Yard finishes, but mainly grass.
Two again, with Laurence getting his 'bins' seen to.
The paper-mache verges had dried and been painted earth brown, and Geoff was now itching to have another go at laying electrostatic grass. The eBay-home-made charger was deployed, just like the first trial. A mixture of Noch fibre grass and ground rubber foliage were used, with varying success (upright-grass wise), but the overall effect was good. Lots of practice is required to get the effects seen on notable layouts like Pempoul, but that's going to be fun.
We'll have to see how much has actually stuck down, once the PVA has dried.
Geoff had been working on weathering to the yard paving, which really brought out the patterns nicely.
Stephen continued with the platform, by staining the timber edgings. Chinchilla dust was then laid on a layer of PVA, and painted to induce a feeling of hard-worked grunge. The van was repainted and weathered.
Although this siding originally served the adjacent mine, we now feel that a quarry could be more interesting as wagon loads would be more variable. We discussed having a pile of 'Jubilee' track on the end, which prompted a discussion on the various types. Don't you just love narrow gauge?
Geoff had recently taken delivery of some more vehicles - a Ferguson GE20 tractor, a Ford Popular car and a Ford Thames van.
Note the cracks induced in the road at the railway track (to be painted) - one of Geoff's pet details. Colour is really lifting the layout now.
As a finale, we cleaned the track to test a new chassis (Hornby 0-4-0, for Stephen's Gn15 layout). Instead of fine emery paper, we tried graphite. Talking to Christopher Payne (Portpyn) at a recent show, he'd enthused about using a block of graphite obtained from an artists supplies shop. Geoff rummaged through a tin box of old motor brushes. Stephen notched one to allow top and inside rail-faces to be cleaned in one 'pass' (it also stayed in the right place). Geoff filed one down to get between the wing rails on the points. We were both impressed with the performance.
