Sunday, March 2, 2014

I’m Still Working on the Roadway

This weekend I have been getting stuck into and almost completing the Bruxner Highway level crossing.  Yesterday I mixed up a couple of batches of plaster and attacked the layout.  I poured these to the front right of the road.  Then to the rear right of the road behind the track.  I then poured another batch to the front left of the road.    
Photo of the level crossing with the first few batches of plaster already installed.
 
I then masked up a few holes in the baseboard to the rear left of the track.  This is where  various pieces of wood join and there are slight holes in the baseboard and wet plaster will find its way through the holes.  So I masking taped over the holes and I mixed up some thick plaster and this area and let it dry in preparation for today.  Below this area of the layout are 7 return loops where I stage my trains, sometimes two or three in each one.  When the plaster was dry I got out my raw sienna colour and gave this whole area a base coat.

The base undercoat of raw sienna has been applied.

Today I went to the shed and masked up the road way and the track itself so I did not get them covered in my scattering procedure.
 
The road and track are now safe from my stuff ups.
 
I got the white glue out and mixed up a week batch in the spray bottle and covered the right hand side of the road and used my collection of coloured dirts and then covered this off with coloured scatters.
So here is the photo after I spread the scatter around.

The base coat of scatter has been applied.

The area with the road protection removed.

I then after lunch decided to spend some more time progressing the area.  So I spread some more plaster around the rear left of the road.  After it had dried a bit, I spread a batch of raw sienna paint around over the plaster had a review of my work.

The left rear of the area has been painted.  A couple of detail items have been spread around for later installation.

I then went to a module I have underneath my layout from the original Cassino L ayout that used to exist inside the house in my previous train room, which is now the kid’s playroom.  This small module had some signs still in place that I previously made for it.  So I removed them and I have laid these around on the Bruxner Highway section and these will be eventually installed onto the Bruxner Highway section as it progresses in detail.
 
A close up of the level crossing.  The railway crossing signs and a few other bits in pieces are read for permanent installation. 
 
I still have some work to do with dirt and scatters for the rear left of the crossing.  That is the next job.  But I have started preparing for the following job which will be the Bonalbo Ballast Siding.  I have cleared it out a bit and installed some styrofoam which I will cover in plaster so I don’t get a flat earth area.  I will have some contours in this area.  At this stage the styrofoam is being held down with pieces of wood until the glue dries.  The ballast siding will eventually be surrounded by a 10 foot chain wire fence with barbed wire on the top.  I also plan to have some working gates controlled via two servo motors under the layout.  Again a project for quite some time into the future.

The semi cleared Bonalbo Ballast Siding.  The wood is holding down the styrofoam while the glue dries.
 
I'm not sure how much I will get done next week as it is our Club Meeting day Saturday and a school working bee on the Sunday.

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