Let there be light!

Over the last few days I have also installed the lighting bus using a power jack mounted in the new side boarding and wiring under the board. To this I will wire my new 'warm white' 3mm LED's from an eBay seller.

So finally the time has come to start wiring the lights and placing the first buildings! First comes the station building. The first test with the lighting showed up a couple of problems I half expected... the light makes the walls glow ever so slightly, plus light comes out from underneath the buildings. Also, the bulb could be seen from through windows, which wasn't great. So, I made a cardboard mask for the inside of the buildings, cutting out the holes for the windows and door lights. I then covered those holes over with masking tape. This diffuses the light through the windows, and hides the unpainted insides and bulb from sight. Finally, I created a skirt for the bottom of the buildings, on the insides, out of black insulation tape. This seals the building against the platform.

The other mod I made to the building was to move the supporting poles in a bit, as they where on the edge of the platform. A nail has been placed in the platform to hold the poles in place.

And here are the results!




More tomorrow...!

Side boarding on

Today, and over the last couple of days I have made quite a few changes.

Firstly I have remove the tacked on beach section. Its not gone for good, but I'm going to turn it into a separate slot in module. This will make moving the layout a lot easier, and reduce the weight - it was getting heavy!

Then I added new handles underneath and new felt feet. Finally I added the side boarding to protect the sides of the layout, and to tidy up the appearance. The beach side is cut away to allow the module to connect with the main board.





The boarding is Tongue and Groove cladding, with is cheap and the perfect side. these will get a coat or two of glass at some point.

More tomorrow...

Station buildings

Last night I finished some station buildings. These ones have been built from Metcalfe kits, and I was impressed with how easy it was to build, given the arches I previously built were from scalescene.com (printable PDF kits) and as such are a lot more labour intensive and prone to mistakes/general untidiness!

That said, I still think the scalescene kits are excellent, with nice detailing, flexibility, great instructions, and excellent value for money! But for quick building times and tidiness, Metcalfe win hands down.



Metcalfe Models PN134 - Island Platform with Buildings. Excuse the poor photography!

When I can get at the railway again I'll place it, but at the moment I have this problem...!

The arches

Been making some buildings for the town scene, so here is a work in progress of the arches, with shops underneath, and a road bridge. When I can get to the railway i'll place it!

*Edit - uploaded new photo...