Chris Wilson

wildrover.andy@googlemail.com (Andy Hewitt) wrote in
news:1i15py5.fz7ekj1usgcczN%wildrover.andy@googlem ail.com:

> Hi,
>
> As I'm going through a mid-life crisis,

Aren't we all :-)

> I've decided to have a crack at
....

On a slighlty more serious note my father has just returned to the hobby
after around 30 years or so, he's in his 70's bless 'im and needs
something to do in the winter that will keep him out of the way of my
mother. Summer he's off up and down the country fly-fishing, anyway to
the point ...

You've had a shed load of good advice so far in this thread, my advice
at this point is to forget it all. Build your 6'x4' table-top layout and
have some fun. That's what I did and that's what my dad did, he'll stop
at that point but as for me I now have an entire garage to play trains
in ...

.... but that's only after playing around on the table top, deciding on
what I liked, what I didn't and generally speaking haveing a right good
mess about.

Once you've done everything you can or want to on your 6'x'4' board and
once you're sure you are really going to enjoy yourself playing trains
thats the time to start planning and building that "real" layout.

And of course constructing stock, buildings, developing your techniques
for scenicing the layout can all be done on 6x4 with much of your work -
when you're happy with it ported over to that exhibition standard layout
that we all want to build. When you get in to the shed - try "going
around the walls" and have an operating well in the centre for you to
stand in.

Tamyia acrylics are fine, just make sure you use the right varnish for
the finish you're after. When painting locos and larger models though I
do tend to use enamels from an air brush.


--
All the best,

Chris Wilson

email to cwilson at britwar dor co dot uk, reply address is spamtrapped.
http://www.the-dormouse.org The Dormouse Line model railway

Andy Hewitt

Chris Wilson <4rubbish@britwar.co.uk> wrote:

> wildrover.andy@googlemail.com (Andy Hewitt) wrote in
> news:1i15py5.fz7ekj1usgcczN%wildrover.andy@googlem ail.com:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > As I'm going through a mid-life crisis,
>
> Aren't we all :-)

I'm suspecting that most train sets are bought by middle aged men ;-)

> > I've decided to have a crack at
> ...
>
> On a slighlty more serious note my father has just returned to the hobby
> after around 30 years or so, he's in his 70's bless 'im and needs
> something to do in the winter that will keep him out of the way of my
> mother. Summer he's off up and down the country fly-fishing, anyway to
> the point ...
>
> You've had a shed load of good advice so far in this thread, my advice
> at this point is to forget it all. Build your 6'x4' table-top layout and
> have some fun. That's what I did and that's what my dad did, he'll stop
> at that point but as for me I now have an entire garage to play trains
> in ...

I can get like that myself, I have a Scalextric too, which I've added
too a bit (enough that I can have a house sized main straigh ;-)).
Unfortuantely I just don't have the space for a permanent layout for
that.

> ... but that's only after playing around on the table top, deciding on
> what I liked, what I didn't and generally speaking haveing a right good
> mess about.

Aye, that's the intention.

> Once you've done everything you can or want to on your 6'x'4' board and
> once you're sure you are really going to enjoy yourself playing trains
> thats the time to start planning and building that "real" layout.

Aye, the future may hold better prospects for bigger layouts - like
child leaving home, and such like :-)

> And of course constructing stock, buildings, developing your techniques
> for scenicing the layout can all be done on 6x4 with much of your work -
> when you're happy with it ported over to that exhibition standard layout
> that we all want to build. When you get in to the shed - try "going
> around the walls" and have an operating well in the centre for you to
> stand in.

That's something I plan on later, having just moved house, I have lost a
lot of storage space compared to the old one, so the shed is
multi-purpose at the moment, a 6x4 is as much as I can manage for now.

> Tamyia acrylics are fine, just make sure you use the right varnish for
> the finish you're after. When painting locos and larger models though I
> do tend to use enamels from an air brush.

OK, cheers. I'm not sure what colour this thing is going to end up in
yet. My initial research only found them painted in LMS crimson, but I
have since found that they did also get painted in Brunswick green when
it all went BR (must have been left over from Spitfires or something!).

Thanks for the input.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.mac.com/andrewhewitt1/>