Merry Christmas from New Zealand

Merry Christmas to you from New Zealand, or as we say in Te Reo Māori (the Māori language): 

Meri Kirihimete!

It's summer here, and the Christmas season here is traditionally a time to gather with friends and whānau (family) around the BBQ and head to the beach or lakes for some quality time in the sun and sand. Given so many of the traditional images of Christmas come from the northern hemisphere, we like to call ours an 'upside down Christmas'. 

Wherever you are in the world, thank you for following along on my blog. I hope you continue to find something here of use or interest in the coming year. 

I'll resume posting sometime in January. Until then, and regardless of whether or not the birth of Christ is something you celebrate, I pray you find peace and reconciliation where it's needed during this festive season.

Many blessings,

Luke

Image courtesy of Bible Project video: The Birth of Jesus: Luke 1-2

Landscaping

The last few weeks of railroad work sessions have focused on building the hill and mountain formations spanning two modules. I like large imposing landscapes with small trains running through them. But I do want the terrain to look realistic like it was there before someone decided to put a railroad through it. 

I've made the land formations out of extruded foam, cutting and shaping it with a craft knife. A hot wire foam cutter would have been useful but I got to where I wanted to go with the knife. The terrain functions as a view block between the town and yard from the rest of the modules. As the line exits the tunnel, it crosses a deep ravine that has been carved out by a river. I've purposefully tried to make the scene deeper than it is by making the river turn behind the hill. As always, a painted backdrop will help. This ravine will require quite a few rock castings. I also have to settle on the design of the bridge for the gap. I'll another post looking at different options. 

The next step is to add a thin layer of earth-coloured plaster over the hill, to fill out any humps and bumps, and then I can get to work applying scenery. 

The hill formation separating the yard and town from the rest of the layout.

I've made a section removable for access to the tunnel. 

...with the access hatch removed.

The deep ravine module on the other side of the tunnel.

Now I have to decide what sort of bridge to build here...

The river winds its way around the corner, hopefully adding some intrigue.

Turntable build part 5

I used balsa wood to make the wooden decking for the turntable. The method I find successful is to scribe the balsa with a clutch or mechanical pencil. The lead carves a groove in the balsa and also darkens the groove with the graphite tip. To weather the wood I mix a little Indian ink with water and brush it on as a wash. 

The decking also has cross beams underneath. These don't go all the way through, as you'll see from previous blog posts. However, you can't tell by looking at the turntable from the trackside, as it's impossible to see under the decking. 

I added two pushing poles. I'd contemplated making a planked pathway around the top of the turntable pit and glueing a couple of figures in a pushing stance to the pushing poles, but I think I may just add them for photos instead. 

The turntable is now pretty much complete. The pit rails need to be painted, and the pit needs some scenery, but I will do this when I add the scenery to the rest of the module. 

There's a video of the turntable in action on my YouTube channel, which is embedded below.

If you've been following along with this build, thanks for your interest and comments. 

The decking sides in place before weathering. 

Weathering the deck with Indian ink. 

The completed turntable with pushing bars