Llwyndrissi Halt.

[Phred]

I was wondering if the wires would straighten without destroying the chassis when you pulled on the ends, but it came out very neat. Nice job!

[Mountain]

I was wondering if the wires would straighten without destroying the chassis when you pulled on the ends, but it came out very neat. Nice job!

Yes. It all worked out... I pulled them tight and twisted while hoping nothing breaks, and fortunately the wires tightened enough so they look good, and I was happy!

Bufferbeams next!

[Mountain]

Bufferbeams have been built and glued into place, which consist of half depth bufferbeams with the cetral piece at close to full depth which is where the buffer itself will sit. The drop loop will fix onto the upper part of the bufferbeam if that makes sense? (Tension lock users will not need the small lower bufferbeam section, as tension lock couplings will sit just under the half bufferbeams and can be fixed directly in place to the underside of the bufferbeams themselves).

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I am enjoying building this waggon!

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[Mountain]

Thought I would add a fun photo to demonstrate train lengths... This train including the loco takes up 45cm track length if using drop link couplings. Will take up about 50cm if using tension lock or some other types of couplings. (Some of the stock has not yet had couplings fitted but I lined them up knowing the gaps needed, as drop links do couple quite close, yet still allow quite sharp curves to be negotiated...Actually sharper than most tension locks).

As one can see the space saving potential of using 0-16.5, and yes... The loco is a converted Hornby saddletank of the "Smokey Joe" design, so the whole train can be modelled without it costing too much.

[Mountain]

While out on my travels yesterday I came across these :-

£6 each from a toy shop, with opening doors and "Pull back and go" drives! Odd having a 2CV with its driven wheels in the back, but fun things, and they look like the right scale.

[aleopardstail]

beauty of narrow gauge is the 'scale flexibility'

[Mountain]

beauty of narrow gauge is the 'scale flexibility'

They look right. I try to imagine the size of the people. Also find that 7mm scale people do vary compared to their intended markets as one is 1:43, another are 1:48 and others are another similar ratio all classed as 7mm scale depending on which country they are in. A friend of mine bought me some 7mm scale figures which I think were Chinese made and yet they stand around three quarters of the size ofnother figures. Fortunately children are three quarters of the size so I am more than happy! I just need to take mistasches off the fellas!
These vehicles just look the right size when compared to the locos. (My locos are of small freelance prototypes to begin with).

[Phred]

When you look at a group of people, there are seldom any two that are the same size regardless of age or gender. Yet different sized people on our model layouts look somehow wrong. Like when aleopardstail noted in another thread that real rocks placed on a model scene cease to resemble real rocks. Weird but true.

[Mountain]

Regarding the real rocks, the reason why they don't look right is that they lack consistency.

Make a model village using Metcalfe buildings and it looks great. Add a ready made cast resin building or two and unless one cleverly places them, the consistnecy has been upset and the realism is altered.

It is all about tricking the brain into triggering the imagination to make the scene look real. Ironically, the more intricately detailed ones layout becomes, the less ones imagination works to fill the gaps, so the harder it becomes, BUT one can still create a realistic scene if everything is consistently finescale. What does not work is a mix of finescale and coarse scale as ones mind finds it difficult to fill the gaps.

A Hornby Dublo 3-rail layout all with period Dublo or equivalent buildings and stock actually looks realistic because our mind fills in the gaps and captures other elements such as the sounds of the heavy metal locos on those tinplate rails with tinplate coaches clattering over the railjoints at speed and our imagination takes over! It is as if we ignore the 3rd rail and ignore some of the other unrealistic elements, because our minds are smoothing out the wrinkles and filling the gaps.

I first came across this by looking at paintings all drawn by local artists displayed in the library, and one was crudely painted as if it was "Coarse scale", and yet when I stood back, it looked right! Other paintings were what I would call "Finescale" and had brilliant detail, and these looked right, especially if I walked closer to them to visually explore the detail.
But then there was a painting by another artist of familiar street scenes in the town. But something didn't look right. The buildings were drawn in detail and so was the rest, except the cars and vehicles which one could tell the painter did not know much about them or how to draw them. They were sort of "Muffled" and more of an "Impression" of a car and other vehicles, which did not match the finescale accuracy of the buildings. The painting looked odd and all out of kilter! It as then as I was looking at the painting and the other paintings, it gave me the lesson of consistency. How the painting which was very coarse scale actually looked right despite it being all over a bit more like an impression... But the entire painting was one that one could walk back 15-20 ft and it would trigger ones brain to "Fill the gaps". Finescale paintings did not need so much imagination to fill the gaps.
But the inconsistent painting, despite it being an actual real scene, just didn't look right and ones mind became focussed on its faults!

