The Hills are alive with the sound of music

Well that's not entirely true.  But my Ipod Touch does play music to keep me company (gen 4 for the nosy, and no I'm definitely not an Apple Fanboy, I can't stand Apple the company - decent product though).  Got the Touch so I could run trains wirelessly with JMRI and this App.  Its pretty cool.  But I digress...

I spent the weekend working on the hills - at night and nap time as the twins demand (!)  my attention during their waking hours  of course I don't mind.

Painted the next section.  Thought the first (the bit to the left in the picture) was a little too light grey, so I tried something different.  Started with two intensities of black wash, then moved to a dark gray heavy wash, lightened that up then washed it out.  Went to the umbers (raw and burnt) washes, added a bit of yellow to some areas, then went gray, light gray and a bit of white.  I think it might be better than the first section.  Also built my first scratch structure - a retaining wall but its a start.  Came out looking sharp!  Mostly this is thanks to my new chopper and a metal gluing box 

 I also built a tunnel box for the portal I purchased from the LHS (Local Hobby Store).

For the over observant, yes that is a toilet roll tube.  I painted the inside black and stuck on some cardboard sides (also painted black) with a glue gun.  I got this idea from a good book, Jeff Wilson's Bridges, Trestles and tunnels.  The idea is to make it more a tunnel than a hole into the backdrop / scenic shell.  You can, of course, take this to another level by added more details - like the brick pattern, or drill marks etc on the walls but I went minimal.  I might regret this later if I every get a camera on a train.

Back to the hills for me...