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Weldon Castle
The story behind Weldon Castle.
This part of the layout developed in two stages and is still evolving. The inspiration came from a visit to Corfe Castle in Dorset. This fantastically romantic Castle had suffered greatly at the hands of the Parliamentarians during the Civil War. Where they were told to leave no area of the Castle inhabitable.
My original thought’s were for a cardboard structure covered in Stone printed papers. This was several years before the excellent Metcalfe Castle was released. Whilst at a local Car Boot sale I found an original 1980’s Linka Set barely used. This kindled memories of a younger me casting plaster and making structures for my layout of the time.
With a little experimentation I thought I would be able to use this system to make Weldon Castle. Bending one of my self imposed rules of every thing on the layout being before 1964, after all the actual structure would be made from cast plaster. After discussing my thought’s on an on-line forum I was told about the newly formed ScaleCast company which had taken over the original range and are developing it further ( some of the new moulds are truly beautiful. ) So I purchased some of their moulds and alongside the original Linka supplemented by my own Handmade moulds. Layer upon layer of liquid Latex painted on, allowing each layer to dry out it takes a couple of days to produce a workable mould.
I then started casting tiles and panels, which were then individually shaped to the ground contour, and to create the degree of “ruiness” that I wanted. Once I was happy with the panels then begun the painting, firstly the whole panel was given a coat of creamy coloured paint for the mortar. Individual Stone were then picked out with differing darker paints. A final dry brush was then run over the panels before gluing to the scenery. Where additional localised landscaping was carried out along with the addition of Flora.
