Nostalgia

Thanks Bill I appreciate your positive comments .

Thank you for your comments ....as I am a passionate football fan I really wanted to include something of this in my diorama . I especially love your comment ' come on you Axes!' - very amusing .

Thank you ....it's amazing what one can do with a static grass applicator !

Thank you for your comments ..yes I enjoyed making this little scene as I wanted to try and capture an old fashioned football stadium street scene as well as the impact of the Beeching cuts .

'Some people are on the pitch , they think it's all over- it is now '. Everybody is familiar with these iconic words by BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme in the closing moments of the 1966 World Cup Final . I wanted to use the quotation 'They think it's all over' as the title for my next Cakebox Challenge . The foreground of the scene depicts some railway workers taking up the last remaining rusty lines of some fictitious branchline in 1960s England as a result of the Beeching Axe which would be responsible for the reduction and restructuring of the railways in Great Britain . The background shows a low relief 1960s football ground - with the fictitious name AFC Beeching which looms ominously over this once picturesque branchline - now overgrown with grass , weeds and wild buddleia bushes which are synonymous with disused railway lines . The football match has obviously ended as we can see a solitary working class football fan leaving the ground ...perhaps he is leaving early to avoid the crowds ... and sadly It is also all over for these rusty old lines . I had a jigsaw puzzle for Christmas entitled 'The final whistle ' which was the inspiration for my Cakebox Challenge !

Thank you , yes I really enjoyed modelling the allotments especially the runner beans with bean poles which I think really sums up allotments/English gardens .

Thanks very much . Yes Static grass is not as difficult as it appears ...and I am far from being an expert ! Sorry I am not sure what type of ballast I used as as I have had it for years , bought in Antics I think .

Thank you for your comments they are really encouraging as I have waited years to build a layout and this Cakebox Challenge has been an inspiration . I still need to blend in the edges of the Metcalfe signal box as they are a bit white where they meet ...so still lots to learn about railway modelling . Looking forward to starting another one soon !

Thank you for your comment . I bought the static grass about 3 years ago at the Warley ModelRailway Show and is the first time I have used it ; there is no label on the packet but I think it is 2 or 3mm spring/summer grass ...hope this helps!

Having just completed my first model railway scene Halcyon Days , which I have entered for the Cakebox Challenge , it has given me inspiration to enter another scene which I have entitled 'Dig for Victory'. I have always fancied the idea of making a model allotment so I thought I would go back to the days of the 2nd World War where I believe lineside allotments were common place , even alongside signal boxes - these of course were inspired by the various railway posters which I have also included in my layout . The base of course is an 8" x8" cake base which was first painted a brown/ green base colour and the track was added(glued down with super glue) painted with Humbrol rust colour and then ballast added . I then added the static grass and raised beds for the crops . The man gardener is a Dapol engine driver and I used the inner part of some cardboard to make the raised potato beds and applied brown scatter material for the earth effect . The runner bean poles are made from the bristles of a broom . The signal box is the new Metcalfe model ,complete with inside detail , which I bought from the recent Warley model railway show . Fencing is from Ratio , and the hedges are made from a type of 'scourer' which I cut to shape applied adhesive and then the green scatter turf which makes quite a realistic hedge . The railway posters were downloaded from the internet and add to give a nice 2nd World War feel to the scene as the signal man digs in the foreground . I added some small detail such as oil cans and fire buckets from Wills & Ratio and some old sun bleached planks of wood made from balsa wood .

Thank you , I appreciate your comments .

Thank you for your nice comments . Yes I did realise that Halcyon days was associated with a kingfisher but I did not think I would be able to source one in 1:76 scale .The main reason I gave it this title was for the following meaning , and this is what I wanted to capture - 'our current use of halcyon days tends to be nostalgic and recalling of the seemingly endless sunny days of youth-despite the fact that the original halcyon days were in the depths of winter.'(sourced from the internet). ,

Thank you for your reply and your positive comments;I have attached some more photos to give a better perspective of the scene !

Having in times past been restricted by time , money and space , I was really encouraged to take up 'The Cake Box Challenge' as it gave me my first real opportunity at serious model railway modelling...albeit on a small scale . I chose to model a 1930s GWR scene in 4mm scale . The scene depicts a peaceful spring/summer day where a man is seen sat by a river bank feeding some ducks and swans whist across the way a GWR parcel van passes by hardly unnoticed except by a horse in nearby field . Having picked up many tips over the years through reading BRM and attending model railway shows, I really wanted to try my hand at the following modelling skills- namely static grass , modelling water and tree making. My foundation was an 8" x 8" cake base and I then used some cardboard glued on top which was then cut to the shape of the river . I then used plaster for the river base , painted this green/brown and filled with 2 layers of Woodland scenics water . The parcel van comes from Langley models and the trees again from the Woodland Scenics range . The man is from the Dapol range and ducks and swans from Preiser . I used grey cotton for the fencing which was then painted a rust colour with Humbrol paint. I used 3 different lengths of scatter grass and was quite pleased with the effect using the static grass applicator made from a fly swast and tea strainer bought on EBay . Overall I was quite pleased with the result and it did sum up what I wanted to achieve which was to create a time and place where I would like to travel back in time to ...Halcyon Days .