A White Christmas

I had unofficially set myself a target of getting the 'Christmas Tree Halt' rebuild completed by the end of October, lots of reasons but mostly to ensure it was completed for December! I think I might have made it...

Since last week's update the major change is that I have painted the snow. As daft as it sounds this is key to the effect that I am after, as I wanted a snow finish that was durable (i.e. not too much loose material glued down) and repairable (in case of sticky fingers). This is why I paid so much attention to texture at the filler stages... My method has been to use Vallejo 70919 'Cold white', thinned very slightly with water and with a drop of Vallejo retarder medium added, painted using a soft brush (to avoid brush marks) and as each area is painted a very sparing sprinkle of Deluxe Materials 'Icy sparkles' added. You cannot see the sparkles in the photos but they do glimmer if the light is right!

The Noch trees have been fixed to their barbeque skewer pegs and slot neatly into the tubes set into the scenery. In the foreground I have added the bare bushes around the fence and shelter, with a smaller patch to the right. These are largely recycled from last year's efforts, but broken into smaller sections and a effort made to make them look more like bushes than trees. These were painted with the Vallejo 'Cold white' for the snow effect and again some icy sparkles sparingly added.

Last year I had hoped to add some ribbon around the base of the scene to help emphasise the "decoration" element of the concept, but had nothing to hand and no time to go out looking. With more time on my hands this year I was able to obtain something suitable, I always knew I would probably end up in the craft section of Boyes for this but had not perhaps foreseen making the purchase in their Barnard Castle branch!*

The ribbon was attached using double-sided tape, it really adds to the effect of the whole scene "floating" as you cannot really see the black-painted supports underneath.

There is one more item to add in due course but all the work I wanted to do to bring the pizza back to life for 2021 is pretty much done. A few adjustments have been made to the wagon for this year, notably adding Peco couplers in place of the bent bits of wire it ran with last year, and adjusting the load to not look quite so over-powering (although they are still HUGE presents!).

 

Attention is now turning to safe storage, it isn't easy to create a box that slips over a pizza and bolts in place, so a box that accommodates the pizza and has storage space for the trees is now under construction.

Colin

*my eyesight is fine, thank you...

Gimmie Shelter (and other snowbound detail)

I'm making progress with the rebuild of 'Christmas Tree Halt', with short bursts of work almost every day taking each step at a time.

The Wills halt building was primed and painted, ironically in pretty much the same colours it was moulded in, but the painted finish is much nicer in my eyes. The moulding dictates that there should be posters ether side of the doorway, so I searched online for suitable vintage looking Christmas themed designs. The chosen posters were reduced to size in Gimp and given the effect of a frame around them, then printed on glossy photo paper. Once fixed in place the whole structure was matt varnished to remove the sheen from the prints.

The shelter was glued in position and the snow (more filler) built up all around it whilst the glue set. As I had a weight on top holding it down I could not add snow to the roof at this stage.

I have also managed to plant a short length of fence, more Wills halt leftovers. I had to create a little trench in the scenery to get this to sit correctly, but once I was happy I glued it in place and added more snow all around. Just visible to the left in the shot below is the extra piled up snow I've added in front of the rock faces as these areas looked fat too flat before.

Once the shelter and fence were firmly in position I could add snow to the horizontals of the fence and the roof. The rooftop snow had a little PVA mixed into the initial layer to aid adhesion to the painted surface. The corrugations are still visible in places and I've achieved a snow dropping off the edge effect. On the right I've tried to give the impression some snow has recently dropped to the ground

The sign and bench from the Mk1 version of the scene are now in place and blended into the ground. There are still a few more areas to attend to before I start to paint the snow in it's final coating, such as to fill the areas of bare ground where the trees will sit. It is funny how the snow actually looks better and cleaner in the current photos than in reality! 

Oh, and I must clean up those rails...

Colin

It's starting to look all white...

A little progress on the Christmas pizza. I have been slowly applying filler around the edges of the board, then inside the track but not over the central area. The central area has had a coat of a mix of the same filler but mixed about 4:1 with PVA in the hope this can avoid any cracking over the softer base. Everything is largely thin layers in a bid to further avoid cracking issues. The two "eyes" in the centre of the scene are where the trees will sit, rather than plonked in the snow as per the mk1 version there will be a bit of exposed ground cover visible. In the centre of each patch is a tube fitted to accommodate the removable trees, these extend down through the polystyrene into the MDF base.

Whether applied at full thickness or the PVA mix, the filler was smoothed into place with a putty knife (or in the case of inside the circuit, butter knife...) and textured using a stiff paintbrush. A wet brush was then lightly run over the top to smooth the texture a little. I'm not sure the amount of texture is quite right in places and I may smooth any really high spots with fine wet or dry before adding the final colouring. 

Some of the left over filler/PVA mix was stippled into the previously smoothed area between the rails which has given a much better finish in this area. I now need to clean up the rail edges and have a test run to ensure it still works! Attention will now turn to painting the Wills halt building, some fencing and the rock faces before the next stage of snow work is attempted.

Colin