Stour Valley Dream - Sculptamold and ballast
I've been making slow progress on the scenics over the last couple of weeks. I've covered all the polystyrene with a layer of Sculptamold and got what I hope will be a suitable base for static grassing in a future.
I'd not used this stuff until I was recommended it by one of my friends, having always used modrock or other plaster bandage type things in the past. I've been very impressed as it dries quickly, forms a strong layer even when applied quite thinly and is very light. It sticks well to itself so you can mix a small quantity up at a time and work on little areas.
I found mixing in an old plastic container and spreading with a plastic tool which was originally intended for removing prints from a 3D printer (but was useless for that purpose) worked well.
The resulting ground has been painted with poster paint to hopefully give a reasonable base. I think the intention is to cover with a sprinkling of sieved soil (Our American friends might say 'Yard dirt') and seal the surface a little more before applying static grass. In the photograph below the right hand track is the running line and the left hand track just a siding/lay-by hence the smoking staining on the bridge being on one side only.
I gave the track a spray with Railmatch' Sleeper Grime' with a sideways waft of 'rust' to paint the rails. Ballast is Woodland Scenics grey, using a mix a medium and fine grades. I tried sticking it down with both DeLuxe Materials 'Ballast Bond' which is a dilute glue and 'Ballast Magic' which is a dry powder that you add to the ballast as you apply it and then spray with water. Of the two methods I'll admit to getting on better with the 'Ballast Magic', being able to apply the ballast and move it about in a dry state and then just spray some water on with a fine sprayer seems the easiest approach. I found some tiny spray bottles with the 'liquids must be in a transparent bottle for airport security' bottles in Sainsbury's for ~75p.
The cess is Woodland Scenic fine cinders which hopefully will get blended in a little when the ballast gets a light weathering later. The idea is that there used to be a track on the left hand side of the formation which has been removed, I'm trying to work out whether to ballast with the light grey or cinders.
The river area is coming on. I've used Sculptamold to form a river bank and will ultimately use a two-part resin to make the water (hence the 'dam' at the back of the layout!). I'm quite happy with the shape of the land, I don't think it looks too bad, you can see the path of the disused farm track which lead down from the road over the bridge to the now disused loading siding. I'm planning on this having some overgrown hedges and grass rather than anything paved.
I think I'm pleased with the way the bridge is looking, The abutments look ok with a mixture of red and blue brick.
It is a bit weird actually doing scenic work on a 4mm scale layout after so long. I don't think I've modeled scenic areas like this for about 20 years. I'm getting quite excited about it turning green over the next week or so.
David
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