Shifting Sands: Construction Scrapbook Part 3

Part of shiftingsands.fotopic.revisited

Based on material posted to www.shiftingsands.fotopic.net in September 2006, updated through to 27th October 2006.

More progress photos of Shifting Sands on the road to completion.

The boardwalk path across the sand dunes was weathered using watercolour washes and some dry brushing of acrylics and then set into place amongst the very fine sand, held in place with both PVA and Matt Medium. Once dry the dunes were given a dusting of MIG weathering powder - 'Beach Sand':

After this Silfor grass tufts were carefully placed onto the dunes, using photographs of real dunes to get realistic grouping and patterns. I used lighter coloured tufts towards the back to aid the illusion of depth. Once everything was firmly in place I lightly weathered the tufts by dry brushing with lighter colours to tone it down and get rid of the slight sheen they have, and also to blend the colours with the other grasses on the layout. Both Silfor tufts and MIG powders are available from International Models:

The end of the line. I decided to have less growth in this area, as if it were a 'blow out' in the dunes:

After the dunes were completed the backscene board could go into place. The sky colour is from a matchpot paint, whilst the sea itself is a manipulated digital photograph that I took at Cayton Bay (near Scarborough) this summer. The beach huts were taken from a greetings card/painting and have just the right colour tones and perspective:

Alongside the fiddle yard entrance, the beginnings of the 'Funland' amusement park can be seen. A few trees have since been added to this area and the effect is to hide the hole in the sky reasonably well, although photographing it can be tricky!

Around this time a lot of the buildings went into place and were bedded in to avoid a gap around the bases. The exception to that is the ice cream parlour, which is supposed to be sat on a concrete plinth. With the backscene and vegetation in place, the forecourt awaits benches:

A wooden building that hides the rods to change the points from the back of the board. This was a quick build using Basswood:

The station buildings, fencing and other details still to be added:

Close-up of the ticket hut, complete with modified Preiser figure:

The 'Somerthorpe Hilton' - the old caravan in place outside the workshop:

And finally..... with the exhibition appearance of Shifting Sands rapidly approaching I started to get gitters about the loco fleet, with four diesels, and the steam tram to use, I felt that the public might better relate to the layout if there was a steam loco of more conventional appearance:

I had bought a Bachmann US 2-6-2 some time ago as a basis for a narrow gauge style loco, however time wasn't on my side so I opted for the quick 'temporary' job to satisfy the need for a conventional horizontal boiler steam loco in time for the exhibition, just something to re-enforce the fact that this is a 'miniature' railway....

O9 Modeller would like to thank Mick Thornton for his help in creating this page.