Afternoon all,

Back last night from a wonderful day spent in Derby at the 2mmFS Diamond Jubilee event. Could only stay one day as had pre commitments back in London but am so glad I went. Great to see old faces, friends, meet new ones, chat 2mm stuff with people and of course have a curry and a few beers 😜
 

So the final post on the diorama takes us up to the completion and it was down to the wire…that means planting trees in the hotel room at Derby Conference Centre the night before! 
 

Whilst work continued on scenery in the evenings, at work I assembled the acrylic case in the studio workshop. This was then transported home in a foamboard storage box which would be used to carry the completed model. 
 

Assembling box and protective layers…

At home the track was reballasted using dry lay this time and dribbling on Kleer using a pipette - this worked very well and may be my new method. Foliage was added around the base of the piers to help bed them in the grass.

The plinth was then faced in very thin wood veneer (maple I think) and this was also added as a 50mm band to the top of the case to conceal the lighting. 
 

The original plan to reuse the IKEA lights was scrapped as I could only find one so instead a pack of 3 battery LED lights were found on Amazon which were remote controlled and also offered warm light or cool light. The lights were attached to a white card base to help reflect light back down. 
 

The case was assembled and I left for Derby with a small box of tools and scenics. The trees could not be planted as could not find my drill bits in the box since moving apartment 🙃 Luckily I stumbled upon a Wickes 5 minutes from Derby Conference Centre hence the trees were drilled and planted in the hotel room.

Here’s how the final diorama looked at the show…

And a few photos back home…

Have included options with the cool light and warm light as people were divided yesterday on what worked best.

To summarise, it’s been great to get back and do some modelling and the event provided an excuse for me with a deadline. A few things on the to do list include; redo the balustrade etch (had to leave the small closure pieces out as they did not fit) clean the acrylic case with T-Cut and also fix the static grass. The latter being a product of the lid removal seems to attract the loose fibres to stick to the inside of the case.

As always, comments welcome,

Pete