Wheel-fitting Heresy

The standard approach to putting wheels on axles seems to be – well – to put the wheels on the axles. The assumption is that the wheels are complete: they have their tyres and crank pins. It’s easy to see why that would be the standard. If you buy your wheels, they naturally have tyres […]

Studying the Copse

While waiting for The Girl to finish her roller skating class on Sunday, I had some time to sit in the car and study the copse to the left (north) of the pasture in more detail. Returning to Flickr, I had to find my reference material once again, and along the way, I amassed a […]

Pasture gets more shapely

Armed with a utility knife and a Stanley Surform, I hacked great swaths of Styrofoam away from the hills. It’s curious that so many modellers like this material. It’s messy and the dust sticks to everything. While easy enough to form it into hemispherical lumps, dips and bowls are difficult to form. Then, what if […]

Rough and Scrappy Scenery

There has been a pile of Styrofoam where the pasture belongs almost since the layout was installed. Indeed, I think that stand-in landform was a heap of scraps left over from the basement renovation. With the success of the mock-up, however, I was ready to commit to the scene. To support the test backdrop, I […]