The week of wiggly tin.

As I sit back and review this weeks work on Cuddle for the blog, once again I feel like I’ve not achieved much in the past seven days.
I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. This layout is being built to a much easier deadline. The Granite City Train Show in St. Cloud MN, in November. I’m usually working down to the last minute doing much, much more. The relaxing atmosphere does help with the stress of the Covid-19 lockdown. But still, at the back of my mind the little voice won’t shut up.
The vast majority of this week was spent on the covered loading dock. As the corrugated paper was delicate, I worked very slowly and carefully, gluing the panels in place. It was a case of two nights per face, and there are only two faces to it. But in the end. The time spent has most definitely been worth it. Even my wife got in on the job, corrugating and distressing some of the panels.

Front of the loading dock cover. 

The side that no-one will see. 

Take a closer look at the rears of the panels, they were all printed brown to minimize the chance of any bleed through of light from the rear.
I used the down time between glue drying to weather the track.
I know many modellers who go to great lengths on their track to get it looking realistic. As this layout will be mounted quite high up and much of the track will be buried in ballast and mud. All I’m interested in doing is killing the plastic look of the PECO crazy track.

A quick spray with light earth and some washes of grey acrylic work wonders.

The structures still have no stone cladding on the walls. But the embossed sheet arrived the other day and has been turned over to my wife to paint. In the meantime I focused some attention on the clerestory roof of this main building, that included the roofing slates.

Taking shape. This structure will feature corrugated iron, stone wall, slate roofing, brick chimney,
and a wooden chute for the tipper. A wide range of materials and textures.

Something else I have been working on, not related to this layout. But most certainly has had an effect on it. Is a series of posts I have put on my "Model Railways of Ian Holmes" Facebook page.
"Top Ten" lists have been in vogue on social media lately. With people (myself included) posting lists of their ten favourite things; Records, Films, Cars, etc. Well, I decided to do a top ten model railway layouts list.  A list of ten layouts that I admire, have inspired me, and influenced my attitude to the hobby. It's made for quite interesting reading as I researched these old layouts. Looking out photographs, and reading magazines that brought back many so memories. I can see many influences of these old layouts coming to the fore in Cuddle.
I'd urge you all to do this too. Think back to the layouts you've seen over the years at shows or in magazines. Then as you recall them, see how they've influenced your approach to the hobby. If nothing else, I guarantee you some great memories.