7mm Layouts and Dioramas by Stephen Fay, including Pontycwm, Newton Mills and St Stephens Bank

[Compton castle]

More dirt on the superb accurascale HUO. I hope they do a few more in O

 

[Compton castle]

More scenics arrived from GModelscenics, I particularly like there forest bushes, I’ll be getting some more of them. Heki ground foliage and some more dead fall, the areas in between will be filled with more bushes. Another large tree made up and screwed in place

 

[Phil O]

Excellent work Steve, looks like the scenery on Bucks Hill, an excellent GW 0 gauge exhibition layout that I saw at Railex a few years ago.

 

[Compton castle]

More bushes and scrub added today, Still waiting on a delivery from Polák and MBR. Unfortunately taking a lot longer these days getting parcels from Europe.

 

[Phil O]

Steve, are you trying to pass off the real thing as your model?

 

[Compton castle]

No it’s definitely a model !

 

[Allen M]

You can tell it's a model by the designer stubble that nearly all young men seem to have these days

Regards
Allen
p.s Excellent work
p.p.s. please don't shoot me

 

[Pencarrow]

More bushes and scrub added today, Still waiting on a delivery from Polák and MBR. Unfortunately taking a lot longer these days getting parcels from Europe.

Out of interest Steve, are you finding any extra charges are now being added to the products you are having posted in from Europe?

 

[Compton castle]

As of yet no, I’m awaiting a delivery from Polak that’s taking some time and another large order from MBR, the last came through with no additional costs. I’ve also got a consignment of 1/43rd scale bricks coming from Hungary that was posted over a week ago so there’s a chance I may get stung on one of these.

 

[Compton castle]

Building up the scrub land and bushy areas with some excellent Polak wild bushes.

 

[Compton castle]

Adding some more dead fall general under tree mulchy stuff! dried leaves thrown in a blender then sieved fixed in place with clear Matt spray varnish

 

[Compton castle]

I’ve also been weathering up some wagons after all this is about the trains.

 

[Compton castle]

Back on with some ballasting today! Spot the difference ? the Dapol ballast darkens down a lot once it’s been glued and the new stuff doesn’t at all! Still looking at prototype pictures the track work was very dirty along with the ballast so I’ll hopefully blend it in with a good dose of dirt.
Also adding in some draining

 

[Phil O]

Steve, looks like the track gang has been out doing some boxing up.

 

[Compton castle]

Back on to the trees today, I’ve wanted to do an Ivey covered dead tree for a while and the superb Ivey from mininatur is perfect for the job, I also added some more sea foam to the last two trees I was working on cut and shaped it a bit more and covered in foliage, which I’ve promptly ran out of again the one needs another going over.

 

[Dave Holt]

Steve,
I must say, the trees with the main trunk and branches made from off-cuts from real trees have a natural look that twisted wire armatures struggle to match. Very nice indeed. I wonder if it would work in 4 mm scale if one used finer cuttings?
Dave.

 

[Compton castle]

I’m sure it would work just as well in 4mm especially for your larger trees

 

[Compton castle]

First pair of Dapol / Lionheart MK1’s behind a trusty castle, also seen with a hattons Gresley so often used as a strengthening coach on South Wales services. I’ve ordered a diagram H57 diner to feed the hungry passengers for this set

 

[Compton castle]

a quick waft over with Howes sleeper grime and some JLTRT track dirt down the centre sorts out the ballast colour difference, I will weather it more yet but I’ll wait until I can do all the track work in one go
Here’s a better view of the Mk1 and the Gresley.

 

[Compton castle]

As the sun was shining