7mm Heybridge Basin

[James Spooner]

I think as a layout this is looking really good! As someone who used to regularly visit the Basin as a child, the missing lock is a bit discombobulating… I’m not sure how you could get around that though. One small suggestion on the left hand end of the back scene is to add a curve into the sky behind the putative farrier or blacksmith to remove the vertical line.

Nigel

 

[RichardG]

I think as a layout this is looking really good!

Thank you! I suspect the colouring of the new backscene is a little bit too intense. It is going to look fine in photos, but a bit dominant "in the flesh" as it were.


Then again, the colour match of the background images is looking good. The chinchilla dust platform and the AI gravel will surely co-exist if I can put a post and rail fence between them.

As someone who used to regularly visit the Basin as a child, the missing lock is a bit discombobulating… I’m not sure how you could get around that though.

I have space for one gate of the sea lock. At home, the way the sea lock stops half-way without the second set of gates doesn't really show, but this might be an annoyance at exhibitions. I have an idea, to model the sea lock more as an educational model than a scale model. Doing this, the water could be a sheet of perspex, left open at one end and with the viewer able to see a cross-section of the innards of the lock. This would be better than the bare plywood I have at the moment.

One small suggestion on the left hand end of the back scene is to add a curve into the sky behind the putative farrier or blacksmith to remove the vertical line.

Yes this corner is something I don't want but I seem to need it. The trouble is, I want to leave the backdrop board demountable so I can keep the model facing a wall at home. Also I need multiple backscenes if the layout is to remain modular. A quarter of a tree might work, as long as it doesn't appear to be growing out of the railway.

 

[Osgood]

Self-adhesive glass / window coverings are available in a range of transparency - translucency - limpidity - whatever the right word is.
You may find one that changes the colour tone of the backscene and at the same time make it more appear more distant.
Even a matt film might transform it.

 

[Rob R]

Was going to pm these to Richard directly, but what the heck, you might as well all enjoy them.
Edit :- The Old Ship is nowadays rendered but was brick (later whitewashed) "back in the day".

 

[Osgood]

So just need a distant low hedge and a coastal skyscape Instead of woods?

 

[RichardG]

I have the woodland because it was the most suitable offering from ID Backscenes. The sky is good, the colouring is good, there are no modern details, and the proportions of trees to foreground and sky are bearable. In fact the sheet probably works better in 7mm than in the 4mm it is sold for. This is "Village Long 202D".

I want to have to have something in the background because the row of buildings takes up far less length than it does at the real location. Arguably, the second row of cottages seen in Rob's first photo ought to make an appearance.

Given my skill set with painting, I am happy to aim for an attractive scene with overtones of Heybridge Basin and the nearby Wickham Bishops Hill. There is a lot of marshland between Heybridge Basin and the Goldhanger Road, but beyond this are empty fields. I am happy to assume there were more trees there 130 years ago.

I am happier with this backscene than I probably appear to be here! Still, if it all turns out a bit overpowering I have the previous board (the one I painted magnolia) to have another go. A simple sky sheet from the same manufacturer might work, leaving me to attempt a distant hedge and other details.

 

[RichardG]

So just need a distant low hedge and a coastal skyscape Instead of woods?

I think it depends on the look you want for a layout.

For something like Cratfield, relatively deep for a room in a modern house, a minimalist background with traces of hedgerow and a glorious sky (salmon?) looks superb. But I think something similar at Heybridge Basin would serve to emphasise the small area actually modelled.

Conversely, my new backscene is going to make the modelled area look larger because the colours match up so well. The layout is quite shallow front to back so my eyes don't shift their focus very much and it is hard to see where the modelled foreground ends.

The new backscene is on a new board. I still have my original short backscene (without Module B) and the board I painted Magnolia. So I have options for a replacement one day, as long as I live with a fixed scene on the left end which supports the lighting rig.

 

[RichardG]

Was going to pm these to Richard directly, but what the heck, you might as well all enjoy them.

Rob I am re-posting your photos so I can add some of my first thoughts . . .


There is a mooring post like this one now lying on its side near the end of the parking area on the quayside. It is useful to see, they were not dead vertical. I could put one at the front of Module B.


This is the best photo I have seen of the original end of the sea lock. It explains really well how all of the present sea wall and the spaces around the flood gate and the new sea gate are on reclaimed land.


This style of post and rail fencing is what I should be trying for in the model.


I could have made a very different layout by putting the viewpoint on the other side of the basin. The scene would have been almost nothing except the sky and marshes, a large timber shed and the quarried area now flooded to make a lake and bird sanctuary.


The water is not quite still, but it is so calm I am now happy to try for smooth water on the basin.