Inconsistant scenes make ones eyes focus on faults.

Consistent scenes ones eyes miss the fsults and ones mind delves into dreamland where realism is triggered and kicks in!

So consider the real rocks and other real things used against a photographic backscene of a real place. It would all blend in!

Now consider a phoptgraphic backscene of a real place, but in front of that are card kits. It looks odd.

Now take those card kits and use a Brian Sheriff backscene (Remember them?) which were lovely copies of painted scenery that one could cut out and place on a roll of suitably matched skypaper (I used the old Peco skypaper sheets as they were bright and colourful), and the consistency is restored, and it all blends in to create a realistic looking scene!

To add to this, there is something I do in 7mm scale, is paint or use things in glossy colours that one expects in real life to look shiny, and paint in matt paints the things one expects tonlook dull. One can create a realistic effect by doing this. Example is a preserved steam locomotive that is in exceptionally good looking condition really needs to be painted in gloss. I remember buying (Secondhand) a Triang Albert Hall which was a model loco that had really shiny gloss paint which one would think would look unrealistic, and if one put it next to matt locos, it would not look right. BUT on its own it looked great! But if one wanted a loco in dirty looking condition, the paintwork needs to be matt! Is harder to achieve this blend of matt and gloss in both the smaller scales which look better in matt, and the very large scales which look better in gloss, but in 7mm scale I found that one can mix matt and gloss to pleasingly good effect.

[Phred]

A marathon read but you make some very interesting points. Thanks Mountain!
It is amazing how our brain 'fills in the gaps' to try and make sense of what our eyes are seeing.

[Mountain]

While nothing done due to Christmas and needing to relocate to look after a budgie, and then catching flu which I am slowly recovering with since I am back...

BUT I have a new tablet, which is bigger and more powerful than the one I had before (Actually was my Mums so she has had that back) and this tablet can resize photos rather than just cropping them. So I am using this opportunity to try to see what a picture looks like on this site.
Let's give it a try, and I can share my new loco sent my way as a Christmas present.

So here it is. An American N gauge loco. Been years since I had anything N gauge, and it is tiny! I know American locos are meant to be big, but this 4-4-0 is small!
Behind it sits a very small American H0 scale loco.
Then behind that is a little 7mm scale narrow gauge American/British style diesel shunter, and that is relatively small for this larger scale.

Hope you like it! (And the woofers and panel also came my way this Christmas!)

[fourtytwo]

That's why I gave up in N, to old, shaky hands etc

Your picture is great except it seems to suffer like many of mine with what I believe is called depth of view meaning the foreground is in focus but not the background.

I have read this is to do with aperture that in turn is controlled by lighting level so the cure is football stadium style photofloods!

[Mountain]

Yes. It was dark outside and I had to use an additional semi-dull battery lamp as the camera was almost pointing towards the light in the bedroom. I learned I needed a dull lamp with the other tablet as that struggled to take photos and did not re-size them, but did have a crop function, so I had to take the photo further away and crop the results. I assumed the above photo was resized, but it didn't seem to resize it as I forgot to click "Save" on the next page. I will remember next time.
The H0 and 0-16.5 locos are both very small models in their scales. Can get smaller in 0-16.5 but in H0 or 00 I doubt that many locos will be smaller than that little thing!

[Mountain]

As this thread is not just about the layout,, and the trains,, but tools and other things as well to assist ones budgeting modelling needs,, sometimes things can be found in unexpected places. Take a look at these.

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As can be seen, they are are not exactly designed for modellers in mind, but the whole set costs less than a typical pair of track cutting shears, so one may not expect miracles, BUT some items make pleasing tools, and what one does not use on ones models comes in handy for cutting ones finger and toe nails as an additional bonus!

Yes. Tools come in some unexpected places!

A brief description.
Left portion. Top: Two pairs of scissors. Lower: Tweezers, Cutting pliers intended for toes but has other uses. Nail clippers.
Right portion. Top: Two pairs of smaller nail clippers, one set at an angle. Lower: A file, various tools in interesting shapes and three pointy sharp tools at various angles which remind me of the dentist! They all come in a rather handy zippable brown case.

[Phred]

Mountain wrote:
comes in handy for cutting ones finger

I can manage to cut my finger with most tools.