Down to the wire!

Most of my activities are, as they say, down to the wire where I leave things to the last minute. However in this case my IT meltdown appears to be down to a wire in the USB cable. As with all such things it was the last thing I thought of doing having restarted and closed down the phone and computer more times then Mrs. Woody places internet orders in a week and fiddled with various settings on both the phone and computer. Why would it be the USB cable - it was charging the phone after all. However out of frustration and curiosity I plugged in a new cable and all is well!

Back to the World of model making! Yesterday, whilst out for a walk with Mrs. W who was taking a rest from internet shopping, we actually came across a cattle grid which is what I am trying to create on my 009 narrow gauge layout Chalkdon.

Not in the picture is the gate on the right side which in effect closes the road off when closed but leaves the cattle grid open. Vehicles can travel over it but not animals. Want to get some sheep through - just open the gate.

In my version there are similarities. It all needed to be put together though. And no - I did not gain an extra hour of model making with the clocks going back. That was taken up with garden chores!

Any white areas where painted brown before anything was stuck down. Nothing stands out more then white in places you do not want it.

I had to renake the road as it was too narrow where it met the wooden bridge deck. A quick job with some mounting board and then sprayed grey with Halfords primer. With the cattle grid, road and gate stuck down I was ready to add some texture.

As the track leading up to the bridge also needed ballasting and as I was going to be using my favoured sand for the texture I did both jobs at the same time. Kiln dried sand was spread over the track and brushed into place and it was also spread between the road and track. Applying some IPA, or as it used to be called rubbing alcohol, the surface tension of the sand was broken allowing the dilute PVA glue that I dribbled on with a syringe to penetrate. It is drying over night and hopefully I will be able to add some vegetation soon to add a bit of realism to the scene. However I am pleased with how it is going and no layout I havse seen before has featured a cattle grid. Could I be trend setter?