Today I stained the ballast on both baseboards of the scenic sections of the OO layout. I used a 50-50 mix of Humbrol Dark Earth and Dark Rust, diluting the paint mixture 40% paint and 60% thinners.   I then used a large bristle brush and dabbed the mixture on, while doing this I added a little neat Matt Black to the places that Loco’s are likely to stand at signals.

I have included one photo of what the ballast looked like before I started, so that a comparison can be taken.

After staining I cleaned the MAS trunking.

Before

After

By the way ———- I used Dapol ‘N’ Gauge Ballast!!!!!!!!

I have made a good start on undercoating both scenic boards and painting the backscene. All went very well, although I still feel the river could be improved, we will see. I have also painted the MAS trunking with concrete paint, the next step will be the track and ballast painting. Still not sure on what type of bridges I will use, but it will need to be cheap as the whole project is based on using bits and pieces from old layouts.

Board one

Board two

The second traverser has turned up, so scenic work will slow down while I make the kit up, lay track and electrify the lot.

Starting to look more like a railway running through scenery now – very pleased with progress.

After adding all the polystyrene I wanted, making the ponds and the tunnels, the next job was to mod-roc all the embankments etc over the polystyrene. I found that while it is a rather dirty job, it is well worth it. After leaving overnight, a lovely hard shell made me feel that the whole method had worked and made things less vulnerable.

I have also made the river bed higher, it just looked too deep. I filled it in with polystyrene sheet, after making a template, not an easy job, but I am happy now.

I have over fifty trees and many buildings off previous layouts that were broken up. This  includes a farm yard scene, which I have placed on the layout to see what it could look like, although I would repaint the buildings.

I now consider the basic scenics on both viewable boards complete.

Board one

Board two

Farm placed on Board two

Note that I purposely put the resin farm on the board without the controller etc. This is to even out the weight across the two boards.

Next job is to undercoat the whole viewable layout.

Very busy day, taking advantage of the good weather. My ‘Hot Wire’ implement and the Polystyrene turned up yesterday so I was itching to have a go. I have to say it worked very well and I enjoyed using it – plenty of potential.

Lots of various embankments made, some small and one section larger to encompass a bridge. I recommend plenty of trial fitting and slow and careful is the best method. I used a selection of depths of polystyrene, but mainly 100mm and 25mm.

I used the 100mm to form the embankment for the road adding some 3mm MDF to form the actual bridge.

Last but not least I made two wildlife ponds quite close together. I drilled some pilot holes and then went around my outline with a jig saw. Baseboard cross bars were noted before doing anything – so no damage to the strength of the layout.

I now need to pull all the various parts together with a bit of poly-filla, first job for tomorrow, our last good weather day for a while!

After ballasting yesterday I tackled the MAS trunking today. I wanted it to be a bit irregular, just like the real thing. I chose wood strips for the job, measuring out the distance between each ‘lid’ and using a razor saw, I cut about a third of the way through. This I hope will look like the real thing when painted and weathered.

I intend to model a few with the lid off and exposed wires inside, even a small loop left after inspection. I have ordered some MAS junction trunking and some electrical cabinets to complete the scene.

I need to do a little more ‘ballast picking’ to remove errant bits before weathering.

I took advantage of the lovely weather today and decided to ballast both boards of the new OO end to end layout. I had planned to lay the ballast and glue today and tidy it all up tomorrow. In practice, I managed to do the lot in one day due to the temperature. One thing to remember is that this was achieved by working in the shade – please don’t try this in direct sunlight as the rails could warp.

I would normally not ballast until after I had done the basic scenery, but again I have not received the polystyrene or Modroc so doing things a bit out of order.

Before tidying.

After tidying.