Never Mind the Bollards.

As I use Greenwich Couplings in 009, there are magnets for uncoupling on the layout, two on each siding and one on the line through the platform. 

Some time ago, I added the wooden (actually whitemetal) post to act as a position marker for a magnet on the wharf siding in the foreground of the photo below, as well as an oil drum for the siding by the wall:

For various reasons, I hadn't got around to fitting the other markers, but with an exhibition appearance about a month away (details to follow in another post), it was time to extract a digit.

So...this evening, while looking for something else(!) I found a little pack of model ship fittings I'd had for some time, among which were several bollards (probably capstans really, but that would spoil the post title). The useful thing about these is that they have quite a low profile, and are less liable to be hit by protruding bits of locos, etc., this being particularly relevant in the one shown above as it's in the vee of a point and can't really go anywhere else.

As they come, the bollards have a sort of cruciform mounting thing so they can be pushed into place on their intended ship (Titanic, if you must know), I removed the four sticking out bits from the latter, to leave a round mounting peg. A 2.5mm diameter hole was drilled to accept the peg, and I also used a 7mm diameter wood drill bit to add a recess so the bollard would sit lower, see photo below which explains this more clearly!

Bollard fitted, and painted cruddy brown, also you can see the coupling loops lifting, and the blue oil drum poking coyly and out of focus above the open wagon:

Here you can see all the markers I've fitted so far, I still need to decide what to use for the platform line marker:

Finally, I've painted the soil areas in the garden, which are no longer bright blue foam, but Woodland Scenics acrylic "earth", which is what I also painted the bollards with, due to laziness:

Nearly There...maybe!

The last item on the Portakabin to paint was the roof.

I've no idea what colour it should be, so I went for a rough mix of Humbrol Tank Grey and Dunkelbraun enamels, to try to replicate some sort of bitumen type paint. To make the job easier, I fixed the underside to a wooden take-away food knife with double sided adhesive tape. I may add a bit more fading etc., with different shades of blue, as well as highlighting door handles, etc. and (suggested by Bernard Taylor) a notice board inside to give the impression of an interior. The roof needs fixing down at some point, but I'll probably use TakBlak or similar to allow access to the interior in case I want to add figures or whatever. 

It looks quite good on the layout now, I think.