Anyway, things have been slowly progressing at Kings' Vale where I've been forming the landfall. This has been a combination of polystyrene foam, plaster cloth and wall plaster.
I think it's starting to resemble the prototype and should really look the goods when I've added colour and fluff (static grass and other stuff). I've procured all the bits and pieces to make a static grass applicator, which can be the subject of a future post.
Here's the polystyrene foam forming up the cutting at the northern end of the yard. I realise that Foamular extruded polystyrene is better for this purpose, but I only found out about this stuff after I had started! Something to try next time. The edges are taken off the foam sheet with this Surform gizmo which is very effective at quickly shaping the foam. It also creates heaps of mess.
Here plaster sheet has been draped over the foam. I learnt here that the foam wasn't shaped enough and the edges are too visible and prevent a nice, smooth and rounded landform.
This is where the mound at the entrance to the yard falls away and the road access to the yard can be seen on the left of the picture.
From the reverse direction.
After some plaster was applied and smoothed out, the roadway is looking good. I have started taking to the shoulders with a blunt chisel to create the ridges and troughs caused by runoff.
A few steps later, with some more plaster applied over the plaster sheet to hide the foam edges and provide material which can be fashioned with the chisel to represent the earthen embankment.
Nearing the end of this phase. Just need to run over a few areas with the sandpaper, gouge a few faces with the chisel, fill a few holes and we're ready for colour.
Looking forward to the Thornleigh exhibition in a couple of weeks and hoping to pick up half-a-dozen Austrains 4-wheel cattle wagons.
Opposite the station, there is a loading bank which I've also started to form up using the same techniques. Before I get too carried away, I will need to paint the face of the Sydney Hobbies loading bank and fix it into place. Hope to post some more photos of that soon.
Cheers for now
James
