EXT: Thomas and Friends

So this is at least one of the reasons why hobby updates have been light on the ground recently.

Junior Stylus has a birthday coming up, and he's a big fan of some TV series featuring anthropomorphised machines fuelled by an obsolete form of locomotion, under the benevolent dictatorship of a morbidly obese plutocrat (although that's not how the theme tune goes).

The die-cast engines are, I'll admit, pretty damn good toys. Although the playset tracks they run on seem uninspiring - their main design feature is they can be easily packed away (although I'm not complaining...). So I thought I'd throw together a little scenery from the Isle of Sodor.

My intention was not to pour too much effort into its construction, so I wouldn't be heartbroken when it gets torn apart by inquisitive fingers. Even so, a couple of hours work yielded some nice results.

The base is a few layers of cardboard (and so light enough to carry), based with brown paint and then stuck down on a final layer of cardboard to get rid of the warp that occurred when the paint dried (it was PVA glue the first time, and No-More Nails the second - I wanted it solid).

I mixed some sand to the remaining brown paint to get enough texture to level out the hills (which were just more layers of card), give a mudbank to the pond and some plough-lines to the muddy field.

The pond itself was a base of blue, several layers of varnish and a white drybrush over the top. The hedges around the field were some bits of green sponge I had lying about.

For the flock: static grass on the hills and fields, dried herbs (several years past their sell-by) for the leaf litter and pebbles for the gravel. A dash of hairspray seems to be doing the trick in keeping everything stuck down.

The shed itself is probably the most basic construction of all: four variety pack cereal boxes and a triangular piece of cardboard (that looks too big for the roof, but was a pleasing shape, so I kept it).

Hopefully I'll get some more hobby done next month - although you never know, I may be reclaiming this in a few years as a skirmish board!