"Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Question and opinion regarding modeling
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Tim Shanteler
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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by Tim Shanteler » Tue Feb 22, 2022 6:51 am

I second that!
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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Feb 23, 2022 2:47 am

Thanks guys.

I've never liked painting backscenes, but this was starting to feel really good. I've always found that backscenes work best if the colours used on the railway or diorama are continued into the backscene.

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Some of the distant fields would later be touched in with a few more shades, as it still didn't feel quite right. Here's the control tower, signals square and fire truck shed.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Feb 23, 2022 2:51 am

Behind the 3D model hangar, I also painted a 2D version, along with some of the airfield perimeter track.

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Here's the second hangar in place on the layout. I seemed to spend a lot of time fitting and removing the backscenes to check how they looked. However it was a necessary step in producing a scene that works with the foreground.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Feb 23, 2022 2:58 am

When I was happy with the airfield scene, I joined the station scene along side to mark out the continuation of the hills. The painting followed the same process of distant features first, and lots of test fitting, adjusting etc. The boards were placed together for the painting of the hills that crossed the joint, and then separated for the rest, as each is eight feet long.

With the workshop full, my daughter's plastic painting mat was spread out in the lounge and the scenes painted there. The bottom scene here is still waiting for the hedgerows and trees to be added in the foreground.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by GPW1263 » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:10 am

That's actually quite excellent.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Feb 25, 2022 7:37 am

Thanks!

These pictures show the backscenes in place with the hills all painted. I've never considered myself to be particularly good with 2D art, but I'm very happy with the way these turned out.

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I did consider trying to paint some parked aircraft around the airfield boundary, but didn't want to mess up the scene if they all went wrong.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Feb 25, 2022 7:42 am

Looking along the main line, passed the station and on towards the tunnels and airfield. The lower branch line leads to the quayside.

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The Flying Scotsman heading East on the main line, while a US Transportation Corps loco climbs the other branch line. Some of the half depth trees can now be seen up against the backscene.

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Now it was time to start the next control panel.
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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Mon Feb 28, 2022 10:51 am

August 20th 2014

The start of the airfield control panel. The panel had a timber frame with a 1/16 inch plywood front face. On top of that ply, there was a layer of thin styrene. That was primed, tracks were then masked and the panel sprayed black.

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Once the paint was at the 'green' stage, the masking was removed, leaving the track plan visible. The area to the left was for other airfield control switches.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Mon Feb 28, 2022 10:54 am

The holes for the turnout indicator LEDs were drilled and the push button turnout activation switches installed.

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Here's the start of the button and LED wiring. Who said wiring a DCC layout was simple? Two wires is all that's needed said!!!

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Thu Mar 03, 2022 10:00 am

Back to programming! Fortunately, there must have been a software upgrade since last time I tried and it worked correctly on my Win7 laptop ( at the time ) without problems. Last time, I had to switch to an old Win XP laptop before it would run.

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Hooked up to the PR3 for programming of the DTM30 control panel circuit. It really did hurt my brain trying to sort out the programming and electrics.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Thu Mar 03, 2022 10:04 am

Labels attached for the airfield animated features.

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Starting to connect the control panel to the layout.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Thu Mar 03, 2022 10:06 am

This is the voltage regulator that drops the voltage to run the Catalina movement. The end stop micro switches can be seen on the threaded rod above.

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The smoke unit under the Lancaster needed to be removable easily, so that it could be refilled when needed. The unit sits in the plastic chimney allowing fresh air up past the smoke generator which improves performance. As a result, the smoke unit has to be inserted from below the tube first. A swinging support slides in under the smoke unit to then hold it in place.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Mar 04, 2022 11:57 pm

September 6th 2014

By the start of September, I started adding some details and figures. The first area was the non-running B-17. A GMC 6x6 truck is parked behind the B-17, and the crew have just jumped out. They are gathered beside the rear entry door having a final briefing before a local familiarization flight.

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To the front of the B-17, a 6x6 Dodge and some ground crew making final preparations, including one Tech Sgt polishing the bombardiers nose glass.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat Mar 05, 2022 12:02 am

Here's another view of the crew preparing for flight.

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Near the hangar, several ground crew are salvaging parts from the "Hangar Queen". A GMC truck waits near by to carry the parts to the aircraft in need. Parts shortages was a big problem for the 8th Air Force. Many badly damaged or crash landed airframes were dumped near the technical sites to be slowly picked for parts before the aluminium airframes went to the scrap yard.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat Mar 05, 2022 12:05 am

The "Follow Me" Jeep is leading a visiting P-38 fighter to an available dispersal. The P-38 pilot was probably low on fuel and dropped into the first base he saw on his return to England.

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Clear plastic discs were cut for the P-38 props, with segments cut out to leave the blurred area showing the movement of the propeller. They were sprayed a thin dusting of black, and then yellow tips added ( though not painted at the time of this picture ).

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