Nesting Instinct

One-third of the hard-shell is in place. This is the lower-end of the hill, where I've used aluminum screen as the sub-base for scenery, with plaster cloth over that and tinted plaster brushed on over the top of that. Will likely brush on one more layer of plaster. In the meantime, until some tinting and wash can put added before ground cover, it looks amazingly like Chile's Atacama desert!

There's a phenomena that expectant parents will keep busy before their newborn arrives fixing up the house, painting hallways, bettering the home for the day when the baby arrives.

I'm doing that right now, in a model railway manner of speaking.

After taking a break for the holidays from working on the layout, I've gotten back into it now as I count the days down while my trio of 48 Class make their way across the Pacific Ocean from West Ryde.

So, this weekend will likely be given to "making a bassinet for baby," by sanding, priming and painting the basic blue backdrop and getting started on hard-shell scenery coming down the hill from the entrance from staging.  Been a long time since I've done much scenery, and in fact have never tried the old-school hard-shell technique with aluminum screening covered with plaster. We'll see how THAT goes!

 

Funny how adding color to the backdrop and putting down a somewhat-appropriate "earth"color on the tabletop adds to the feel of the layout. . .