Oophs they did it again or sign of the times…

 The Light Railway recently sent off for some signage. The men from the station look on confused-

                           They are confused as to why the names of two stations are on one sign!

Half an hour , some vigorous cutting and a strong cup of tea later they have separated the signs.

Here they are , four station signs looking a bit battered but perfectly serviceable with a little lick of paint.

( meanwhile in the real world. I tried to get signs made last year and they misspelled them, l said nothing. This year l sent off for some more signs and this time the spelling was correct but they put two station names in each sign , again I have said nothing. So l decided to use the mistake as part of the story, hence the above.)

Sunny day in the garden

 It was mild today and we worked a little on tidying up the garden post winter. Working towards the garden railway taking off this year...

After the ice

 In the country halt on the embryonic garden railway the weather testers ( figures painted and varnish spending winter outdoors to see how it affects them) are glad the snow has receded. Time for them to share a pipe smoke or two, drink strong tea and catch up with each other...

Testing

 Finished some 16mm scale garden railway people yesterday, varnished them thoroughly and set them outside. I want to see how well they survive the winter.

Suggestions for what conversations are taking place in the photo are most welcome...

Stalled!

The garden railway project has stalled. Buildings begun, track traced on the ground and people half painted. Not to mention the rail cars in their packages awaiting making. I am not sure why this is. On mulling it over I feel I have read too much, done too little, am weary from these strange days,have been put off by the weather and have come up with no overarching backstory. Half completed buildings and people rebuke me from the shed. Loads of books and magazines remind me of what I have not done. I am not sure where to go next. A great drive during forward in September or mothballing till the Spring ( real and metaphorical) comes. Any thoughts?

Found whilst exploring under the eaves this morning.

Looking for something ( unsuccessfully) today and I came across this catalogue. I have some of his cards etc somewhere but can’t seem to find them. Anyway enjoy the whimsy of Peter Barnfield-

What I am working on...

Here are a couple of things on the workbench. Firstly 1/32 ancients, HaT and Italaeri . I am enjoying painting the bigger scale figures and doing simple conversions to them like swopping heads and repositioning arms etc. Unlike the HaT 20mm figures these are a descent rigidity of plastic and paint goes on well to them. 

 The garden railway has stalled on some fronts, for example I am still awaiting the track I ordered a month ago and Inreally ought to contact them. The scenery is moving forward however and I am pleased with the resin buildings I am working on. They have begun to come together well.

Gardens: real and imaginary

Yesterday in pictures

Mainly outdoors

 The weather was spectacular here and almost all of the day was spent in the garden. I worked on the small halt and primed the cottage. Again some area of the garden was cleared of ornamental grass to see if it could be the terminus for the garden railway. I weeded a great deal, tried to work out why the rhubarb is not giving anything like its usual crop ,tried to halt the invasion of suckers from the raspberry canes and a vigorous rambling (?) rose who is trying to take over the garden underground.

The Laburnum is beautiful at this time of year ,quite spectacular. I managed to tack some figures onto stirrers with pva ready for painting and tried to move on the 10mm figures ( Masai warriors and porters);I had popped on a base prior to painting, not the best decision with hindsight. 

Gardening can be totally absorbing or a chance to mull over hobby plans,yesterday it served both functions at various times during the day. The outdoor day ended with Belgian beer and eating together, a good day indeed,

Modelling and a change of plan

Yesterday saw the Araldite opened ( haven’t used it for years and what a sticky messy thing to use) and the resin halt glued together. The building fitted together pretty well and I am pleased so far.

The halt figure for scale and evidence of messy industry.

Yesterday we chatted about the garden railway and my daughters chipped in some ideas. There is a seven inch gap between the breeze block boundary wall and the fence my neighbour built. If I ran the track along the wall top there would be no place for buildings as I cannot fix anything to the fence to place them on. Secondly the train might derail into the gap and come to harm. So it has been decided to run the track through the border from the pebble beach area to the top corner of the garden. If you look closely you can see the garden cane with flower pot on top that holds a twine line I laid out to mark a route. I will investigate further during the weekend...

The long and the short and the tall.

Early weeding in the morning sun gave way to serious sorting indoors with the family. There was however hobby time on and off during the day.

 A garden railway structural item was primed ready for assembly later in the week. I intend to make my own buildings if possible but I got a resin kit to begin the process. Other preparations took place too.

The painting desk p.m with the long, short and tall. The long is a 54mm Homeguard chap who had gone missing and turned up during the sorting process. He , like his fellow platoon members needed, needs a repaint before being used for gaming. The short are some lovely 1st Corps castings of rather familiar looking characters from much beloved children’s books. I had forgotten that I had bought them . They turned up in a wee nook and cranny in the painting desk and I couldn’t resist giving them a whirl. The tall are two 16mm scale railway figures. I can’t recall when I last painted anyone that tall , I am interested to see how I get on with them and their fellows...

Here are the finished  favourite characters. I am quite pleased with how they turned out. They are just crying out to be involved in a game or perhaps a visit to Tradgardistan... 

Arrivals

Yesterday saw a flurry of activity in the garden to plant more seeds. We all worked together on this. Time also to flick through old copies of the American magazine “Garden Railways “ for inspiration. Some work was done on the Ruslanders but not too much. The weather here in the Duchy is to be colder and unsettled so less reading in the garden or alfresco meals. Often when the beech hedge comes out it gets quite windy and this is happening once more. A couple of arrivals-

I located these old Britains figures who will take their place in the Rusland Army. I got them in some eBay purchase ages ago and they have now found their niche. A repair to one of their rifles and some paint and they will serve . The plastic figure has been pva prepared and started to be painted. He will serve as a scout and guide. 

The courier brought the first of my garden railway purchases yesterday. Here they are having been unpacked. More about them over the coming week.

Today I hope to fight the Bit of Bother in Tradgardistan game  so be ready for a battle report later, probably tomorrow.

Garden railway plans and possibilities

I have read magazines and books about garden railways for more years than I care to recall. I have thought about ideas but never done anything about it. Now seems a time to remedy that. The emphasis will be as much upon the buildings and folk as upon the trains. Fulfilling my model village, railway, miniature landscaping interests in one. The idea is to do something not too intrusive but future plans may change that. Just a single track with halts for the present along with battery powered train. Low key but engaging. The track will run along the breeze block walling not on the ground. It will be easier to see and involve less bending and kneeling amidst plants. Here are my photos and notebook jottings

 My original sketch to show the lie of the land, I’m no artist but enjoyed the process.

A view from indoors. As this area of the garden has a beach theme the terminus here will be at an imaginary village on the coast.

My daughter held the tape measure for me to enable me to add measurements to this rough plan.

Horribly annotated picture that hopefully makes my simple plan a little more obvious. I will mull things over in the coming days.