Garden Railway Forum

That is really going to stand out from the crowd when it starts appearing on the exhibition circuit. Brilliant.

They are fantastically weathered. You just wouldn't believe they are plastic like you say, in fact I thought they were metal....

Just superb, incredibly realistic detail and a masterpiece in model making.

I have no words to express my admiration for both the concept and the execution of this layout. Thanks for sharing.

steveh99 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 8:23 am Hard to believe these are plastic or shiny brass kits. I just love rust powder.

They really do look fantastic... I've got a trio of wagons rusting at the moment, but I've always stuggled to get that beautiful orange, ending up with a rather darker shade of rust.

Love the plants too, especially those fern-like ones...

Andrew.

Thanks for the nice comments guys, I wanted to go for something different and didn't want to make another Hambleden or lose its scenic qualities.

I will run the live steam locos with their slomos so no high speed running involved, but also have a couple of RC battery locos to fit the Welsh slate scene, with slate wagons and Quarrymans coaches etc.

The orange rust effect comes from washing the rust powder with copper sulphate solution. This activates the rusting effect within hours rather than days. If it's too orange, I tone it down with dilute washes of matt black or dark brown. I often leave the stock outside in the rain which I think improves the overall rusty effect.

The pictures were taken during lockdown last year. The layout has fared well over the winter and I will try to take some updated photos very soon. The whole layout and plants are ageing well, spreading into one another, covering the baseboard joins and generally look much better than when first planted.

My three favourites are the Thyme which is very tough and spreads well: Arenaria Balearica which has tiny leaves, spreads well amongst the other plants and has masses of tiny white flowers, although these are a little overscale: Finally, various varieties of Leptinella which is what produces all the fern like leaves. There are many others which perhaps I will detail some other time.

steveh99 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 6:13 pm There are many others which perhaps I will detail some other time.

Please do.
We do actually have a thread called Plants for Garden Railways.
https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... ts#p149564

steveh99 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 6:13 pm The orange rust effect comes from washing the rust powder with copper sulphate solution. This activates the rusting effect within hours rather than days. If it's too orange, I tone it down with dilute washes of matt black or dark brown. I often leave the stock outside in the rain which I think improves the overall rusty effect.

Brilliant, thank you! I'll head down to my nearest Copper Sulphate vendor soon... I'm using vinegar to activate the powder, but it only seems to have a limited effect.

Andrew.

I get mine from Amazon, you can get a large bag of crystals for about £6 I don't find vinegar acidic enough, although I am told drain unblocker works better.

Andrew wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 7:56 am

steveh99 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 6:13 pm The orange rust effect comes from washing the rust powder with copper sulphate solution. This activates the rusting effect within hours rather than days. If it's too orange, I tone it down with dilute washes of matt black or dark brown. I often leave the stock outside in the rain which I think improves the overall rusty effect.

Brilliant, thank you! I'll head down to my nearest Copper Sulphate vendor soon... I'm using vinegar to activate the powder, but it only seems to have a limited effect.
Andrew.

I've successfully used Scenic Rust, but it's quite expensive. This is presumably a lot cheaper (and is probably what they use).

Rik

Hi Rik

yes, I've used scenic rust in the past and it is expensive and looking at the colour of their activator, I woud say it was dilute copper sulphate.

I bought a large bag of rust powder and copper sulphate from amazon for next to nothing and it has lasted me for years and I've never needed to buy anymore since.

Is this what you bought Steve.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Copper-Sulphat ... 473&sr=8-7#

it was a few years ago now, but yes, that will do the job. Just dissolve a spoon full of the stuff in a jar of water to make up a light blue solution and then wash over the rusted vehicle.

To apply the rust powder, I very lightly spray the vehicle with 3M photomount adhesive to create a tacky surface and then dust the powder on using a ladies make-up blusher brush. (You can use dilute PVA as per scenic rust, but I find a water based glue creates blobs of rust because of surface tension)

Leave for a few hours and then wash with copper sulphate solution using a small paintbrush. It will rust in about a day, but will continue to rust and age over time, particularly if left outside.

Thank you for the information, that's a great help.

First time in months, I split the layout and loaded it in to my van for transporting to Fawley Hill where I set it up for a trial exhibition outing
It survived the ordeal, pot holes, speed bumps and roundabouts etc. I used my Hambleden rack, reconfigured for wider boards and used 20mm steel conduit pipe bracing to support the added weight of the baseboards.

Looks a well-thought-out transport system, nice work.

Hello Steve,
Your system with real planting looks very realistic. I can only do it a little on my station modules. (My new gardenrailway 16mm-SM 32)
Unfortunately, there is not enough space on my track modules.I'm very excited to see progress.
Michael from Berlin

A wonderful concept there.

Well it all went back together again in one piece and with no damage. I had to tweak the return track to fix a slight mis-alignment and had to slightly enlarge the openings in the back scene to allow for the locos being on a curve as they go through

Setup in Fawley museum:
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The return track loop is a single track on 12mm MDF boards with a central section of cassettes to hold train consists
.
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Roundhouse Lilla with slate train pauses at Pen-Y-Bont halt
.

That looks amazing, I do hope it was well received.