Paxton Road: Scenic touches (N part 31)...

This has been a wonderful project, building Paxton Road since the summer. I've grown comfortable with N and enjoyed playing with familiar methods and techniques in the smaller scale...

After leaving the layout for a few weeks I had it out at the weekend. Despite being pretty much finished there felt like a few little jobs that could be done. The key to a small layout is to not overdo any one element, and crowding a model with set pieces or cameos can be distracting - this is a definite case of less is more.

I was inspired by Barnstaple, and there is a wonderful photograph in my collection of cement being off loaded from some VDA wagons to an adjacent flat bed lorry. I thought it might be neat to include a nod to this on the layout, but I didn't want to always have a lorry and fork lift on scene - nor did I want to build hundreds of loaded pallets from the Model-scene (Peco) ones! However, one, now that might be possible... I've modelled it as if it has been damaged during off loading and left on the hard standing - a torn bag spills onto the tarmac. I did try researching if the famous brand's cement bags were yellow in the 1970s, but failed, so I've just taken artistic licence to model them in this manner! Simply the Model-scene parts painted in Humbrol enamels. 

The sleeper across the siding is just one cut from a spare British Finescale sprue, and touched in with Matt 72 to give the impression of an older example - it could probably do muting back with a touch of a dark brown to add some shadow and relief.

The cement silo has had some greenery planted around it's feet - as much to hide and small gaps as to add some scenic relief to the grey / grey otherwise in this area. Note how those yellow sacks add a splash of colour, yet don't overly draw the eye?

There are a number of 'empty' pallets left about the yard too, and notice some of the Model-scene barrels are located down the gap between the office and store - painted in my usual red and yellow (Shell) colours. The fencing here is from N brass, it is lovely stuff, looks really fine. A scenic trick has been painting it a dark green rather than black so it's more softly blending into the back scene and the greenery behind. The distant buildings only an inch or so behind, show how the overspray of white paint on the back scene before installation has been incredibly effective.

Just off scene left I've added a bush to hide the fence just ends, and the yard has had a mix of Humbrol enamels and some ground foam to add a sort of grassy overgrown fine gravel / cinders area to the left of the office. I will add a few old sleepers and perhaps rails, or a pile of fish plates or some such in this area to balance it out. Then further left it's just pure green until the road bridge - at that end of the layout I need to bed in the oak tree and add a road sign to the bridge approach - no cliché of the bus on the over-bridge here - and then, gosh, it will be 'finished' - and what a project, what a wonderful gift building this small 500mm long layout has been. I will be sad to see it draw to a close, but excited for what may lie ahead. Until next time, more soon...

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