Ok, I don't have Ozone layer-threatening amounts of lacquered big hair and a pomp-Euro rock backing track but at long last I'm sort of heading to Venus (at least I hope that was the lyric, it could have been p - whatever) and beginning to restring the OHLE, clean down the track and do some final tittivating although I still need to work out a method for lighting and invest in some people.

I've also revisited some of the areas I laid out with cobblestones and repainted them, and have been nursing my temperamental and totally uncontrollable cheap Lidl airbrush to undertake a lot of weathering.  I've also discovered the joy of Tamiya texture paint, in particular their pavement colour which has a gritty texture, and is a very convincing colour of weathered asphalt, a colour I was struggling to achieve.  Given a liberal dilute black airbrushing, allowing the watery wash to pond, you get some interesting oil stain and rain staining effects.  My brother has also tipped me off about Tamiya Weathering Master "make up" kits which look like they may be on my shopping list soon.

Anyway, some more pictures showing how the sky backscenes and revisited painting have changed the view.  

The cobbles are now a slate grey although they look a bit blue in the photo.  They've been weathered by airbrush, but I might give them a more intensive dilute wash by brush.  The Bachmann market stalls have also been given a by airbrush, I recall market stalls looking a tad grubby although the smooth metal stalls don't really convey the shanty-town feel of say Walsall or Darlaston markets.  They look a bit more like the permanent beach hut stalls of Norwich, but still, they look fine.

The area between the Bank of Bitch and the station is now occupied by an Auhagen 1960s shop.  The interior features a deli counter staffed by two twins, and shoppers, which is fine, once I've worked out how to light it all will be clear.  Except where the shop is located, you won't be able to see the interior terribly well as it is at right angles to the viewer, about a foot into the baseboard.  Didn't think that through.... 

With the roof of the station lift tower looming above the prefab station upper entrance, and the "ValU Express" next door, and the BTP office behind, there's a pleasing sense of 1960s modernity to the streetscene, contrasting with the late Tudor and early Georgian architecture of the Market Place.  The sky paper helps give a sense of depth, to which I've added some Black Country factory images.  Quite pleased with the overall effect, I probably could have made a bit more effort but these low angle photos are convincing.  The asphalt paint with airbrush weathering I'm very pleased with.

ValU needs a fascia sign...

Must be the Midlands, there's no timetables in the display cases and there's no glass in the shelter.

Oh, and Hornby, Bachmann et al:  pull your fingers out and make a ready to plant standard Abacus David Mellor designed bus shelter.  They were designed in 1959 and are still to be found in some locations, they were literally everywhere, including on railway stations.  I had to 3d print mine.  It would be a banker for whoever makes it, cantilever and enclosed, and relatively straightforward to design.

Len Langlands has had a power cut but everyone is still shopping for designer Swedish furniture, groping their way around.  Eventually it will acquire interior lighting and being close to the viewer, should be more visible.

View through the Old Courthouse portico across to the old Buttercross, where some tuneless busker has taken up residence.  Over the next month I hope to get a few high detail figures installed to give a sense of activity, important in the marketplace.

View down Station St from the exit of ValU.



View that greets you on exiting the station from the upper entrance.  The Queen's Hotel, Wednesford's poshest establishment (meaning it has running water and no female evening leisure consultants renting rooms by the hour) is across the road and the Old Courthouse arts centre on the right.  One of my favourite subjects when doing my Town Planning degree was townscape, the study of creating a sense of place and what makes people respond positively to a streetscene or arrangement of buildings.  Intimate, almost oppressive narrow streets opening out into a square to give a sense of direction and arrival are generally thought to be welcoming and engaging.  Clearly the lectures rubbed off on me.

And by contrast the rampant modernism of the redevelopment area.  The back story is the new entrance to the station, with the access off the new ring road, was on the site of the old goods shed destroyed by bombing in May 1941 and never rebuilt.  It provides a better car and taxi drop off point for the "motorway age".  The Civic Centre next door is also partly on old railway land, and land formerly housing and small workshops also wiped out in 1941.  Again, I've repainted the road with the asphalt texture paint and given it a blow with some dilute blac acrylic wash, allowing it to "pond" to give staining effects.

The sky paper and "Lineside and Locos" industrial backscene give a pleasing effect of depth from this angle.

The station in situ with the stair and lift tower to the upper exit.  The stair and lift tower are a 3d print, as is the main public entrance to the lower station, the rest of the building being the Pola-Playcraft BR 1960s "Mod-X" style station which was produced as a kit in the 60s.

The platforms, the far side being the main single bi-directional through platform, and the nearside the bay platform used by terminating electric units from Birmingham, and the Wombourne Pullman, in reality, a separately  fed and wired mini layout that will double up as a programming and test track feeding the Wombourne branch terminus.  The waiting room is something of a mystery, I bought the two buildings for a few quid off TatBay but there's no maker's mark on them.  They were moulded in a garish yellow, but I painted the exterior, which is a nicely tiled finish, in a buff colour and left the inside yellow, and 3d printed a roof to turn it into a waiting shelter and canopy.  They are very effective.  Platform units are Wills.  The plaster retaining walls have been given a heavy weathering to reduce the blue tint and give a sooty look, with grasses, and various weeds sprouting out of the brickwork.  Telecoms trunking can just be seen on the left.

I'm hoping to get the rest of the OHLE restrung and the track cleaned by the end of tomorrow, then I need to program and detail up the working DCC colour light to the main platform (the starter for the bay is hidden by the police station so that's a dummy signal) then I might actually be able to start running some trains!