Back on the Chain Gang!

Well on Thursday it felt a bit like being part of one of those old films set in an American prison where the inmates were breaking rocks as part of their punishment. Whilst it may have been hard work digging out ballast from between sleepers at the Rocks by Rail Museum, it was far from punishment. I enjoy a bit of digging and it was a nice sunny day surrounded by railway infrastructure and rolling stock and some good guys with some great chat as well as Riley the dog, who prefers to dig up grass rather than ballast - pity!

What could be better? I even got home in time to put Mrs W's dinner on the table as she arrived home - result! 

Over the weekend I have managed to make some progress with the various buildings for the narrow gauge layout. The Dapol General store has been primed ready for its final paint scheme. There were some gaps in the joints at the corners of the walls that required filling. To cut down on the mess and subsequent cleaning and sanding I ran a strip of masking tape either side of the gaps. 

Vallejo acrylic putty was then brushed into the gaps and left to dry.

The masking tape was then removed leaving a nice clean joint that needed little more then me running a finger nail down it to remove a few rough bits. Working smarter not harder as I get older!

If you look at some model buildings on railway layouts you will notice that you can look straight through a window to the other side of the building and through the opposite window. Whilst open plan living may be a concept some like it is not something that you see in many buildings and at some point there are internal walls even if only to separate the sanitary facilities from the rest of the house. I have added several partitions into the shell of the building as well as a first floor floor - if that makes sense! Not only do these block the view through the building but they also add a bit of additional strength. I am not going to add internal detail but I think these partitions will do a good job in adding that extra realism to the model.

All the parts have now been primed in a light grey awaiting their final paint scheme.

I have also glued the walls of the Service Station together and cleaned up some of the other parts which now await their turn to be primed which hopefully may get done tomorrow if Mrs W doesn't introduce here own version of a Chain Gang to get me to finish that list of jobs!