East Works: terraforming...

East Works, the follow up to Creech Bottom in 009, 1/76 narrow gauge, has a rather 'hard' deadline of ExpoNG at the end of October which I am keeping in mind with progress...

The summer has been very busy so progress over the past few weeks has slowed a little, however I've pushed on in the last few days. The first step with scenery has been terraforming, beginning to form the foundation of the 3D landscape. This started with some polystyrene ceiling tiles cut up to form the foundation of the various landforms. My intent was a hill to hide the exit track, a loading track and small hill at the back on the left that will have some trees on it.

Once dry this was covered with a layer or two of mod-roc, plaster bandage. I know this is an old school technique but it's been around for a long time for a reason - it's light and works! If it ain't broke don't fix it!

This morning I have added a layer of filler to smooth the edges, blend the edges of the polystyrene to get a smoother and more natural finish. This is important because otherwise the mod-roc bandage has a tendency to sag and produce unrealistic sagging in the scenery. Once this is dry I will rub it down and paint it before giving the track work a thorough clean up before that too is painted, then ballasting, then scenery... More soon...