October, 2017: Long Time, No Work

We decided to take the summer off and came back to it in early September.  We had started working on the three center panels that would complete our layout in the spring but they had been sitting all summer.  We are now a month into our new phase of the build.

The first panel is mostly just scenery, with a dirt road and a couple of small buildings and a little rugged terrain.  This panel is now nearing completion, with additional trees in the process of being put together.

The center panel has just started construction.  We decided to put a craggy hill in this one and it is in the middle of being carved with the hot wire knife.  The jigsaw puzzle it required to fit what were essentially scraps together was quite interesting but it seems to have worked.

The final panel has a lake in it, connecting the stream coming down the mountain with the stream passing the farm and under the trestle.  Putting the lacquer on this layer by layer has been a very long process that might take as much as another couple of months to complete.  We had discussed this lake early in the build and it's great to be able to make it happen.

So we are back to our Saturday morning routine.  We have also been running and testing the trains but, honestly, we are far less interested in that aspect of the layout than we are in the creative process.