Afternoon all,

 

Here’s an update on progress since November.

 

Unfortunately I didn’t feel like modelling for a while as I lost my Mum just before Christmas and small trains seemed irrelevant  Following Christmas I wanted to start the year positive and my Mum always liked when I worked on the hobby so I decided to get cracking again. I realised that there was less than 6 months to the 2mmFS Diamond Jubilee in June and work deadlines are intense until Easter so it was unlikely my Treviscoe entry would be built in time, so have decided to try and finish Wenford. This was the same decision taken with Kyle and I was pleased to have done so as it’s good to try and complete something rather than have loads of projects on the go.

 

The next task before I can commence the buildings is the concrete apron and ballasting. You may recall I did some tests last year and having had a few disasters previously in 2mmFS with DAS/ inset track  I decided on using card for the inlays. The lines of the apron were drawn out and then 5mm foam board was used at the outer edges to define the line. 1mm white card from the studio workshop  were then cut accordingly using templates drawn over the track with tracing paper. This proved to be as painful as I was expecting and involved much cutting, recutting and fruity language 

 

As per my previous mock up, I had decided to stop the apron a few mm short of the outer rail. This was twofold as I recall from previous discussions this was done to allow access to rail chairs and also I wanted to represent the crud/weeds that forms/grows between the two.

 

The next painful part was to apply readymixed filler in between the card and outer rail making sure it was slightly lower than the rail edge. This was time consuming and took two weekends to complete.

 

Once the apron was formed, including adding a few joints in the concrete (I might add a few more) I then closed off the outer edges with postcard to cover the foam board as well as give the impression of a monolithic slab cast. The whole area was then given a coat of some Wilko beige emulsion from a test pot as I would like to try and capture the creamy effect rather than just grey. 
 

Earlier today I gave the whole area a sanding with wet n dry and cleaned the paint off the rails. The Advantage of finishing the card infill just below the rail is so I don’t remove the surface when track cleaning. I have dry brushed in some weathering powders using grey, beige and black to begin to build up the appearance. This will be further added to and probably some white too given that it’s a China clay dries.

 

To conclude the session, the 08 was test run to check clearances and profiles. Some minor tweaking ensued with the scalpel but overall it all ran fine so the next task will be the ballasting of the front road. Once the ballast and apron are done I can then commence the dries buildings at the rear. I have various stone, brick and block plastic sheets so I will start some tests beforehand...after all, I have a building some 2.2 metres in length to construct!

 

A few pics showing progress...
 

 

Card and foam board build ups...

 

 

Almost flush with rail...but just set below...

 

 

Cutting the awkward curved pieces...note this arrangement is formed as per the prototype...

 

 

Infill to rail and card to represent crud...

 

 

Google earth shot showing filler and effect I am trying to achieve...

 

 

Infill and filler complete...tedious but necessary work...

 

 

First board with initial weathering...second board with prior basecoat applied...

 

 

Initial weathering of apron...this will be built up gradually...

 

As always, comments welcome,

 

Pete