So earlier this week my plan was to apply water to the Creek in Kyogle. I was under the impression everything was ready to go. The scenery was completed. It was painted and ground cover added. Next step Water. I went to the tin of my normal water and it had set hard in the tin. That was no good. I think I still have a few more tin in the garage, but I had another idea. I used some water product that was provided to me by Barnacle Bob. I understand that he uses it on his layout and we all know how good that layout looks. It was poured into the creek in a couple of places and it slowly (very slowly) made its way down the creek, finding its level and giving a water look along the way. I then decided to add some water to the storm water drain in the front of the Fawcetts Creek scene on the right. However, after I applied some of that water product, I soon realised that my application of plaster to the front wall of the storm water drain structure was not optimum. I had missed a couple of small spots and the polystyrene was exposed. That didn’t go to well for water product being added. It soon ate out the polystyrene, left a chasm under the drain. So I whipped up a couple of batches of plaster and started pouring that into the chasm eventually filling it back up. The baseboard in this area is a think sheet of polystyrene on a sheet of solid plywood. So the water product was just sitting in a sub-terrarium cavern under the creek. The repaired areas were re-painted and allowed to dry. I have not yet gone back to re-added water to the drain. maybe I won't.
I then set about adding a bit of detail to the drain and Fawcetts Creek. There is an abandoned car on the banks of the creek, along with lots of rubbish. The rubbish included sleepers, pallets, tyres, a shopping cart and a few other items. You need to look quite intently to see what is there and when you do, you can see these detail items.
I then decided to complete the signalman’s house at Border Loop. I first needed to add a roof. This item was sitting around roofless for quite some time. That seems to be a consistent story on my layout - lots of half finished projects. I created the roof frame out of balsa and then added corrugated iron sheets. Next the ridge capping was added. Next step was barge boards and then guttering. The model was then masked off and the roof was painted silver. I was quite happy with that model. It just needed a place for it to be positioned on the layout. I had to cut some of the existing foam scenery away, to make a big enough flat area to allow the house to fit between the track and the rear backscene. This was plastered over and then painted dirt colour as a starting point. I was installing the fencing around the house. I needed to add some water tanks to the rear, as these were visible in a number of photos of this house that I found on the Internet. I also needed to add a down pipe from the guttering into the water tanks. I also added a downpipe on the side of the house but this just runs out onto the ground.
After talking online to some of the guys on Friday evening, I was talked into adding some details to the back veranda. I added a couple of comfy chairs to the veranda. Last night and today I got motivated and constructed from styrene some kitchen and outdoor tables, side tables, stools and wooden chairs for the tables, and these were painted today. I think I will make a few more sets of these for other houses on the layout. These look good as detail items.
I also added a few more downpipes to other buildings on the layouts as well. I also added a number of kilometre signs on the layout, on various bridges, tunnel mouths and sidings locations to add more detail. I also added a couple of signs to some other buildings.
I’m back to work on Tuesday, but I think I did complete quite a lot during my holidays, even if we were in lockdown for half of them. Tomorrow I will be visiting my local hobby shop to stock back up on styrene shapes that I depleted during my holiday. I will be trying to make some progress on some AP certificates over the next few weeks. The aim is to complete a few of these, and submit for assessment by the end of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment