Too green at the moment! Attendance at the 'Basingstoke Show' (well done to the organisers - about the right
combination of trade & layout - more anon) limited the amount of time working on the layout. However, Friday
afternoon was spent adding the groundwork framing - the usual strips of card, held down with latex glue (think
'Copydex' - but not too hard, theres' good, cheaper alternatives out there!). Big advantage over PVA - it
drys quickly - in fact you can use it like 'Evostik') -

in fact so quickly that prior to departing for the show set-up on Friday night (hindering with 'Llangerisech'!) I
was able to make a good start with the 'bandaging' (I used to use 4" cotton bandage, cheap from any chemist, but
sadly no longer available) in the modern era using 'Spontex' cleaning cloths (a big roll for about £3!) held down
with the afore-said latex glue -

Home from the show tonight (clutching the usual bag of 'goodies') and the surface was rock hard. Plastered up
with my usual mix of 8 parts water, 2 parts PVA, 2 parts acrylic paint and six parts plaster...

The green is fairly violent, but is only there to stop any subsequent chips showing white - next job will be
to paint it with other suitable acrylic colours before the addition of 'ground effect'. The eagle-eyed among you
will note that the 'pannier' now sports the CORRECT colour scheme! No, I havn't been out in the workshop with the
spray-gun.. That bag of goodies contained a ''Replica Railways' 5700 pannier body. And a couple of 'Wessex Wagons'
- adding screw-link & 3-link took about an hour...

So now about 70 working hours in to the project and I can see a 'sort of finished' line in sight. Tomorrow will be spent
sorting out the paintjob on the scenery, spraying the wagons,building the last two house-backs and then adding the
ground cover. I MIGHT even get a lie-in on Tuesday morning!

Thanks for reading,
Regards

Ian