Portland cement scenery
the base of the cliff. We allowed the limestone to move down the slope nat- urally. We followed this with the screened material, ending with the finest grade. The larger pieces went the furthest down the slope (some- times with a little help), creating a very natural looking surface. The cliff was still missing something. There were areas on the cliff that had small rocks showing on the cliff face. Having gotten this far we thought this should not be too hard to do. We paint- ed diluted white glue onto a small area and blew the screened fine limestone out of a folded index card onto the cliff face. Some material stuck and some fell to the bottom of the cliff, giving the look we wanted. This was done to the entire cliff face, and the material that fell made the talus slope at the base of the cliff look better. The final step before putting in brush and small trees was to secure the talus slopes. We used the tried and true method of spraying with “wet” water, (water with a few drops of dishwashing detergent added), then carefully apply- ing diluted white glue over the entire talus slope. All this was done with the piers and trestle bents in place. Everything looked fine, but we came up with an additional use for the Port- land cement. Before allowing the talus slope to spill into the river, we coated the river bottom with the cement, then added more rocks and gravel in the wet cement. After the bottom was painted it held the Envirotex with no leaks.
A second look
Looking over the section now that it is essentially done, here are some thoughts about the project. Whenever possible, use photos from the area you are modeling as a guide. You will be surprised at the details you discover when you really study them. As mentioned above, the rock face with a talus slope below is inspired by a photograph taken in 1961 just south of the Scotia Bluffs. Aerial photos re- vealed the angled face just north of them. There is only so much room on a model railroad, so we decided to com- bine the two features. We even includ- ed a “dangling trestle” that is in one of the photos. Our goal was to capture the impression of the place.
The construction followed our previ- ous methods, using cardboard strips and red rosin paper. A word about card- board strips for scenery: at the start we cut our own from boxes, a tedious and inconsistent task, which we will never do again. We then tried the pre-cut, packaged
strips 74 from Micro Mark.
Every strip is the same, with the same characteristics. All you have to do is
Once the area around the pilings was coated with rock, diluted white glue was spread onto the areas above and below the tracks and then coated with fine limestone.
open the package. If one strip isn’t long enough, use a short piece as a bridge and hot-glue two lengths together. After the cardboard support was in place, rosin paper was hot-glued to the frame- work. Rock castings were cut and glued in place to form the rock wall. We tried something new that we
picked up from HGTV. After coating an area with paint, we laid pieces of ordi- nary tissue paper over the surface while it was still wet and pressed the tissue into place with our fingers. A top
coat of paint was then applied over the tissue paper. As the paint dried, wrin- kles and creases formed in the tissue. The amount of texture depended on how tightly the paper was applied. Even after the Portland cement was applied, the texture showed through and it looked like rocks. The surface was painted with the same Portland cement mixture used for the bluffs. Once the cement dried, diluted white glue was painted on, and fine limestone was blown on from a
The author had a photograph that inspired this scene. It showed an abandoned trestle be- tween the railroad and the river. This abandoned, partially standing bit of trestle was made from spare parts the author found in his scrap box and represents that “dangling trestle.”
APRIL 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100