Barry Ten

Thanks all. By the way, my local Ian Allan has a selection of the laser minis at quite heavy discounts which makes me wonder if they have not been selling. (If so, snap 'em up now!). The water lillies are good, I ought to get some more in for the main station module.

There's a few different reedy sort of things in there. The main clumps are Woodland Scenics long grass, clumped into small bushels, trimmed to length with scissors, dabbed into PVA then glued down. There are also Anita Decor cactuses, Busch plastic ferns, and as Tim says, some Mini-Natur laser cut nettles and things. (Edit - they're actually Noch "minis" laser-cut products).

I've got three but since only one of mine has a decoder in it, the other two are in their boxes. I ought to check them...

Thanks both! Paul: it's a bit weird watching a train go from one season to the other but it does allow me to try out some different approaches. I'm not sure if I'd have had the nerve to do a whole layout in winter scenery but if it went tits up on the winter module, it was only 4 foot and I could always redo it with normal foliage.

Again nothing particularly new here, other than the odd weed or two, but I thought I'd have a go at doing a deep depth of field shot on the brook scene, with Combine ZM image stacking software. I quite like lineside pictures without trains in them - it's something about the anticipation of the train yet to come, or the quiet that comes when a train has passed. Borrowing a trick from my mate Marc Smith, I'd like to get some birdsong going on quietly in the background here, appropriate both to the season and the location - perhaps some willow warblers, maybe the odd skylark or lapwing. Similarly on the winter scene I quite like the idea of the occasional wintery "caw" of a flock of crows or rooks.

Back to the winter module, now. Currently a work in progress is the overhauling of this Superquick "Swan" pub, which is now well into its fourth decade. I would say it's been on every layout I've had, but the truth is my mother built this in the 70s to replace an even earlier "Swan" which got squashed or trod on or something. The model has had quite a bit of remedial attention over the years, having been damaged in storage, but was still in good nick. However, for a long time I've wanted to give the roof a bit more detail, especially as the model now has pride of place in the foreground of this module. To that end, I've been cladding the existing roof with Wills sheets, quite a lengthy job as the roofline is fairly complex for what is a small model. However it's more or less done now, other than work needed around the chimneys. Later the roof will get a very light dusting of snow, probably not fixed permanently, just enough for it to sit happily in the winter scene but not to obscure the detail too much. I also intend to tweak some of the other aspects of the pub, but not to overdo it and risk losing the character of this very attractive little kit. While we're at it, a few more winter shots. I'm still trying to get to grips with exposure here, but the colour balance is looking a lot more healthy. It's going to be a hell of a shock for the passengers, going from high summer to the deep of winter in a few feet... Cheers!

On the other hand, it definitely wouldn't be a "walk in" design for you, Dave!

Getting there slowly, my artistic director (wife) had some comments.

Nothing you haven't seen before, but a couple of slightly different views of the Spring module. Here's the entire thing, more or less, with the fascia finished (I added the vertical bits at either end) and after a coat of light blue paint. Light blue? Yes, a bit of an unconventional choice to say the least but it suits the Winter module very well and I wanted something that was both light, and also a contrast to the green used on the fascia of the American layout. Too much green would have been a bit overwhelming, I think. Hopefully you can begin to see the work done on the painted trees - still more to go but as mentioned in the earlier post, it has to be taken slowly so as to avoid getting too much moisture on the backscene in one go. Close-up of the brook scene. This is pretty close to the view I get on tip toes or when standing on a small set of steps. There are definite pros and cons to building a layout at this height, but that's a story for another day. Would I do it again? Probably not (if I had a choice, which I didn't here) - but it is very nice to be able to walk into the middle of a continuous run layout! Must get around to weathering that lovely 3MT...

Had another bash tonight, including some shading as suggested by Mr Wenlock - will report once the cockling has gone down.

Cheers, Dave - another custome for SR signals here (although I've got one of the GWR examples for Paynestown's starter).

I think most of us were well aware that there's a difference between what can reasonably be expected from an inexpensive, easily installed RTR product and a handbuilt example made by an expert modeller; we didn't need it rubbed in our faces with nonsense about "toy land". By the way, I've admired Michnich's signalling models on many an occasion.

Flippin' nora. Those are good.

