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The Tiny Tyers Targa Saga

128K views 442 replies 101 participants last post by  Ember 
#1 ·
Ok. Figured it was time to bite the bullet and let the rest of the world see what's being worked on in country Victoria.

The track is simple Scaley Sport. No plans to go digital at this time, I don't think the size warrants it. The table size is 3.5m x 1.5m. It takes up a quarter of the bungalow (converted from a single bay garage). The table is supposed to fold up against the back wall, but I have my doubts. The majority of the work has been done on the cheap. Even the supplies for the table were scrounged.

Here's the layout.


And here it is in progress....

(Sorry about the badly cobbled together image, but constraints of the room make it impossible to get a decent shot of the whole track)

This will never be a serious, all out race track. The cars that drive it tend toward classics, road cars and the odd rally car. So landscaping is/will be more in keeping with a targa style road race. That way it suits all the cars that will venture on to it. Lane length is 14m and both lanes are so close to even it makes no difference.

Scenically (hmmm.... must check that one in the dictionary) this track is inspired by two near by and favourite places of mine. The cliffs that will be along the back straights are somewhat inspired by The Great Ocean Road, and amazing bit of coastal engineering and a stunning drive which runs along the Victorian Coastline (offical tourism website for those who want to know more) and The Grampians/Gariwerd which make up the tail end of the Great Dividing Range (see here for more stuff)

Anyway. That's the basic plan. Construction is well and truly underway. But I'll continue the saga later...

Cheers
Embs
 
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#3 ·
First step from this point was blocking in the scenery. Again with doing things a little bit (ok a lot) on the cheap I used polystyrene, the dreaded white bead stuff. I got it for free from a local purveyor of electronics and white goods. All the bits are solid blocks or sheets, none of the moulded stuff. But unfortunately it's all different grades, some dense and quite easy to carve, some of it quite light, beady and difficult.


Right end of table blocked in. This end is difficult to work at because the table is in the corner of the room. This end is against a wall. Polystyrene is glued together with polystyrene friendly construction adhesive (liquid nails) in blocks.

Once blocked in the landscape features have been carved to rough landforms.

The clean up isn't necessarily easy, but there's something satisfying in having polystyrene snow flying everywhere.

Trying to keep monetary outlay to a minimum I wasn't keen on outlaying lots of money for Scaley track borders. I tried 6mm MDF packed up to the 9mm height of the Scaley track, but this was too much like hard work. Instead I've used corflute, a plastic form of corrugated cardboard frequently used in the sign industry. As I work in the sign industry this was a resource that was plentiful. Whilst corflute is available in 8mm thickness, the majority of what I have access to is 5mm thickness and therefore requires some packing. To make the borders look better I have covered the corflute with a vinyl print of gravel.

The print has been laminated to protect it and allow for easy cleaning. I, perhaps mistakenly, chose a gloss laminate because I figured there was more slip available for smoother drifts. I may, at a later date, give the edges a light spray of dullcote because the shine can be quite distracting at times.

Enough for now. Will add the next chapter of the saga later.

Thanks for joining the journey.
Embs
 
#5 ·
Beginnings of the scenery building....

Along the back of the table and down both sides are cliffs. And undercut cliffs between the first and second straight along the back. I've decided to use FRocks, or Foam Rocks, for this. I got the basics from here. There's basically two reasons for this. The back and one side of the table is hard to get to and its cheap. I got a bunch of old upholstery foam for nix. A combination of old foam from a couple of big sofa cushions and off cuts from the local hardware store. Different foams definitely handle and tear differently.


Bits of foam torn and assembled for the back cliff. For the back cliff, which I did first, I made the frocks off the table and then glued them in place.



This worked ok here as the backing area is flat. But I'm not totally satisfied with the results.

For other areas, particularly areas with curved backings, I decided the better option was to glue the upholstery foam to the polystyrene before coating it in jointing compound (drywall mud?) This allowed for better fit of the cliff to the support styrofoam.

FRock cliffs pinned in place to test fit along side wall. These were then glued in place, repinned and allowed to dry.

A day or so later they received the first coat of Joint compound.


