More Layout Progress

Well, since last time, I have been able to do a little more carving of the foam to remove a few trouble spots, followed by some sanding and finally a good vacuum. Before I put down the sculptamold, I removed all the track and buildings, and decided to do a little painting of some areas that would likely not be completely covered with sculptamold, including the tunnel and the bottom of the loch.

I painted the tunnel black with acrylic paint, including the mating surfaces. The top of the mountain is designed to be removable in case I needed to access the track. I went ahead and brushed the paint out along the roadbed, even though this too will be painted again later.

The loch I painted a dark blue - but it doesn't look dark enough to my eye for the deep water I wanted to show. Easy enough to fix with more paint, but at least there is an initial coat on it. I really thought I had picked a dark enough blue paint, as the chip was even darker than I thought it should be - but clearly the results are not what I wanted. However, at least there is now an initial coat of paint down, and the sculptamold can go in along the banks even while I color the water more to my liking.

Next up on the list is the sculptamold, and to pain the track sub roadbed. Since the ballast is grey, the sub roadbed will also be grey so that anything that shows through will still look like ballast. In addition, CAD work is proceeding on the bridges. I started with the bridge over the road. I picked a bridge with some character from Glasgow.

Searching online, I found this bridge in Glasgow. The deck girder bridge is surrounded by a blue and white truss (resembling the Scottish flag), which I thought was near perfect for the scene. In my case, the bridge is straight at one end, but then begins to curve. Since the curve isn't much, I built the bridge as a single skewed section. Here is my creation:

The skew is not very apparent from this view, but from above, you can see it, even though it is only a few 16th of an inch.

I also got a start on the design for the harbor, with its docks and boardwalk, which I will show in a later post. But at the moment, my CAD time is being spent on the two large viaducts. After laying both out carefully, I was able to model them with a total of six modular pieces, 3 ends (one of which is used on both ends), 2 curved sections, and a straight section. One is going to be a stone arch bridge similar to Ribblehead on the Carlise and Settle line, the other is a concrete bridge based on the Glenfinnan Viaduct famously seen in the Harry Potter films.

Ribblehead Viaduct

Glenfinnan Viaduct

Glenfinnan Viaduct in Harry Potter

I haven't decided if I will include the flying car or not yet. But it is a thought. The Glenfinnan Viaduct will be on the left side of the layout (as seen from the front). I am hoping that the resulting scene will resemble this view of Glenfinnan.

In my case, the loch will pass under the viaduct, but I love this view. The bridge modules are still being worked on, but here is a shot of my progress on the straight section needed for the Ribblehead inspired viaduct on the front of the layout.

A lot of effort with the stone work, but I hope it will be worth it in the end. Ultimately, several of these projects will also make their ways to ModelWorks. Anyways, back at it, with the train show only three weeks out, there is a lot still to do...