Previous Posts

Crossing safety

I've now finished the railway crossing over the crossover; for a long period of time this was a chasm of railway tracks that would swallow entire cars whole! However all good things must come to an end and so I have patched up the holes. Always fun trying to squeeze bits of road between moving turnout blades!

The crossing is just an elaborate collection of carefully trimmed pieces of balsa, painted and weathered with powders to match the rest of the road.

I've also taken the chance to install some cross-bucks. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, these days even the Federal Highway Administration have the exact dimensions of railway crossing signs online. Saved me having to visit a real railway I guess.

Back yard gardening

"but that can wait for the next rainy spell" I said...

Well the next rainy spell arrived pretty promptly, so with little delay I settled down and made a back yard garden for the little E.L. Moore cottage.

Raised vege gardens

When I off handedly mentioned building a vege garden, the matriarch very quickly handed down her specifications: two raised gardens, on the sunny side of the house, at least 1 foot off the ground. No wide than arm's length, with good walking space between them. While you're at it, I'd also like a glass house.

Well! Not one to argue I rummaged around under the house and found some suitable ship-lap styrene siding that had seen better days. A bit of cutting and sanding later and I had the framing made up. I filled up the boxes with some of my usual dirt mix (glue-plaster-paint) and then mixed in some horse & sheep manure from over the fence.

A bumper crop of cabbages were soon well on their way, along with some stalk...

Raparapa detailing

The weather here in the real Raparapa has been quite miserable lately, which has been a perfect excuse to do some detailing on Raparapa in our cosy lounge.

Sheep

Rachel bought me some sheep for my birthday, although the clever model shop in Christchurch managed to send OO scale sheep, which are truly gigantic in N scale – not so much sheep, and more like wooly mammoths! Eventually after several phone calls and even a personal visit, they managed to get the correct size of sheep sent over from Britain.

Out of the packet they were very plastic looking, so I took some time to paint them up like real sheep.

I chose to paint them as "black and white sheep" and "regular grubby sheep", as researched while driving to Rachel's school.

I snipped them off the sp...

Lets explore Tomytec Train Collection!

One of the greatest things about Japanese railways is the variety. So many liveries! So many companies! So many styles! So. Many. Trains! In fact there is such a plethora of trains in Japan, you could almost say there are too many! Too many? Well, there are so many, that even at the standard release rate of several new models every month from four different manufacturers, it can still take years before a train is turned into a model. Some are never turned into models. Most models are released in a small batch to the market, then the molds are safely stored away until demand is high enough to warrant a re-release. That can easily take half a decade to occur!

There have been a few interesting solutions to this dilemma. The first is Bandai, who have released their "B Train Shorty" series of shortened, stylised trains. Each carriage is about 6cm long, rather than the usual 15cm+. The models are crude and clunky, and far from accurate. The purchaser must assemb...

Raparapa station improvements

Things have been pretty busy here at Utrainia HQ, but the blog has been a bit neglected. Time to change that!

First update is to showcase the recent improvements to Raparapa Station, as part of the Raparapa Beautification Improvement Project. I started by painting the window panes white, which has nicely lightened the mood and made the windows seem a little less oppressive. Then I redid the roof, this time a light tan colour, heavily weathered.

Perhaps the coolest improvement are the window planters. These were made up from some weather board styrene siding, with some static grass "plants" added. The plants were quite fun to make. I took a sheet of tin foil and dabbed on some super glue in little lines. Then I attached the sheet to the negative output of my GrassBlaster 40...

Early morning in Ranuska

It's a national holiday today in Utrainia, and it just so happens I'm taking the break in Ranuska. I woke early today and went for a walk along the sea wall. There was a gentle sea breeze blowing and the cool winter air was quite refreshing, though not cold; it's never that cold in tropical Ranuska! Luckily I'd brought my camera with me, because as I strolled along, this lovely wee railcar rattled in to the funicular platform.

Yes, Ranuska is back in my sights again. I've made a couple of miniature saw horses which are perfect for sitting a module on while I work on it. They follow my usual design, just with stumpy legs and a sorter top. Turns out they also make great chairs!