Bae Ceredigion: The art of model railways (N part 38)…

Winter. A different image conjured on your own experience and that of your location, media and social history. Winter on the Cambrian Coast, North Wales, Wales even is a beautiful yet bleak existence...

For me, the wonder of the cold crisp days and blue skies are few and far between, more often it's a case of the dog under my blanket keeping me warm as the rain lashes down outside and the sky decides what shade of grey it is going to adopt as light seems too precious a commodity*.

It is this feeling that I am hoping to imbue in this composition. When I visited Ynyslas myself before Christmas I stood on the road bridge, looking inland towards the railway bridge, sky grey, the last of some wind blown drizzle still beading on my jacket getting absolutely blasted by a wintry wind. It was beautiful. As I look at photos of the Cambrian I can feel the seasons as well as see the pictures, this raw exposure of physical experience helps to explain the colours and shades of the grasses, trees, bushes... of the weathering, the colours in the water... this is what I want to represent. This composition is not just a challenge because it's N, it's challenge because it is not my typical bucolic sunny day.

Where the header image shows where we are today, these photos here are more focused on the textures and colours I have achieved through trial and error and a few mistakes along the way. The embankments were initially quite green, as grass tends to be here in Wales - and too uniform and short. I spent hours pouring over photos to work out what was missing, apart from some texture variation. It struck me that I hadn't considered the yellow longer grass that occurs even in winter where the land is drier - in this case the tops of the embankment, especially from the wind drying the earth. A dose of 2mm 'straw' fibres brought this area to life - and my 'signature' brambles/nettles/undergrowth (left) is on the slight bulge in the embankment that will serve as the base for the signal, when I make it!

Towards the bottom of the embankment and along the river edges the ground becomes quite boggy. I watched this through the window of our van as we drove back from Pembrokeshire via the coast a week or so ago for the second time in as many weeks. I noted how short the grass was, yet the ground was liberally scattered with longer 'tufts' and out of each sprouted a few longer still paler strands. It is this observation of prototype at the right season that hopefully will come through in this scene, and I can translate this into the larger project I'd like to complete next... anyhow, I decided to add some coarse turf from Woodland Scenics as a base over very short green static grass. Secured with scenic cement I then used a 2mm winter grass over these coarse turf tufts, low and behold it began to come to life as I had hoped. A little blending of the material over the bright green areas (these in hindsight were too bright to start with - I will switch to an autumn shade next time) and then some 6mm longer straw strands and things were looking as I had hoped, tufty, boggy, WET.

Finally the river and bridge itself, which hasn't been seen since earlier in the process. I secured this in place with PVA in case I ever need to replace it. The PVA also filled any small gaps under the vertical piles effectively, allowing a low angle view. On top the British Finescale track has been laid, and just superglued to the horizontal timbers I'd added to the bridge, using a wheel set to check gauge. This was all painted and then ballasted on the embankments in my usual way. This looks good, but the ballast feels a little too coarse (it's a new tub of my usual) which is a shame - I will look to tone this down when I add the signal.

Back to that header image, the back scene trial has worked well - but I need to remake this as a larger sheet of board and mount it a little higher so more of the distant hills are visible. This was painted in water colour and then over sprayed with white primer when it was dry to soften the edges. It just slots in place behind the 'layout' in the IKEA shelf. Note too that the gunpowder vans and locomotive need detailing and weathering, but the promise this shows is here - it reminds me of the photos I found inspiring, and it FEELS right, it feels cold, bracing - like you're alive.

Why do we do model railways? For me it's art.

What is art?

"the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power."

(Definition according to Oxford Languages provided by Google)

That is why I do model railways.

* I'm quoting myself here, from a reply I made to Chris's wonderful writing on his blog earlier this week - go take a look if you have a spare 10 minutes and reflect too on what he is saying and how it feels to you.

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