Technique

With progress on a bigger diorama stalled, I have been creating a smaller test piece that will hopefully develop into something that will be easily displayed in my display cabinet alongside 'The Path to...' I have an eye on what the end result will be and what the inspirations are, but that can wait for another day...

The piece uses a couple of new (to me) techniques that I have been wishing to try for some time, but firstly Peco 009 track was modified with all sleeper webs removed in a similar manner to previous dioramas.

Rather than ballast this entirely I have used a technique described by Chris Nevard where modelling clay (in this case terracotta DAS) is used to embed the track between the sleepers (and in some cases over) and given a stippled texture using a stiff paintbrush. This technique has been used to gradually embed the track towards the end of the line to the right.

The other trial is the puddle in the foreground, this is based on techniques described by Gordon Gravett and uses clear plastic in place of the glass microscope slides he advocates. This has been bedded in with more DAS and will benefit from further treatment in due course.

The idea is to represent really sunken in yard track, similar to this seen at the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway.

This is the first occasion I have really used DAS and I'm very impressed with it's scope for small projects such as this. Some of the land at the back was raised with a further layer of card and blended in with the modelling clay, and a mound in the front centre formed in a similar way. Typically I have covered these areas with a plaster/paint/PVA mix before taking a photograph!

Colin