'1943, Somewhere in England', N scale Monster Layout

[armyairforce]

Since getting back into railroading in 2005, I built three N scale layouts for myself. 'Dreamland' was the first on a 6 x 2ft board. 'Area 51' was next with a similar but enlarged track plan on an 8 x 2ft 6in board, both of which operated diesels. My last layout was 'Storage Depot 41, Kingman' which was 11ft 6in x 2ft 6in in size, set in 1945/46 and was all steamers. All three railroads were designed as transportable exhibition layouts and ended up being sold soon after completion after someone showed an interest. As a side note, I spotted the 'Area 51' layout on Ebay the other day which is currently with its third owner.

The current N scale layout is a monster at 30 x 11ft, but it isn't for me, it's for a customer. As you can see from the title, the layout is set in England during World War Two. Like my previous layouts, it will have some military content, in addition to the more usual things you find on a UK railway. There will be plenty of opportunity for scratch building and kit bashing, and the English countryside will be a nice change from the desert/rocky US layouts I have been building. The layout will be built in sections, as it needs to get from my workshop to its final home, but this means each section can be built to completion so I'm not spending several months just on benchwork.

There is a quayside and goods yard in the centre. To the South West, there are Munitions factories and other industries. Proceeding East along the layout is a river, POW Camp, Loco Depot and countryside with a viaduct on the approach to the town. Near by, a Junkers Ju88 bomber has force landed, and Home Guard troops protect the wreckage from school boys looking for a souvenir.

After the viaduct, there's a large town and tramway with a large station. To the North, a loco refurbishing works ( as both locomotives and rolling stock were in short supply during the war ). North again is a Coal Mine, and to the West, a countryside station. Further West, the edge of US bomber airfield can be seen.

Construction began in December 2010 with one of the most detailed sections of the layout, the quayside and dry dock. At 6 x 2 feet, it was a smallish section to start on but with plenty of variety in terms of structures and detail.

As I write this, I am currently working on the third section, so the thread has got a little catching up to do before you start seeing stuff in real time, but I hope you find the work I've done since the turn of the year interesting. Here's the track plan. Basically a two track main line with a branchline down to the quayside and another leading to the mine and airfield. This gives the option for continuous running over a nice long journey, and plenty of switching opportunities assembling trains. Click on the plan image for a larger version.

 

[armyairforce]

In late December 2010, I made a start. The quayside was to have two ships in the scene; a destroyer in dry dock and a Liberty ship unloading vital war supplies. For N scale, the Revell 1:144 scale 'Fletcher Class Destroyer' was perfect for the dry dock. There was nothing suitable for the Liberty ship, so much of that would have to be scratch built. Building the whole ship from scratch would take an age, so I decided to speed up the process by using a second destroyer kit for the hull, and scratch building the deck and superstructure. Buying a second kit would also mean that items such as the anchors, anti-aircraft guns, life boats, davits etc could all be used.

Here's the basic kit. I decided to build the Liberty ship first. The rule in front of the hull is a 6 inch rule.

Having had a look at the hull, I knew where I was going to modify it to make it more like a merchant ship. Lengthwise, they are very similar, but the merchant ship has a wider deck. The plan was to build two new formers to fit the hull, forcing the sides out giving me the wider deck. I would also extend the height of the hull sides. The front and rear of the hull would then be pulled together. This would leave an elongated eye shape in the hull bottom seam which would be filled with styrene. A new deck, holds and superstructure would be added with the kit detail parts bringing it all to life.

 

[armyairforce]

The destroyer was a little over 3 inches wide, but for a 'Liberty' ship, it needed to be about 4.5 inches. I made some paper templates for new wider formers for the hull, to see how things were going to work out, and before I knew it, I was cutting plastic. I have added about 1.25 inches to the width, and the sides are raised by 3/4 inch. These are the two new formers glued in with both solvent and cyano.

 

[armyairforce]

The bow was then pulled together and once again glued with solvent and cyano, and taped to hold them against the spring of the plastic. Some additional strips of styrene were then glued on the inside of the joint to give additional gluing area to hold the bow still.

The stern needed a similar treatment, but all the other glue joints were too soft, so everything had to be left to fully cure. Once dry, the stern pulled in without straining anything else.

The widening gives a nice flat bottom to the hull just like the Liberty ships. Once the stern was pulled together, the bottom of the hull could be sheeted over, a floor added for the bottom of the holds and then move on to the new deck.

 

[Steve B]

Looks very impressive, do you go to any NW shows ??

 

[armyairforce]

I haven't done any shows for a few years as I don't have a layout of my own at present, but the exhibitions I've done have all been in the North East, and Yorkshire, as far South as Hull.

 

[Steve B]

Oh well, maybe one day i may see the real thing but until then keep up the brilliant work. I'm going to show my son your work he'll be really impressed, he's into military stuff from WW2.

 

[armyairforce]

I'd still like to make a smaller portable layout for myself, so you never know, we may meet up somewhere in the future. If past experience is anything to go by, it will appear at one exhibition and someone will make me an offer for it!

