Painting flint and other progress

Last time I blogged about the pizza I was trying to work out the best way to make it rotate and was ready to try painting the flint wall. I've not thought any more about rotating and I've been putting off the painting. A few weeks ago I had a go at painting and wasn't at all happy with the results. After a third attempt I'm still not happy but since the wall is going to have plants growing up it I may leave it. I've also put some more polystyrene in between the card framework. The theory is that they'll be something under shell of the landscape which should make planting trees easier. I've covered the who lot is masking tape and also slapped some dirty black paint over the track. The bridge now has some retaining walls on the inside of the curve. I'll add some wooden planks to hold up the steeper bits of embankment either side. I've also put the first layer of glue on the pond - but I touched it before it was dry and there is a finger print. I'll know for the next layer.

Clay and Jalapeños

It's been far too long since I last blogged about doing any modelling so I've decided that I'd better post something. The pizza layout has been left on top of an old chest of draws in our spare room for a while. I dug it out the other day and found something that I'd forgotten that I'd done. I had been thinking about making a base which the layout would site on which would allow it to be rotated. I decided to use a stereo and jack in the centre of the layout to supply power and act as the axis of rotation. I used the lid from a jar of jalapeños to attach the plug to. The layout does rotate but it's rather wobbly as I expected. I'll build a base with some runners about two thirds of the way out to take most of the layouts weight. I've not worked out exactly how that will work yet bu I have an idea after reading Nigel Burkin's article on building a fiddle yard. He made the sector plate part of the yard slide on plasicard - the same thing would probably work for rotating the pizza.

I also made some progress with the scenery over the weekend. A trip to Hobby Craft to get picture frames also allowed me to get some Das modelling clay. I tried out building a wall and some steps and then decided to do the level crossing and the area around the pond too. We'll have to see if I can paint the wall to look like flint and building the cottage will be more of a challenge! I've taken a couple of photos but my camera doesn't want to talk to my computer tonight so I'll try again tomorrow.

A mock up

On the pizza layout I've added some more bits of cardboard to for the base of the hill and built a mock up of the cottage. It's not got a roof but it gives a better idea of what the finished layout will look like and has helped me think about how the cottage should look. I'm still thinking about how to model flint. I don't think the Wills cobblestone walling sheet it going to work after comparing the size and density of the pattern to some real flint walls.

Wills sheets:



A flint wall:



So I need a new plan. Does anyone have any suggestions?