A general view of the front of the model. Trains exit into the fiddle yard around the hidden corner to the far right. This means there is no visible end to the diorama making the illusion more convincing.  Hopefully I will find a way of avoiding the need for the corner support eventually. Lighting is a mixture of fluorescent tube and halogen spots. I still need to add in a number of daylight bulbs to balance the colouring. The inside of the pelmet will need painting sky blue as this makes a very big difference to the colour of the reflected light.  There is no back scene as yet and the aim is for this to be a single seamless curved board. Visiting the York show over Easter highlighted how many good layouts are ruined by poor lighting and scruffy presentation so this aspect of the model needs to look really professional.

 The expended foam was attacked with a razor saw and surform to create the fore shore.

The fore shore was then covered with papier mache. The jetty at the front is one of the few additions to the landscape other than the railway. The layout will grow to the left eventually, with the line climbing to meet the path to the beach.

There is a lot to resolve in getting the levels right at this end of the fishermen's houses. There are complex rock formations which need to be incorporated into the imagined railway trackbed. This muddy area with all its seaweed is potentially one of the most complicated surfaces to model convincingly.

The seafront has large rock armour put in during the last decade. Prior to this, the sea front had slate sea defences; slates cemented end on to create a kind of cobbled surface. 

I had decided to make the sea floor drop away steeper than in reality to suggest that larger vessels could tie up at the jetty. I am torn as to whether this looks right. There are a couple of good overall shots of this area from the 1920s and 30s available in the Francis Frith collection

A couple of better close ups. There is still a visible gap between the cab roof and the cab side that need to be addressed and the cab interior needs to be completed. I want to fit a Ffestiniong style head lamp and coal and other details need adding to the tender. Having only seen this livery in paintings before I think it has a real 1920's feel, the yellow and green fits the art deco era well. Can't wait to have a couple of coaches in a matching livery. I have an unbuilt MSM kit for number 18 which I think will be heading to the work bench pretty soon!

The lining is finally finished and most of the details have been fitted. The next step is to connect the collection wires to the pick ups under the tender and to start running it in. I think I will leave it in this rather pristine condition for the time being before taking the plunge and weathering.

Welsh Pony and Palmerston go head to head.

After a lot more hours doing battle with the tricky curve on the front edge of the tank, the black borders have been painted in and the red lining started. The front and back of the cab will probably be the trickiest, with complex transitions between straight and curved lines. The cab sides still require the corner details adding. I'm wondering if I will have the nerve to weather it now that it is looking this attractive!

Still a lot of work to do on the corners, but its taking shape….

The lining is finally started…
I have used fine yellow Fox transfers for the straight lines and Humbrol yellow glow in the bow pen for the curved lines. They are still a little on the thick side, but once the black border is added and they are weathered down they will hopefully look the part. I have now remembered that I used HMRS Pullman carriage lining on Palmerston, which was quite a bit finer. Its going to be interesting to see what a yellow lined England looks like as its quite a different effect to the post preservation red lining scheme use on the Ffestiniog.

A little diversion from the Ffestiniog! This weeks visit to the North Norfolk Railway allowed further contemplation of loco lining. Must take the plunge and get Welsh Pony lined next week…..