That Alder Model Station goes in

Well as you all know, Mike Hamer was kind enough to build and paint my CN Alder model station. After a lengthy tour of the OVAR and SLD it finally arrived at my home. Mike took some photos (above) and left me to do my thing. Removed from the diarama it made its way to its final resting place. I had a great time this weekend building the hill sides.

First I painted the backdrop then glued in some pink foam board. I then poured kitty litter all over it until the foam disappeared completely. Then I sprayed it with wet water and loaded it with a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water. I then poured sand all over to fill in those cracks.

Then I sprinkled earth coloured grout that had bee premixed with sand. Hit it with wet water again until it was like mud Then static grass and ever shades of ground foam. Then crushed bits of dried bush.

The I poked holes and installed trees from back to front. All in all it took about eight hours to do this little scene and there is still tons to do. .

Anyway here is the update. Not quite modern yet but getting there.

Coal Mine update

Here are a few shot on the progress. More roadwork foam and backdrop completed. Mike came over the other night and we started to locate the Alder CN station.

Coal mine on the go

Well I am back at it and I decided my first project was to build a coal mine. I used the walthers gravel as the main building for this open pit mine



I went outside and painted it with Cam paints from Canadian Tire. I used dark green and tan.



Here are a few shots I took outside in the natural light. I first painted the building green then I dusted it with tan to age it.







Next step was to cut out the open pit with a jigsaw making a road which curves down into the mine. Then I put in a lower layer of base in and screwed it to the bench work. Then the road to the base.



I then proceeded to paint the backdrop using the all mighty brush with yellow and black high viscosity acrylics in the tube. The black has a blue base so when you mix it with the yellow you get green. Thinning with water makes the colours lighter for distant trees.






After fixing the foam to get an open pit look, I painted it flat black with house paint and then put real dirt on it. I let it fall naturally over the sides. I then took spoon fulls and tossed it at the wet paint on the cliffs to get the earth look.






In my next post there will be dirt on the roads and all the pit will be finished. I will have extended the paint work in behind the mine...have added a variable landform on the top and put in trees and bushes.