Bridge Construction part 2
Entry posted by wenlock
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Once I was happy with the overall size and shape of the bridge, the underside of the arches, parapets and abutments could be tackled. South Eastern Finecast brick embossed sheet was wrapped around a curved former of a suitable diameter (Empty bottle of Aussie red wine!), then placed in a bowl of boiling water and allowed to cool. Once back to room temperature the sheet stayed in a reasonable curve and was glued to the underside of the bridge side walls. Flat embossed plasticard sheet was also cut to fit and glued in position to form the vertical side walls.
Underside of brick arches
I wanted the finished bridge to have sloping side retaining walls, so the bridge width was increased to accommodate this. Abutment piers were cut from more plastic card sheet and Liquid Poly was used to glue them either side of the bridge.
Abutment piers from bridge rear
Abutment piers from front
5mm thick foam board was glued using cyanoacrylate, to the inside surfaces of the bridge parapets to give the require thickness for the finished wall. 20 thou plain plasticard was then glued to the other side of the foam board, before using liquid poly to glue curved brick embossed strips to the road side of the bridge parapets.
Foam board glued to bridge parapets
Curved brick overlay strips in position
The sloping retaining walls were then cut out from embossed sheet and glued in position onto the abutments. Once this had dried cap stones were cut from a couple of layers of 40 thou sheet and glued in position on top of the main abutment piers. Capping stones were scribed onto a strip of 40 thou plasticard and then glued on top of the parapet walls. I decided some small brick piers would finish of the sloping wing walls, so these were fabricated from the embossed plasticard sheet and glued in position.
Sloping retaining walls
End brick piers and capping stones
The bridge was then placed back onto the layout to check that it would still fit in position and had the required clearances.
Bridge in situ on layout
Once the construction phase of the bridge was completed, painting could begin. I like to use enamels for painting on plastic and started by painting a base coat of brick red (Humbrol 100) over all the surfaces.
Brick red base coat
Once the brick red enamel had dried for 24 hours, the whole bridge was painted with dark grey mortar colour enamel paint and allowed to partially dry for an hour.
Grey mortar paint
Once an hour had elapsed the majority of the grey paint was removed from the surface of the brickwork using kitchen roll soaked in enamel thinners. The brick embossing helps the grey paint stay in the mortar courses, this is definitely a job best done outside in the fresh air!
Grey paint partially removed
In Situ on layout
I plan on picking out some of the bricks in a warmer red colour to give a bit of variety and this along with a bit of strategically placed vegetation should help with the bridges final appearance. I thought I'd finish this blog post with a few gratuitous pictures of my Dean goods!
Dean Goods posing "underneath the arches!"
Best wishes
Dave
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