I am still working on the last pair of cottages for Wherewithial Quay, which I also managed to loose one of the windows for! Window problem is sorted and actually looks slightly better for the larger window.

However the left hand cottage (the cottage in question) is intended to finished as "pebble dash" and was built with the Wills "render or concrete" sheet material, but try as I might I wasn't happy with the texture or colour. I even tried mixing talc' with what I hoped would be an appropriate coloured paint - still not a happy bunny!

Then I recalled from somewhere that Gordon Gravett had represented this sort of wall finish with house hold pepper, so to the kitchen!

The pepper was duly liberated from the kitchen cupboard ("what do you want that for?" asked my wife - she should know better by now!) the walls to be so treated were given a generous coating of Humbrol matt varnish and over a sheet of paper the sprinkling began. Once happy with the amount on the first wall the peppr was very gently patted down and the process continued on the next wall.

Once completed the cottage was left overnight before gently brushing off the surplus, and yes finally I'm happy with the colour and texture. I will say the texture is maybe a little coarse for 4mm scale but overall I'm really pleased with it.

Still on the "to do" list for these cottages are make door step for the next cottage up the hill, paint stonework & door steps, install windows followed by a little light weathering and installation ready for Salisbury a fortnight today.

John.