Friday Update: Ten Eleven Twenty-three…

Blink and it’s gone, the days blur into one as autumn marches towards winter, the nights draw in and I reach the home straight on Boston Lodge…

This IKEA Billy sized 009 cameo has been the sole focus of commission activity this week as I need to complete it before I can realistically start on Leatown - as well as a myriad of smaller ‘more complex’ commissions! That is a wonderful thing, the opportunity to get wholly engrossed with an artwork, the results speak for themselves. Ground texture and detailing is in, structures are bedded in - these is just a hint of weathering to add to the shed along with one missing sign. Already, even with just my motley collection of stock, the layout is singing to me and I can’t wait for my customer to take ownership and the creative journey he is going to enjoy photographing and videoing his models on this stage set. 

There is nothing difficult about any element, but its conception is an interpretation fuelled by my own hand and intuition. I’ve done a lot of thinking (and talking, thanks Chris and James) about this over the past week - where to take the message beyond my second book (what, you hadn’t realised it was published? Available now from all good railway bookshops (!)). I have been encouraging the why, the story. We all ready have ‘the craft’ (how) in spades… is it worth beginning to talk and articulate the process that links these two? We shall see…

You’d think I’d be tired of layout building, but I’ve found solace away from 4mm scale in N. This week has seen Wrecsam Canolog’s etched canopy supports finalised and the artwork sent off and that itself has fuelled further attention on the layout. The rails have been painted and ballasting started… this small slice of standard gauge modern image is a real contrast to other projects and I’m enjoying the stimulation of how to translate the inspiration to the composition, what to include, what to ignore, the ‘interpretation’ again providing a practice for me to articulate this consciously, and I’ll do a progress update soon.

Evenings have also seen much work on tree armatures and moving towards finished models - the trio of oaks I started some time ago are now all ready for a project - but what project is that? I’m not quite ready to share it just yet but it’s more N and yet different to all that has gone before. I have loved learning new methods and practicing old ones on these miniature green giants. Experimenting with texture and airyness, this sort of work on my own projects sharpens the tools I use on your commissions. Trees are a real challenge, it is easy to obliterate all the care that went into an armature with overly thick foliage, but equally too thin and the thickness of the wire branches is all too obvious. Likewise the leaves themselves, I’ve moved from medium ground foam to ‘flock’ to represent leaves - I think the finesse on these N scale trees is worth the effort, I can’t wait to share more on this exciting project - but now is not the time.

I’m very pleased to see Pont-y-dulais get 4 pages in the December 2023 issue of Railway Modeller. It looks great on the page and I hope inspires others to consider a ‘proper’ Industrial scene for their models rather than just using them in a yard on a larger layout. It also ably demonstrates the power of a small cameo layout to contain and entertain such a variety of views - through swapping motive power and stock the layout can support different time periods, even locations. As a polite reminder, we’re down to the last stocks of our ‘Victory’ model, if you’re keen to pick up another for Christmas!

Finally, another ‘For Sale’ post, this great book from Paul Shannon was bought a few weeks ago and I enjoyed reading it - but the content is similar to other books I have in my collection and so I’d like to provide it a new home, rather than it live on my shelves never to be opened again. I paid full price but I’m offering it to you for just £20 plus delivery, let me know if you’d like to enjoy it!

For Sale - £20 plus postage

This weekend should allow a little breathing space and a chance to consider documenting and writing about my new project, take some photos for a Wrecsam update and perhaps, perhaps, make a start on the next piece of motive power for Beaverbrook. What have you got planned for the weekend? Until next time, more soon…

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