Rough Terrain Completion and Track Weathering

Several days to myself this week allowed for a burst of productivity.   I finished what I call the “rough terrain”.   This is either plaster cloth over cardboard webbing (for the east end of the yard), or pieces of foam roadbed sheets to form various flat industrial areas and building pads.    I used a general purpose filling compound (Spakfilla Rapid) from Bunnings to blend the roadbed into the terrain and to fill any gaps.

 

 

 

I painted the whole terrain with a rough coat of a generic beige colour that approximates the clay soil ground colour of that part of British Columbia.    I just picked up a couple of inexpensive test pots from Bunnings. (Colour is Dulux of NZ “Linton” if any one wants to know).

My intention is to eventually go over the rough terrain with sculptamold or a similar product and repaint with the same base coat.    For now the goal was to get rid of the white plaster and black foam mashup look of the terrain.

I pre-weathered the track the easy (but messy) way,  using a spray can of Rustoleum flat black paint.    This required extensive masking of the backdrop, fascia (and room walls) to avoid overspray.   Proper ventilation is (obviously) required for this.  By working slowly, stopping frequently and spraying the track in small sections it is possible to do this without creating clouds of paint fumes.   I also ran the vacuum cleaner and held the hose end near to where I was spraying.  I am not sure if this actually sucked up spray paint fumes but it felt like I was at least trying.

 

 

A key part of preparation is masking the point blades of each turnout so they don’t get covered in spray paint.  I just used small pieces of tape on the point blades before spraying.     A standard abrasive track cleaner easily removes the spray paint from the rail tops after painting has been completed.

 

I will still paint and weather the rail sides and  ties, but a coat of flat black spray paint is a quick way to get rid of the shiny model train track look.    The room preparation and point blade masking is the most time consuming part of the process.