Jimmy styles

Yes as I don’t like everything being deep white, I think it looks more realistic is you can see the grass under

I did consider all the reindeer but as it’s only 16inches rudolf will have to do, I did paint his nose red

Thank you I’m really pleased with it

so over the last few days i have been busy, i wanted to get christmas eve finished. i have added snow, santa and a sleigh with rudolf. i then built a train, i used a 3d printed body in the style of a GWR railcar and added passengers and lights and a DCC chip. all in all im really happy with how this turned out and looking forward to taking it to peterborough show. and finally a video https://youtu.be/w7CuhAWPHH4 and so what do you all think?

so for my next trick........ i had to get all the greenery done. i started off with ballast, i used n gauge fine ballast. once that was complete i then added static grass and i mixed two colours together as didnt want bright green. then i added bushes and other thicker scatter materials to build up the landscape. its almost a sin to cover the entire thing in snow. so i also had to build a tree but this tree had to be a christmas tree with lights in it.......... well what my little girl wants. so i built the tree using hanging basker liner, once the trunk and branches where completed and the whole thing sprayed brown i then added micro LED's for the lights and hid all the wires inside the trunk. i then added scatter material of conifer green to the tree. i used two colours of LED's to make that christmas feel. all in all im quite pleased so far

Yep but a fun mess

so the next mission was to add the landscaping, the way in which i have done this is with simple plaster bandage and das air dry clay. i screwed up newspaper and added this where i wanted the hills. next was to add the plaster bandage, as this is my daughters layout she was keen to get involved and she helped throughout this entire process. so next up was to add the base colour and ballast. i have used normal poster paints mixed into a dirty brown colour. for the ballast i have used fine N gauge ballast mixed with ballast magic to secure in place. now for the fun of adding grass etc.

next up was a coat of paint on the road, this is just the basic base colour. but already taking shape. the next challenge was to make the tunnel entrance for each side, i decided that as they are so close to the castle the best thing would be to make the entrance to match the main arch on the castle. i then had to build a rock wall on each side to make the cutting. obviously once this was done i had to do a bit of playing (testing) https://youtu.be/zzXctuKx5Kw

Thank you

so after i built "operation abyss" i swore blind that i would never again hand scribe stones into clay, however my daughter said that on her layout she wanted a little road going to the castle and wanted it to look like operation abyss. well what she wants she gets. it is her layout at the end of the day. so she helped, im teaching her young, she's better than me

The diameter is 14inches across so as tight as a tight thing. I hadn’t thought about the tunnel mouths but have decided after your question that as they are so close to the tunnel I will build them to mirror the large arch on the castle

so my daughter now decided that one of the rooms at the top of the castle will be a bedroom and the other room needed a table with some people eating and drinking. these rooms also needed to have LED lights along with a light in the castle arch. so as i didnt want to upset her............. so next up was to start adding some height and contours to the layout and also i needed to add a facia board to help with the contour of the land. i think its really starting to take shape.

so my daughter wanted a station building, but obviously in 009 and on a layout this small, this was going to be a challenge. until i stumbled across a lovely little cricket pavillon kit. i decided that if i cut the front railing's off this would look like a small station, i knew that it dosent have to be completely prototypical as the castle is santa's house apparently. she then decided that the walls needed to be painted gold and found a white metal piano kit in my box of spares so yes this is the only station now with gold walls a piano and a counter with bronze till. so i painted odd planks to look as if they had been replaced at some point and a small LED light inside. next up was to make the Santa Halt sign. this was done by printing the sign and then sticking it to a wood off cut from the kit. all in all i think it makes a super cute little station. finally i will attack it with the airbrush

I have promised her it will be ready for next Christmas but will try my best to finish it this year. Once I get my teeth into something I do crack on. I’m planning on using the delux materials scenic snow

so i was bored and found a old wooden bedside table and some left over 009 track, a crazy thought crossed my mind and a new project was born. unfortunately my daughter saw this and as she loves my wifes christmas layout "Chapel Rise" insisted i built her a christmas layout with a castle and call it "Christmas Eve" obviously i'm not going to say no to my little girl and any excuse to model. luckily i scratch built a castle years ago, so a little dust off and its good to go, although she has insisted that it has lights fitted, and insisted on a station building. the goal is to make it look as though it is sitting on top of a hill. i have lost my mind?? watch this space for the next mad update.