Down on Beaverbrook: Road and rail in close proximity...

A milestone this week as I finally have a complete 'road' network on Beaverbrook. An important stage in the development of other scenic elements...

I know other people would do things in a different order, however for me, the road is as much a foundation as the basic ground texture. If I need to re-work, patch or repair later, then that all adds to the character of the surface - as it is, it's wonderful to see the expanse of white card all gone. 

I've talked about this technique before, it's a re-hash of Gordon Gravett's and involves Humbrol gloss 5 and plenty of talcum powder - certainly is one of the more pleasant smelling jobs we do in model railways! I love how the variation in brush strokes and powder application lead to a wonderful mottled and subtly textured surface. It truly is a great method - and coupled with the use of the mounting board (available in big sheets) results in a believable road with minimum effort.

You can see the track is also now all painted (sleepers and rails - no bare plastic here!) but less obvious is the cork foundations for the old buildings at the back of the layout, also bedded into the ground with sculptamold and filler - painted with earth coloured tester pots. Why the road first? I wanted to build up the ballast right to the road edge, and this seemed a better way round than trying to paint the road right up to the ballast edge! This is just the base, I will be adding tile grout and ground cover right up to the road edge to look like mud and dirt, to bring the road AND the rails to life through their interaction and their close proximity.

Ballasting is one of those jobs I really do love and so I will enjoy the next few weeks, working along the 3 tracks in this centre of the layout, sad almost when it's finished but excited about the steps that will follow. Looking back it's strange, I spent so long worrying about having 'enough space' for a grown up layout, but in this 8ft shelf I've ended up with everything I had wanted and more - and so I guess, I'd encourage you all to look beyond the obvious, beyond your sketch pad and into the home - where can you build yourself a layout to enjoy all of this creative hobby at a pace that matches your interest and time?

Until next time - more soon...

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