Pont-y-dulais: Shed progress...

I mentioned on Sunday that I'd probably be able to do some work on the shed during the week, and I decided to spend an hour last night beginning to add some texture to the rear wall and adding some other detail...

I've not cropped this photo, it shows what a compact space I'm working on and why getting the balance in finish, colour and texture right is going to be key to it's success. The shed then, well here you can see I've added a roof line, representations of the roof beams, lintels and window sills - all based upon the real shed at Pontarddulais. I was wondering how to tackle the rear 'breeze block section'. Originally I thought I could just scribe the base layer of plasticard, but the bricks stood proud then and didn't look right. The answer however was fairly simple.

I cut out a section of 20thou styrene in a triangular shape over size, marked out a grid of breeze blocks (about 6x3mm) and then cut along these edges to feather into the brickwork. Where there was a gap left this was later filled with plastic filler to represent cement. The back of the shed didn't need a laminate though and was just scribed onto the core material. The scribing was done with the back edge of a curved knife leaving a neat but v shaped furrow. I then sanded it smooth just leaving a trace of the markings. Hopefully it will be nice and subtle when painted.

Finally, another shot on the layout with some mineral wagons - I notice none of my wagons have a coal load yet, something I must rectify. I doubt these three will work together, but they show the first (16 right), second (21t middle) and then later works. The supplied stripe on the transfers looks far to thick on the original wagon, I use a thin white painted line these days. Anyhow, a very promising scene, can't wait to get the loco weathered once it's custom works plates arrive... anyhow more soon...