The State of Play

I've deliberately not dwelled too much here on what one railway modelling magazine has called the "current heath emergency". There have been no great proclamations of "lockdown projects" and if anything my output has slowed over the last few months rather than increased. There have been odd exceptions, Easter weekend laying track for a Julian Andrews inspired micro layout being the main one.

You may be wondering what has happened to that, ironically labelled as "getting something moving". Well a perfect storm of issues with finishing off the primary locomotive, then issues with some of the intended rolling stock and a heavy dose of despondency have kicked it into the sidelines for the time being. One day it will be completed, in some form or another, but whether it is the next bigger project to emerge is another question completely.

So I started on the Ashover coach on 009 as a distraction, I think issues with other projects going awry  led to me build it practically out of the box before eventually realising I wanted to make some changes. I finally plucked up the courage to make those changes step-by-step and it is now in the paintshop, but not before examining my acrylic paint collection and realising it was deficient in useable creams and light blues. A socially-distanced trip to Boyes saw me acquire a likely ivory shade and two different blues to try from Vallejo and Citadel. 

The present thinking is that there may well be a LCLR-themed micro-diorama for this coach to inhabit, using a Wills station halt kit to represent the wooden platform at South Sea Lane station. This might not seem very ambitious but it seems achievable. Perhaps the future is better represented by these focussed set-pieces rather than anything bigger and operational?

The other factor at play in the current climate is the need to use my workbench 5 days a week as my place of work. This looks set to continue for at least the rest of the year and maybe beyond. With some additional equipment now in place this does clog up the space a little, I've settled on a weekdays/weekend setup that does allow some modelling on weekday evenings. As an aide to this I've made myself a work tray from a piece of furniture board (actually a piece from an Ikea unit) and some of the last of the lovely veneered ply I have that came from an old wardrobe.  A lip of quarter round strip under the front edge locates the unit on the desktop, and I've cut down the chunk of wall-planner to fit on top!

I've included a couple of pockets at the back to hold bottles to but haven't gone overboard with paintbrush holders etc. A couple of coats of varnish have given the inside an attractive finish, whilst the outer edge is painted dark brown over the top of the veneered side of the ply, as the veneer has worn away in many places due to joining/sanding/drilling etc.

After the end of each session the work tray can be moved under the desk onto the top of some stacking crates, ready for use the next day. Whilst not an excuse to be untidy it means that work in progress can be left out to some degree.

You might just spy a Black Dog Mining mine wagon on a KB Scale chassis, a leftover from the failed wagons for the "getting something moving" project. This is due to feature in another micro-diorama piece, and it might be sooner rather than later...

Colin