Littleton Station was my first serious attempt at making a layout. 15 years on it has not aged well and needs to be rebuilt. Theres are the mistakes I made and what I'll do different next time.
Feel for you, not nice to realise that its not worked how you wanted. Its what stops me from getting going with the applicator tbh! 😂... What i would say though is that you could find that static grass on that 'clumpy' grass might actually give a good rough look. I remember seeing wws scenics purposely create a look like that.
I will have to watch their video to see how they did it, I do want clumpy grass in some areas and I really want it to look like a reflection of natural overgrowth, and less like a clumsy slap dash attempt with too much PVA :)
@@DaveAtLittleton the technique I've seen involves putting down the scenic grass and then manually clumping it up to create mounds.... Then static grass over the top. Seems to create a nice effect, I've just not got the balls or time to try it myself 😂
Thanks for watching. It's 4 ft long and 1 ft deep (120 cm x 30 cm approx), the backscene is the same, size, I bought a 2 ft x 4 ft board (60x120cm) cut in half and folded it. The thickness is 12m,. Good luck with the build, remember the base frame so it doesn't sag and warp like mine. Mike from Hornby Magazine did a short video on how to build a simple and easy base frame.
Great idea for this video. Sharing your honest mistakes, so we don't have to make the same ones! One thing about paint colour - here in Canada, our hardware stores have walls of swatches you can choose, and then a paint mixing machine makes the colour on the spot. But to be honest, it wouldn't have mattered much if the shade of green or brown was subtly different once the scatter went down.
Good idea about colour match. On my new layout I have used wall paint on one place, just they sky, but this time I bought an absolutely huge pot so I don't have to worry about the same problem again
OK. You're being pretty hard on yourself. The backdrop is great. MDF still works but it needs to be sealed with either varnish or waterproof paint before you start. And it needs to be on a support frame to avoid the sag or warp. There is nothing on you little layout that is not salvageable if you want to go down that path. Buy cheap house paints from a hardware store that can be remade so you get consistent colours. Sheets of grass mat and gravel mat do work, but they need to be fully glued down and weighted while the glue dries. You can fix up all your scenery with PVA glue and fine turf. Good luck with what you decide. Happy Modelling.
Thanks MR :) I don't think I'm being too hard on myself, it was my first try and I have had 15 years of enjoyment out of it. I could do what you said but I think given how much I would like to change a fresh start might be easier though I will salvage as much as I can, thanks for the tips!
I agree with Monseville you really could refresh this layout in a weekend The back siding could stay just put a few carriages in there that come close to the point but not too close that it fouls the points the Hornby Lima and mainline couplers will hold fine on that incline with plenty of give The push pull coach you brought could stay as is no need to cut change etc Wiring wouldn’t be too difficult to improve either on a layout that size We all go through that skills improvement thing and see so many things we should improve but in the end we can end up only improving and never enjoying it,which is why we start doing it all running trains and that is supposed to be the main reason we are in the hobby BUT OF COURSE IT IS YOUR LAYOUT AND YOU CAN MAKE /DO WHATEVER YOU LIKE 😊👍
Thanks RR, you're right, it could be made good, for me, it just got to the point of, how much effort is needed to put it right vs how much effort is needed to rebuild it and just about reached that tipping point for me. Up until now it had been my plan to refurbish it :)
I think those small layouts are very handy when u just like to shunt and don’t have time to do much else you can really get close to realistic operations with these layouts perhaps think heritage more than a particular railway I’ll be watching it all 😃
