Pont Dulas: Summer turns to autumn…

When I started this project a month or so ago, my intention had been to model the summer, well late summer. This week I began work on the scenic finishing and forgot…

Forgot? Yes, I err towards yellower browner grass shades in general. This is a conscious choice, a sense of adjusting reality through my interpretation of colour. Basic scenic texture is now not a craft I practice, but one that I feel, I sense, and naturally pick up tools and materials to channel that inspiration into a miniature scene. I prefer to work in smaller sections on a layout, and helpfully this layout is naturally split into six fields by the two roads, and as the colours and lengths are varied and prepared I watch as the scene grows. 

Initially it all feels too generic and unrealistic (left below) but I keep the faith, holding the inspiration in my mind as I interpret the scene, adding further texture, detailing with overgrowth and fence posts, the delineation between railway and bystander that row of regular fence posts that trace the remnants of Mother Nature’s form at the base of the embankment.

 

This is a place I’ve stood. As with Lochdubh, this ‘nowhere’ is everywhere - when I look at this railway, it is imagining a train in motion, watched from the road. 

I love platforms, and stations. They're a calming place for me in reality. In miniature it's the same feeling. A sense of being in transit... on a journey, adventure and anticipation wrapped up in a comfort blanket of procedure and order.

I notice that here on Pont Dulas the relationship is one of casual encounter.

We are seperate from the train, the fence marking the boundary. Platforms invite us closer, fences keep us apart. I love this study, and I’m finding the practice of trying to articulate my interpretation, from inspiration to craft a fantastic mental challenge. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s rambling - I intend to move the blog away from casual description of technique and focus more on the artful language of Modelmaking. This all helps us in the process of bringing a dream to life, and I would love to work with you in your own projects. That may be as simple as a quick weathering of some ready to run rolling stock, it may be a locomotive kit - or it may be the journey of designing (and possibly building) a model railway, I offer a complete modelling commission service and I look forward to hearing from you. You can contact me using the fork here on the website, through Facebook on my page (where you can email me if you’re not a Facebook user) or on the forums. Until next time, more soon…

Donate

I love writing and creating material for the blog. If you enjoy what you read and engage with I would be appreciative of any donation, large or small, to help me keep it advert and restriction free.