Week 1 On The Newest Layout...

Well, it's been a week since Ollie delivered my layout, and I have now put 9 hours into it.

So far, I've added static grass, weathered the tracks, base coated the rock face adjacent to the tunnel, resurfaced the 'yard' area with Noch ballast and then blended the ash and ballasted areas into it. Today, I took a big step, having never used Celotex insulating board, and in 3 hours measured, cut, fitted, shaped, sanded and then filled the area forming the ridge and scenic pathway, which runs the length of the layout (8 feet).

I'm really happy at how it's shaping up and once I add the texture of the rock faces and the pathway, and get the grass all finished it will look pretty darned fine. Thence, I will add a wooden fence along the whole length of the path, and another to the front of the tracks. A few judiciously placed dry stone walls will break up the countryside as will a few hundred trees.

The brick retaining wall is going to be replaced with a fully 3D polystone retaining wall in a stone finish with bricked up arches . I have realised that because I spend my life working with miniature buildings and figures, I really prefer the 3D effect over 2D printed.

Ollie has a backdrop on the way to me (hopefully - LOL ) after the original he fitted suffered a 'failure event'. This should frame the whole thing rather splendidly.

The only down side is that I did not wear a mask and have fibreglass powder in my mouth, which is a tad uncomfortable.

TTFN