Page 13 - January February 2017

The idea for this project was born at my local Model Railway Club with the acquisition of a small spare baseboard approx. 2ft. x 2ft.6in. I wanted to test my scenery skills. As I model North American some it had to be something special including water, rocks and a wood trestle bridge.
I began with 9mm thick pieces of ply for the sides and back suitably braced. I then used 40mm Celotex insulation cut into strips and glued into and onto the 9mm ply roughly shaped with a serrated bread knife. This is then covered with plaster bandage with several layers needed to smooth out and cover any straight lines from the Celotex. I then left the complete baseboard to dry for about 5 or 6 days.
I then made a few inquires about rock moulds. I already knew about the Woodland Scenics system but these weren't flexible enough. It just happened I was visiting the Gofars Show in Hampshire and came across a trader selling rock moulds. Upon close inspection these turned out to be perfect being very flexible with a lot of detail. These are made, I think, of rubber by Bragon Enterprises in the States. A visit to my local hobby store resulted in two containers of moulding powder which I don't think was Plaster of Paris because it had a
working time of approx. 5 mins. With a few dry runs, quite sloppy plaster mix proved useful in finding a happy medium. What I did find was, because of flexibility of the moulds, it was easy to make curved rock faces that looks impressive, but you do have to be quick.
I did the entire rock face in about one week, then left the whole baseboard to dry completely for two weeks.
Painting was fairly easy using acrylics of various types, the idea being to obtain a uniform base colour. The reason for this will come clear further on in the article.
Waterfall.
There are lots of different ways to represent water i.e. hot glue gun, casting resin, clear varnish — to name a few. Cascading water coming down a rock face brings its own challenges. My first choice method used clear window mastic dragged down the rock face with a wooden lolly stick. Once fully dry this was painted with various whites and blues. This was repeated until the right effect was achieved. The final result is very impressive (I think!). PS - The mastic does pong a bit until it dries in about 1 hour, so make sure the room is well ventilated.
My second choice for the waterfall was to use a product from Realistic Scenery which is a paste that is milky in colour painted in clear shrink-wrap stretched taught on a smooth surface. When it is completely dry you can carefully peel it off the shrink-wrap. It becomes almost see through. This is then applied to the contours of the waterfall and carefully moulded into shape, then painted. The result is a very realistic waterfall. PS. There is no smell!
The trestle bridge is entirely scratchbuilt. I could only prefabricate a small section of deck plus the hanging truss - which is the centre of the bridge. Then I had to build the rest in situ after the main scenery was completely finished. I think a few notes on construction before we proceed. The deck is a single piece of pine from B&Q glued into position: I then purchased a kit of a wood trestle bridge. This then gave me a good quantity of stripwood ready to be stained. I then proceeded to drill three holes on the deck directly above where the vertical supports would be located. I then inserted three vertical pieces of stripwood - one piece is vertical the two outside pieces are splayed out at the bottom - then glued in place and left for 24 hours to dry completely.
Next came the horizontal support and other cross pieces. Once satisfied with the finished bridge it was sprayed with an airbrush to give it a weathered look. Once this was dry I then covered the deck with masking tape painted dark grey and laid the track on the deck. The finishing touch was to glue two lengths of rail to act as a gantlet track.
WATERFALL DIORAMA Dave Cable
Request from Peter Tobutt
I am seeking help to purchase, construct and operate a camera car so that I can watch a driver’s eye view of my outdoor garden layout on my computer in the comfort of my own home.
My railway is battery-powered and so I envisage a 9V PP3 battery supply fitted to the “camera car” will be the only power source available with the car itself being propelled by an independent battery-powered locomotive. I am willing to pay full commercial rates plus expenses to anyone who can provide me a service to:- 1) Teach me the technical basics involved (ie use /adjustment /
limitation of camera, receiver/transmitter requirements, input to computer etc);
2) Help me procure the appropriate hardware (e.g. camera, transmitter/receiver etc);
3) Advise me on building an appropriate camera car (e.g. length/width/weight etc);
4) Advise me on linking what the camera sees in to my computer;
5) Return to assist me in setting up and running a trial photo session on the layout in Horsham, West Sussex;
6) Provide me with a contact number in case of future problems
( Contact Peter on 01403 260783)
ROUNDHOUSE February 2017 13