Display Boards

Whilst modelling time has been very limited lately due to family commitments, I have found a little space for a bit of painting.

Given that Coventry is set in 1839, I wanted the layout to be presented with a bit of 19th century style pride, no vinyl stickers or totem signs to label the layout. With this in mind I took some inspiration from the cover of the London & Birmingham Railway 1838 Minute Book and painted the drop down board at the front with a couple of coats of black gloss and lettering hand-painted in gold. I've tried to keep the font and the scroll work as close as practicable to the original without stressing over an exact copy. That the sign writing is done by hand as it would have been 180+ years ago will hopefully give the right 'feel' to the presentation of the layout.

Yesterday evening whilst waiting to be 'Dad's Taxi' to my son and his girlfriend who were out at their 6th form end of year party, I managed to complete the scrolls and second coat some areas of the lettering that were looking a bit thin. The final task will be to give it all a coat of gloss varnish to bring out the gold as it dries matt and could do with a bit of 'zing'.

The two fiddle yards at either end will also be painted with 'Birmingham 18-1/4 miles' and 'London 94 miles' respectively. Unfortunately, the space in my cellar workshop is very tight so I can't get far enough away to take a decent photo. Once I've painted the fiddle yards I will drag it all out for a proper photo shoot.