Building My First Model Railway Diorama: Day 2

Day 2 of Mike's very first Model Railway build!

With so many of us spending more time at home Mike wanted to challenge himself to create his first ever Model Railway layout.

On Day 2 Mike adds his scenic materials adds his level crossing and plans for Day 3

This was Mike's first attempt at making a layout do you have any tips or tricks you would like to share? Let us know in the comments below.

Remember to be kind, this is Mike's first time!

Follow Us - - -

#Hornby #RailwayLayout #ModelRailways

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Watch: "Hornby 2023 Range Revealed: All The Details You Need To Know"
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-

[gordontaylor]

I used an old plastic comb to hold the track pins when putting them through the sleepers, to save the rails from being damaged. A great informative tutorial.

[stephendrake]

Perhaps when painting on wood use acrylic paint instead of enamel (I think enamel is better for plastic and metal) and thin with a couple of drops of water to help it spread better. Really like you layout. It makes you realise that you can have a really effective layout and it does not have to be huge!

[speleokeir]

Alternatives to pining are gluing it onto a cork or foam track bed (I suggest Copydex glue). You can also pin the edges rather than the middle. If pinning the edges you'll need to use a small hand drill to make holes in the sleepers. Pinning in the middle can weaken the track, especially if if you pin and unpin a few times. Also occasionally things can catch on pins in the middle if they're not completely flush.

When hammering the pins use a drift punch or a small block of wood, etc. A drift is a small cylindrical piece of metal which you hold on top of the pin. It helps guide the hammer, stops you hitting your thumb and stops you accidentally hammering the rail.

[richardswiderski]

Looking good addind scenery certainly makes a big difference.On the road you my have painted it to thickly hence not dry.Top marks Mike.

[D.Salter]

Thank you Hornby! I am hoping to follow this by next year :) I'm 13 now so it could give me something to do

[BrianAndrews]

With the grass on the road, because you used PVA you can actually re-activate it by getting it wet again and then you can rub off the excess grass. Also if you want to vary the grass tones you can pre mix a small amount before you put them in the sieve. Well done on your first try.

[gajp]

How do you get into the station from the road?

[ickhamroad]

Your doing really well, it looks great. The errors are probably on through lack of practice. It is getting there. 👋

[skalemodelkorner]

Hey great layout there Mike!! Well done! Looks epic! I recently built my first layout too!

[diedertspijkerboer]

I think that you are taking a really smart approach by starting small. I started big and it still scares me to work on the layout, and am afraid to make mistakes.
Starting so small is ideal, because you can always just see it as a trial run.

[shrecster]

I know your probably won’t see this but when I used to paint model planes I used a butter knife to open thos paints. It makes it a lot easier

[AntoekneeDE]

I would definitely agree the gates look better than barriers on the crossing, but it just depends in your mind what you want on YOUR layout.

To fix the road you could paint over the errant scatter or build up a road surface with a skim of filler. I know some have also used wet and dry paper cut and stuck in place. Humbrol is good for model painting but less ideal for painting large areas of wood (expensive too) so for roads or ground, I would recommend either tester emulsion paint pots (ideally a couple of similar shades and apply a bit of both whilst wet to give some natural graduated colour variation) or some poster paints from hobby craft. They will dry much more quickly and be more cost effective.

I painted my first road with humbrol too by the way...

Those decal covered buildings are a bit of a pain, they’re tough to get straight and they peek over time. The buildings used to be printed directly but the decal lets you choose a style; nice idea but they’ve aged pretty badly since the original Triang version, think it would be nicer to go back to bring printed but if you’re getting into the hobby more seriously, there are much better buildings out there made from laser cut wood or card as well as plastic, but these buildings do serve a purpose for getting into the hobby, and I had a good few as a kid (and much preferred the printed models to the decal ones!).

[cameronstevenson]

I bought the sheets of static grass 2 sheets covered the whole board stuck them to my baseboard then layed my track on top along with the foam underlay as you dont know how many bags of ballast will be needed this worked out cheaper for me too and saved me cutting the sheets to the shape of the track theres a lot of waste doing it that way

[bentullett]

Regarding question do you change things as you go? the answer is yes, to the point that the need for a new layout extension is required. I have been thinking of doing this as part of my current layout isn't working out the way I planned and isn't very suitable for large express locomotives. I have been looking at some of the layout designs in the recent Hornby track plans book and have found some ideal inspirational ideas to use for part of the layout I want to replace.

[graemejoyes]

Don’t put track pins in the middle, it bends or bows the sleepers put them in the outside of the sleeper. One either side.

[CanalRiba]

Hello hornby in a one day you will bring your products to the Brazil?

[tubs]

Really nice video. I have emailed you about a prototype model, since I want to make a replica of it but there's only two pictures on the web and they aren't very clear

[raineyau]

If you want a sharp edge on your ground cover for roads, you should just put some masking tape over the road to protect it.

[christopherdavey]

Hi Mike wot size is that board your using please

[lewiscartwright]

Hi my name is Lewis and I love the videos, I'm interested in the Hush hush but I don't know what variant i want to buy do you have any suggestions