Well had to make the most of such a momentous day - SWMBO has a big do not disturb notice on - wedding watch - YES - undisturbed modelling. Center support. Glued the foam spacers together, painted the top piece, then glued the assembly to the foam. Once dry, the whole lot were glued in place by wetting the base layer of foam with water, and spreading a layer of gorilla glue on to the underside of the center piece then slid into position. By doing it this way a slight gap could be allowed to slide the assembly into position, the gorilla glue foams up and closes the gap. So when Toto runs is overweight locos over the bridge it has some freedom to move. Next up the left hand retaining wall. Started a week ago, I made a large slab of 6mm (ish) thick clay wall, sing the jig Then a layer of grease proof paper with strips plasterers jointing tape The clay is then rolled out between the battons Battons are then removed and finally the embossing roller ran over the top A layer of cling film placed over the top and then released from the jig and placed between two slabs of foam to dry out for a week. There is some curvature to the slab but workable. After a week the clay is still softish - workable with a knife. A piece of foam was cut to size to fit under the bridge, then the side glued to the foam (I had put the first coat of paint on the side, but forgot to do the end piece - I blame brownie point hunting, washed the brush and made the boss lunch and dared to enter the inner sanctum while the proceedings were in progress and forgot to collect the brush), but still glued it into place. Now just waiting for it to dry. SWMBO has left the inner sanctum, so normal duties will start and resume, I'll get more brownie points and take her out for a coffee - Hobbycraft is just next door, so I can get more clay while were there - this boy is learning - just a romantic at heart Paul
Last night I applied a small amount of clay to the Turrets (very Karate Kid - rub on rub off) to help smooth out the layers on the sides, then sprayed this morning with Humbrol grey (No1) acrylic. Next up gap filling the gap between the retaining wall and track - a mix of plaster, black & white acrylic paint & pva And time for a clean up. Paul
Thanks guys, now decision time Dowels fitted to the baseboard edge, so I can now start and build up the scenary. I've fitted the first support at the front, but here is the question, the hills / mountains at the end and rear how high ? To help with the question hear are a couple of pics - these are max profile heights 150 mm above track height 300 mm above track height and also @300 mm Personally I think I prefer the 300 mm as it makes the bridge disappear into the scenary, but what do you all think Paul
Will you be using a back scene ?? If yes, the hills don't need to be high as the back scene will accommodate the depth. If you build them at say 200mm, vegetation (trees/shrubs) can be used to fill in the transition of height. Cheers, Gary. ps. The bridge looks amazing.
Great work again Paul, it’s really coming together now. I prefer the high back scene, but would agree with Gary, if your adding trees to the hill it can be lower and then a dense tree line will give you a nice uneven top layer avoiding a straight edge. Kim
Hi Paul great work looking good. Can you tell me where you got the embossing roller from. That looks a good tool. be seeing you Bob
Hi Bob The embossing roller is from Greenstuff There is a post regarding the ones I've bought Tools - Greenstuff rollers I have the 5" size rollers, (I bought the 6 pack), and the one I used for the walls was the bricks roller. Hope this helps to give an idea of the size Paul
Before I can fix the rear hills / mountains in place I need to fit the rear wall to the lead in to the bridge. So the board was spun round (gently) so I could work on the rear. Thats when I found I hadn't made the side wall big enough Well as its the rear and is going to surrounded by rocks, a fudge was born. The wall that was intended to go there (and joined as if it was meant to) was glued in place, followed by an upper section on the side wall of the bridge. Plaster was mixed up with PVA black and white paint added and used to fill the gap / and provide a gutter. Finally 50mm foam was stuck in place and the rear turret also stuck in place. Paul
Gonna build a mountain from little ....... plaster and expanded polystyrene Started to fit the castings I had made from the Woodland scenics moulds. and from the other side Luckily this can still be removed to allow me to apply plaster into the gaps. Paul
It's been a while, so I thought I'd better extract a digit. Plaster has been added to fill the gaps between some of the rock castings, and the first layer of plaster bandage added. I used the 4" wide bandage that Hobbycraft sells - I only bought two roll as a test, I now need to get more. Paul