Well after being at work for a monster 17 hours, not including travelling time (I know what your thinking, it's not one of my ploys to escape the demands of the Domestic Overlord ) my boss said that I could take a day off to recover. So in typical fashion, despite being "dog tired" I could not sleep, so I needed to find something to do to help me maintain my delicate metal state, so I tried to do a couple of little jobs on the layout.

So the first thing I thought I would tackle was the lining of one of the storage trays I have made with foam, everything was going well, I managed to get one tray finished, and then boredom hit me and I gave up, well at least one of them is finished. All I have to do now is line the second one and them build the remaining two trays, but I think this can be a job for another day.

So I decided to tackle one of the other outstanding jobs, and see if I could start to tidy up the viewing side of the layout by finally adding a facia to the boards. I must admit I'm quite pleased with the progress on this. I have used one of my favourite materials mounting board, which I cut to follow the contours of Foster Street. This was then glued on to the front of the layout, and even though they have not been painted yet, they have certainly made a impact on tidying up the presentation of the layout (all I need to do now it to decide what colour I should paint it a nice black or LMS Crimson). Before this though all I have to do it fill in a couple of gaps in the scenery and the job should be complete simples (I know something is going to go wrong, but what.......

Well it nearly went wrong with the weathering, in an attempt to make Foster Street look more dirty and industrial, I have slowly been weathering the layout with the help of Humbrol powders. I must admit this is the first time I have used these things and I am quite impressed. I'm also impressed about how much I seem to be applying yet when I stand back and look at the layout it just looks like it needs more. I think I have managed to get the basics right on the track to represent areas where locomotives stand and drip onto the permanent way, but like most of the jobs on the layout there is still a lot more to do.

Until the next time, as ever Happy Modelling