Since doing these ones I have again adjusted my method for doing them a little. But that's probably enough waffle for now. It's Sunday night here and probably time to hit the hay.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Embs
 
#6 ·
Hi Embs

That's a nice, challenging track making good use of the space available.

My current track's "long" straight is about the same length as the one on your track.

Interesting to see how you are doing the budget scenery, I'll be at that stage shortly when my stuff moves up the the attic. And then I may have a dining room again!


How are you going to work that beer bottle into the F rock scenario?

Cheers
Dave
 
#7 ·
Thanks fellas.
Slotcarmann, I could claim it was a measuring device used to make sure I had the cliffs high enough, but I don't think you'd believe me.

Something I have discovered with FRocks. Patience is, as always, a virtue. The thicker the foam is the more coating it requires. The more coating, the more drying time, etc. etc.

Since doing the first FRorck cliff along the back straight I've adjusted my methodology a bit to suit my needs. As I mentioned, I now glue them in place before I they get any coating of joint compound. Because the areas where they'll be used are long cliffs, I've also tried to keep the foam in fairly long strips. These are to be sandstone cliffs, weathered but with little or no strata breaks. I also tend to trim the back of the foam with a sharp knife once I've torn the piece, to get rid of much of the excess before gluing in place.


This is the foam glued in place for the right end cliff. Not sure if it's clear from the photo, but in some places the foam is actually quite thin. Another benefit of polystyrene backing, the cliffs can be easily pinned in place. That way someone can run a few laps with a car to make sure there's enough clearance from the track. Any excuse to cut a few laps... right?


Once glue has had 24hours to dry its' time to apply 'frocking' compound. As you can see, I've taken to tinting it. Just used cheap hobby acrylics for this. I found pre-tinting the joint compound is beneficial when it comes to painting later. First coat is mixed with a little water to make it about the consistancy of good pouring cream. Important to get the first coat to soak into the foam, so use a cheap strong-bristled brush to scrub plenty of coating into the foam. Depending on weather this may take a couple of days to dry.


Second and third coats can be applied with the joint compound at a thicker consistancy. These coats have been fairly well slapped on. Just make sure its not too thick, as the texture of the foam still needs to come through. Another wait for drying abbreviated by the application of fan heater. And its on to painting. Yay!


For painting I'd suggest at least "student quality" acrylics (not the cheap hobby tubes). Most of what I've used for painting these are "Artist quality". The pigments in these are stronger, brighter and truer. Therefore you'll need to use less. A good quality soft brush is also a must. At least a soft nylon, not bristle. I had planned on taking a few 'in progress' photos of the painting progress, but I tend to zone out with a paint brush in hand. This cliff is painted with colour washes blending each colour into the next as it goes. Sort of wet in wet for anyone with watercolour experience. I tend to keep the darker, stronger colours in the deep recesses. The colour mixing is all really done on the rock face. Red and yellow ochres, siennas and gold oxide used here for Grampians sandstone which goes from pale cream to strong rich red. A strongish mix of colour is applied, then a wet brush is used to blend the colour out toward the edge of the next colour. At this point the undertinting comes into play. I've let it show through to give some cream colours to the stone. I've yet to decide whether or not to progress to the next stage of a darker wash over the top of these. I'm pretty happy with the way they are at the moment. So much so that I'm working on a way to redo the ones glued to the back wall of the table (they're too dark for Grampians sandstone).

That's about it for now. I'd better get back to work. Thanks for reading.

Cheers
Embs
 
#8 ·
Morning Embs

More good progress and it seems to be working for you:some good tips in there.


I like the sandstone effect. It's true the colour of it can vary quite a lot, we have some here and it tends to be various shades of pink, in fact we have a castle built mostly with it, although that's nicely weathered now. (That's "we" as in the people of the Isle of Man, not "we" as in my family...!)

With the aid of your improvised measuring bottle, you seem to have got the height about right and you're spot on, checking the track clearance every now and again is good policy. Especially as you put the additional layers of paint on, you wouldn't want to narrow things too much, would you...?


