Just a quick look at some progress made with the mold-a-scene materia. Did this a few a few days ago but never got around to posting it.  My poor little rock face though has taken a beaten with plaster drippings. I’ll have to clean that up, or just spray paint over it or something.

Gave the river banks, and the surrounding area, a layer of plaster cloth as the base shell to the landscape.

My next plan was to put a layer of sculptamold on top the plaster just to smooth out the service a bit, and fill any gaps that needed it.  But then I saw a container of Woodland’s Scenics Mold-A-Scene at Hobby Lobby (who didn’t have sculptamold), and figured what the heck, let’s give this stuff a try.

My verdict… I like it.  Funny enough, it looks like the mixture from Joe Fugate’s DVD series, but I find it easier to work with.  Maybe cause it’s a heck of lot easier to mix.  1 Cup of mixture + 3 ounces of water. Done.  I mix it up a plastic container, then use a medium size pallet knife to scoop out maybe 1-2 tablespoon at a time.  I plop the mixture on the plaster, spread it out a little bit, and repeat.  You have about 30 minutes working time according to the box, and it takes about 24 hours to fully dry.  Once I empty the container, I’ll wet my fingers and then just manually smooth and blend the area just applied.

Here’s the result of the first batch I applied.

I love the end result though. It’s got a nice looking texture and a great looking ground color.  I don’t even think I’m going to bother painting or applying “dirt” to this stuff because to me it looks good as it is.

Got the base to the new riverbank’s in place this morning.  They’ll get a layer of plaster cloth soon to complete it out.

Along with replacing the old bridge spans with a new BLMA Truss bridge, I also wanted/needed to replace the abutments for the new bridge (the existing weren’t wide enough).  So I decided to go with a squared off concrete abutment this time around.

I first started with 6 boxes of Monroe Models Bridge Expansion kits. This gives you 12 total pieces.

I cut off the little  backer piece on top (not shown) so the tops were nice and flat.  I then glued two sections together with a little piece of popsicle stick, and then glued 3 sections together to form a 3 sided box.

Gave everything a spray on “concrete” Floquil in-a-can paint…

And voila! The new bridge is in place.

Just need to redo the terrain around the new abutments, extend the roadbed a tiny a bit and she’ll be ready to roll.

Finally had a full weekend off from work so I made some time to work on the layout a little bit.  This afternoon I finished putting down the first bit of concrete tie track up to the east control point on refinery siding.

I super-elevated the curves on this section (and will do the same on the last large corner) using Jamie’s method described here.

And lastly, a few photos of the BLMA Brass bridge I got. This bridge is fantastic looking, and I’ll be using Monroe Models’ Concrete Girder bridge expansion kit. I’ll toss the girder sections and using the concrete sections to build a modern squared off concrete abutment for the bridge, kind of like this.

Today I got my two sample pieces of Micro Engineering track and instantly had this “wow” moment.  This is some great looking track. I love the fact that it’s so shape-able too and not “springy” like Atlas flex track. You can bend this track into whatever curve you want and it stays.

I decided to try out a piece on the layout. I picked the small curve on the layout just before the tunnel as my test spot. Removing the existing track was a piece of cake thanks to the caulk adhesive.  I cut the ME track to size, formed the curve I needed and installed the track in place with some rail joiners.  Works perfectly without any adhesive holding the curve. I love it!

So I think I’m going to ahead with the plan to replace the existing mainline track with some ME weathered concrete track. I haven’t decided if I want to replace the siding with concrete ties as well or leave those as wood ties (and just leave the Atlas in place).

Also, since the ME ties are a little thicker than the Atlas’, I’ll have to sand the cork roadbed a little bit around the turnouts so the rails meet each other at the same height. I really want to avoid having to pull up any turnout.

…but I picked up a new-in-box BLMA Brass Truss Bridge (black) off ebay today.

I’m planning on replacing the double span deck bridge over the Dixie River with the single span truss.

But in a good way. 

It seems every time I go to start something new on the layout, I decide to tear up and change something else on it… but for the better of course.

This time I’m considering the track on the lower level. Way back in day I thought about using concrete tie track for my lower level, but was turned away due to the cost of the ME track compared to Atlas flextrack.

Lately, I’ve been following Jamie’s CSX Dixie Line blog, which has a lot of great information and a great look layout under construction, and see he’s also using concrete ties for his modern day layout. So it’s got me into thinking about using concrete tie track again, and  that if I really want to change track now would be the ideal time to do so before too much scenery gets put down.

I think may order a piece or two to examine it up close and see how it looks in person.

Decisions, decisions!

In the midst of prepping to redo my terrain covering with plaster cloth, I decided I wanted to first redo some of the terrain base and fascia. This mainly included making the hill at the end of the lower level flush with the fascia (not just a hill that looks like a big bump), building up a hill at the first corner, and then making the fascia flow more with the terrain, especially at the river banks.

So first I yanked off the existing fascia.

Then I cut new pieces of masonite there were 7″ (short section) and 6″ tall (river section), and installed them in place.  I also added a piece to the edge of the layout to complete the fascia covering here.

I then rebuilt the hills as I wanted.

And then trimmed the fascia with a Dewalt Cut-out drill to “flow” with the terrain.

A huge improvement to what it looked like before.

A look at the concrete/plaster I broke up tonight.