Thank you so kindly for your wonder feedback, it is so much appreciated.

Thanks Donna. Interestingly I modelled the house about 30 years ago. It's an HO scale model of the house my parents lived in at the time. Without access to plans, I measured every inch of the house and recreated in card. It's unfortunately in need of some TLC, so is on my list of things to do.

@@StationRoadModelRailway We are loving your video's, have just started rebuilding our H0, this time transportable so it hopefully can be taken to shows as well as run at home. Really appreciate your hints and cheap innovative solutions.

Thank you for your kind feedback, cork underlay or even cork floor tiles cut into strips sounds good, and I imagine it would be flexible enough to transverse hills and curved sections.

Thanks Mike, I'm always trying to think further left field when it comes to modelling techniques, and most turn out successfully, but sometimes others don't. It's also no surprise I get a huge amount of inspiration from everyone else in the railway model community.

@@StationRoadModelRailway julian ive yet to witness any failures as yet -i follow your chanel for inspiration in ready to stert my own model railway and i find your methods not only economical but constructive - thanks for sharing and keep up the great work 😎😎😎

All is well here, over the endless rain we've been having though. Thank you for the wonderful feedback, it's always greatly appreciated.

I had a go using Aldi's own cat litter today and it worked very well. So long as you sieve it to remove the dusty bits (which can then be used as gravel/ballast) the pieces are about the right range of sizes, and because cat litter is absorbant it soaks up the PVA and Scenic Cement. Ironically a better quality cat litter like Catsan would probably have pieces that are too large. At £1.55 for 10 litres, the cheap cat litter certainly beats buying Woodland Scenics gravel.

@@StandardGoose Hi Jonathan, thank you for sharing your experiences and glad to hear worked for you too. It sounds like it's 100 times more expensive using bespoke railway products. I certainly will look into over here in Canada, I have a few hundred feet to ballast once I get back to the layout construction, the savings can be put towards more rolling stock!! Have saved some of the sawdust from the baseboard construction for scenic purposes that would work too to represent the ash surfaces they laid at coaling, maintenance and (some) goods yards etc. Best regards Stephen

@@stephenpike3147 Woodland Scenics and similar products are actually mostly made from waste products like sawdust. Today I made use of the sieved dusty bits of cat litter to make a gravel/cobblestone road. Turned out pretty good. There are definitely ways to make the hobby less expensive. A good youtube channel to follow for more of this sort of tip is a chap called Budget Model Railways.

@@StandardGoose Thanks for that information and other ideas Jonathon, definitely a question of repurposing other materials. One big saving I have made is on the WS inclines, made all my own out of foam insulation board with gradients accurately cut at several different gradients from 40:1 to 67:1 for my 2 x 7.5" double track elevations. Used some offcuts of my baseboard to make sturdy a jig. Sure it takes (my free) time to do and that is where it saves an absolute fortune and I get exactly what I want!

I love the way the English language varies around the world. In America these would also be "stone walls", a fence would be wooden, chain-link or the like.

Thank you. If I can find a way of creating something from scratch, I'll always give it a go, and if it doesn't work out, I might buy something ready-made.

Thanks Tony for your kind words and informative feedback. In doing the research on dry stone walls, I soon became aware of just how many varieties of wall there are in the UK, dozens, if not hundreds maybe.

The type of wall you describe is a very ancient design, still popular in Wales, Cornwall and Cumbria. In Welsh it's called a Cloddiau. It's not just dirt on the top; it's an earth embankment with stones laid on either side as a facia. You could probably replicate that design quite easily using Julian's method here if you just paint your clay brown first. I'm planning on giving it a try.

Hi Ray and thank you for your suggestions/feedback. The only problem I see in painting the clay first is that in allowing the paint to dry, the clay will also begin to harden, thus when pressing into the stones it might not work so well. I would be interested to know why you think DAS clay is better, have you tried both? Yes, it's still cold here (and wet) and there's a few months of winter to go, so I would expect a fair few videos over the coming months to be filmed in the office. I will however, still be incorporating layout footage when needed.

