Retaining wall
Entry posted by wenlock
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As a bit of light relief from the rigours of ballasting which I'm glad to say I've almost finished, I decided to make a start on the retaining wall at the front of the layout. The retaining wall supports the earthworks that the exchange siding runs along and will eventually have water modelled running below it. The first decision was to decide what type of material such a retaining wall would most likely be made from. Initially I thought that a wall constructed from old sleepers might be possible, but as the wall is quite high and would be holding back a considerable amount I decided that this method wouldn't have been strong enough. A wall constructed from brick would have been another possibility, but I quite liked the idea of using a different material from that used to build the station buildings.
On one of my regular dog walking routes there's a rather nice retaining wall that seemed to fulfil my requirements, so I've decided to use this an inspiration for my model. The wall supports the line running between Cardiff and Radyr and is constructed from assorted size stone blocks. It slopes back from the vertical, has piers at each end and has a nice amount of vegetation growing from it.
Prototype embankment wall
I started construction by cutting a piece of foam board and gluing it in position using PVA glue. The foam board was held in position at the required angle from vertical using drawing pins and left to dry for 24 hours.
Foam board in position
Once the foam board had set in position, a second layer was glued to the inside of the wall to increase the wall's thickness. Once this substructure was complete, it needed covering with a representation of the stonework. Slaters Plastikard manufacture an embossed sheet that to my eye looked quite similar to the stonework on the prototype retaining wall, so this was used to clad the wall. Epoxy resin was used to fix the plastic card sheet to the underlying foam board.
Plastic card glued in position
Milliput putty was used to fill any gaps between the sheets and once dry sanded to mask any joints
Filler applied to mask joints
The wall was then sprayed in white primer which revealed any areas that required further filling. Cap stones were cut from 60 thou plastic card sheet and applied to the top of the wall. Each stone was sanded along its edges to remove any sharp angles prior to gluing in position using liquid polystyrene cement.
Adding the cap stones
At each end of the wall I decided to construct a stone pier. This was built using a substructure of 60 thou Plastic card faced with more embossed sheet. The piers were glued in position using liquid poly and allowed to dry overnight.
End piers in position
Once the piers had dried the wall was ready for painting. I used a dark grey enamel paint as a base colour and worked this into the stone courses to ensure that all the white primer was covered. This was allowed to dry for 24 hours before a start could be made on the final colouring.
Dark grey base coat
The final colour was built up by dry brushing the surface of the stones with a pale grey enamel and then once dry applying Colron oak wood stain to the surface. The wood stain is very thin and pools in all the crevices embossed in the Plastikard sheeting and gives an easy to achieve shaded effect. Dilute black enamel paint was also used to enhance the shading around some of the stones. Once dry the whole wall was sprayed in matt enamel varnish to seal the surface and minimise any shine. Heki flor foam was used to simulate foliage and glued in position using PVA glue.
Finished embankment wall
Metro and brake van on exchange siding
Cattle wagons
I'm planning on going to the O gauge guild show in Telford next weekend which I'm thoroughly looking forward to. Ragstone models have brought out their long awaited GWR buffer stop kit and are attending the show, so I've arranged to collect a few for my layout. I might treat myself to a static grass applicator, the Grass Master from Green Scene is supposed to be good, but if anyone's got any advice I'd be pleased to hear it!
Well it's back to ballasting for me, the back siding still remains to do!
Best wishes
Dave
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