With apologies for the delay in posting an update... (I'll go with the busy modelling excuse)
To say I was astonished when I got an email through from Simon telling me I had been selected as a finalist in the competition is probably an understatement, but I guess the judges must have liked it so I am honoured to be given the opportunity to exhibit at Railex!
Much work has been going on since the last update, and things look considerably closer to completion than before - I've been waiting for the opportunity to pop into a very good timber merchant in Deal that sells wood in sensible sizes to get that required for the cassettes, and that opportunity will come this weekend as we are going down that way. As such I've not wanted to push on with too much in the foreground as I need to add cassette attachments which will, therefore, hopefully be done within the next week.
I'm still planning on sticking to the original deadline I set myself, which was to have the layout substantially complete by the end of March, this will give me the best part of 2 months for tweaking and small detailing before it's first outing. I'll also be doing a couple of dummy runs to the local club to ensure all is well.
Anyway, a quick summary of where we are:
The crew room that was under construction is now complete and bedded into its home. I'm really happy with how this has turned out, having never built a building from scratch before.
Bedding this in has meant I can finish the track that leads to the building. The hedge has also been planted to the rear, along with the DC feeder cable for the overhead.
The track then drops down to the gate, hiding the transition between layout and backscene. Point ridding has also appeared in the foreground.
ive also filled in the sections behind the back scene, using bushes to hide the joint as much as possible.
Zooming out, the trees in the foreground do a pretty effective job of hiding the hole in the backscene, despite not having any foliage... (it is January after all)
Colouring the DAS ballast at the front has made a big difference. The area in front of this will be treated once everythimg else is complete. Trees here are still awaiting final attachment as they make access behind a bit tricky! OHLE gantries are progressing and starting to give the layout a very distinct look I think.
This leaves the whole scene looking like this. I'm picking the signal box up from Oly (who wanted to help out with the layout) at the weekend so with the cassettes done and that in place it will make a big difference to the left hand end. I can then focus on the OHLE wiring and finally filling in the grass at the front.
Incidentally, you may have noticed the Pway hut is currently lacking a door handle. I've been unable to confirm what the correct style should be as, understandably, they weren't usually the main focus of photographs! Does anyone know what style of door handle I should be using?
Hopefully there will be more visible progress in the next week or 2!
Cheers.
Chris