The literature makes reference to “two large timber sheds” and this is the first clear view I have seen of this one. If I ever fancy a change of scenery I could transplant this shed to other side of the basin.

Thanks Rob!

 

[robertm]

I would love to sink a pint or three in The Old Ship inn.
Alas the memories of English pubs and the special sense of community they gave me are fading.
Anyone fancy a red wine in the taverna? (I live in Cyprus)
I should also add my late father was a resident in the area, we made many pilgrimages to Maldon and surrounds. Very evocative.
Bob

 

[simond]

Alas the memories of English pubs and the special sense of community they gave me are fading.

Alas, the days of a “proper” pub where strangers meet, and talk, and eventually become pals, are fading generally.

I am blessed with a few in my locality, but the vast majority of pubs have become naff eateries with gross food, fizzypiss beer and the bloody telly on.

the fact that supermarkets can sell beer with lower taxes than pubs can seems to have escaped the attention of those (of all political colours) who drink in bars subsidised at the taxpayers’ expense.

/rant mode:> off/

 

[SimonT]

Anyone fancy a red wine in the taverna?

I wish. Last time was just after GW2. I would even risk some Kokenelli

 

[robertm]

I wish. Last time was just after GW2. I would even risk some Kokenelli

Now that would be brave

 

[RichardG]

We have been into both pubs, just once each! We usually go to the tearoom run by Wilkin & Sons, the Tiptree jam company. There is also a very good snack bar serving hot food, with outdoor seating. This is next to a landing stage serving the boat trips.

 

[Hayfield1]

I would love to sink a pint or three in The Old Ship inn.
Alas the memories of English pubs and the special sense of community they gave me are fading.
Anyone fancy a red wine in the taverna? (I live in Cyprus)
I should also add my late father was a resident in the area, we made many pilgrimages to Maldon and surrounds. Very evocative.
Bob

Bob

I am lucky enough to live quite close to the basin, its always a pleasure to go there. I have only visited the Old Ship inn (several times) and Wilkins tea rooms, both are very pleasant and the food is good at both places, I assume the same can be said about the Jolly Sailor. As well as the snack bar on the towpath by the car park there is a garden with full size models of wild animals, they bring a smile to all.

Nice walks in all 3 directions , even in winter. Its nice to see what Richard is building. Nice both pubs are not up market gastro pubs.

We are also blessed with Tollesbury Marina ( AKA the Crab and Winkle line) just up the road, again would make a lovely setting using some of the old industrial seafaring buildings, has a road which is under water at high tide (a partially submerged no parking sign amuses me, has a nice pub and a couple of cafes

 

[RichardG]

The backscene is now “made”. This is a collage of printed backscenes, AI-rendered buildings, very low relief modelling and a little paint to pull things together.

I am so pleased with this . . . here are some photos from different viewpoints . . .


Module B remains an almost empty canvas. Some hardwood trim over the end cheek would be good.


Maybe put some cows here, or even bison



The perspective works from a few angles.


The wall should be garden wall bond not English bond but I wanted something quick and easy. When I make the sea lock (out of the frame to the right), I can go for local yellow brick and re-do the wall to match. There is space for a low-relief building here. This would remove the problem of distant woodland apparently extending into the sea.

I have tried very hard with the colouring on the layout and I could not wish for a better match with the backscene. My gut feeling is, the backscene is a fairly dramatic alteration to the layout yet I will get used to it quite easily. Maybe I don't need to tone down the backscene very much at all

 

[Dog Star]

View attachment 257140

I am so pleased with this . . .

And so.you should, a delightful view of your layout.

 

[RichardG]

And so.you should, a delightful view of your layout.

Thank you Graham!


I think the backscene has given me space which does not exist. This track finishes just 32 mm from the edge of the baseboard. I have always intended to put a single sleeper chained across the rails, but now I could probably get away with a rail-built buffer stop.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

What does the entire scene look like when you have the centre of the camera lens at 7mm eye-level?

 

[Dog Star]

What does the entire scene look like when you have the centre of the camera lens at 7mm eye-level?

Good

 

[RichardG]

What does the entire scene look like when you have the centre of the camera lens at 7mm eye-level?

This is where I want a larger room, though of course if I had a larger room I would have built a bigger layout . . .

I don't have a laser level, indeed not any level suitable for this, so I am having to assume the floor is level. This then puts the centre of the lens 38 mm above rail height. About 5ft 5in.


Wide-angle zoom lens (focal length = 13 mm)


Portrait lens (focal length = 50 mm)


Portrait lens (focal length = 50 mm)
I don't possess a normal lens, this would be about 35 mm.

Incidentally, all of these layout photos are lit with studio flash bounced off the ceiling. The wide angle shot could go with a pair of these units.

The water crane really is leaning, but I can shim it to be upright when I fix it into its hole.