luke the train spotter

Firstly, I started by painting the foamboard with some white household emulsion tinted light blue with a tiny drop of light blue acrylic. The hillside was freehand painted with a flat brush using some thin green acrylic washes I made up out of some water, yellow acrylic, blue acrylic and black acrylic paint. I brushed side to side rather than vertically and did 2 coats with 2 hours drying time between them. That’s it, if I was going to paint details such as rock faces, sheep, buildings I would use normal unthinned acrylic paints just so the seem more solid and dont fade into the grassy landscape.

Seafoam sprayed with a spray adhesive then dipped and covered in scatter. I used the same scatter mix as used on distillery yard.

10 days till my deadline and it's definitely nearing completion! Had some extra time today so did all the static grass and trees as well as painting the clay with some acrylics. Here 80126 poses on the layout. Tomorrow I'll clean up the rest of the static grass and get the over grown siding (went a little bit overboard for what I was thinking of) so I'll need to clear that all up. Tomorrow will be sorting out the cottage and tidying up the scenery.

Definitely not hanging around with it. Should have it finished by Thursday now which is 2 weeks start to finish.

Couple more bits of progress from today. Ended up going into work to cover for one of our other chefs so I lost virtually all my modeling time. That didn't stop me laying down the clay for the road surface and scratch building a cottage for the other scenic break on the layout though. also got my scenic order today so ready to plough on with the scenery tomorrow!

I think I will convert to plaster cloth. It had set off by the time I had finished working my way along the layout which allowed me to do apply the wash. If the rest of the scenery is done I reckon I could've laid the plaster cloth, applied a dirt coloured wash and done static grass in a couple of hours. Much faster than paper mache which needs 24 hours alone to dry.

Onto the next bit of progress! Today has seen the landscaping done. For this I stuck a load of polystyrene off cuts down to the baseboard. then I applied plaster cloth over it. Id never used plaster cloth before but was very impressed by it and I will definitely use it again instead of paper mache. This was coated in a dark brown acrylic wash which was also applied over all the ballast section which I'll finish off with some weathering powders later. tomorrow's main job will be continuing with the landscaping with some das clay and scratch building the house which will cover the right hand fiddle yard entrance. Thanks for looking

A couple of jobs done now. Firstly k have scratch built the bridge I needed for one side of the layout. This is foam board with plasticard on top then painted with valleyo acrylics and weathered with a variety of powder. Since I hadn't been able to source an appropriate backscene for the layout I had to paint mine. Since the station is set not far from loch Tay I have assumed that the line runs at the bottom of the valley so I could have a fairly mountainous and hilly landscape around it. To paint this I did it free hand with a 7mm flat brush and 2 layers of acrylic washes I mixed myself to get an impression of depth and variation. Quite pleased with how it looks and may do something similar for distillery but this takes priority. 13 days to go and I've got a shed load of scenic bits on order which should help complete the scenic aspect of the layout . Thanks for looking.

14 days - just 2 weeks to go till the deadline and Ive made more pig progress. Today has seen the track ballasted and the basic backscene painted. For the ballast I just used woodland scenics fine light grey and then for the backscene I used some dregs of household white emulsion mixed with a few drops of a dark blue valleyo acrylic. The plan for tomorrow is to get the backscene finished off and maybe do some work on the bridge I need for the left hand side fiddle yard entrance. Thanks for looking and your kind comments

15 days to the deadline and I'm feeling confident. I'm sure I can get it built and finished in this time frame. A week's progress has seen all the major jobs done and now it's only the scenery left. Today has seen the track weathered. I just used humbrol no29 spray can. I thought it was a bit expensive at £5 for a 150ml can but it's got a great colour to it. Tomorrow I will begin painting the backscene and begin ballasting if I can get round to it. Thanks for looking

Another major job done - the fascia. For this I've used some 5mm foam board, wood glue, some L beam pine and some screws. Bish bash bosh and I have a fascia. Only 16 days till the deadline....

Some visitors to the layout today.

Another big push tonight. I have laid, wired and tested the track. Just need to sort out the wire in tube point control but the switch is already wired up. Tested a few locos and it all runs very nicely. Seeing the ruston run up and down the line made me wonder if something light rail would be possible with it..... Anyway, some pictures of my current progress.

It is very simply a straight piece of track from fiddly yard to fiddle yard with a point in the middle for the halt station.

Some more much needed progress today. I have cleared a recycled baseboard (from my old layout ravendale). I will need to build a small fiddle yard board and some fascia but apart from that it's good to go. Looks like I'll be moving onto track laying first then fascia and a lighting rig.

Thanks everyone for your kind encouraginf comments! A little bit of context to the layout in building today. So finlarig is half way between Loch Tay railway station and Killin station on the Killin branch line in Scotland. There was no halt or anything at finlarig but I've imagined there to be. This very rough diagram explains it better than I can. The line shut in the late 50s I think and at the end of of life was run by a couple of 4mt standard tanks (80126 and 80028 were regulars) and a couple of caley 4-4-0 (55222 a regular). I plan to extend that rosta to include a railbus and maybe the odd sulzer (I have found pictures of 26s at killin junction so very close to the actual railway!)

Thanks I will definitely do that the station sign. It's not quite finished yet as I need to beaten up the white letters but I'm out of white paint at the moment. Track plan will be a very basic single track line between 2 fiddle yards. The halt will have a single left hand point for a small goods siding. The layout is greatly inspired by Chris Nevards amazing Polbrock layout.

21 days till the deadline. Good thing I've made some progress today. A couple of hours work have gone to painting, building and weathering 2 Will's halt station kits that I've joined together to make a halt long enough to accommodate a mk1 coach. Some pictures:

Well I’m in my upper sixth with a level exams in less than 9 months so the pressure is certainly on! I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeves including have a pre built baseboard that just needs fascia adding and also the layout will mostly be rural scenery so no massive scratch builds to have to worry about.

My next standard gauge project with a pretty tight deadline. I plan to have this layout done by the 1st of November. Let's see how I do..... First, some progress.

This definitely doesn't look like a RNAD loco. Maybe it's foreshadowing a future project...

What capacitor are you using out of interest?

Another bonus of making the tunnel top removable would be for cleaning track and rescuing any derailed stock.

Looking decent! Always good to start with a solid baseboard

As promised, the video showing / explaining how I fitted stay alive to my Ruston. Well worth a watch! ps3WEE1E0Lg