Talk about being stuck between a rock & a hard place. Usually work my booked days off for extra pocket money but with the plumber booked to come and sort our heating problems and SWMBO being full time Mon-Fri its down to me to be 'stay at home dad' for the day and await the potentially expensive visit from the boiler man ! Ironic really when I should be working to earn the pennies to pay for the repairs !!

Anyway, the plus side is with not having to get up at stupid o clock I had a late night at the kitchen table last night and put together the 3rd big structure for the board. This one is for the front right side of the board and will provide the cover from fiddle to scenic section. I even managed to take a few pics during construction so I can prove its me building these things and not a team of modelling goblins that do it during the night while I sleep !!!!

Still have the pipe work and conveyor housing to do but this cant be started until the two buildings these will run between are finished and in place on the board.

The story so far then.................

First up, a balsa wood frame using rough measurements for loco clearance, scale and board position. I cut my balsa strips up with a very sharp blade and use a sanding block just to square off my cut edges. Nothing is an exact science and so long as it sits level and holds together well it does for me. I use rocket glue (yellow) to hold everything together and the roof and underfloor were done using 5mm foamboard this time as the balsa supply was running out !

.....and to give you an idea of how it works on the board -

Next up is the brickwork. One sheet of 4mm plasticard brick painted with Dulux white emulsion. I then sponge off the top surface and this leaves a rough looking white in the grout. Cut in strips and applied to the structure using rocket then the joining edges trimmed with a scalpel.

Decided not to go for the overhanging side cladding this time to save on wood strips and time so the next step was to apply the plasticard planking cut to size directly onto the frame. Even though this stuff is designed to represent wooden planking I think it works quite well as modern industrial metal factory cladding especially when painted with the grey primer.

After a rummage in the bits and bobs box I found a few strips of tube and right angled plasticard to add some detail, hide some joins and finish the corners to cover my dodgy cuts and unequal lines & gaps !!

'Good size, this one' as you will have noticed and I think once the joining pipes and conveyor belt housings are added from the loading hopper on the higher level, this building will look at home on the front edge and serve its purpose to hide the fiddle well.

Its not raining this morning so next up is to mask off the brickwork and give everything a good coat of Halfords Grey Plastic Primer outside in my garden spray booth !!

More pics later............................