to make them bigger






Monday 19 November 2012

Painting a backdrop Part One

Well I've called this part one because it didn't work the first time around.  I'm first to stay that I'm no artist painter but i got this all wrong. Oh well. After doing all the prep working including punching the nails in, filling the holes with filler and than sanding it all back nice an smooth. I used 1200 grit sand paper for that. I was very happy with that result, i had a great surface to use. I than went and under coated it with a 3 and 1paint. Once that was dry and than went to work a painting a faded sky. A faded sky is were the sky gets darker the higher up the backdrop. This is were all the mistakes happen.

1. I used the wrong type of paint. I used house paint.
2. I used a small roller
3. I started at the top and went down. (Darker to light)

Once the paint had dried it was clear that it didn't work the way i wanted it too. It was also clear that i had the wrong shade of blue as well.  So what to do next?  After talking to family members and VNSC members I'm now armed with the right info and tips.  This is what i should have done.

1. Use a artist water based paint with a drying retarder mix in.
2. Use a good brush.
3. Start at the bottom and work my way to the top. (lighter to darker)












Before i can do all that i have to give the backdrop a good sand so that the artist paint can stick to the backdrop. A big job at hand but it will all be worth it in the end. I look forward in posting part two of this with the finished backdrop.  Other projects Ive been working on is a Spirit Design VR Y class brass loco kit. This the first time Ive put a brass loco together. I will post soon on the progress of this kit.

If you have any tips on painting backdrops please email me at bendigonscale@live.com.au or if you have and photos of bendigo yard in the 60 or 70's.