Well my son and I finally got to lay our track today. I used clear caulk to secure it to the cork. (use sewing pins to hold it down) We also got the profile board cut and hung as well. The scenery should a LONG time but at least I can run my train while I work now.
There are a bunch of pics on my web site but here is a preview:
Now see, that wasn’t so bad, was it?
Looks good. Look real good.
How much more do you have to do?
Scenery until I’m old and grey…oh wait…I’m already old and grey.
Lots of scenery. LOTS & LOTS!!! [8D]
Golden spike laid. Yea !!
Scenery is fun. For a little work you’ll get amazing results quickly.
Good job.
I wish I were in your shoes! Congrats on getting your track laid. That seems so far off in the future for my own layout. I have a question for you - It appears you have all of your plaster work covered with plastic…did you do that so you could spray paint your rails and ties?
Looks good!
Don Z.
Looks good. It’s a good feeling to finally get the trains running!
John
Actually the plaster has been sprayed with brown paint but the picture looks terible. I will be airbrushing my track later in the week (after my airbrush comes in)
I spent all day today fixing track. I made sure to check each section as I laid it…but…I still had some problem spots. So I moved some track around. Good thing I had easy tunnel access!
I put my tunnels at the ends of my folded dogbone shaped layout, so that the access was easy to build. I built an outline of the scenery with cardboard strips, using the weave method. Then covered it with plaster cloth. A thin layer of plaster went over that. Once the plaster was dry, I wet it with a spray bottle, then sifted dry plaster on it. You’d be amazed at the results. It gives a nice texture that A) looks like dirt and rocks, and B) gives the scenery some “teeth”, so that the ground foam that comes later doesn’t just run off when you soak it with the fixative (diluted white glue or scenery cement).
I paint my plaster with thinned light tan acrylic latex paint. I bought a gallon of it from an Ace Hardware store that had mixed the wrong color for a customer for $5.00 While the paint is wet, I sprinkle some ground foam on it. The foam gets sprayed with dilute white glue when the paint dries. This helps hold it even better. The advantages of acrylic latex are 1) it’s a lot cheaper than spray paint, 2) less fumes, and 3) it’s easy to change the color to meet your needs by adding color to the paint and 4) because it’s water based, it’s easier to clean up and it won’t attack your foam like oil based paints can.