Cheers
Dave
 
#9 ·
Dave: Alas I can't claim its all been done in the last few days. It's been a work in progress for a few months now. Probably started putting the table together around Easter. The track layout itself started its evolution shortly after Christmas. As can be seen by some of the corners it started its life as the Top Gear track. That soon got fairly boring so started evolving into more challenging circuits. Add another box set of track, a heap of extra straights, a bunch more corners (R1s, R3s and R4s mainly) and the better part of whats now on the table was created. A few weeks running that on the floor to decide if it was challenging enough to be worth keeping. It got recorded in SlotMan before being dismantled ready for table construction. Layout was tweaked a little further while the table was being built. I had the track laid out on the table almost before His Lordship had finished tightening the screws on the table hinges.

The track is a bit further along than the thread so far, but probably not by a huge amount.

On the sandstone side of things: An old quarry in the Grampians was re-opened specifically to furnish the new Parliament House with both white and pink sandstone when that was built. The white where it is found is almost pure white. The pink is a very deep rich pink. The colour range on view, whether from stones, plants and wildflowers, or native birdlife, is just one of the reasons why I love the Gramps. Its not just the deep heart of Australia that has amazing colour to offer. If anyone's planning on visiting the country the outer edge is well worth a look.
 
#10 ·
QUOTE (Ember @ 14 Sep 2009, 09:26) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Alas I can't claim its all been done in the last few days. It's been a work in progress for a few months now. Probably started putting the table together around Easter. The track layout itself started its evolution shortly after Christmas.

Phew, I looked at the first post date and thought "thats some work rate!" until I got to here !
All looking good, but I agree you should matt down the borders
 
#11 ·
On the cheapskate tally.... so far we're looking at:
Chipboard for table = AUD 0.00 (scrounged from packing boards from local kitchen manufacturer)
Pine for frame and legs = AUD 0.00 (leftovers from previous jobs)
Paint to seal chipboard = AUD 0.00 (leftovers found in garden shed from previous owner)
3mm MDF support for track = AUD 0.00 (scrounged from packing boards from local kitchen manufacturer)
Polystyrene for track fill = AUD 0.00 (scrounged from local electrical store)
Upholstery foam for FRocks = AUD 0.00 (scrounged from local upholsterer and hardware store)

Actual purchases tally:
2 tubes Liquid Nails @ AUD 16.00 each
1 large bucket Plasterers Joint Compound @ AUD 25.00
2 tubes cheap hobby acrylic paint @ AUD 2.00 each
So far so good.

Once getting to this stage things stagnated for a little while. My supply of useable polystyrene dried up when the electrical store I was scrounging it from moved premises. They needed all the polystyrene for packing to move. Since then they've been disposing of the packing more frequently. So when I've gone to get more they've had none available.

So after a while I decided I'd have to spend some money and bought 3 cans of expanding foam. The first can was a cheap brand which didn't work very well. I should have known better than to buy the cheapest available. So the next 2 cans were of a recognized brand and worked much better, expanding well as promised.
To the above tally we therefore add:
1 cheap can of expander foam @ AUD 11.00
2 brand name cans of expander foam @ AUD 17.00 each

Expansion foam used on the left end as fill...

Boulders carved from expander foam between tracks. Expander foam has also been used to fill between middle and bottom layer of track, this area will be later cut back to a gentle slope (probably) and either finished as a small erosion slip of scree and gravel or planted with low shrubs.

And expander foam applied at right end of table to create hill...

Not heater in place to dry FRocks.

As mentioned before the table, and perhaps more importantly my lack of verticality, has made some areas less than easy to work on. This area in the back left corner between the upper and lower straight is just one such area.

I can't reach it from the front of the track. And from the side of the table its sheltered from view by the top later of track. How to resolve the problem?

Of course.... It's all done with mirrors

The mirror is actually very handy for checking areas that have been missed with the FRocking mix. The expander foam boulders have also been coated with the tinted jointing compound to help blend them into the FRocks.

