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Jock, As you've probably noticed, I like to use natural meterials whenever possible. In this case the leaves are just leaves chopped up with a curved carving knife in the way you see chefs cutting up herbs. It takes a while as you need them to be fairly small. Mike

Gary, If I had a little more room I think I would have done something like that. As it is I'm happy with the density of the buildings - not to crammed in which gives the impression of the model lying at the edge of a larger yard. Maybe a future project in 2mm... Mike

Neil, Paul, Thanks very much. One of the other areas I've been working on recently is between the two sheds along the back of the layout. 'Work' consisted of a bit of corrigated iron fencing made from the Wills skylight (something like that) sheeting, some 'branches' taken from an unknown plant and some chopped up leaves to give that autumn feel. I think these new additions help to pull things together and break up the backscene. I've also spent a bit of time gluing down the sheds and I'll be able to start blending them in when I get the time and inclination... Mike

Here's another couple of Thorburn's. This time in colour. Please excuse the unfinished state of the building on the left. Mike

Paul, Would it be possible to shift the whole track assembly to give yourself enough room to fit the catch point onto the board at the correct location? Mike

Jock, It is. Foamex is very easy to scribe. My technique is to 'draw' everything out with a scalpel blade and then go over it again with a scribe to get enough depth for the mortal fill. I'm pretty convinced that I'll be starting the granary again using this method and some etched brass windows. Mike

Thanks folks. Started modelling again this week as I've got some time off work and I've turned my attention to the long neglected left-hand end of the layout. For a while I really wasn't too sure of what I wanted to do at the headshunt end. One thought was to keep it fairly open and not really make a scenic break - just put a metal gate over the line and call that the extents of the puzzle. The other was to have an overbridge to form a proper scenic break so that I could run trains off the scene with a fiddle stick. I've plumped for the second option... Having tried DAS clay for the unfinnished granary and polyfilla of ply for a first (unsuccessful) version of a masonry bridge, I decided to try foamex. One word to say about that: amazing. Here are a few shots of what I've done so far. I think I'm going to build up embankments on either side of the bridge to help take up some of the space. Here's a sample of what the stonework will look like once I've washed in a mortar colour and wiped it off of the faces of the stonework. Mike

The light wasn't bad yesterday so I got the camera out and started snapping. Found that I wasn't really happy with the colours so here is a selection of black and white shots. A couple of shots looking from the granary towards the end of the sidings. Just a shame that the shed was off it's moorings. Class 26 037 hauls a load of scrap past the pipe load waiting in the old siding. Here are a few of shot I'm particularly happy with as they capture the atmosphere I'm going for. Finally, a general wide shot of the sidings. Mike

Another shot of the 08 at Thorburn's yard. Mike

Thanks Jock. Have you managed to make a start on your project? Mike

Thanks Paul. Might try to take some more tomorrow during the so-called daylight hours. Mike

I've done a bit of work at the loading platform end of the layout. A pile of ballast makes for replacement buffer stop. Sooner or later there will be an overbridge at this end of the layout. For while a while I've been toying with the idea of not having a scenic break but I think that I may want to operate the layout with a fiddle yard at some point in the future so a break makes that work better. Here are some other pictures from tonight - poor lighting can easily be rectified adding some noise and getting rid of the colour! Mike

Cheers guys. Been modelling on and off for the last few months - may even be looking for a new project to keep me interested. Should manage to finish this though. Mike

Here's my contribution to this thread. Thorburn's. Mike

Here's a photo I really like from a wee while back. Mike

Thanks Daniel - very kind words. Praise like that makes me think that I'd really like to get this layout to a point in the next month or so where it could be shown off. However, that means getting the rest of the uncoupling magnets installed and working, AJs fitted to a few more bits of stock, and the turnouts redone with the Blue Point Turnout Controllers. After that it's just about the scenics... Ah, those bloody granary windows! I did manage to fit a back board last weekend which is nice. I have a couple of plans for today - one of which is to get the first of the Blue Point Turnout Controllers fully working. It's all a bit of a faff getting them fitted due to the rather poor method of baseboard construction I employed. I already had cutouts in the 50 mm insulation foam boards that I used to allow me to mount the Cobalt motors directly to the MDF that the track is mounted on, so I was pretty much committed to having to make these larger and cut tracks for the rods. All pretty nasty really... Hopefully I'll be able to post a few photos later today. Mike

Jinty Just on the back-burner. It is a very small layout but if you take photos from a low level you can really make things look big - I learned that when I built Tarbhit. Not totally happy with the granary and I think I'm going to complete a couple of versions - the current one made from the slabs of DAS and a new one from ply and polyfila. It's all about the windows, of which I'll tell more when I get the next version started. Mike

Cheers Paul. It's nice to be back. Mike

In an effort to fill up the space between the granary and the sheds I've done a wee bit of building work: Firstly a smaller brick building with what will be a corrugated tin roof. The long shed is now even longer stretching almost all of the way to the end of the apron. I think it gives a much better balance to the scene and with a few bushes behind the fence the back of that part of the layout should start to work as I want it.

A wee video... Mike

After a while away from modelling (again) I popped along to the East of Scotland Scalefour group last weekend and found myself wanting to get started on Thorburn's again... This morning I cleaned the track and got everything working quite nicely only for one of the Cobalt turnout motors to stop working after a few throws. I've had this bother before and I really don't know what's going on, and frankly, I can't be arsed with it any more... As luck would have it I was shown a Blue Point Turnout Controller when I was at the Scalefour group - something I had looked at a while back but couldn't get hold of. This morning was enough to make me purchase two of them. Hopefully they should arrive early next week. I like the idea of manual turnout control partly because it avoids that horrible electric motor noise.

Been following this for ages now as an admirer of your stonework - I've done similar things in smaller scales so was quite intrigued by your embossing technique. Also, that's some beautiful ballasting work there. The colours are lovely and muted and everything ties in very nicely. Mike

Progress hasn't slowed much of late, but then again it wasn't exactly shifting at a pace! I've managed to grass along the front of the granary and some of the overgrown areas of the loading bay but there isn't much to show. With great light flooding into the room tonight I thought I should get the new camera out again and try to get some new angles. The first two are actually from the other night but I like the colours in the first and the atmosphere in the second so thought I should include them. I think I like the angle on these two the best so far - the fist one in particular gives a feeling of a cramped yard. At this time of year the sun does manage to hit the corner of the room that the layout's in just before it sinks below the horizon. Here are a couple of shots that show off just how much dusting I need to do! Mike

A slight change of subject - a Class 26... Might try to batter on with the loading bay later. Mike

Thanks Quentin, Really liking the colour reproduction from the new camera. Much better than the camera in my Sony Experia Z2 phone, unsurprisingly. I guess the poor colours was making me post black and white shots. Anyway, the colours are a mix of 'Raw Umber' and 'Paynes Grey' for the mud with some 'Earth' powder to take away the harshness, 'Underframe Dirt' and 'Sleeper Grime' for the rails touched up with some rust coloured weathering powders for highlights, and 'Weathered Black' for the oily bits. All of these are in the Railmatch diesel weathering pack and the Humbrol powders pack. Here's another photo from about 10 minutes agao - the light is perfect this morning. Mike