The trackbed has been sprayed with Halfords undercoat sprays with a further coat of yellowy brown track rust colour applied with the Iwata.

The railhead has been cleaned so that it can be tested. The next job is to build up the mud and ballast between the rails. Very few sleepers should be visible by the end, creating a typical Ffestiniog trackbed of the period. Thoughts are turning to the type of grass to be used; a great deal of improvement has occurred in the type of products available since I built Dulas such as the development of static grass technology.

 The facia is undercoated and ready for an application of satin black paint. With these jobs completed the scenery can have my undivided attention.

I am thinking that I might start to detail the trackbed. I have been referring back to the photos of Chris Nevards Catcott Burtle that inspired me to use the C&L track work materials. Like his model a lot of the sleepers will be buried below ballast and general build up of sand and mud.

A re profiled overlay of plywood has been added to the facia correct some of the original miscalculations. The seabed was sloping away from the beach a little too steeply so it has been raised by 15mm at the pier end. The pier / harbour wall is one of the only changes to the landscape other than the trackbed and a little licence has been used to suggest the depth of water would be enough for schooner to tie up to. Borth y gest was in fact a place where many ships were built for the carriage of slate. The re vamped maritime museum in Porthmadog is excellent and well worth a look. Its amazing how the elegant ships were built on the foreshore using rudimentary equipment. Even more fascinating is the amount of ships wrecked on the coast of Wales. I am going to suggest that a small amount of slate might have been loaded there once the ship building had ceased.

The facia has been rolled with grey undercoat ready for a final satin black finish. The back scene has bubbled unfortunately. I have heard of other people having similar problems and thought I had avoided it by using spray mount. It will do for the time being but will need to be replaced before the model is exhibited. I will apply the next one using wall paper paste and allow the paper to stretch...