@@StationRoadModelRailway hi I have used das clay in the past ,the white and the brown ,and can shape it into all sorts of shapes ,rolling bits in the palm of your hands to make a bit more pliable, I really meant for the clay to dry first into what shape you want ,then when fully dry paint it ,let that dry out and then apply glue and your rocks, if you ever look at a dry stone wall you will see how they pack the stone in even at slanted angles to compact it ,I'm not knocking what you did ,I have not tried the other product that you used I just thought the air clay looked better ,we have had some glorious sunshine in the UK but now gone from 1 extreme to the other ,I'm on the east coast of the UK and now we have gale force winds a lot of heavy rain showers ,so just waiting now for the sunshine again ,keep warm in your office look forward to more interesting videos, stay safe and well.

Hi check out kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fJudnsyFlc2ypYU.html he has some great dry stone walls.

Oh yeah mouldy raspberry I don't really want to make any dry stone walls ,well not yet anyway ,I was just giving an opinion, no criticism of julian, they do look good on that layout very realistic, thanks anyway.

Many thanks Clive, as always, greatly appreciate the feedback you provide.

Thanks Steve for the kind feedback. I since filled the gap with rubble and posted some completed shots on my facebook page. I suspect the sheep still might find a way to clamber over the rubble, so it will be all eyes on the farmer to get it fixed😀

Interestingly, it was his method (and a few other similar methods) that inspired me to try the method I have used simply to find a less messy way of creating stone walls. I worked out I could probably get about 2m of wall out of the Jovi air-dry clay block which is a reasonable length of wall. It also means I can create the wall sections (ready to go) in the comfort (and warmth) of the office.

@@StationRoadModelRailway Fair enough. It IS messy right enough! I hadn't realised, until I watched a few more of your videos, that office/workbench and layout are separate! ;-) Cheers.

Hi Paul, thank you for your feedback. Both clay products I used have quite good instructions on drying times and I imagine other brands would too. The oven-bake takes 30mins at 135ºc, so pretty quick, and I found the air-dry took 24 hours at room temp (above 18ºc), so still an acceptable drying time. The air-dry was $8 NZD for 500g and the oven-bake was $5 NZD for 50g, so price difference is significant (80c per 50g for air-dry). And of course with the 500g air-dry pack, you'd get a meter or two of stone wall.

Hi Louise, thanks for your comment. There certainly are some colour options with these materials. But for the purposes for this experiment, I was after either a close match to the stone chips or at least something neutral in tone, hence the white air-dry clay. I chose the black oven-bake simply as a comparison. If there was a grey air-dry clay I would have used that, but I couldn't find anything that was available locally.

Hi Bazil, thank you for you feedback, much appreciated. And yes, there's a reasonable amount of 'how to' content on my channel that isn't necessarily restricted to model railways.

In doing the research on dry stone walls, I soon became aware of just how many varieties of wall there are in the UK, dozens, if not hundreds maybe. However, as I always say, I don't model to precise prototypical levels, and that the goal is to achieve a relatively convincing representation of the real thing. Also Station Road is set in a completely fictitious location.

@@StationRoadModelRailway I always say that I'm not trying to model a particular time and place, I'm trying to model a feeling.

Very true. I'm going to be having a go at making a Welsh "cloddiau" style wall (basically an earth embankment with stones set in the faces, and turf on top) using this method. You could just make something up and there's bound to turn out to be a real life traditional style of wall that yours happens to look like.

Wouldn't be pliable like what you needed, but I need a much bigger wall for a cemetery dio for 1/10th action figures.

I think you answered your own question below, foam would work but only if you intend the walls to be straight and flat. I imagine hot glue would be no-go, incredibly messy, stringy and you'd need to be quite fast applying the stones before the glue sets without burning yourself.

Don't be using her good Prestige baking sheets. Trust me on this.