Today I spent an enjoyable afternoon progressing with the winter module. After applying plaster I gave the whole lot a coat of white acrylic in the hope that this would look sufficiently snow-like in its own right, but it's clear that there's more to be done; the texture of the plaster still shows through so I guess I will have to apply another layer of polyfilla or something similar. In time there will be some hedges and undergrowth, suitably snow-covered, and a few wintery trees. No shortage of inspiration in recent weeks!

I'm chuffed to bits with Bachmann's 7F - it's a total winner, in my book. I got the weathered edition for Christmas; in time I'll apply some weathering of my own over the factory finish but for now I'm more than happy with the look of the thing. Runs very nicely too - trundling round quietly with 20 12T vans, and the movement of the valve gear is fascinating.

Here's a fuzzy close-up of the pub:

I must admit to a great fondness for some of the old Superquick kits, especially this one, which has a basic rightness to it which is not always the case even with more modern kits. As mentioned elsewhere this model was made by my mother, at least 30 years ago, and has been on most of the layouts I've owned since I was a kid. It would have been on my very first layout, except that my recollection is that this model was built to replace an earlier one that got squashed. It has had some basic detailing but my intention is to add a bit more when time allows.