Filling the Gap (Part II)

With the road to the backdrop installed, the next phase was to rough out the lower level roads. There were three to lay out:

1.    The road to the station.

2.    The road to the (non-visible) part of AG.

3.    A short stub to the "local delivery/pick-up" loading dock beside the tracks.

I used the MDF board as the base. As we will see shortly, this was a mistake. I should have used Smooth-it in between a wood frame (acting as a dyke to keep the Smooth-it from running amok), but what can I say...lessons learned.

Another photo:

The problem with plaster/Smooth-it is keeping it away from surfaces that you want pristine. Like the backdrop (see the left above). For a short stub coming from the backdrop, I used sandpaper, painted and chalked (with powder), for the surface. This method also allowed me to play with the angle I wanted the road to hit the backdrop at. 

One more photo:

Once I was happy with the basic layout, I began to plaster.

This is where I discovered the folly of not using wood to "frame" the road. With no frame to run my leveller (a crepe press) along, I got a very uneven and patchy road. I added black paint at this point which hilighted how rough the road was:

Look at the new blob!

Adding a bluff

Annoyed, I left the road as is for a while. In any event, I had scenery to put in behind the road, and generally you finish scenery from back to front.

I left some space against the backdrop to add a small, tree-covered bluff. This complemented the downward grade of the road and, to my mind, took the eye off the road.

I built the bluff with my favourite "blob" method. Pink insulation board, shaped with the hotwire and painted. Building blobs off layout is particularly helpful where the hill is steep. It is much easier to add ground cover with the blob laying on its back.

I add ground cover, Heki grass, some trees and yet another dead tree (again justifying the $9 purchase of twigs). The result, once installed, was great.

Note the "sandpaper" road to the right.

I was very happy with the blob. It looks like classic near north Ontario scrub. The bluff also smooths the transition from Station hill, the road and the flat land where AG is.

Back on the road

But that road...ugh.

I attacked the road with thinned paints to dull the black, followed by weathering powder.

Still pretty rough...

Still pretty...ugh!

Roads vary in colour and the difference is most pronounced between where the rubber hits the road and elsewhere. Hence the darker tracks that approximate where the tires do their work.

To make a long story short, I did a lot of sanding and re-colouring until I felt the road looked passable. All of which could have been avoided if I had kept to my original wood-framing road construction method.

Careful eyes will note the very out-of-period traffic lights that are visible on the backdrop. You can't plan for everything! 

I'm still not done with this part of the layout. In part three, I'll talk about completing the short stub to AG and adding the hillock.