Cake Box is back

If you were inspired by yesterdays Hornby 100mm challenge, you'll be pleased to know that the Cake Box Challenge is back to relieve you of lockdown boredom. 

There has been a lot of demand for this, partly in the form of fridge magnets, and with the return of lockdown, it seems the right time to give a competition I'm very proud of, another go. With a bit of luck, having a focus for some modelling with take people's minds off the news. I know I need a bit of that!

The rules are the same as in the past - the model must fit in a 8 inch square Cake Box and contain at least two railway items. We've added another on to fit the mood of the times too - two items of rubbish must be incorporated into the model. Exactly what you class as "rubbish" is up to you. 

There's more detail, including a video, over on RMweb.

Immortalised in fridge magnets

A nice early Christmas present arrives in the post from RMweb member Southern42 - a set of refrigerator magnets immortalising the BRM team in festive snow scenes. 

These were sent as a thank you for organising the Cake Box challenge and are set on her model using the plastic giveaway figures from a year or so ago.

It's a really nice gesture and makes me even prouder to have put together the challenge. We got a lot of people modelling and some superb dioramas were produced. Maybe it's time to have another round in lockdown. I'll have to think about it.

I'm not sure how Andy will take to being turned into Santa though!

Cake box repair

Bouncing my first cake box diorama, the one showing a scene from The Titfield Thunderbolt being filmed, around the country in the back of the car has not been kind to it. The road surface made from chinchilla sand has broken up badly and taken much of the weathering powder cinder packing (used in real life to stop the roller falling off the back of the level crossing) away with it.

The materials were stuck in place with watered down PVA and it either hadn't bonded to the foamboard base, or changes of temperature and vibration had broken the bonds.

Replacing the sand was easy enough and as an experiment, I've fixed it with Deluxe Materials Ballast Bond instead of PVA. Grey powder was then sprinkled on by picking some up on a brush then tapping the side so it showered down evenly.

Left overnight, a couple of new cracks appeared in the road, easily dealt with, but the powder had dried dark grey.This looks odd so I brushed more powder on dry. It sticks well enough to such a rough surface without fixative. The loco was glued back in place, crew figures restored and it's looking good again.

Why all this trouble? After all, the project has been seen by plenty of people in print and at a couple of shows. Well, it's back on the road again. Tomorrow, I'll be appearing at the Digitrains Open Day - they have been building cake box dioramas too and so we'll have a mini exhibition. I'm there all day, so if you are in the Lincoln area, please drop in and say hello.