Preparation

 I'm afraid that this week there'll be a lot of dull preparation to wade through. Please spare a thought for me as I had to actually do this rather than just read about it. I'll try to make it as painless as possible but I hope you'll agree that it was worth it in the end.

 Even at this early stage I've come to the conclusion that building a layout in a box is a bit like constructing a ship in a bottle, in that the sequencing of the process is a bit more critical than with the usual layout build. It's all to do with the restricted access; OK nothing like the neck of a bottle but you can only get into the layout from the front. There's also the need to avoid some of the potentially messy processes damaging work already done.

In practical terms this has meant preparing the interior of the box and installing lighting before I can start to fill the space with track and scenery. While the box is a good (and cheap) starting point it comes with some problems in that there may be gaps where the end flaps don't quite meet and there are ribs where the internal corrugations meet the skin which will grin through any backscene. 

 I concocted a home made filler by tearing cheapo toilet paper into small squares, soaking it until it started to turn into mush, squeezing out as much of the water as I could and then mixing the remains with neat PVA. Pushed into the gaps and smoothed over with fingers it levelled out any crevices for the next stage.

To tackle the ribs I applied a couple of layers of thick lining paper. The first layer, stuck on with dilute PVA, was torn random shapes. Smaller sections are less likely to bubble up and they conform better to any irregularities in the shape of the box. I papered all three sides and the ceiling. The second layer was more controlled, torn strips roughly conforming to divisions I would be painting later; sky, distant hills, wooded areas and terrain closer up. 

At this point I installed the LED strip lighting so that I could match all the colours used to the lighting. I'll come back and talk about the lighting later on in the build, but for now it's sufficient to know that it was in place before any colour was applied to any part of the layout. For now I'll leave you with a teaser of the finished backscene, again I'll offer pointers later on.