It's been several months since my last bit of bloggery, so here goes. Tillingham is now coming along nicely, and starting to look more like a layout rather than some track on a baseboard. The enhanced progress follows a few weeks where I'd had to dismantle the two baseboards and their trestles to make way for extra accommodation with both our girls on a visit, and took the opportunity to bring the scenic half of the layout down to our home workshop (former kitchen) where a 4x2 sits nicely on a worktop handy for all services and at a good height to work on. Consequently, I've painted a base coat of burnt umber on the "hilly bits" and other areas, and done some more ballasting and yard surfacing, though my next layout will definitely not have what is allegedly 00 scale ballast, as it's much too lumpy, but I'm not raking it all up now to start again! In addition, I've built a Ratio coal office and staithes on a separate plasticard base, which I'll reveal another time, a sleeper buffer stop (Wordsworth download) and a flight of steps which will connect the as yet to be built town to the station. These I did from scratch in Depron foam sheet and balsa wood, both in my model aeroplane stock, with some DeLuxe plastic filler here and there, and which I reckon will look reasonable when painted and weathered as a Southern style concrete construction. Painting and fitting the tiny Ratio railings kit I bought is going to be a bit of a caper though, I suspect I also did some work on the access road ramp, which is also in balsa, with a covering in brick paper and three buttresses, which would probably on reflection have been better as arched recesses, but I was on a roll! Finally, I did the tunnel mouth, another Worsdworth download but modified, which necessitated hacking out some of the raised ground I'd laid, and concentrating on that corner of the layout, had my first go at static grass laying with one of the very nicely priced MR Models tea-strainer based devices that seems to have worked pretty well with a mix of 2mm and 4mm "grasses" for the slightly overgrown area. We'll see how well my diluted PVA sticking and consequent fixing spray worked when I take the board back upstairs! Oh, and the shed road buffer stop is in, with some filling and weathering to do. Working in one specific area to get it looking more like something real I have found very encouraging, so will probably carry on that way - it's only 4' x 2' on the scenic side after all, with the townscape to be built on a higher level above part of the fiddle yard side at a later date - bearing in mind the need to try and match certain things colour and finish-wise as I go, which may be easier said than done. There's the matter of a small river to think about at the diagonally opposite corner from the current section too... onwards and upwards
Paul

Yard and tunnel area with various bits of ground cover going on.

Flight of steps in foam and balsa won't add much weight to the board!

Station access ramp, weathering of the main part yet to be done, road slab edge and fencing sorted out.

My first attempt at static grass application, and the tunnel mouth installed. Starting to look a bit more like a railway I hope!

Oh, one last thing - I may transfer the rest of the layout build over to the general Layouts part of the forum, rather than in a blog, hopefully to widen the viewing and get more feedback. What do others who have done all this before think? Comment or PM me, ta