Down the lane

Yesterday evening I started work on the brake third L&B coach. Here it is with the completed composite on 'the big hill' with Doris.

Work progressed faster on this one as I knew what I was going to do and how to do it, it being the second attempt. In the picture above it has had a coat of primer and there is an unpainted acetylene generator attached. having spent some time looking more closely at some of my L&B books I've noticed that the brake end was usually not at the back of the train so as with the Red set I've moved the tail lamp to the other end too. Hopefully I'll find time to paint it tonight.

 Having a day off today I decided that scenery was next on the list of things to do so I opened a packet of DAS clay and set about improving the level crossing at the bottom of the lane where it crosses the line above Blackhill station. I used a similar technique on the crossing at the far end of StRuth station whereby I smooth out the clay and then poke the end of a square section of styrene into the soft clay in rows to simulate roughly laid setts.

The crossing is at the bottom of the lane for which I've used a pre-made grassy lane which I've now stuck down. I can't remember which of the continental manufactures it is made by, Noch, Faller  etc. I've used some more DAS to fill in the gaps and to make the muddy patch by the gate of the cow field. I poked the hooves of a cow into this to make it look like the kind of mess you often see by field gates. Some paint and a gate will complete the scene, maybe a manger.

The other thing I've done is fill all the gaps in the stone walling which I glued down ages ago. Dry stone walling like I'm trying to represent sort of grows out of the land so its important to make sure it doesn't look 'plonked' on top of the ground.

A busy day and a fruitful one, nearly time for paint and green stuff. The only problem to solve really is back scene. For some reason I cut the mdf back scene to some sort of imagined landscape... stupid idea as it turns out. Now I need to attach more mdf so that I can add the sky. Talk about making work for myself.