The Atlantic and Southern Build, Part 1

[ACL1504]

I decided to start the scenery at the double bridge area. First I needed to fix a few things. When I installed the photo backdrops, I cut away some of the real estate to get the photo in.



I cut a piece of construction paper and glued it in place against the backdrop.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I also filled in the gaps between the layout and fascia.





I used the hot glue gun to fill in the and seal the bottom of the backdrop and the slope.

I then sealed the paper with full strength Elmer's White Glue. When dry, I'll add the ground goop and set the rivers edge.

[BandOGuy]

Tom,
You don't want to call that area "down below", "Subway".
Knowing what a stickler you are for detail, you'd drive yourself nuts lettering and posting all the little "Mind The Gap" signs.
Oh. Wait. That's for 00 gauge and you're doing HO.
Forget it. I never said anything.


PS. Maybe you should call the SD area Australia: down under and forgotten by all accept those that live there.   

[ACL1504]

Tom,
You don't want to call that area "down below", "Subway".
Knowing what a stickler you are for detail, you'd drive yourself nuts lettering and posting all the little "Mind The Gap" signs.
Oh. Wait. That's for 00 gauge and you're doing HO.
Forget it. I never said anything.


PS. Maybe you should call the SD area Australia: down under and forgotten by all accept those that live there.   

Chip,

You are a funny guy.   I think I'll just stick with the "lower level staging area". It sounds better and I don't feel the need to install any support columns.

Bagman is down under and I wouldn't want to offend him by installing the subway down under.

Tom

[donatode]

Good idea, besides if you were to really make it "down under", the trains would have to hang down from underneath the shelves....and that would be hard to do keeping them on (under) the tracks....unless you had something like the old Lionel "magne traction".

[ACL1504]

Donato,

Ah, the Lionel Magne-Traction.

It works on HO as well.

Tom

[S&S RR]

Donato,

Ah, the Lionel Magne-Traction.

It works on HO as well.

Tom

Wow - Tom what a great way to utilize space. 

[BandOGuy]

Donato,

Ah, the Lionel Magne-Traction.

It works on HO as well.

Tom

Wow - Tom what a great way to utilize space.

Uh, does this mean you have to re-do the ovalix?

[tom.boyd.125]

Tom,
Only thing that came to mind after reviewing the last photo was an old song by The Yardbirds - Over, Under, Sideways, Down....
Tommy

[deemery]

Donato,

Ah, the Lionel Magne-Traction.

It works on HO as well.

Tom

Tom's modeling Australian railroads now?


dave

[ACL1504]

John, Chip, Tom and Dave,

Thanks for checking in on the upside down photo. Now, back to the layout build.


Tom

[ACL1504]

Today I spent a few hours on the layout.  The glue on the slope under the double bridge dried over night and now I'm working on building up the river bank under the bridges.

Good friends and members in good standing of the Saturday Butty Group, Bill and Kris Cutler (JennsyJ1), gave me some Fusion Fiber from True Scene Modeling. Bill and Kris are the owners of the Pennsy layout I did a photo thread on a year back.

http://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=313.0

The scenery on their Pennsy is stunning and a great majority of the ground cover base is this material. Over the past year I've been following along with what Kris has been doing with the "fusion fiber". I've asked many questions of Bill and Kris about the material. Well, today I busted my cherry and started the scenery process on the A&S RR using fusion fiber as a base.

And, I do want to say this product was introduced on the old forum and I was less than impressed. However, I'd be a bit mendacious if I told you I wasn't impressed with what Bill and Kris have done using it.

www.truescene.com



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

In the photo above, you can see they gave me a baggie of green fusion fiber and a bag of white. The green was from the earlier material True Scene sold. The white is how it comes now.

The instructions say that any water base acrylic, craft or Tempera paint can be used to color the fiber. I used Woodland Scenics  Earth Undercoat #C1229 to color mine.

I mixed, per the instructions, 50/50 warm water and the fiber. I added the Earth color prior to adding the fiber. I stirred and got a putrid looking brownish green color. Or is it a greenish brown?



I let it sit for about 30 minutes and it looked like ABC stuff. For you young folks, ABC is "Already Been Chewed" and refused.

Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

The rest is pretty simple. I spread it on the paper scenery following my river bank line. It is very easy to use and also very slippery when wet. No, Chip, I didn't need to post a "Slippery When Wet" sign.





Left river bank finished.

More in a few. Ya'll know what time it is!

[ACL1504]

Okay,

I have the very cold Diet Pepsi so I can continue.

The rest of the fusion fiber application went just as smooth.  I applied it to the right side and up the bank.



Here is a water level look at the river bank now that the fiber has been added. It gives the rivers edge some depth.



And hear is how it will look with the roadway bridge in place. Keep in mind, I have several other steps to make this scene look, hopefully, as good as Bill and Kris' scenery.



Tom