Motive power! (12inches to the foot scale!)

Over the last few months I’ve been looking for a car. And, as I’m sure most readers agree, young drivers' insurance is silly money! So, a van was the answer! It’s cheaper because there are only 2 seats. Anyway, it’s a 1.7 CDTI Vauxhall Astra Van. A brilliant run around and very cheap insurance (compared to other vehicles).
The reason why I am posting this on here is that it is also the perfect vehicle for transporting fairly large goods, or a 009 Model railway of the FR!
I will need to make some racks to support the boards on top of each other, but otherwise, it’s good to go! The number plate isn't really '009 TMR', it's just a play on photoshop. :)

One of the reasons that I haven’t posted over the last few days was that I was busy helping Mum to do some work on a shop she just bought. Brethyn Blaenau (Brethyn = Material) It will sell all sorts of needlework tools, supplies, knitting things, cross stitch kits and will also be doing a framing service, as well as a photography studio upstairs. If anyone is interested (or they’re wives/partners), I will post a link here for the site once it is up and running.

Progress on the scenics!

Earlier on in the week, I had booked Friday off to prepare things ready for a weekend away with the Army Cadet Force. It turns out that plans where changed and I only needed to go on the Saturday. So, I decided to spend a few hours on the layout.
Firstly I attached the back board that runs along the ‘Blaenau’ end of the Works board. Then I tipped the layout on it’s side and started to work on the cliff face; here is how I did it.

1) Basic Shape.
The basic shape of the rock face was made up using polystyrene blocks, trimmed to size and shape using a sharp hobby knife. I found that the type that the blade ‘snaps off’ is the best, as the blade can be extended to several inches long. Perfect for cutting all the way through and giving a nice, clean and mess-free cut!

2) First Cover.
I first covered the polystyrene with a thick(ish) layer of filler; abut 2-3mm thick. This was done on all of the ‘flat’ surfaces. On the top and corners, a bit more was added to ‘blend in’ the blocks.

3) Little Details.
Finally, the tool used to apply the filler was used to shape the filler to the shape of the rock face.

And finally, here is a photo of what the area will hopefully look like! Here is a England engine (Welsh Pony or Prince, undecided yet) taking a load of empties back up the line.
The keen eyed readers will notice the cliff face (and tunnel) at the end of the layout haven’t been made. This is because I still need to run the track to the edge of the board and make a ‘tunnel liner’ to look like the inside of a tunnel.
Hopefully, I will get that sorted Saturday evening or Sunday.