The making of the Castle Itter Christmas Card

With thoughts of the end of the school term, and the seasonal winding down of work related activities, Michael and I turned our thoughts towards yet another distraction.  This time something suitably festive for the blog.  Naturally, it needed to be related to the ongoing castle project, and as we had a spare gatehouse, the concept quickly established itself!

Merry Christmas everyone!

To begin our festive scene, a suitable plywood base was found to which an MDF base for the scene was fitted.  The gaps were filled with expanding foam which was carved to shape and finished with a generous smear of decorators caulk.

Some BIC pen tubes were added for the tree trunks which were suitably 'enhanced' with some Vallejo earth texture paste.



The addition of some 'Awdry' patent trees helped to fill the scene.  Michael has become quite adept at making these, I'm sure we'll be treated to a write-up soon.

Some reindeer were corralled, and all seemed been going well until someone forgot the safety catch!

However, keen to make progress, we disguised the deceased reindeer by firmly affixing them into the upright position on some sticks, Harnessing them with painted masking tape and some red thread from Michael's sewing box. 

At this stage we had become a little overwhelmed with the static grass, and so called in the heavy plant to help clear the mess.  A 28mm bobcat, (I think it's the best thing on the internet!)

After some initial reluctance, the reindeer were harnessed to the Sherman. 

Upon learning to work as a team, they enjoyed some skiing across the bridge.

Finally, he elements for the photo-shoot were assembled together with some nicely painted resin gifts.  

All had been going well until, there was an unfortunate Green on Red incident in the lead-up to the photoshoot.



Then an inundation of heavy snowfall threatened the whole affair.  So once again the Bobcat was pressed into service....

...and Mr Awdry kindly donated his cape, which made a most useful backdrop.

And thus the scene was set...

The Fieseller Storch being a  totally unnecessary but fun addition.



Merry Christmas everyone!!, and a big thank you to all who have followed and supported our project.



Finally, I couldn't think of a caption for this photograph.  Suggestions in the comments?