Where did the last month go? All of a sudden there is just 3 months left until the model railway show and the alarm bells were beginning to sound. I have been off work for almost 3 weeks and there had been no further progress on Skaleby West. True enough I was away on holiday for one of those weeks, but I really needed to get things moving.

With my wife visiting her mother’s today I had a day to myself and really got stuck into things. I used hanging basket liner to cover the embankments to act as long grass. I then added a large Gaugemaster backscene to the layout, and glued some hedging material from the same company in front of this. It provided a nice link between the layout and the backscene, and also hides those areas which weren’t cut as neatly as they could have been.

I also purchased a Woodland Scenics “Forest canopy” kit, and used this to construct some trees which were planted at the rear of the layout alongside some ready made trees that I had bought a while a go. As this was my first attempt at making my own trees I was quite pleased with the effects although I probably should have waited for them to dry before planting them! I then used a variety of Woodland Scenics scatter material to add texture to the ground cover around the base of each tree.

After a good five hour modelling session things really have started to come together. My final job of the day was to glue down the cottage after I had detailed the outside with some Noch laser cut plants.

Now all I have to do is leave everything to dry before I detail the rest of the rear of the platform. At present the layout resembles a “before and after” scene with one side scenic and the other rather barren and empty. But with 3 weeks left before I return to work I hope to get this sorted too. If I do I will feel more confident that the layout will be ready for the show.

The show

On the subject of the show here is a quick update! Over the last couple of weeks I have suffered a little bit of a blow. One of the layouts has had to pull out. I understand the owner’s reasons for withdrawing and I am thankful to him for giving me plenty of notice. It does leave a space to fill….better get on the look out for a shelf type layout to fill the space then!

On the plus side all of the leaflets which were left out at the Ruddington show seemed to have been taken. I hope these people all turn up on the day.