Deciduous decisions!

Turning back to my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout, I need to think about making the scenic sub-bases look a bit more like the natural countryside. Not as easy as it sounds as you need to make it actually look natural rather than put together in a garden centre! Knowing that this would be happening, a number of items have been purchased over the last few years and put into the WMD Stores ready for this moment Included in those items are four deciduous trees made by Woodlands Scenics. Bought as secondhand saved some money and they are trees with a presence rather than a 2 inch twigs which is something you can end up buying if you are not careful.

Now to achieve 'natural' is quite a hard process and sometimes it just comes as you work along and on other occasions you have to work at it. Working at it usually means taking your time and putting things temporarily in place to see how they look and feel over some time. That is what I am doing with making a decision on where these deciduous trees will end up on the sub-base. At the moment this is the initial positioning with an old bard in the centre. I quite like it but there is just a little nag in the back of my mind that says leave it for a few days and see how oit looks then.

Something that could not wait a few days though was my work bench which got yet another tidy! That is probably the fifth or sixth this year which is somewhat incredible knowing my usual habits of working in chaos! However, I have to admit that it is nice to look at a clean workbench - almost makes me want to build some models!

Red sky in the morning!

It was early rising at WMD HQ this morning which enabled me to take in this amazing morning sky! 

As the old saying goes, 'Red sky at night, shepherds delight, red sky in the morning, shepherds warning'! However, not being a shepherd nor intending to be one, and I think most in the farming World would wish that to remain the case, I ignored the warning! However it was a cold day which is why I moved into my Man Cave to do a bit more scenery work which sees the last sub-base nearly finished.

This work features in the latest WMD YouTube production which is guaranteed to cure insomnia! Hopefully it will uploaded before the morning!

Neaarly there!

Just like the wait for Christmas, which I need to reassure Mrs. Woody if she is reading this will be worthwhile for her gifts, the landscape sub-bases are almost done! Just a slight problem in that the long section on the side which I wondered if it would hold together - well it didn't! However a quick decision to cut it in roughly half means I should still be able to use it.

My chosen cutting implement for this delicate and precision work? A saw! It did the job though!

With the sub-base seperated the remaining plaster impregnated bandage was applied followed by more goo and left to set on the floor with a small weight just to stop it warping as it dried.

One part in place......

Both parts in place with just that central piece left to go! Hopefully, given the smallish size there should be no issues so I can say 'nearly there' - famous last words!

Whilst shopping for Mrs. W's gifts I was able to catch a quick couple of pics of this Class 56 loco in Colas livery which is one you cannot really miss but I nearly missed the opportunity! Obviously I was too busy pondering upon Mrs. W's gifts........

Natural goo!

Mixing more goo for the scenery sub-bases on my Last Great Project layout has reminded me that I have not talked about cycling much this year. And why did the goo remind me of that? Well, my bike is well and truly splattered with the natural stuff!

As I always say, I prefer to use the time to ride it rather than clean it. It all the muddy back roads that cause the issue and I guess I really need to do something before it literally becomes part of the natural landscape at the moment! I will leave it to your imagination what I look like after going out for a ride!

Back in the mud less WMD Man Cave, work progresses on the scenery with the 'gooing' of the large sub-base that I blogged about on Thursday now complete. I have now moved onto the large sub-base along the side of the baseboard. First off some carving of the foam/polystyrene has taken place with more to d later but this has allowed me to apply plaster impregnated bandage to one side first. The picture below probably explains it better than my words!

This time I applied the goo mix before all of the sub-base has been plastered. Not sure why I did this but it seems to have worked! With the sub-base temporarily back in place it is looking good to me!

I still have the other side to do.

Taking a wider look at the scene it is beginning to come together. Once the sub-bases are all plastered and gooed, it will be time to start adding some vegetation which really will bring life to the scene. In the meantime I will keep on plodding along - just like plodding on riding my bike. Which ever one I do I seem to end up with the same goo result!

 

More goo Woody?

The landscaping work on My Last Great Project 00gauge layout is progressing with the latest sub-base of scenery completely covered with two layers of plaster impregnated bandage and I have now been able to comence the process of adding some texture. This has involved mixing more of the 'goo' type filler and paint mix and applying with a stiff brush to get a rock effect on the cutting part of the scenery.

Hopefully the top part can be textured in the next day or so and then it is onto that big piece of sub-base in the upper right of the picture. That will require a lot more goo Woody!

Leaf it out!

A day of small but satisfying jobs today. The type that take a n hour or so to complete but you can see a big difference after finishing them. Well that is what I thought as I raked, swept and bagged the leaves that have fallen onto the front garden thinking Mrs. Woody will be impressed by this major clean up which has resulted in six large sacks of sweepings that need to go to the recycling centre.

Not so! Mrs. W, when informed of my hard work and the resultant vast visual improvement, announced she could see no difference whilst looking at the back garden! Leaf it out please! Even when turned 180 degrees I don't think the improvement was noted by her despite the six sacks being in her view.

