Given it's Halloween today, in keeping with the spirit of things I thought I'd resurrect this blog from the dead!

Not a great deal of modelling has happened since my last entry (just under a year and a half ago!), mainly because when I switched from uni to tafe at the start of last year my workload more than doubled, up from three subjects a semester to seven, causing a severe lack of interest in my own modelling. Luckily, I'd started volunteering at the the Workshops Railway Museum at the same time so my one day a week there has meant I haven't been doing nothing.

Out of the two projects I've posted about on this blog so far, one hasn't progressed and the other has gone backwards!

The goods shed is the stalled one - I'd held off painting it until I found out what colour scheme the one I was modelling had. However, I later found plans at the Queensland State Archives for it and found there are some quite significant detail differences to how I'd built it, so eventually I'll finish the current one and either sell it or use it on a diorama and build a new 'correct' one.

The A wagon has gone backwards, literally! It rolled back off my outback diorama and turned itself back into a kit! Not too big a problem except for the fact that the metal weight I glued inside has come unstuck and getting the underframe off to re-glue it will be a pig of a job to do because it's superglued on! Will probably just have to live with that one!

Now, to the modelling I have done since my last post.

I built trees!

My 'job' at the museum is to help with the model railway display, so that's fixing damage, making it look presentable and just generally keeping it going. In addition to that, I've been making some replacement trees for some of the scenes.

For gum trees, I've used the twisted wire method, covered in watered down gap filler, then painted with acrylics and 'greened' with teased out foliage matting.

The four stages

Twisted wire (florist wire here but would prefer to use copper wire, much kinder to the fingers!)

Watered down gap filler stage (this one was an attempt at a small jacaranda tree)

Painted (this could have done with a bit more gap filler!)

'Greened' with Heki foliage matting

This was my first finished tree. Didn't like how dark I did the trunk so tried to turn it into a wattle by hitting it with spray adhesive and sprinkling yellow scatter material on it. Crap image courtesy of my phone.

Here's the rest waiting for their leaves to grow!

These have all since been finished and are waiting to go onto the layout.

I've also made a few palm trees from kits (Prieser IIRC). These I took home with me after finishing the first one so I could get them done quicker.

Again, all since finished, but waiting until I have a few more to build before putting them in the Kuranda scene.

That's this blog revived then. I'll try and keep the posts a bit more regular from now on (I'll aim for at least bi-monthly!), which should be a little easier now I've decided to give tertiary study a break for a few years. Add the fact I've now also got my small QR layout under way and a certain NSW broad gauge wagon to build, I should have something to talk about for a little while at least!

Cheers,

Matt.