Cool (track) borders

by JohnP

The latest Scalextric borders and barriers look very good but for my own track I wanted something a little "greener" to reflect it's English countryside setting.
So, just for those who are new to this kind of thing, here is how I set about doing it... Firstly, I removed the red and white strip and barrier fittings and gave the borders a thorough wash to clean off any grease. I then applied two thinned coats of green acrylic paint. For this I used Windsor and Newton Galeria Sap Green with just enough water added to make it paint on evenly. Once dry, I added a brown (burnt umber) acrylic "wash". For those that are not familiar with this technique, a wash here is just regular acrylic artist paint thinned with plenty of water so that it just "washes" over the surface without obliterating the green. As it dries you will see how it emphasises the texture of the grass:
Next, I replaced the barrier and placed a strip of masking tape along the front edge.
Then I made a 50/50 mix of PVA hobby glue and painted it on between the tape and the guard rail. Now this is where it starts to get good! Sparingly, sprinkle on some static grass (this is a fibre like grass and not the traditional coloured sawdust type scatter material) and blow on it lightly. This helps it to stand up giving a nice realistic appearance. Don't overdo it though as if you make the grass too dense you will waste all your earlier work in creating the washed base texture which helps to give this it's uneven and natural look.
Now remove the masking tape and leave the border to dry out. Later, if you want you can add a second thinner coat of dilute PVA glue just to set the static grass a little firmer before refitting the red and white edge strip.
When it's all thoroughly dry it's ready to use on the track:
Incidentally, the static grass can be obtained from many model railway or war games suppliers such as Games Workshop. The nice thing is that even if you don't have a permanent track you can still add a little greenery to your layout this way.
JohnP

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