Another thing I have been asked about is the painted stonework on the layout. I did show it somewhere in the threads, but it is buried in the depth of the various pages thereof, so I will give it a seperate airing here.

It is lifted directly from an article Alan Downes had in the MR, I think, some years ago. He described it using enamels and Colron wood dye, which I did initially, but now use acrylics as the layers. Here are a couple of shots of the finished work.

Now painting a small retaining wall on the recent roadworks. First coat is a sandy shade(originally Humbrol 94 enamel, although I think they do it in acrylic as well)

When dry this is given a coat of umber and then wiped with a tissue while wet to remove excess. This is the layer that was originally Colron Georgian dark oak or walnut- I can look out the tin if anyone is interested in the exact shade.

Then, a similar process, but with black acrylic applied and wiped off.

Finally, repeated, but with a c30% dilution of cream as above. Usually one coat does, but I sometimes go over it again in places where too much might have been removed or left, until th required effect is achieved.

This takes no time at all with acrylics- I left the first coat to dry overnight as it was rather cold in the attic, but the remaining covers were done over an hour or so in between other pottering about. I use a range of acrylics from Miniature Paints, a somewhat obscure brand, but very good, as my main colours for this sort of work as they are fairly thick and opaque. The various stage pictures show the colours relecting light differently, as I didn't think of taking them from the same angle , but the general idea is there.