I watch some of those painting progs as well. I picked up a couple of books on acrylic and oil landscape painting from HobbyCraft as well.

Happy to stay in toy land then. This comment reminds me why there's a large sector of this hobby that makes me want to take up pot holing.

I've been mucking about the backscene on the spring module a bit these last couple of days. I decided to paint an impression of middle-distance trees directly onto the original photographic backdrop, with the idea being that, placed in the right position, these will be able to soak up the shadows cast by the taller 3-d trees in the foreground. I started by mixing up some gungey greens and reddish-green shades using almost neat acrylics, and then dabbled them onto the backscene using the rough side of a kitchen scourer - actually just a small piece torn off one of these - which produces a stippled effect quite unlike anything you'd get using conventional brushstrokes. The foreground scenery is then gradually blended into this painted layer to produce a (hopefully) subtle transition. It has to be taken slowly as even the undiluted paint will cause the thin card backscene material to cockle. My experience is that this cockling will gradually eliminate itself but you won't want to overdo it. I will need some tall stands of backscene trees to swallow some of the worst shadow areas so I am working up to these in stages. Obviously I want to suggest spring-like degrees of leaf cover, rather than the full bloom of summer, so relatively muted shades are the order of the day. At the moment I am still working on blending the foreground and background; there's a long way to go. Clearly the visual illusion works best from the side-on; angled views tend to foreshorten the backscene detail and make it obviously 2-D. However, most of the time I'm viewing trains from somewhere in the middle of the room, not looking along the module from one end. Ultimately it's a bit of an experiment; if it doesn't work, I'm minded to replace the entire backscene with an entirely painted version, as I've already done on the winter module. The benefit of paint is that it's very controllable and accidental damage, smudges, etc, are easily corrected. I do like the look of photographic backscenes when done well but they are difficult to tweak, and while they may seem a bit old fashioned, I also like the traditional painted backscene if done subtly. Elsewhere, this Hornby derelict stable block was an impulse purchase. I felt I needed something to sit on this hill - the composition of the scene wasn't quite working, to my eye - and as soon as I plonked this structure lightly in place it seemed to sit there very well and look "right". Obviously it will benefit from additional weathering, blending in place etc, but I really like it and look forward to adding some rusty old farm equipment around it. Cheers, Hornby!

Possibly, or it may end up that the peninsula itself has a smaller detachable bit sitting on top of it.

Not a recent purchase, but this Intermountain FP7 A and B unit has only just been equipped with decoders, so other than testing on DC, now's the first time it's had a decent chance to run on the layout. The detailing on the FP7 is exquisite - check out the windscreen wipers and that gorgeous flush glazing. This would look good in HO; in N it's stunning. Not sure about the number boards... Another couple of recent arrivals are these RS-3s - again, one of them has been waiting a decoder for some time. The newer of the pair is the recent Bachmann model which comes with DCC onboard as standard. This is a nice running model which has been doing sterling switching duties for a couple of weeks. Below is an Atlas RS-3, one of three running on the GA&E. This is an older model but the detailing and finishing is still top-notch. The Bachmann version has the edge, though, in terms of a more realistic ride height and some painted details such as guard rails, cab window trim etc. Think I prefer the lettering on the Atlas. However the difference in ride height is really only apparent when you get your eye low, so it's swings and roundabouts. Both look like the real thing. I'm rapidly developing a bit of a "thing" about RS-3s, in fact. There's something so purposeful and American about them. Side by side for comparison. The arrangement of front headlights presumably reflects prototype variations, although I'm not sure which (if either) would be correct for the Southern. And finally ... a bit of modest progress on the layout itself. Here you can see the start of a junction off the high-level branch, which will eventually bring the track out onto the detachable peninsula. This is the tightest bit of visible trackage on the layout but my intention is that it will generally only be traversed by 4-axle diesels and 40' box cars, minimising the visual impact of the curvature. This area is still quite sketchy at the moment (I don't like to over-plan as it takes the fun out of it for me) but there will eventually be a reasonably well developed town on this part of the layout. Thanks to Digitrains for handling the decoder installation in the RS-3s and the FP7s, and to Bromsgrove models for some recent DCC bits and bobs. And thanks for reading, and apologies for the odd bit of fluff on the lens in some of these shots.