Sunday 13 August 2017

Back along the back

I have done enough work around the trestle now, so I looked for another area to commence on. The track has been laid and ballasted across the trestle.
I decided to start on the 'left' hand side of the trestle. This section joins the rock section towards the waterfall on the right to the section that will run into Broadwater. I have used some sections of  3mm mdf board on the rear of the module also painted it the wall colour so that it blends in.
As can be seen in the photo some scrap timber is used to attach the scenery to.
Some high density foam was glued down to support the 'grass' that will be above this section. I was initially going to use this yellow foam throughout the gully section but just ended up using the soft foam for the rocks. Dang so many types of foam to describe, I should just call them foam 1,2 and 3?
I had a piece of soft rock foam and glued it to the yellow foam. This piece is about to be tortured with the soldering iron to get the 'rock' effect. No rocket science in what I have done so far.
Now the next step in soft rock barbecuing is very important, almost a life or death issue. Either do the melting outside or have a large fan behind you, set to the max speed. If you are worried about your hair getting messed up, don't. Your lungs are more important.  The weapon of mass destruction aka soldering iron is shown ready to go. As soon as it hits the foam it will produce acrid smoke, so be warned. I think the end result is worth the effort. So if you are new to this work please practice outside first.
 Not the best shot but compared with same section in photo 3 it can be seen how the soldering iron melts the foam readily. It takes a bit of practice to get it looking Ok, I am still learning. The beauty of this type of work is that you just apply more greenery over the bad bits.
 I experimented with some Selleys Rapidfill over some sections of the rock. It took away some of the holes that occur in the foam. Old Harold the paint came out again for the base coat. It is starting to look a bit like rock now.
 As soon as you hit the area with some greenery it starts to look better. You can see that the new section has started to blend in with the other completed section. I find that also by using some foam under the scenery it gives a base to poke trees into later on. I used some of the Edco dish washing  cloth over the 'hole' above. Once this was glued into place it was just a matter of chucking in some bushes and anything green I could find till it starts to look Ok. When I dismantled the old HO layout the scenery was stripped off and placed into containers for times like now.
 Well I forgot to take some photos between the previous photo and this one above which shows this area nearly complete. I am quite happy with how this section is blending in together. I just need to get a few taller trees into this scene, then it will be complete. The track has been ballasted and so goodbye plywood central. Marvellous how quick the weeds grow.
 It now looks better now that the back section has been done. I might buy a ticket and have a ride myself!

2 comments:

  1. Bob,
    That backdrop in Picture #4 and part #5 looks so realistic. Well done.

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    1. I can see you are a big 'fan' of that shot Jim
      Bob

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