And The Winner Is...

Having worked on my bridge model for about four months the good news is that my careful packing meant that it arrived safely at ExpoNG on Saturday along with eight other entries in a variety of scales.

The winner was "The Cutting" by Derek Harris. As you can see in the photo above the presentation was very clever as it forced you to look down on the model, just as you would if peering over a wall to look down into a cutting. I'm not going to comment on any of the models more than that as after one conversation on Saturday I found that even positive comments could be easily misunderstood given I had a model in the competition.

Given that I held off on showing the completed diorama before Saturday here it is in all its glory along with a label and more importantly my first exhibition badge (these are handed out at most exhibitions to each layout on show).

Usually people stick the exhibition badges to the layout display board but as I don't have one for the bridge, and it's unlikely to be displayed at any other exhibition in the future I'll just carefully store the badge away with the model.

I had a lot of fun building the bridge and I've improved my modelling skills no end, so regardless of the competition result, I'm calling this a win. Now I just have to wait and see what next years challenge will be and if it similarly captures my imagination.

Now With Sleepers

I've spent the last couple of days slowly adding the sleepers to the rails so I can see how the section over the bridge will look. The sleepers in the undergrowth can wait until later.

It's not a perfect replica, when compared to Bobby Mhor's photo, but I'm pretty happy with how that looks.

Girders

Progress is moving along nicely now with my entry to the Dave Brewer challenge and today I can report that the girders have been detailed and both them and the rails nicely rusted. For a change I thought I'd show a different view of the diorama looking downstream from above the bridge.

From this angle you can't see the concrete support block although I promise it is there, and I think the scene is really coming together nicely now. The next two jobs will be to add the sleepers to the rail and to paint the rocks. I'm guessing I'll do these in parallel so I don't go crazy hand spiking the rail.

Rocks and Rails

Just a quick update on the diorama, as I've now scribbed the stonework on the right-hand bridge support and cut the rails to length.

The rocks were scribbed into the plaster using a dental pick, which worked nicely. The pattern isn't fully accurate to the actual bridge but I think it should work reasonably well once painted up and part hidden under plants.

The ends of the rails are likely to be hidden where the track is over grown so I've soldered them to copperclad PCB strip for strength rather than relying on the hand spiked sleepers to hold everything in place. This should also make fitting the sleepers easier as the gauge is already set.

While neither of these tasks are huge in themselves, I do feel that the scene is starting to come together nicely now. I see I still have a bit of work to do where the girders join the left bank (that gap needs filling) before I start painting the rocks, but I can now also crack on with building the track and detailing the girders and those jobs should move the diorama forward quite quickly.

Terraforming at 75%

Now that I'm fairly confident about how I'm going to model the water for my Dave Brewer challenge entry, I've started work on the basic terrain of the final model. So far I'm at about 75% completed.

As you can see, so far I've modelled the river bed, with a drop for a small fall, and the left hand bank where the railway enters on top of a rock. The right hand bank, although taking up a smaller portion of the diorama, is more complex as it contains a man made embankment for the railway to run on. I have some ideas of how I'm going to build that up, but it still requires a little more thought before I make a start on it.

OO8: 4mm Scale, 2ft Gauge Track

One of the problems of modelling in OO9 (9mm gauge track in 4mm scale) is that often the track isn't really to scale. 9mm track at 4mm to the foot is 2' 3" but narrow gauge railways varied quite widely in their choice of track gauge. In Britain possibly the most common gauge was 2 ft meaning that 9mm track is 1mm too wide.

The bridge I'm building for my entry to this years Dave Brewer challenge carried a 2ft gauge railway and given I'm aiming for the smallest entry category (to make it easier to transport on the train) I thought it made sense to produce track to the correct gauge so I give you my first attempt at OO8 track (8mm gauge track modelled at 4mm to the foot).

As you can see this combines the numerous experiments I've been blogging about recently (here, here, and here) to produce a short test piece. Producing actual track using rail spikes in this scale is exceedingly time consuming. I've probably spent about 10 hours producing this small piece, although by the end of that I'd got a system going that means producing more will be quicker but not by much. On the plus side the track is to scale and an accurate representation of the real track I'm modelling right down to the number and placement of rail spikes. The spikes look a bit too big in the photos and they probably are, but in real life they blend in quite well.

I'm really happy with how the track has turned out, although it has meant that the number of hours I thought I'd need to build the diorama for the challenge has increased quite substantially. I should still have enough time though so I'm not worried.... yet.