Back in the sanity of my leaf and Mrs. W free Man Cave, work continues on the scenery with more plaster impregnated bandage having been applied to the currently worked on sub-base. Hopefully that part of the work may het finished tomorrow if I don't have any more leaves to sweep up! Leaf it out!

Bonus points earnt but still the stairs to do!

More landscaping in the Man Cave as I tackle one of the large scenery sub-bases. First thing was to carve the final shape into the foam and polystyrene - the bread knife was used again!

Then it was onto the plaster impregnated bandage .

It is going to take several days to do this sub-base but at least this is progress!

As you would expect with my multi-tasking the 09 Caravan project is still in my mind and it does now run on the oval of compact Kato track I got some weeks ago. All that was needed was a 9 volt battery and away it went as this short clip shows.

Of course it needs something to haul and todays post saw this kit of three tipper wagons arrive from the same source as Caravan and they look really good 3D prints. Just need time to build them and paint Caravan!

Finding the time is difficult at the moment. For the last month in a bid to earn even more bonus points with Mrs. Woody I have been painting the hall, stairs and landing. The hall is just about finished and today saw the last of the landing done. This was the situation this morning.

By the afternoon normality returned and bonus points earnt!

Just the stairs to do now - oh joy, ladders on stairs with a paint pot in one hand!

Woody gets plaster and makes some good goo!

Time to put my impromptu 09 project to one side and get back to some work on My Last Great Project 00 gauge layout. With the wiring and point motors done it is now time to move back to the topside of the baseboard and get on with progressing the landscape.

I had already built the scenery sub-bases to a rough shape and these will need to be carved to their final shape before the next stage of construction starts. I have started off with the smallest sub-base first and risking my well being have used Mrs. Woody' bread knife to carve the landscape to shape. Must remember to put it back and I just hope she doesn't read this!

With that done it was time to get the plaster impregnated bandage out of the WMD Stores. If you have been unfortunate enough to have had a broken limb this is what they use to put a cast around it so that the healing process can happen.

Now plaster impregnated bandage can be messy to use as you need to wet the plaster. I was not going to end up looking like some form of mummy from the tomb or in this case Man Cave with bandage and plaster hanging from me so my plan was to cut small pieces from the roll and wet it in situ by brushing water onto it. Cunning but would it work? Time to find out so the first part of the bandage was cut and placed on the sub-base.

By gently brushing water onto it the plaster liquified and could be brushed out over the bandage just as I hoped!

Things progressed as more bandage was added and I stayed clean!

Finally all the sub-base was covered in bandage and being a quick setting plaster it was just about dry!

This was fine but it looks a bit anemic! Time to add some colour and texture. Out came some ordinary plaster and some brown acrylic paint.

Mixing that lot up and I ended up with this goo - it was not like the Goo desert that had been in the pot before the jar was requisition for this job but nevertheless this was a good goo! Having a brownish colour means that should the scenery get chipped it will show a brown instead of a glaring white colour.

With the mix applied using a stiff brush I could get some texture to the supposed rock face of the cutting side.

I just need to let it all fully dry and then move onto the next sub-base! However I have remained clean and that's the main thing!

New YouTube video!

The WMD film crew have finalised and uploaded a video updating progress on my 00 gauge Last Great Project Layout. If nothing else it will cure your insomnia!

Changing!

The line up of trains on the My Last Great Project layout changes with time as I add a few new wagons or a loco and take some off. Nothing like a change of scenery to keep things interesting. However I have just spent a day changing most of the trains as there is a video for YouTube in the offing. So this changed.....

.....changed to this!

I also found my other class 58 so there is now a trio of them!

All this may not look like much but by the time you find the boxes and repack or unpack rolling stock a few hours go by - but so much fun!

Cutting through!

Well the wait is over as the glue has dried on my scenery sub-base and, just as I predicted, it has enough integral strength to be lifted and moved about. Phew!!!!

Moving it into its place the form of the landscape begins to take shape.

I then constructed the small sub-base for the front of the baseboard. Using off cuts of material from the previous two sub-bases, it was glued together and then left to dry before cutting to shape.

The final piece of the scenery was the central pillar, theoretically left when the cutting through the hill was made to route the railway - well that is what would have happened in real life.

With all that done the whole scene of a cutting comes into clarity - well to me anyway! I need to do some carving now to geth the final contours and then start the long process of making it actually look like a piece of UK countryside rather than part of the Artic!

The wait!

In my continuing endeavors to create a mess, yet more foam has been cut for the second layer on the landscape sub-base that I am building at the moment. The great thing about building off the layout is that it makes things like marking out where to cut so much easier. I have used a felt tip pen for this but Mrs. Woody normally limits my creativity to safer crayons!

Soon one side was cut from several off cuts or the first layer and glued in place.

The other side followed but being lower in overall height only required one small off cut.

Now left to dry and then I can see if the whole structure is still rigid and strong enough to support itself when I lift it. Will the wait be worth it? Only time will tell!

However, for Mrs. Woody, the wait is over, well for stage one of the hall, stairs and landing repaint.

Next off is to refloor the under stairs cupboards and probably find some elusive treasures junk but that won't be until next week now! Oh, the wait is just too much!