The gents

I really don't know how Mr. Robinson does this all the time. I managed to get some more painting done and the gents toilets finished and installed. This initially caused a bit of headscratching as I couldn't find the bits for them, and then realised that I didn't need some of them anyway as it's not a stand alone piece. Constructional-wise it's just the porch to go and to pop the chimney pots on.

Don't forget the new series of The Detectorists tonight at 10pm. The last series was hilarious and is the closest thing you'll get to a model railway club sitcom. The parallels are many. I sit there laughing out loud, which is unusual and Mrs. F. rolls her eyes and makes Dandy Nicholls type comments. If you've been in a club then you'll recognise everyone here.

Oakworth goods

This from the train on the Worth Valley last week. The track layout at Oakworth is fascinating me. Why, when you are only dealing with two short-ish sidings, do you wrap one across the other, kick back across to the goods shed (far left) through a diamond? This means that the siding nearest the train is only usable as a headshunt. Why not come in from the far end into a simple two siding fan with a trap point to protect the running line? Or why not site the shed at the other end with the blind wall against the running lines? Also note the trap blades half way down the leading point.
Anyone know why this seemingly over complex layout was used?

Put that in your pipe...

Gutters and down pipes on... nearly. I think I've decided that some of this kit I like and some I don't. The main walling parts with the sheet material I've grown to enjoy. Though some of the add on bits are way too chunky; the ridge tile are a case in point. Although this is a bad angle and the overhang doesn't show this much with the naked eye, the fact that you have to file a 'flat' on the roof sections for the ridge strip becomes less efficient as the pitch increases and here I'm down about as far as I dare without effectively slicing into the bargeboard area. Something more subtle would be better. Ditto the down pipes which are nice in the fact that they have jointing cups moulded in, but not as being that they are moulded in two C section halves (almost) means you get an oval pipe. This isn't terribly obvious, but I know it's there.
The gents toilet is a complete mystery. The parts don't seem to match the diagram which is just a complete isometric and not exploded. That, or there are more parts missing -  tricky to tell.

Slow details

As predicted this is becoming a bit of a grind and is progressing very slowly even though I'm at it every day. The chimneys are done and on though with lighter strapping on the smaller and a replacement cap as above from 40 thou plastic on the larger. I couldn't see the point of butting together three smaller pieces from the detail sprue as suggested, when this will look far more of a one
Today guttering...

Although I've deliberately avoided making too much of a deal of it here, the launch of a Model Trains International replacement has probably gone better than I expected. Scale Rail International No 1 is all but sold out and No2 not far behind. I can't quite believe that No3 is already at the printers with an increased print run. It would seem that there is a market for a non-boundary publication that plays outside of the rules and regulations of the mainstream boys. Not that it was designed to compete with them in any shape or form, but in that there is actually a desire for it. Time and time again over the last five months I've heard the comment 'fed up with the other magazines'. Though it's hard to pinpoint exactly why. Maybe everything has got a wee bit too complicated and expensive for the 'average modeller' now. It's not that the big boys don't feature smaller achievable projects , as they certainly do - young Mr Parker's current essay in BRM is a case in point - but maybe the perception is there.

Ridge riding

Main roof sections on. This took all day yesterday, and I mean all day. I had to keep walking away from it in case the whole lot went out of the window into the front garden.
There were two problems: my low skill level in this sort of thing is one, and the limit of the sheet size is another. The Wills Craftsman Kits are clever in that they maximise the sheet size on parts. In other words the kit is designed so that there are no major joins. The LH ridge is exactly the length of one sheet. Theoretically this works, but human nature being what it is means that the RH gable could well be a mil lower or higher on the angle. Then you're in trouble as the LH ridge is too short or too long. Deep joy. Here I was too high so that there was a gap at the bottom of the gully that you could drive a Reliant Robin through. The fix was to file the point down and sharpen the angle somewhat, but then the gutter line and the ridge drop out of horizontal. All this while trying to juggle all the bits with masking tape and blu-tak.
The hindsight tip is: if you get one of these kits, leave cutting the chimney hole until the roof sizes fit and give yourself a line or two of tiles at the bottom extra to that on the cutting plan. The length is fixed of course, but at least you're not having to deal with gaps at the gutter line as well, and this could be trimmed at the end.

Ground floor

As predicted this is not a fast kit build. It took me a large chunk of yesterday morning just to do glazing and hang curtains at the windows. Once that was done I could start assembling the ground floor. Surprisingly this went quite well and everything fitted without too much problem. I think this may be the easy bit done - the roof looks somewhat tricky. Today though it's a bit of vertical tile hanging. The kit box indicated big arch-top windows for the first floor... unlikely in Sussex me thinks, so these are being cut down and re-framed with strip to produce square versions of about 4' across.

This is Sheffield Park on the Lewes-East Grinstead line and now the lower end of the Bluebell Railway - the LBSCR's 'cottage' style station house. The Wills kit is supposed to be representative of this, and while it gets the flavour it loses quite a lot of the Arts and Crafts type ornamentation. To some extent, if I were being true to the prototype, I wouldn't start here with this kit, but then that's not the point of the exercise.