Hi all
A long time between drinks, but that reflects my general of level of busy-ness as the new year (which isn't so new anymore) got underway.

But fear not!  I have been busy modelling and have achieved a lot.

1.  Painted the station building and signal box.  Needs another touch up before weathering.

2.  Almost finished the brick platform facing.  This uses Keiran Ryan's etched brass brick sheet.  I'm not completely happy with it yet, but it's getting there.

3.  As you can see from the photo above, I've also painted the rail and glued down the sleepers.

4.  Contoured the platform and painted a base coat before adding white N scale ballast to represent the crushed quartz surface.

5.  Developed the "grand plan" for my layout.  Not sure if I will get this done in the current lifetime, but   I think it can fit into the space, so I can work towards it.  It's got me excited.  I will post a drawing; it's on my other computer.

6.  I have fitted some new Ikea shelving in my train room to get better organised.  The shelving also forms the basis for supporting the layout.  That is, layout on top, storage underneath.  This is a great step forward for improving my workspace.  The photo still shows disorder and clutter, but you should have seen it before!

7.  Starting to work on the landscaping - building up the cutting at the north end of the station precinct.

Also, not layout related, but I have been doing some brass etches for a friend and preparing some magazine articles.  So no wonder I haven't updated the blog for a while.

I also made some new additions to my "Wild Swan" library - the book on modelling trees is brilliant.  I'm really looking forward to giving that a go.  Plus a couple of older titles on layout design.  If you're looking for these, I ordered them from The Titfield Thunderbolt (www.titfield.co.uk) and they were great.

I hope to post some more details soon.

Toodle-pip.

James