Chris: My first layout

Hi Guys. Thank you for your comments.

I had to go to Inverness on the train this morning. I was thinking that maybe I had overdone it on my tree planting until I saw the forestry along Lochcarron side. Much denser than mine so happy again.

Best wishes,
Chris.

Hi everybody.

I've added four new images and a brief update. Critical comment welcome.

All the best,
Chris.

Well, I've started on the background landscape. Woodland Scenics Earth and Green undercoats have been added and the rock faces have been panted with stone grey. It all looks a bit dark but it's only the start. The family are away next week so I will get the layout downstairs and put it on the kitchen table so that I can work on it a bit more easily. So, hopefully, I will have the surrounding landscape and the backdrop ready by the time they get back. I won't be able to plant all the trees as I only ordered (150 of them) yesterday. There's a couple of photos on my site if yoe interested.

Best wishes to all,
Chris.

Hi Everybody.

I feel that a giant step forwards has been achieved today with the completion of the backdrop. This was painted by a friend of mine who is, to my mind at least, a pretty good artist. So I wish to thank her (she wishes to remain un-named) for all her hard work. In addition, I would like to thank Ian Chard (Broadford Gallery) for all his help preparing the 'canvas'.Do have a look and let me know what you think. (Bear in mind that adding grass, undergrowth and trees have yet to be done.

With my best wishes to all,
Chris.

The backgrounds looks great. The foreground colors blend very well into the background and so does the terrain. Very nice job indeed, hope I can do half as well when I get to that stage.

Mike

Thanks Mike. The backdrop has elicited several +ve comments. The artist has agreed to put her name to it and I will do a brief edit sometime linking to her website.

With my best wishes,
Chris.

Hello Folks.

Today saw another small leap forward. At the end of last week I prepared the baseboard for ground level scenery by applying a couple of coats of Woodland Scenics undercoats (green and brown as appropriate). Today I added in the cinder covered freight yard and the cobblestoned street and station yard. There is a helicopter view of it all but it's not very good as I have mislaid my camera and had to use a slimline pocket one instead. Anyway, do have a look (link below) and let me know what you think.

With my best wishes to all,
Chris.

Hello everybody. Me again.

I put all the bits of my layout together this afternoon so that a friend was able to see what all the fuss was about in all its glory. So, while I was at it I took four photos (actually a lot more but four were selected) to put up on the website. These were taken with my replacement camera with a proper flashgun attached. They are now up on the site and are, I feel, the best so far even though I set the wrong aperture and forgot to put the flash on wide angle. Anyway, I think the effect is very good and no shadows! Do have a look - I hope you will be impressed.

All the best,
Chris.

Looks like it is coming together very nicely. The trees really help "smooth" out the scenery and tie it all together. Are planning to add more?

Mike

Chirs,

The addition of the trees and grass really helps tie in the background and foreground. Your layout is taking shape nicely

Thank you Mike and Beverly.

Currently it is not feasible to add more trees on the 'hill' as the control panel folds over the the centre part of the layout. My future extended panel will be even wider but will almost certainly be detachable which would allow me to add more trees. However, I plan to keep a gap as that bit in the centre looks really good. I will finish putting grass on it and juts put some N scale undergrowth up there to represent bushes. I also plan to add a few gorse bushes (in flower) on the vertical rock faces. There will be more trees around on the baseboard.

I have been really pleased with progress in the last month, especially the background which was painted by a friend of mine. I certainly earned it! It was she who suggested the sunset (I had wanted an approaching storm) but I am mightily pleased with the result.

With best wishes,
Chris.

Hello everybody.

I've posted yet another update to my webpage today (in addition to a couple while ZCS was off air). I decided, having taken the baseboard up to my room to work on the wiring, to take a photo of the bit no-one ever sees - the wiring under the board. DCC users, shield your eyes!

Off to hospital today for further tests (I think). Back this evening - I hope.

All the best,
Chris.

Good evening friends.

Although I have been working on the layout, there is not much to see for it. What can be seen includes flowering gorse bushes and a few extra trees. I have added a few photos to my diary including a rather nice one of the right hand end and one of the nightmare known as the wiring (under the baseboard). All the buildings that have lighting are now fitted with LEDs and their roofs have been stuck down. (I haven't done the street as I am going to change the order of the buildings.) So the oily filament lamps left are the external ones. I am deliberately running them at low voltage to prevent burnouts as many of them are no longer available. In fact, if anyone has any spare yard lamps type 4801 (and the equivalent single lamps ones) that they want to sell, please let me know.

With my best wishes to all,
Chris.

Dear Friends,

I've added just one more photograph today. Yesterday I received some yard lights from Model Masters but was not going to do anything with them until after the exhibition. However, the temptation was too great to resist so last night I fitted them and this morning wired them up. Now I am waiting for my daughter's boyfriend to come for tea and I will shift the whole lot downstairs so that I can take a night-time photo and start testing the locos ready for Inverness. :o)

All the best,
Chris.

Hello everyone.

Another couple of days and yet another update. Earlier today, I offered the two end panels up to the layout to see how they looked with the backdrop in position. They are not quite as pale as I had hoped as I was using a mixing white instead of a proper white. Not my choice but I was buying from the local art studio which is selling off its remaining stock and didn't have any pure white left.

The triangular end-pieces are a compromise between nothing and square end-pieces. Nothing would make supporting the backdrop much more difficult while a square shape would box in the layout and make it somewhat claustrophobic. The triangular shape seems to work well. Anyway, have a look and see what you think.

With best wishes,
Chris.

Chris, I must have missed somewhere the link so I can see what you are talking about.
Where can we view your workmanship?

Loren:blink:

Sorry about that. The link is in my signature - Breitenfurt - Ost. I will highlight it to make it more obvious.

Best wishes,
Chris.

PS. Well that didn't work so I will just have to point it out in my posts.

There we go — Signature is now in bold!

Hi Everybody.

Very short message as I have to be up at 05.20 tomorrow.

I've added two pictures of entire layout to my website (see signature) and copied them to the gallery here. Comments welcomed.

All the best,
Chris.

Hello again Chris.
You have been busy. The recent photos with the backdrop really set the scene.
Beautiful mate.