Time for an update of progress over the last week, which has been focused on the ground cover around the tracks. I wanted a mixture of ballasted track and areas buried in gravel/ash, so for the latter areas I started with a layer of DAS clay.
A simple jig allows the clay to be rolled out to a consistent depth.
This was laid between the tracks on a coat of PVA, trimmed around buildings, and smaller pieces or offcuts used to fill the gaps between the sleepers, so bringing the ground up to sleeper height (or slightly below).
Ballasting was surprisingly tedious. I didn't want dilute glue finding its way down between the wooden base of the "modular" track and the surrounding foamboard as I'll need to remove that later. So, I applied neat PVA alongside that track and sprinkled the ballast on.
Neat PVA was also applied around the moving parts of points and ballast applied, acting as a dam to keep the dilute PVA from getting where it shouldn't. After that ballasting took my usual route - applied dry, misted with water with about 20% IPA added from a spray bottle, then diluted PVA dripped on using a pipette. Then ages spent picking ballast from where it shouldn't be...
The ballast is a bag of granite chippings I've had for years and there must be the best part of a kilo left, so it will do a good few more small layouts. This time, the ballast had a slight greenish tinge when the glue dried, I've heard of others having this problem but I've never seen it - perhaps because this was cheap PVA rather than Resin W?
For the gravel/ash surface I applied fine sand (rescued some years ago when the kids grew out of the sandpit) over a layer of dilute PVA. The sand is applied through a tea strainer which helps give an even covering. The cocktail sticks (halved) hopefully protect the holes for the canopy supports.
I'm looking for a better solution as the sand needs painting! I applied a couple of coats of a dirty grey, changing the shade slightly for variation.
When dry I applied a wash of dirty brown in a slightly patchy fashion, followed by an even more patchy application of smoke grey weathering powder over the still damp surface.
The result is intentionally uneven and varied, although perhaps a little darker than I was aiming for as ash surfaces look surprisingly light from a distance. The shape of the sleepers just showing through the surface works quite well, the area providing easy access by foot although with the rails proud. I'd like the change from fine gravel/ash to ballast to be more blended, but I can't figure out how to do it.
The ballast also had the dirty brown wash, which has removed most of the greenish tinge as well as toning it down. While the paints were out I painted the pond surface a muddy green colour, and blended it to a muddy brown colour near the edge, using acrylic paints applied very wet. This had previously had several coats of dark brown with a rub back in between to smooth the ply. Once dry, the water was added using Deluxe Materials Aqua Magic, a thin layer first, then a thicker (~2mm) later which was left to dry for a couple of days. I'd dammed the front with masking tape, the Aqua Magic is thick enough not to leak through it, but thin enough to self-level, and I did have to use a scalpel to remove the masking tape! The result is pretty much what I was aiming for - a still pond.
