HO NSWGR Exhibition Muttama Layout Build January 2021 Update

Over the Christmas period into January, I had manage to score two and a half weeks off from work and made the wise decision to stay at home during this time as it rained for the most part of it and a COVID scare in Sydney which came with some restrictions. This resulted in a fair bit of Railway Modelling done on Muttama and also managed to get some needed repair work done on Narellan in the hope to get it into some exhibitions if they do eventuate at some point this year. 

January has been a very productive month. Let's first start on Muttama Station Building.

Muttama Station Building
The next Line Side item I elected to construct is the Station Building of Muttama Railway station. This station building was an early days type wooden structure which that consisted of a fancy wooden curtin at the entry of Waiting Room and contained an office presumably for the Station Master. Outside of Muttama, there where several of these types of buildings on the NSWGR network to the likes at the Neighbouring station of Brawlin, Bunyan on the Bombala Branchline. This type of Station Building was also seen on several locations on the Illawarra line such as Heathcote and other variations that still exists today at Dunmore and Bombo. However Bombo has been modified which resulted in the unique waiting room curtin at the entry being removed. Basically it seems that many of these early day buildings either got replaced by a later version of a Station building or in the case of Heathcote destroyed by a fire and replaced with a more modern brick structure.

Fortunately, I was able to find plans for Muttama Station Building at the NSW ARHS Resource Center (before the COVID Restrictions started last year). I also found a couple of photos of Muttama Station Building, which had shown some slight variations as to what the plans presented. One example was the placement of the windows for the Waiting Room and the other being the back half of the building being built into the slop of the landscape. Luckily for me, the photos presented me with a more easier build option in which I was keen to follow as the final reference.

Instead doing a comprehensive blog on how I constructed Muttama, here are some photos on its stages of its build. I will make notes on a couple of them to state why I did the way I did it. 

As always I start on building a corner section of the structure. I did the corner portion that is pictured above as the other corner portion will need to integrate the brickwork of the Fireplace.

For the wall where the Fireplace Brick work will be placed, I partially cut out a section to ensure firstly there the cutout that was able to fit the 3D Printed Fireplace but once MEK onto the first corner portion, I can cut out the rest of the wall to allow the Fireplace to fit.

All four walls are all joined up, it is now remove the remainder section of the wall where the Fireplace is to be installed. I would also like to point out that section of floor needed to be cut out in order install the 3D Printout of the Fireplace.

A bit of a test fit on all the windows, Door way frame and other 3D Printed Items. The Wooden Curtin for the waiting room, front windows and the  Fireplace are 3D Printouts.

Most of the main structure of the building is completed. Now onto getting the additional detailing completed.

Skirting on the base of the building, awning supports, guttering another minor detailing parts added on.

Painting Muttama Railway Station

First point to cover off was to determine the colour that Muttama may have been. It would have been likely it would have have been painted several times in different colour during its days in production. The only colour clue that was available was from a book Country Branch Lines New South Wales - Riverina District which had a colour picture of the Gate Keepers Cottage. After doing a bit of looking around I found that the primary colour resembles to the colour of Couridjah Station Building which is preserved on the Picton to Mittagong Loop Line.

Couridjah Station Building colour example

I have decided to try out the SMS Range of paints as they are for one locally produce in Australia. Recently, obtaining paint colours from international based suppliers been hard to get hold of. I have also heard of a lot of good reports from other railway modellers on how impressed they were with the SMS Paint Range. Also the paint range seems to include a decent selection of colours that are a match or closely match the colours that were used to paint NSWGR Line Side Structures.

