Assembling a Wills SS53 Bridge kit

[Milano]

Folks I am assembling a Wills SS53 bridge kit but need some advice - I have joined the two parts of the bridges as per instructions and it's now saying that I use some cardboard etc of the curved roof and something similar for the roadway. Now should I paint the bridge first before putting these parts in place or assemble the bridge fully to make a very solid unit?

 

Thanks

 

 

Milano

[Guest]

If it's any help, I usually paint all the pieces of a Wills bridge with a base coat colour before assembly and then add the parapet walls around scrap softwood uprights fixed to the baseboard, purely for extra strength. However, if you know for sure what the depth of the structure will be, I guess there is no harm cutting and fixing the roadway and curved bridge liner in place and then positioning the whole thing on the layout. Although they suggest cardboard for the curved liner, consider using a sheet of their flexible brick Wills SSMP231 as it will have a similar embossed relief to the rest of the structure. Personally, I choose to add the roadway last and normally use an offcut of MDF, this is stiff enough to add some extra rigidity to the whole thing. Once totally assembled, the whole thing usually gets a mortar colour wash and then weathering... this helps to hide any stray glue mark.

[RexAshton]

The edge of the cardboard won't show once the bridge is assembled as it sits between the two main walls behind the portals. I might be preaching the the converted here but remember that card generally has a grain which means it will better in one direction than 'tother.