Plucking up the courage
George Dent has finally grasped the nettle and started laying the track on ‘Lisburn Lane’.
There’s no turning back now! After a few months of indecision, I’ve finally cut the holes in the backscene of the main scenic baseboard, which has allowed tracklaying to begin. Those first incisions into the wood felt momentous, as they marked a final commitment to my track plan and overall scenic layout.
Moreover, cutting the curved apertures provided a few challenges. Most notable was the lack of space within the layout ‘box’ for the jigsaw to operate, so the shape and position of each archway had to be transferred to the outside of the boards as accurately as possible. Indeed, precision was especially vital for the twin-arches of the road overbridge. I soon realised that I was a little rusty after a couple of years away from woodwork, so the first archway is a bit messy. This wasn’t helped by using a blunt jigsaw blade but, once the blade was swapped and my confidence returned, the other openings turned out much neater.