Workbench

1

The promenade was painted with Green Scene’s textured white, with black added to produce a light grey. A layer of Polyfilla forms the beach, deeper at the back to create a slope.

2

I then faced the promenade with more Wills’ stone sheets, coloured exactly as I had done for the harbour (MR228). On the curves, these were held in place with tape while the glue set.

3

I wanted a small area of rocks at both ends of the beach so that I could model some rock pools. These were always a favourite for exploration when I was a kid.

4

I cast rocks using Woodland Scenics’ casting plaster in one of its rubber rock moulds. Once these had set hard I embedded them in wet Polyfilla, leaving gaps for pools.

5

Some fairly dilute Polyfilla was then brushed in around the rock castings to fill any gaps or cracks. Pieces of broken castings can also be worked into these areas.

6

The next job was to complete the plastering of the beach area, making sure that the thickness of the covering tapers away to nothing at the edge of the baseboard.

7

I used Woodland Scenics’ earth colours - grey and brown, to paint the rocks, misting the area with water mixed with a drop of washing-up liquid before applying a light coat of paint.

8

I added yellow to brown paint to create a sandy colour between the rocks and dusted it with fine real sand. Rock pools were filled with white PVA glue: two or three applications were needed.

9

The sand castles, just shaped from some fairly thick Polyfilla, were something of a last-minute idea. The whole exposed beach area was then brushed with the sandy coloured paint.

10

Next, the beach area was treated to a brushover with slightly diluted PVA glue and then sprinkled with fine sand for as realistic an effect as possible. The area which will be the edge of the sea was left unpainted at this time.

11

Adding the figures brings the layout to life and is really enjoyable! I arranged plausible groups and families using the Preiser figures which I prefer to those by Noch. The latter tend to be caricatures and are less convincing.

12

Painting the sea was a case of blending the sandy colour into the ‘water’ with plenty of white for surf and light reflection and plenty of blue-green for ‘water’, the colour becoming slightly darker further away from the beach.