Christmas 2025 Project - update # 19

One of my favourite parts of building these small narrow gauge layouts is adding 'clutter' - those additional details that bring the layout to life. Most of my clutter items are scratch built and I thought it would be interesting to show a couple of these details.

The first image shows a couple of barrels constructed from two pieces of a children's toy that was donated by my grandsons. Both are unmodified and painted in back, brown and rust colours.

The second image shows what I am calling a brazier and this was made from a small section of an electrical construction toy (the main body) and bits from my spares box. Once again it was painted in aged and weathered rust colours.

Next we have a scratch built steam powered winch, a more complicated piece of scratch building that uses the main body from the same electrical construction toy (see above) and various bits from my spares box. I was inspired to build this model after reading about stationary steam engines on the internet and although not an exact copy of an actual steam engine it does follow the design and colours seen on many such engines.

I would hope that most if not all of these items will find their way on to the latest Pizza layout but as I have literally dozens of these item built and painted I might have to be a little reserved on how many I actually use.

I will post more images of these scratch built items in later posts.

Tony

Model making and wargaming magazines - what now?

Another TGJones store closes. I worry about the health of so many magazines as TGJones or as it was previously known WHSmiths has been the go-to outlets for so many modelling magazines over the years.

As an avid magazine reader I used to look forward to my regular Christmas present of a WHSmiths voucher which would usually mean me browsing the shelves of my local TGJones or WHSmiths outlet and picking up a magazine or two. The situation in the midlands is that the number of stores has been dramatically reduced to just a few in major cities or stores with large post office counters. I wonder where YOU get your magazine fix?

Tony

Christmas 2025 Project - update # 18

In this post I will give more information about how I built the metal ore bucket or Kibble.

The image below shows the finished, textured and painted kibble alongside a 1;27.7 scale figure

It was constructed from a plastic shot glass with plastic card/rod detailing and a florists wire hoop. Prior to painting the kibble was textured with acrylic medium which was 'stippled' on to the surface to imitate a light rust coating. The bucket was painted in a dark brown/grey basecoat with orange or rust coloured highlights and finished with rust weathering powders.

Prior to modelling the kibble I produced this series of pencil sketches after searching kibble on the internet. As you can see there are many different styles and shapes of ore buckets most made from metal but some from hardened leather.

The kibble was weighted by adding a metal coin to the interior and base with superglue and the inside had some sieved stones and sand added over PVA glue to hide the coin. I did this as I wanted to ensure that the kibble was under tension when the braided cord cable was attached and fed through the shieve then tied off in the roof mounted gondola.

Tony

Christmas 2025 Project - update # 17

One of my favourite parts of modelling these small narrow gauge layouts is adding all the clutter and small detailing. In this case finally adding the kibble or ore bucket to the end of the cable and some of the scratch built or salvaged items that I have been working on to decorate the side of the building.

These images show some of these bits of clutter 'bedded' in to the groundwork with sieved stones and sand applied over PVA glue.

The cable was modelling from some white thread which was dyed dark grey before being 'aged' with rust washes and runs from the bucket, up over the shieve wheel or main bearing and back in to the gondola where it is tied off on a piece of plastic rod and glued with superglue.

You should also be able to see where I have continued to add weathering and small details to the main mine building, a process that is never truly finished.

Tony

Christmas 2025 Project - update # 16

The mine building and head frame have now been glued in place on my 1:27.7 (11mm = 1 foot) or scale 18 inch industrial narrow gauge Pizza layout and I have integrated both in to the groundwork by gluing sieved soil and small stones around the base of them. In addition I have painted the soil heap to the front of the mine pit and again added sieved stones on top.

The ladder to the side has been constructed from some scrap strip wood, painted and glued in place as seen on the original Gold Tooth Mine (see earlier posts).

These images shot in strong sunlight show the progress so far.

Tony

Christmas 2025 Project - update #15

I can now call the mine building and head frame finished. The latest update shows the head frame and gondola glued in place with masking tape flashing applied around the main wooden structure and the addition of a chimney to the lean-to. I have continued to weather the structure with both paint and watercolour pencils as well as adding a small antique sign to the side of the building.

The last two images show the mine building in place on the Pizza layout but still not glued in place.

It has taken some time to get to this stage with the Christmas 2025 deadline well and truly missed. I would hope that Christmas 2026 will now be possible.

Tony

Christmas 2025 Project - update #14

The painted and weathered gondola has now been glued in place although the tar paper roof is still loose while the flashing was modelled from masking tape folded in half (sticky side to sticky side) and painted weathered grey. I have permanently attached the head frame to the front of the mine building with a small spacer to move the main wooded frame forward by about 3mm. This allows me to model flashing to the wooden frame and corrugated iron roof (see future posts for more information).

The corrugated iron roof has been finished with a capping strip (more corrugated aluminium foil trimmed and painted) while the roof panels themselves have had odd panels painted grey - a feature I had seen on the corrugated iron roof at the rear of my mothers flat. It might look over done but trust me it was a lot worse than this!

Looking down on the head frame you can see where I have added additional detailing and weathering in some cases by sanding the wooden structure with coarse sandpaper. Finally the low stone wall to the front has had some additional washes of dirty water/light green paint to add some 'age'

There is still some detail and weathering to add but for now you can clearly see the effect I was trying for - a slightly run down structure but still very much a working mine.

Tony