Until now most of the polystyrene has been carved into a rough shape but otherwise left bare. Areas that weren't FRocked were still free to give off their little beads. Therefore any time the track is to be used it needs vaccuuming. It also meant that any car leaving the track would usually be covered in polystyrene 'snow.' I did eventually get sick of that scenario. So the polystyrene in the areas where I was happy with the 'blocking in' of the scenic forms were iscolated with 'poor man's plaster cloth' (disposable dishcloth soaked in plaster).

Add to the spending tally:
1 5kg bag of plaster = AUD 9.00
1 roll of disposable dish cloth = AUD 4.00

Once dried the plaster areas received a float coat of jointing compound to finish the construction phase for these areas.

Thats almost got the build saga up to date. Probably one more chapter of prologue will bring us to current time. Thanks for your time.
Embs
 
#12 ·
QUOTE (Savage @ 14 Sep 2009, 22:29) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Phew, I looked at the first post date and thought "thats some work rate!" until I got to here !
All looking good, but I agree you should matt down the borders

Even with heavy duty application of the fan heater each coat of joint compound takes at least 24 hours to dry, longer still where its thick. Even His Lordship's not full of enough hot air to get that lot dry in a few hours.


Most of the work's been done on weekends. By the time I get home from work during the week if I get out to the track at all it's usually for a few laps to unwind before going inside to cook dinner. After dinner there's the fun stuff like book keeping and quotes for my limo business, housework or just veging in front of an open fire with telly, a dvd and a few glasses of domestic red with His Lordship. It's amazing how real life can be rude enough to interrupt fun things like a track build.


I've been working hard over the last few weeks to get things rolling along on the track build though. School holidays start next week and the quiet household of two adults and a cat will be blessed (?) with a visit from His Lordship's teenage sons (13 and 15) for two weeks.
The folding aspect of the track will have to be tested as the bungalow is the only room we have available for excess bodies. We live in a tiny 100 year old 4 room cottage. There's barely room here for the regular tennants without adding a pair of teens.

The borders may finish up being completely replaced yet. When I read the success that some have had with the texture of smooth sanded and painted joint compound/drywall mud. The whole thing I suppose depends on whether or not I decide to paint the plastic track. That's something that's still under consideration.
 
#13 ·
Ember, I am speechless, well almost! But Blown away; maybe Convey's my feelings a bit, First of all the the layout of the track is inspired, definately different in a way that I think many people will copy and then! The rocks!! Those are come of the best rocks on a layout I have ever seen and the way you've gona about that is inspired!! It's alway good to find a low cost way of doing something! I love using scrap lumber as well!!


I could gush all day, but I wiil just say GOOD JOB!!!
 
#14 ·
Excellent work Ember - both on the scenery and the well written description of the work at hand. The color and texture of the rockwork is fantastic. Even more impressive is your material list: you're proving quite well that good scenery work does not require the use of expesive materials. Looking forward to your next update.

Brad
 
#15 · (Edited by Moderator)
Gosh. Thanks for the praise guys. Always nice to know the work's appreciated.

Maestro Korando, I figure I'll probably have to start outlaying some money when it comes to top dressing, grass etc. But, the less money I spend on the base build the more money I'll have available to spend on those important things and cars


I do have a little evil plan in mind with this track. I'm hoping to convert a couple of the model railway guys in town to something a little faster and more risky. The ones that aren't too scary that is (sorry to any train folks reading... but seriously some of the local guys here a just a bit too intense)

Time for the nest installment of the prologue I think. Let's try to bring the Tiny Tyers Targa up to how it looks today...

So far the back right corner of the table hasn't been touched other than roughing in of landscape. There will be a tunnel/bridge built here, but I'm still trying to decide on the best way to go about that. This back corner is the hardest area to get to, so I can't really work on it much without assistance from His Lordship. Being a little bit limited on verticality, I can't actually climb over the frame that is behind/below to which the table is hinged. This frame will eventually become shelves. Anwyay, for that reason I'll have to get clever with that back corner.

Another area that I haven't quite resolved to my satisfaction on the landscaping plan is the flyover section where the middle straight swings around and bridges over the diagonal straight before swinging back. I've always had a bit of a design problem with this section. There's been a conscious effort made to have the scenery make sense, and it's been fun trying to work out the landforms to explain why the track takes the shape it does.

