As mentioned a couple of months ago in O9 Archaeology, the revived 7mmNGA sales operation under  has recently turned up several interesting O9 items of late and it has provided an opportunity to acquire a few older commercial O9 models that are no longer in production. With a little Christmas money to spend I picked up another couple of items in early January, including another unopened Owen Ryder kit, this time the Heywood open wagon. Yes, other models are now available of this but I never got around to buying one from Howard Martin when the range was revived... Since Howard's ..read more

After all my grass-growing woes of the last month it is very satisfying to bring you this image of how far things have come in recent weeks. The walls and office building are now fixed in place and hopefully it won't be too long before the trees are too... The weather forecast for the weekend ahead is probably telling me not to spend too much time out in the workshop but we shall see what is possible, I think hairspray dries better in cold weather than PVA, right? There are a few new developments to come in the next few weeks and maybe one or two changes of mind, watch this space... Colin ..read more

A couple of weeks ago I expressed my frustration with my latest efforts to use hanging basket liner grass and that I had purchased a static grass applicator and started experimentation...  After several colour tests and experience-building sessions on scraps of cork and hardboard I was ready to add some colour to the layout itself. My applicator is the WWScenics Pro Detailer which is ideal for the sort of small projects I wish to complete. Whilst there are a few areas that may benefit from a further layer, I am largely happy with the effect so far. My initial stock of grasses also came f ..read more

Where has December gone? There are some exciting scenic developments to report on 'odsock Corner' but they can wait for another day as we switch to 'Christmas Tree Halt'. New additions this year are the post box and a canine companion for the lady waiting on the platform. Both are castings I've had for years, bearing the hallmarks of teenage gloss paint... Wishing all O9 Modeller readers the best for the season and I hope Santa brings all the modelling goodies you have on your list. If you are in need of any modelling inspiration then why not give our friends at the Micro Model Railway ..read more

Regular readers will know I've been an advocate of using hanging basket liner to represent grass for about 20 years now, resisting the more popular methods of grass application that have become available... until now.  Having got the basic ground cover in place I was ready to start the application of hanging basket grass in my usual fashion by laying down neat PVA and applying the brushed hanging basket, letting it dry and pulling the backing off before manicuring it as desired. It failed, twice over. After several sessions I had a very patchy effect and several areas had no effective gra ..read more

It always seems to be a bit of a struggle to get back into the swing of things after the summer holidays and this year has been no exception. Things are now slowly moving and the ballasting of 'odsock Corner is now completed. Now you might think that is an easy one-hit job, but it was actually spread over several sessions taking it nice and steady. Unfortunately it's not the easiest thing to get a decent picture of in the evening gloom of the workshop. I have to admit to being as gloomy as the light in the workshop after taking that photo, suddenly going into negative mode about the whole p ..read more

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of a twig pretending to be a tree as part of my sketching out of the scenery for 'odsock Corner. Shortly afterwards I started to rework the twig into a tree using some old Hornby wire foliage branches (from the Skale Scenics range 10-15 years ago), removing their lumpy foliage and supergluing them in place on the adapted truck. At this point I did propose to use another twig to make something a little taller and narrower to better fit this location. It had only taken a couple of hours to get to this stage and I planned to store this  for future use el ..read more

Where does time go? Work started on these items back in September and has proceeded embarrassingly slowly... Over time the lamp and the wagon with the missing planks were joined by a few other pieces as ideas developed, the tree stump making an appearance during layout planning and is a Steve Bennett casting. All finally received a coat of primer and were painted over a few weeks and were matt varnished on the weekend just before the weather turned a lot colder.  The fence is cobbled together from Slaters left-overs from a childhood project and would have been easier to start from scra ..read more

 I realise that I have completed a project and that I have failed to take any pictures of it until this point... oops! You may remember that I had purchased a spare 422 Modelmaking wagon chassis frame at Narrow Gauge North and used it for various bits of experimentation with axle boxes and the like. With the release of the Heywood-style 'Tops' wagon bodies I picked up a two-plank version at Narrow Gauge Now in October. The spare chassis was quickly fettled to suit and the two Araldited together, with the only other detail work being the addition of office staples at either end to form the ..read more

Although I was happy enough with the roadway on 'odsock Corner I felt that it fell short of representing the rough surface of a obscure countryside trackway. The area that I was happiest with was the second crossing where I had a good basis for the areas worn away by traffic and time. I was convinced that I could get a better texture and colour... Another mix of paint, PVA, tile grout powder and fine ballast was created, this time with more brown paint to warm the shade. This was laid over the original surface but not consistently, creating variation in tone and level. Whilst the mix was wet y ..read more