 

[armyairforce]

1.5mm styrene sheet was trimmed to fit the bow shape and glued in place with solvent glue. These glue joints were reinforced with cyano.

After a little while to harden, the stern was pulled together, taped, glued and a reinforcing strip added on the inside.

The rest of the hull bottom was then cut and fitted.

 

[armyairforce]

The bottom of the ship was skimmed with filler and the two openings for the destroyer prop shafts were filled in. The hull was then wet sanded smooth.

The floors for the holds were added next.

 

[armyairforce]

The height of the ships side was going to be increased by 3/4 of an inch to better represent the slab side of the Liberty ships. To aid gluing the new styrene onto the hull, several small styrene tags were glued around the hull.

The height extension was to be added in two stages. To make the full height of 3/4 of an inch which included the bulwarks, first a 1/2 inch strip was glued in place. This is a fraction thinner than the hull moulding, leaving a small step in the side sheeting.

 

[armyairforce]

I added further bulkheads at the front and rear of the holds which also helped to support the deck and provide additional gluing area. The hull was then measured at a number of places along its length, and the deck shape plotted onto a large sheet of 2.5mm styrene. This was rough cut on my bandsaw, and sanded to the line with a 'Permagrit' sanding block.

The next step was to mark out the positions of the hatches, superstructure, defensive turret decks. Once I was happy with the spacings, based on the drawings I have, the hatch openings were slowly scribed through with a scalpel. 2.5mm styrene is very tough, and by the time the five hatches were cut through, I was beginning to get a blister on my finger.

After lining the hold sides and adding some internal detail structure, the geck was glued on and taped in place to dry.

 

[armyairforce]

The stern of the destroyer was a little square, so the deck was cut longer and more rounded to better match the Liberty ship. The hull shape has been built up with car body filler. Also seen in these pictures is the new centre keel onto which the prop shaft and rudder were mounted.

The filler on the stern was rubbed down roughly to shape, low spots filled again and sanded to the final shape. It still needs small air bubbles filling with the 3M fine surface filler, but that can wait until the bulwarks are fitted.

 

[armyairforce]

Another little job done while the deck and filler was drying was to make the anti-aircraft and anti-submarine guns, plus life boats. Wish my hands were a little closer to N scale!

The bulwarks were the next step, starting from the bow. This raised the ships side by 3/4 of an inch, 1/4 of which formed the bulwarks above the deck.

The bulwarks don't do around the stern, that will be railings, hence the gap.

 

[RW&C]

That's some serious bodywork! Looking good so far.

 

[armyairforce]

Thanks. It was a fun conversion, but quite simple really. Leave off everything destroyer shaped, and add on bits shaped like a Liberty ship!

After rubbing down the filler/bulwark joint with wet & dry paper, the hull was given a light dust of etch primer, followed by light grey cellulose primer. The grey primer picked out the areas that still needed attention along the bulwark joint, plus a couple of other seams along the hull, so they were re-filled.

After a while to harden, the filler was rubbed down again and re-primed. This time it was looking much better, though there were still a few joint lines visible. More filler was added, but this time is being left overnight to set fully hard, as sanding too soon will leave a line again where the filler is still shrinking as it cures. Finally I had a nice looking hull.

 

[armyairforce]

While the filler was doing its thing, I moved onto the superstructure, mostly made from 1.5mm styrene. Once the basic structure was finished, I finished it off with ladders etc from the destroyer kit.

Roof and bases of the machine gun posts now fitted. These are for the small guns seen a few posts back. The small styrene tags out of the back of the decks on the superstructure are for stairs to the next deck down. I'd spotted some in the Destroyer kit that could be used.

It was really coming to life now. While parts were drying, I was also cleaning up bollards from the kit to use on deck, but things like the big periscope shaped vents, of which there are a number on the ship, would have to be scratch built.

 

[armyairforce]

Next was adding the room above the bridge, the funnel from the destroyer ( modified ) and the bridge extensions out of the side of the superstructure.

Stairs and railings were added to the rear of the superstructure and to the bridge extensions.

 

[armyairforce]

The masts and cranes were made from a combination of brass tube, styrene tube, a few kit parts and 'Chemiwood', a high density foam/resin modelling material.

A general view of the ship which is starting to look like a ship now! This was taken before the hull received its final coat of grey.

 

[armyairforce]

With all the filling complete on the hull, the next thing to do on that was the water freeing ports cutting in the bulwarks. All the air vents are formed from heated and bent styrene sprue. The ladders on the back of the superstructure have also been removed and glued on 90 degrees from where they were ( minor goof on my part! ). I'd been looking at pictures of the lower level which run across the beam of the ship, where as the next level run fore and aft.

Left to make and go on deck are the winches, rigging, bollards to attach and life boats/rafts. I needed the other Destroyer kit to pinch the life boats for the Liberty Ship. The destroyer won't be needing that as that will be stripped down undergoing repairs in dry dock. There's also the rear gun deck and armour around the machine gun positions on the bridge.