So we move to the only section that has been completed to my satisfaction at the moment. A little bit of it can be seen in a couple of the other photos. The area is on the mid left of the table separating two distinct levels of track. There's a slight overlap between the two road levels so it took me a little while to work out some scenic explanation for it. Then suddenly inspiration struck. The solution was quite a simple one in reality, inspired by a little detail I noticed in Psrrfh's Well Mountain. He mentioned i-beam gurders somewhere in his build. That was the Eureka moment for me and so I came up with this...


The concrete curb edging on the top deck is made from mounting board (heavy paste board) left over from framing photos and artworks over the years. The outer edge which covers the naked edge of the corflute and the supporting mdf is a 10mm strip. Laminated to this with trusty PVA glue is two 5mm strips of the same card. These narrower strips form an angle that can be glued to the edge with hot glue. Once glued to the track edge the whole lot was coated with the ever trusty joint compound, this time tinted concrete grey (a bit of olive green and a tiny hint of black). The concrete wall below the track was also done with mount board. A single layer for the main wall and sections glued to the top of it to make the profile. This was again coated with concrete coloured compound.

View from the top deck to the lower.

The edge of the cardboard concrete curb has been disguised with some brown gravel, a Heki product that happened to be a perfect colour match for my printed gravel. This is the first purchase to the top dressing, but should go a long way. Applied into a bead of PVA glue. The posts are balsa wood at the moment, but they'll be replaced with something stronger when I find it. The 'cable' is twisted and plied from a large role of fuse wire.

More to come soon.
 
#16 ·
When I'd finished working on the gravel and safety barriers at the top of the track, I figured I'd return to the underneath section to finish that off. But it seems someone had been there while I was away....

The spray can warriors get in everywhere.

The 'roof' area has had another piece of mount board cut to fit and glued in place. This has been coated in the concrete tinted joint compound. The i-beams are 15 mm x 10 mm balsa with 10 mm wide mount board strips glued top and bottom. The whole has then received a couple of coats of burnt sienna acrylic paint. Once dried they were cut to length and glued in place. I'm fairly happy with the result. I may at some stage have to put a security light in here to keep the vandals away.

The bare polystyrene in the front of this wall has been coated in joint compound (the same as I've used for the FRocks) and has been covered with the brown gravel in the usual manner (pva glue, scatter gravel and sealed in place with spray coat of 50/50 pva and water mix).

This photo does show up the gloss problem on the printed corflute. Oh well. I'll tackle that sometime during the scenic work.

So, lets add to the spending tally:
2 lengths of balsa wood @ AUD 2.00 each = AUD 4.00
1 200g bag Heki brown 'gravel' = AUD 11.95
Fuse wire = AUD 0.00 (Large supply already on hand but no longer required due to updated rewiring of cottage)
PVA glue = AUD 0.00 (Is there a household around that doesn't have PVA glue somewhere?)

'Artist' and 'Student' quality acrylic paints and brushes etc I already had from other projects (Gosh, more than a few of them I still had left from school and uni. That just shows quality lasts)

How's the tally looking?

I think that about brings the Tiny Tyers Taga up to date.

Also in the last fortnight (2 weeks for others) I have gotten rid of the 2 standard Scaley wall warts that were powering the track and have added in a variable power supply (D3800 for the Aussies and Kiwis out there from Dick Smith Electronics) which I managed to get for AUD 100.00. Pretty good price for a unit that has an RRP of AUD 300, although I know of a few guys that have picked them up for less than this. I've also invested in a pair of Professor Motor base model controllers (AUD 69.95 each). I figure I can upgrade these to variable brake and senstivity at a later date.

Oh, sorry for the 3 letter currency codes. It comes from having spent 10+ years dealing with global share market and foreign exchange, just comes naturally now. I even tend to do it when writing down domestic prices and always have to explain it. Some habits die hard.

Anway, thanks for joining the journey so far. Hopefully there'll be some more to show after the weekend. I hope to be able to spend some more time on the track before it gets inundated by teens some time next week.

