After som metal work (Patreon)

My friends, the pancake train is finished and ready for painting! But before that, I'm going to construct the diorama as well! Firstly because it's fun to get all the construction steps out of the way and then focus solely on painting, and secondly because I like how an entire scene can look in its raw, unpainted state.

IMO the metallic additions are what made this build truly interesting. The roof was a simple replacement, but I forgot to shoot the braces on the inner side that I meticulously built from Evergreen strips!

The "nose" on each side seems like an additional modification specific to the abandoned locomotive I'm building, and it seems like an improvised protection against rain and snow. This was pretty fun because of all the measuring and cutting involved.

When I was making the handrails, I once again appreciated this simple method of straightening long sections of wire - you put one end of the wire in an AC drill or a rotary tool, grab the other end firmly with pliers, and twist it until it becomes perfectly straight.

I also added some improvised gutters - although the kit comes with this part, my reference image sports a more simplified version of them. The rest was about adding small bolts and rivets punched from tin foil and gluing some missing kit parts in place.

The whole back wall is removable, as well as the engine. Once the interior is painted, I can glue it in place, fill the gaps with black superglue, clean the excess with debonder, and continue with the exterior.

Diorama time!