The finished 'Box

Well, it's finally finished - apart from, of course, detailing the interior (I've left the roof removable to allow this) and to add a figure, perhaps, at a later date.

I was working on adding some scenic material to the base and thought, like the brilliant Cowes box by Iain Robinson upon which this model is based, it required just a couple of extra touches to bring it to life. I'd already built the lamp hut as you know, and thought it could do with a couple of oil barrels next to it. I originally hoped to make my own, but experimentations failed in this respect and I thought I was going to have to order some from Langley, but then last night whilst sticking yet another row of slates on to the Station roof, I had a Eureka moment.... About 25+ years ago I was really into collecting Airfix  1:72 scale model soldiers and associated military vehicles. I had grand plans of creating World War 2 Africa conflict dioramas and had Eighth Army and Afrika Korps armies, Tanks, Guns etc. Amongst all this stuff, which I've still got in the loft, I had a recollection that I had an Italieri Diaroma kit, still half on sprue, that I felt sure had some barrels. A quick delve into the loft garnered fruit! I was right! I unearthed 8 barrels, unfortunately poly cemented together by my 11 year old self, but I hadn't done that bad a job on them, so a quick sand down, a spray of undercoat (Matt grey from the Pound Shop) and a dry brush with light grey, followed by a thin wash of black and a final dry brush with Humbrol Rail colour rust, and Robert was indeed your Mother's Uncle.. Planted in place with a dab of UHU and a sprinkling of scenic scatter and course turf around the base of the buildings and I was done!

I had the dilemma, having made the downspouts from undersize diameter wire, having seen a thread over on RMWeb discussing downspouts, of whether to pull then off and start again. But in the end, I don't think they look too bad, so I decided to keep them... Maybe the builders had run out of the correct gauge pipe?...

Oh, one last thing - I added a nameplate, printed of on photographic paper and weathered down with a thin wash of dilute black, then blotted back with a sheet of Kitchen towel.

All in all I'm very happy with this. It started as an experiment with Wills sheets and ended up as my most complete model to date. Now, where to put it...

...And the station? Well, I'm 50% of the way through tiling the roof, but I've run out of Evergreen Half-round until payday, but I've some fiddly roof bracketry (don't know the right term) to add under the eaves to keep me occupied. Maybe I'll photograph some progress shots in the next couple of days...