For the Case of Muttama, I chose to use Light Stone as the main colour. White for window frames, door frame, facias and waiting room curtin entry. Dark Brown for the colouring for the guttering and lining on the part of some of the facias, door step and the steps for the waiting room entry. And Mid Stone for the Door and some of the internal detailing. From my research, it seems that three combination of colours would be used on station Buildings on the NSWGR network with four combinations of colours on a few cases. In the case of Muttama, I decided to use the four above mentioned colours as the Dark Brown was painted on minor items, but has help greatly in bringing up the finer detail of this model which could have been easily been overlooked if it was just white in colour. The Brick work is painted in a US Pale Brown colour and the mortar has is SMS White Pigment which has been fixed in placed with a Dull Coat.

Now for the result of the paint job and what are my final thought on SMS Paints?

Main paint work completed with only needing to do the painted lining to show where the corrugated roof sheets met up and weathering on the Chimney.

My final thoughts on the SMS Paint Range is highly positive. They are an acrylic lacquer based paint which meets in the middle when compared between acrylic and enamel based paints. It has the advantage that paints smoothly via an air brush on the model and very quick to dry like acrylic paints do. The paint job is just about as robust as an enamel based paint. Furthermore, I found it was also easier to clean the airbrush after using this paint compared to other paint brands.

As I mentioned earlier, these are locally produced paints and the colour range (which seems to be expanding in colour options) are very close if not a match to the colour schemes that were used on the NSWGR network and it is worth noting for the Victoria Railway modellers that SMS does a V/Line Grey and Orange colour. A couple of years ago, Humbrol discontinued their Mid Stone Colour (Humbrol 225) which is a common colour for the Heritage colour scheme which has been used on many of the remaining Heritage Buildings in NSW. SMS Paints have now filled in this void with Mid Stone colour within their range.

Ensure when you do use SMS Paints that you use the air pressure that is recommended on their bottles which is 5 - 15 PSI for the best outcome. 

I will be certainly using SMS Paints from here on in.

Fixing Up Narellan For Upcoming Model Rail Events

Even though Narellan has only been to one event, there are a couple of minor issues that I have come across that needed to be resolved before they become a bigger problem. 

The First issue was scratches on the paint work of the facias of the Modules that was caused in the transportation of Narellen to the Forestville Exhibition. The Second issue was with the Back Scene detaching it itself from the Back Scene Boards.

In the above two pictures shows the bubbling up and lifting effect on the back scene picture, mainly where the back scene pictures join up.

To address the first Issue, I decided to paint the front facias with an Enamel Black Gloss Paint. Even though I liked the Matt Black Finish, Im hopeful the that the Enamel Gloss Black finish will be more resilient and be less prone to be scratched due to the gloss finish. In saying that, I will also need to put in better protection between the modules when they are being transported.

Enamel Gloss Black Pain has been applied

For the Back Scene issue, I decided to write up a separate Blog dedicated to this topic, as there is a method that should be followed in order to ensure that the Back Scene picture properly adheres to the Back Scene Board. This Blog Post will be posted within the next couple of weeks.

Either way, the Back Scene boards needed to be removed and with careful removal of some of the wooden frame work that holds in the Back Scene Boards. I was able to remove them without causing damage to the main wooden Framework. Fortunately there was no major damages done on the scenic sections to Narellan other than a bit of wooden fencing which can be easily replaced in an evenings work.

After the surgery that was needed to remove the Back Scene boards.

Replacement Back Scene successfully attached to the back scene boards.

Next Blog post will be dedicated on how to best apply your back scene on your layout.

Reflecting Back On 2020 And What To Expect In 2021

I would like to firstly wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope that 2021 starts to deliver better times ahead. 

To get the disappointing stuff out of the way first, COVID19 had impacted us all in one way or another and as far as most Model Rail Events such as Exhibitions and Conventions, the vast majority were cancelled as part of the overall Government directives to suppress the spread of COVID.

