Camas Orainn

[Ian Roberts]

Hi, Trefor,

I used various Bristish wildlife books to get an idea of what's needed for the Hebrides and my wife, a keen gardener, advised me on the sorts of plants. In no particular order there are;

Rowan trees; bent by the wind. They're bits of dead heather with extra wire branches and leaves from an Ash leaf paper punch, the type you get in card making shops. Either as the seven-leaf variety from the punch or cut down, it can be used for all sorts of plants. I have a few punches now for all sorts of other leaves. Incidentally, I paint/mottle a sheet of green paper and punch leaves from this to get various shades on leaves.

Wild roses; you get tight little buds from material shops and the leaves are the same as the Rowans only five per spray rather than seven.

Gorse; Sea Foam with HO type grass fibre (Steugras?)glued on anyhow with dilute PVA glue. The idea came from a recent issue of Narrow Gauge and Industrail Railway Modelling.

Bog myrtle; Orange blobs on thin wire with two-leaf clusters on the stems.

Dried out long grass; bits of teddy bear fur. Actually an offcut stuck to a Father's day card from a daughter, meant to be a joke toupee!

Heather; something sold as "Synthetic Wire Wool". It's green and you can tease it apart. Lightly covered with suitable coloured scatter material from a card making shop.

Wild flowers; work in progress. I found a whole strip of little six pettled flowers in an art shop. These have a wire stem and leaves from another punch. I also have a book on modelling dolls house gardens. Although dealing with 1/12th
scale it is useful for G.

Ferns; from another paper punch.

Hope this helps

[trefor]

Thanks Ian that given me something to think about.

[Ian Roberts]

Camas Orainn will be appearing at the Astolat Exhibition in Guildford on 15th January 2011. (For details see - www.astolatmrc.co.uk) If you're going to be there, come and meet us. You'll be able to see the new set of scratchbuilt figures as well as meeting the lobsters. Until then - Happy Christmas

[Ian Roberts]

Here's some more pictures from the Island of Kiloran. There are new home made people and a couple of new Simplex locos







The Simplex Caravan and the green Simplex are based on Bachmann 08 Shunter chassis with the centre wheels removed, like some of the locos in previous pictures. I think the green Simplex looks a little sinister. It reminds me of a Dalek.

I'm taking Camas Orainn to the Wealden show in Arundel in a couple of weeks and the Crawley MRC show at Horsham in April. Hope to see some of you there?

[Ian Roberts]

New on the Kiloran Estate Railway is this rebuilt Hudson-Hunslet

[Ian Roberts]

Sorry, submitted before finished! Here's a view of the cab and controls


If it looks familiar it is! Torquil, the Laird, was looking at a friend's holiday snaps and saw a picture of the Bure Valley yard pilot. So he got his friendly Glasgow engine builders to make a replica - even down to the peculiar position of the door handle and the colour.

Of course the locals are now calling it "the Clockwork Orange" not after the film but in honour of the Glasgow Underground.

[Les]

Having been privileged to see the beast in the flesh at Horsham a couple of weeks ago I can confirm what a good model it is, with an impressive level of detail. The cab gauges and control quadrants from rubber "O" rings are very convincing and an idea which I will definitely pinch! Nice job Ian.

[michael]

Just catching up, looks like you are having a lot of fun Ian great stuff!

[Ian Roberts]

I've had a last minute request to exhibit Camas Orainn at the SWING show at Bognor on Saturday 21st May. Although mostly an 016.5 event there are other NG scales on show. Details on;
www.swing.model-railway.org.uk
My new scratch built Lister RM3 will make an appearence and as soon as I have the time, I'll put a picture on this thread.

[Gerry Bullock]

Great layout Ian which I seemed to have missed, found by stumbling upon this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UdLSzvQ ... r_embedded
I like the Lister and Simplex.

[Ian Roberts]

Thanks Gerry,
Camas Orainn has been doing the rounds of various exhibitions and is due its last outing at Worthing on 10th & 11th September. Most of the stock, with some additions, continue to appear at the other end of the Island at Balnakeil. (see further down "Modelling Matters").
I've already had some invitations to take Balnakeil to shows in the south of England next year and beyond so I hope to see some of you there.