Project 17 - Some Groundworks and a Hut

The hut against the back wall is labelled as a Staff Room on a track plan. This one existed until the Branch became a heritage line in the 1970s when it was either rebuilt or remodelled making it longer (I think) and placing the door in the end wall. Difficult to say from photographs what the original hut was made of. The white walls were probably white washed cement render on brick or stone.

The model hut is made from card and fixed in place by a magnet for easy removal. It stands on a raised platform of polystyrene foam packaging and is reached by three steps.

The bank next to it is quite a complex contour to carve from foam packaging so I used a can of expanding liquid foam. First time I used this for modelling and it was quite worrying as it starts as a sticky mess that gets everywhere and expands uncontrollably. It dried hard but with a sponginess to it. Excess was carved away and I covered it with Woodlands Scenics to represent the rough texture of the vegetation here, which may have been ivy in practise.

The grass beside the engine shed is a mix of short green static grass and longer strands of plumbers hemp applied with a static grass applicator. I used hemp as I had some to hand. Being a natural straw colour it  represents long dry grass of autumn. It was not very successful though so, I'll need to go over it again perhaps with proper static grass.

The hard standing by the turntable is a mix of sieved coal dust and ash - very effective.

To Part 7.

To Part 1.