Early Stages of the my COVID19 Project Muttama

2020 In Summary
In early 2020, I have received expressions of interest and had discussions with the various Model Rail Exhibition Coordinators which was to result Narellan to be exhibited at upcoming events that were scheduled throughout the year. I was fortunate enough to get Narellan's first Public showing at Forestville hosted by the North Shore Railway Modellers Association Inc back in March of last year. I would like to thank them again for giving me the opportunity to exhibit Narellan. I have to say looking back it was great to have exhibited Narellan at the Forestville Exhibition as it was only within a week or two from that event the COVID restrictions started to be enforced which has resulted the cancellation of every other planned Model Rail event for 2020, well in the case of the state of NSW. 

Narellan at the 2020 Forestville Exhibition

My Model Rail Club layout also had a few exhibitions scheduled for club layouts to be exhibited in 2020 that was also impacted by the COVID restrictions.

This resulted me in having a revised Plan for 2020 where I decided to start on a new Project which is a HO Scale Layout of Muttama. I started this project back in April 2020. I decided to do Muttama with the view that the down time and the potential lockdowns restricting movement caused by COVID that it would be practical timing to build another exhibition Layout. For the first couple of months into the Muttama Project I was making great progress until June when my Father's battle with Cancer started to take the turn for the worst which took a hit on the progress. Sadly, My Father lost his battle with Cancer in July 2020 and it was not until November 2020 I was able to gradually get back into the routine in Railway modelling which Im glad to say that progress is stating to get back to the pace to where I was when I started this project.

This also impacted the other smaller projects I had intended to do for 2020, but I plan for these smaller projects to get carried over to my 2021 plans.

If there is any silver lining, I did get my model rail supplies for Muttama before most of the materials got sold out as there were many people globally who opted for building model rail projects as their lockdown stay at home activity. Good to the fact my progress was not hindered by the lack or waiting on materials during this time and good to the fact that hobbies like Railway Modelling started to become a popular again as a result in these unprecedented times. 

Locally, from what I have heard from my other Model Rail connections, there are a couple of interesting layouts intended for exhibitions under constructions which is again is going to be good thing to look forward to when the Model Rail exhibitions start up again, whenever that will be.

Plans For 2021
Reflecting back on the previous plans for the year, not all plans get achieved and some instances other projects that are not on the plan get carried out in place. So I will make the following my plan of intention.

Narellan
Get Narellan and locomotive and rolling stock ready for potential 2021 exhibitions. Also make continual enhancements to Narellan where appropriate.

HG Wagon Kit bash for Narellan

Muttama
To complete Muttama and prepare all locomotives and rolling stock to be ready to exhibited by the 3rd Quarter of 2021 (provided Exhibitions commence again). Muttama will be a different layout to Narellan but hopefully will be one that will be appealing to look at.

Tumbarumba
Not that I have abandoned Tumbarumba, but I have no plans to do much to Tumbarumba in 2021. Over the last year I did manage to draw up and 3D Print the Station Sign for Glenroy Station. This is not to say that nothing is going to be done to Tumbarumba, but I may get some line side structures build up so they can just be plonked onto the layout gets constructed at a later time. Basically, there are some other smaller model rail projects I intend to complete first.

3D Printed Sign for Glenroy Station

N Scale Projects
I still intend to do a small Victorian N Scale Layout of Boolarra which I have done most of the 3D Printouts for the line side items. Hopefully time will permit me to do this layout project in 2021.

Other Projects
Plans can vary which may mean they don't happen or they get done or other unannounced projects get carried out instead. This may vary due to circumstances that allow me to do more projects or prevent me from doing doing what I have planned.

Blog Posts Frequency Expectations
As per usual I will keep posting up a blog at least once a month.

Well 2021 is off to a good start which will be reflected in my next Blog post.

A picture of the current progress on Muttama Station Building

HO NSWGR Exhibition Muttama Layout Build October to December 2020 Update

First of all, my apologies for keeping you all out there hanging on for updates on my Muttama Layout Project. This was mainly due to several other priorities outside of my hobby getting in the way of some decent progress over the last few months.

