Hello again everyone, sorry - back to work now so time is a little limited.
Many thanks for the advice about the connectors - I actually got the man in the shop in Poole to show me exactly how to connect the tracks and by his own admission, the Peco connectors were exceptionally tight.
He happily tapped them with a hammer to get them in and said he does this from time to time, especially if the connectors are as tight as the ones we have (although he did mention that some brands were more 'forgiving' than others, but sadly, that brand wasn't available due to covid)
We have been spending a little bit of time every day and have so far achieved the following :
Cork is down on half the board, track is now fixed with track pins, some buffers in place.
More thoughts on landscaping - his Lordship informed me that I could make models....
so, not wanting to disappoint I thought I'd try my hand at creating a 'background' firstly, just to see how I cope with it...
So I've started 'building' some scenery. I lucky as photography is my main hobby so I've been using Photoshop regularly for composited images for a good few years, which does help to make life easier, and I'm always happiest when I'm creating things (which leaves his Lordship free to faff with tracks, trains, ideas etc
)
My inspiration (apart from his Lordships directive) was a bit of warehousing, so I have foam board, photoshop, a printer, glue, double sided tape and a bit of imagination
and got creating... a few pics below
Gravelling has also commenced (OMG, who's idea was that?!?!??!) and any suggestions gratefully received about how to deal with the areas that have points...
And I'd be delighted to hear any pointers, advice and suggestions