Cheers
Embs
 
#17 ·
Well folks. It's update time I guess, it's been awhile. Haven't really got a lot to show for the last month. Had a 2 week layoff enforced by having His Lordship's young teens visit for the school holidays. Haven't succeeded in a great deal of work since then, but here goes.

Always been trying to work out how to do the tunnel. Eventually decided to give it a whirl. If it works, bonus, if not... well... I guess I'd have to try something else.


Glued together a large block of polystyrene, shaped to fit under the track at the back right. Marked the corner on the base of it and carved a tunnel through. Messy but successful(?). Chucked a few coats of joint compound on it. Marked lines on it roughly with a pencil to work out where to carve. It's still a work in progress...


At the moment it looks like an igloo.

Working on ground level. Gave the plaster a sand. Got in trouble with His Lordship for clogging the vacuum cleaner with plaster dust. Slapped some paint on it, the same way as I did the cliffs. Gave it a coat of sealant. Then attacked it with some 'dirt'. Was going to use grout, but couldn't get it here in the right colours. Limited colour range available here. Terracotta isn't a problem, but I also wanted some yellow ochre and cream. Best I could do was beige, and it didn't look good. So... Solution? Get some rocks and break 'em.


This is a selection of the colours achieved from a couple of small lumps of Gramps sandstone. Being sandstone its fairly soft anyway, and the bits I picked up (outside the National Park boundaries, of course) had been sitting by the roadside for quite sometime. Tap with a hammer to break it into smaller pieces, then into a cheap stone mortar and pestle from the thrift shop. What better way to get ochre colours than the real thing.

Applied to surface with good ol' PVA and we have...

Would still like some more creams in it, but I'll work on that for the other side.

Looking down from top of cliffs...


Track was commenced when cars had magnets. And it shows. But it's a road rally track and one must drive for the conditions.


Other additions. Local Aboriginal (Gundijmara) belief is that people who die become red gums. Easy to believe when you see how much personality old red gums have. Wanted a few venerable old trees for the track. So... Out comes the wire.



The wire armatures got fattened up with some hot glue, then coated with.... you guessed it.... joint compound. Light sand and some paint....

Some of these are painted, some are not. First one got dropped into the track for a test...


Only a dead tree at the moment. Might leave this one dead, not sure. Will leaf it alone for now... Bad joke, blame HL.

That brings us to yesterday. Time for some more painting...


This is a repaint of an area of rock that had been done earlier. The darker browns didn't work for me. So it got a light coat of tinted joint compound to cover the old paint. Yesterday it got some paint thrown at it. Continued to paint all over the hill and the boulders.


One side done. One side not. Working in a mirror is always fun. Awkward to start with while the brain is being trained, but once you get the hang of it it's easy.


Painted boulders.

Anway. I think that's got things up to date. Still to paint the cave and understraight cliff.

Thanks for looking in.
Cheers
Embs
 
#18 · (Edited by Moderator)
Looking good Embs.

I really like the idea of using rocks to make err...rocks! If that's not realistic, what is


I also like the idea of using the mirror. The wife may wonder where one of hers has gone!

I think the "igloo" will look great when painted, and I must ask, how thick did you lay on the jointing compound and what did you use to apply it?
I've been brushing mine onto the scenery to get the basic shape, but it goes on a bit thin and there's a few areas where I'll need to carve it.

Oh yeah I also like the trees, I've been wondering what to use to thicken the trunks on mine. I was going to use either masking tape or silicon sealant and joint compound, but I think I'll give the hot glue a go.

Regards, Stu.
 
#19 ·
Beautiful work

The tunnel is gonna look magnificent when done.
I hadn't noticed that you had started a thread about your track.
It's a great idea for your borders just hope you can get rid of the glossyness.
Also I love the dead trees.

I'll be looking forward to further updates
cheers
 
#20 ·
great, where did this come from, missed it comp[letely! GRAFITTI......GREAT i'm so pleased someones done it!, and smashing up real rock, ground breaking stuff i'm sure (pun intended!.) its great seeing the variations in local scenery on this forum, from colorado to aus to spain and all the rest in between, what a varied world we live in!
bet you had fun with the tunnel bricks!

cheers sig
 
#22 · (Edited by Moderator)
Great results, and creative thinking to get the materials, cant wait to see the tunnel done as it looks very effective, even in white.
 