For the first couple of weeks of October I decided to take some long overdue holiday time and spent most of that time catching up with my family down the Far South East Coast of NSW. I also did an additional trip to Ulladulla in November to burn up some more built up Holiday time that has been put on hold.

I was considering packing up a fold up work bench and taking down some model rail items to work on whilst I was down there, but decided in the end not to do so as Im sure I would have left something behind which would have resulted in taking on extra luggage with a defeated purpose. Either way, both breaks were good and has helped clear my mind which has got me rebooted and ready to try and power through the outstanding items that remain to be completed on Muttama.

Furthermore, back in November, as a recommendation from one my model rail friends, I decided to do another Garage clean up but introducing a new work bench that I purchased recently that contains a set of draws to help with a better work place and better storage and access of my tools that I need to use which will result in better productivity. 

I have not worked on the Goods Shed for Muttama for the last few months before October as I was faced with the a few challenges on how to construct the Goods Shed. But finally managed to gradually make small steps at a time to the point of almost completing this build.

The Goods Shed that was once based at Muttama is believed to be only one of two of its type that contains the rounded roof. The other rounded roof variation was based at Brawlin which is the next station north from Muttama.

The design of Muttama Good Shed was very different compared to other Goods Sheds on the NSWGR Network, hence one of the justifications in choosing to model Muttama.

Retro fitting of the 3d Printouts and the styrene platform of Muttama Goods Shed

Work On Muttama Good Shed Previous to October 2020

It would be several months ago that I started to draw up Muttama Goods Shed as I decided it would be a better result to do 3D Printouts on several parts of the Good Shed. This is due to the complexity involved in doing a structure with the rounded roof. In saying that, it was a complex Model to draw up. I decided to go for the scratched build option of the doors and platform as I know within myself that I would deliver a better result in these areas.

For the Roof Section and the ends of the Good Shed were printed in Shapways Black Natural Versatile Plastic. Priming for this particular material needed to be done with an Automotive Primer as it does not soak into the printout compared to the other modelling primers. I did the priming not long after I received the printouts.

For the other printouts, they were printed in Shapeways Smooth Fine Detail Plastic. Priming for these printouts were done with Tamiya Primer.

Below are the progressive pictures of the work that was done 

Getting Back to Work on Muttama Goods Shed

The doors for this type of Goods Shed seem to have been hinged and not sliding doors that were typically used in most Goods Shed on the NSWGR Network. This could have been a reason that this type of design was not rolled out in greater numbers as the hinged doors have demonstrated to me clearly how impractical they were just from this model build. The construction of the doors ended up to become a not so easy task. But persistence payed off in the end.

The Doors that did not work out and ended up becoming scrape styrene

First set of Doors completed

 

The Difficulty in the doors came with the angle of the cut and the width of the doors. I found later on it (as I was doing the last set of doors) it was better to cut the width of the doors slightly wider, build up the frame work behind the doors and then trim off the excess to get the desired outcome.

Unfortunately, I did not take too many progressive photo shots during this period of time, here is what was done over the month of October.

Building up the doors for Muttama

Building and Detailing the Goods Shed Platform and Ramp

From here pictures will best detail the various stages of this build. This platform and ramp up to the platform was scratched built from Evergreen Styrene stuck together using MEK. When the platform was completed, it was primed and coloured up with Tamiya weathering master powders. The 3D Printed items where gluded together with superglue as well as 3D Printed Items to Styrene.

Other than the guttering, weathering and final fixing the Goods Shed to the layout is just about completed. As stated earlier one would think this should have been an easy build, but the reality it was one that has tested my pertinence out the most compared to my other model builds. 

Its That Time Of Year Again

It is almost the end of the year. Well 2020 has been a year of a a lot challenges and I along with may others out there could say that 2020 is a year I think we want to put behind us. I would like to be optimistic that the year 2021 is going to be a year heading in to better circumstances for us all. 

I would like to wish you all a Merry and Safe Christmas and all the best for 2021.