Building a base
Due to space constraints, the size of the baseboard had pretty much been decided. I had a look in Wickes and they had some 9mm 3-ply board which looked good. Not quite the proper Sundeala hobbyboard everybody recommends, but good enough all the same. The sheet I bought is 1220×606mm (4”x2” approximately) – why the odd size, I’ll never know!
I also bought a couple of battens to fix to the underside. After a bit of cutting about, I’d managed to make a few lap joints, which I glued and screwed, then the whole thing was screwed to the top. I’m definitely no expert at woodworking, so it was a case of working slowly and carefully. The end result is below.
It’s sitting on top of a small shelving unit I bought in Wickes some time ago. The centre battens are oriented such that they sit across the top of the shelving unit, and hold it up. It leaves me (hopefully) enough room underneath for point motors, and cabling.
On the whole, it’s pretty sound, so I’m happy with it.
But this probably raises the point, why bother building it before any concrete plans? Well, it’s pretty simple – as I said earlier, there’s only a finite space, and I’m happy to work with a nice, flat base. As far as I was concerned, it made little difference, and it gives me the ability to lay things out and play about more.
It’s a good start, anyway!