The Long Drag to Garsdale – Out In The Country (1)

Entry posted by Southern Fabricator November 1, 2019

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Three Dog Night sang the title and also Cliff Richard sang a a similar song ‘In the country’, so here I am up to my ears as it were in country diorama modelling. Having laid off cut polystyrene as a foundation base, I’m now going to enjoy myself sculpturing in the foreground for the next few blogs. Incidentally the photos in my last blog were a disaster as I tried to reduce their size to comply with the 10 MB limit, and as a consequence the text shrunk as well. Fewer photos needed or more program research by me!

Working with polystyrene was first introduced to me by members of our Greater Waikato Railway Modellers (GWRM) club as our exhibition layout is all about keeping weight and construction costs down where practicable. The club tends to cut, trim down the excess to mould the final shape then cover after painting with a suitable green acrylic house paint using torn paper napkins laid over the top whilst the paint is still wet and tamp with more paint on a 40 mm brush. When dry it is then ready for the detailing by team members.

A good vacuum cleaner is essential to clean as you go, as poly tends to go everywhere when you work with it and a face paper filter could also be helpful. But that aside poly is easy to lay and then glue down with normal PVA glue. My own modified method is to cut and trim, then using a Sure foam rasp after to smooth out the diorama to suit. Lastly I normally use a spack filler to fill out any discrepancies in the poly and lightly sand before painting with a green acrylic paint over the top.

It also pays in my case (because I’m trying my best to emulate the Dales landscape around Garsdale Station) to mark out the main features such as hills on the undulating terrain, the access roads, the walking track,with its bridge and so forth with a marking pen, then use a hacksaw blade to scribe them into the poly. This last step is necessary because as one moulds the poly to suit with a rasp, your pen marks can disappear!

On the Eastern side of the station above Mud Beck Gill, Edwin’s Fell is the Wether Hill.

The 45° embankment slopes upward along this side of the layout is from 80 to 180 mm at its widest with an average of 80 mm in height allowing for Mud Beck Gill and the occupational bridge Eastern portal. The backboard/scene will reflect this eventually.