Feeling rather proud of my self! Have actually made some significant progress pretty quickly. Only on one out of three scenic boards it has to be said but is looking good for the others. Due to our current heat wave, I was able to set up the air brush and compressor outside and gave all the track a good coat of dirty brown. Actually I went over the exposed foam board with a wash of brown acrylic first very quickly and roughly. I then airbrushed the rails in a slightly rusty colour (I hate the orange rails people seem to think re realistic!). The airbrush for this is totally brilliant - you will never catch me painting track by hand again! Some subtle tone variations were added (ran out of original paint so had to use something different!), so here was the result;

Pretty good I thought so what was the next thing I did? Covered it all in mud! Am sure I could have got away with less painting but firmly believe in good underwear where such things are concerned. Did both sides as well even though one won't be seen. Now, I did get a bit of help here - what 7 year old can resist playing with mud!

The 'mud' is nothing more than soil from the garden, sieved and seterilised in the oven, scattered on and then stuck with the Astonish floor polish as demonstrated by my helper;

This used much less soil than I imagined but about half a bottle of polish. It has all dried really well with just a little cracking which actually looks quite good.

I am really pleased with the results and now just itching to get on with more scenic work. Couldn't resist the temptation to set up a little photo shoot;