July brings many things including, it seems, lots of rain! The bad weather has allowed more time to get stuck into the scenery on Skaleby West. The time has been most welcome, as July sees us enter the final four months before the model railway show. The show is beginning to appear on the horizon and I really need to get things done!

During the last few weeks I managed to further develop the fiddle yard entrance on the left side of Skaleby West. The cutting was built up at the front of the layout with further layers of screwed up newspaper, with a small embankment also built up across the top of the tunnel in the same way. All of this was then given a generous covering of plaster bandage. This was then painted with brown poster paint, with the footpath and farm track painted in grey to provide a base for the scatter material etc.

The painted scenery can be seen here with LNER J72 no.9819 on test prior to sale.

The top of the tunnel seen here, with a Skaledale cottage test fitted on the top of the enbankment.

I like to build the scenery up in layers. Once the paint had dried I covered the brown with a sprinkling of some dark green scatter material. A mixture of grey and cinders was added to the footpath, whilst a mix containing mainly cinders was then sprinkled on the farm track.

Following the scatter application, compare this picture with the first shot.

The farm track and cottage viewed after the scatter has been added.

July also brings the start of the six week school summer break. This should give me some serious modelling time. I will need to make use of it too. I really need to get the main scenic detail close to finished before I return to work in September. I will also need to make a start on the show guide, sort out advertising and finalise any further layout bookings. This week I have sent off details to the Hornby magazine for their "Show Diary" section and with leaflets sent out I have at least made a start on publicity,

Until next time......