#23 ·
Brilliant work on the trees, they look incredibly realistic! The tunnel is going to look great too. I'm with Lars on the glossyness of the borders. Have you considered using sandpaper on them? That may be enough to take away the gloss, but leave the image. Or... you could try roughing the borders up a bit, then glue down a thin layer of your homemade rock dust (another fantastic idea).

Your track is coming along nicely. The only race should be the one held on the track, not the scenery work
Your on a roll, keep up the innovative work!
Brad
 
#25 ·
Thanks for your kind words guys. You're all guilty of some mighty impressive work yourselves.

The tunnel's driving me bonkers, to be honest. I'm about 3 inches up one side of it. I've started from the bottom of the other side to try to keep progress fairly even. That way any part lines of bricks required to finish the shape will be in the roof arch, where they're most likely to be. Only able to do a few lines of bricks at once. Dremel would probably be quicker progress, but I like the sharpness of the mark made by the exacto-knife blade.

Stu, the compound was applied to the tunnel with a palette knife. Probably could have used plenty of other things, but it's what came naturally to hand and actually fit in hand comfortably. I did three thin(ish) coats, so it'd be a couple of mm thick. The frocks, boulders and concrete have been coated with brush. The rest has been done with the palette knife.

Oh, and the mirror is a necessity cos I'm vertically challenged and can't reach the area from the front of the table.

Hot glue on the trees was just a spur of the moment thing. The first one I tried with 'no more gaps' and to get the trunk fat enough it took more than a week to dry (sitting on the mantle above the open fire place so it could get some warmth). I wanted something that would be cheap (AUD 2.00 for a pack of 15 sticks) and quick. Enter the hot glue gun. Hate the stuff, but it does have its uses.

The rock dust was another of those D'oh moments. Having trouble sorting enough cream out of the clumps that I have. Then I noticed a pile of cream fragments around the base of the external chimney, which is built from old hand-made bricks. 100 years on and they're decomposing a bit. So, I might give some brick remnants a whirl in the motar and pestle and see how they go.

Hope to have some more updates soon.

Cheers.
Embs
 
#26 ·
Well, Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day. My first Cup Day off since leaving Melbourne for the western edge of Victoria 8 years ago (that long... sheeesh, no wonder I now feel provincial when in the big smoke). Spent the day doing a bit of work on the track, so it's update time.


Trimmed up the foam-o-fill ready for application of the ever present jointing compound.


Jointing compound applied. This area will be a combination of rock and scree, with the big boulder on the top, so I decided to use the rock coloured mix. Have also fitted the under-cut cliff between the top and middle straight and started to fill gaps left below the cliff. This photo shows how much the first cliff needs repainting to match in with the rest of it. I've learned a lot since doing it. So, a tip for those working on track scenery, don't start with an area you can't reach and redo if necessary.


This shows the three layers of rock. The front layer in this photo is, of course incomplete. This photo shows one of the little favourite spots in the scenery, which is the cave area at the end of the undercut cliffs and behind the boulders. There's some more work to be done in this area. I have a few little plans, although none of them will be easily visible unless someone is looking closely. But I'll know. Also have to finish the edge of the top track. So much to do.... So little time.


Middle of front loop, below fly-over 180. This area is looking like developing into a swampy area. Just the way the shape is forming. It's deeper at the far end, with rocks placed to form the base for the diagonal straight. A mortared rock wall at the left of this tear drop shape. There will be a culvert draining into this area amongst the rocks at the front. The area close to the camera is a gentle slope up toward the road. Oh, and the posts that were balsa have been replaced with lengths of 5mm square styrene extrusion. I guess that adds AUD 14 to the track spend tally.


Plaster work at the right end is also starting to receive its coat of joint compound. Work has hardly begun on this side of the table.


This is another little area that I love for some reason. I know, it's just a fissure in a rock and the area is not yet finished, but for some reason I like it.

Anyway, that's it at the moment. Not really a lot to show for a day's work.

Thanks for looking in. Cheers
Embs
 
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