Evening all,

As the deadline approaches to the DJ 2mmFS weekend, I took the opportunity this weekend, aside from chores to make some more progress. First up the base was given a good coat of burnt umber acrylic paint to cover the white.

This was followed by a first coat of ballast to the track which had been first sprayed brown in the model shop spray booth. Also the balustrade etch was given a coat of Matt black spray.

After much deliberation on how to do the ballast I opted for the neat pva applied with a small paint brush and then ballast sprinkled as I worked in small sections. Am not sure why I moved away from my usual method of dry lay and soaking as I will need to go back and infill in quite a few places. For this I might dry lay and use some Kleer liquid I have.

I then tackled the static grass. First coat used pva applied with a brush and 2mm fibres. It’s been a while since I did this as most of my layouts are urban grot so I had a quick refresher of a Woodland Scenics video. I had previously purchased a can of layering spray so this was then applied and then various mixes added including some burnt grass. I then followed up with 4.5mm and 6mm fibres, flattening some areas with the fingers as suggested on the video.

In between this I also started to try to assemble the balustrade etch. This proved more tricky than first thought and it may need to be redone in the future with more emphasis on doubling up where the folds need to be.

Also in tandem, thoughts on the lighting and acrylic case. The acrylic was drawn in CAD and the pieces cut ready for assembly tomorrow at work. The base will have a thin timber veneer applied as well as at the top which will screen the led lighting. Various options are being considered for this too. A few sketches of the thinking undertaken onthe train to work.

Here’s the current state of play with some stock posed…

Still lots to do including planting the trees which I previously removed and stored for reuse one day…wasn’t anticipating it would be on this diorama!

As always, comments welcomed.

Pete