As David Bowie would memorably say.  I’ve returned to my little Minories.  I had come to a stop, as I realised that the design still didn’t feel right.  So it was time to wait till some inspiration happened.  It eventually did, and work restarted.

Meanwhile, I took a Christmas break from thinking, and built that 1/35 Tamiya Citroen Traction.  Here’s the end result.  The photos are actually quite kind, as I messed up the glazing when painting the frame without a mask, and the gloss black hasn’t come out too well.  Still, I thoroughly enjoyed making the model, and it’s good to have a change of modelling focus.  I also discovered how good Tamiya Extra Thin cement is – like Mek-Pak, it capillaries into joins without leaving marks on the surface.

In fact I enjoyed this build so much that I started another kit – a WWII German armoured car.  This one comes from ICM, a Ukrainian company, who love using 10 parts when 2 might do.  Here’s the nearly complete chassis (about 40 parts) and the engine 10 so far.  But great fun!

Meanwhile, I decided that whilst I did want a real double track entry to the station, I didn’t like the ‘off-stage’ platform ends.  So the idea came to extend the baseboard on the entry end.  A 150mm (probably 200mm now) extension to the board allows a second crossover to be half on scene, but the resulting board is still light and fits in my car.  The design will also accept 5 (long) or 6 (short) coach trains.  Otherwise it still looks a bit like the original design, and all the work on the bridges completed can stay as they are.

Moving the points meant that I had to move some of the raised baseboard supports.  I also cut a new piece of plywood for part of the baseboard top.  All now fitted and waiting for some track.

I’ve now put the plastic tank to one side and will get on and build the little extension to the layout.  Then the Finetrax points need to be built.  Here’s the first one.  I’ve seen someone claim to build one in 30 minutes.  I guess this took about 90.  I did tweak the construction slightly.  I moved the insulation gaps a few sleepers towards the toe, so that the knuckle rail was supported by more chairs.  I also put a touch of solder on the frog V and the join between knuckle and frog wing rail.  This both strengthens these delicate bits of rail and gives electrical continuity.  Finally, I used odd ends of rail to bond rails together where needed.  Easier to use than wire, and very inconspicuous.

I now have to try and make a crossover…..

And there was another Christmas present to myself.  Couldn’t resist this one, and look forward to testing it at the next ESNG meeting.