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I appreciate all the nice comments... it keeps me going.

 

The denizen of the Ravine, hereby known as Cecil the Sea Serpent, is now in a body of water. For those railfans who are old enough, there was a wonderful cartoon in the mid-1950s called Beanie and Cecil. One of the voices was Stan Freberg's, one of my favorite comic entertainers of all time. Cecil the Sea Serpent was a friendly monster like "Pete's Dragon". The kids suggested that my wife's phone fell into the ravine and landed on the back of a Lock Ness Monster. We now have one.

 

Cecil wo Water

 

The above pic shows Cecil fastened to the un-wet surface. The head and tail are very over-balanced so I CA's a wooden peg into them and drilled the river bed. I used CA on the head, but used Aleens PVA white glue for the rest.

 

Then I mixed up the Home Depot 2-part epoxy coating and let it rip. It took about 26 ozs. of mixed material to cover the bottom. After the pour here's how it looks.

 

Cecil w Water 02

If you look closely at the right side of the back, you can see a pink iPhone stuck on his back. The kids wishes are now granted. I used the hot-air gun on the surface as bubbles rose and ended up with a very clean fill. I had to use the gun several times until it was completely clear. If bubbles are there when it sets, they're there forever.

Cecil w Water 01

 

 

Cecil w Water 03

 

While my dams held back the flow as designed, the river over flowed it banks and started flooding the area in the rocks. I knew these areas were low and thought the berm I built would be high enough, but the epoxy level was higher. I actually was going to wet this area anyway and it now looks really good all by itself.

 Water Leakage 1

It did leak out of the end and I put some tallus rock to stanch the flow a bit. It sort of worked. Again, this is not a problem. I should have used 1:48 sand bags.

 

Water Leakage 2

It could be cured by tomorrow, and if so, I'm going to add some some motion lines around Cecil with W-S water effects. I also going to start adding foliage and greenery, and then install the bridges permanently.

 

While all this is setting I went back to making roads, actually parking lots. I can't pull all the masking off the tracks until the final piece of the puzzle is in; the road to the RR station. It means one more crossing that needs plastering and painting, and more Foam that needs transition back to the bare platform. Once that's done, I can get the trains running everywhere. It's also one of the less accessible spots on the layout which is why I've let it go so long.

 

To make edging for the parking lot I decided to make a planing area framed in 1/8" curbing. The curbing is basswood and the curved curb is cut from 1/8" aircraft ply. They're glued to the parking lot surface with Aleens. I then masked the parking lines. I ran out of my thin line 3m masking so I cut strips of Tamiya masking tape.

 

 

Parking Lot Edge 1

 

 

 

 

Parking Lot Edge 2

These curbed areas will be filled with some cardboard to bring the level up to just under the curb and then landscaped with some grass, foliage and trees.

 

Parking lots are huge! I was only able to 7 reasonable parking spaces. Our model cars are not 1:48, but are 1:43 and therefore are just a bit bigger than they should be, making parking spaces even larger. I first was going with 2.25" between lines, but parked cars couldn't open their doors. I ended up with 2.75". My wife cracked up... She said I'm building a model with a sea serpent in it and am worried about making an "accurate" parking lot. Unfortunately, she's right. And a 7 car train station parking lot isn't very realistic. No wonder railroads got out of the passenger business.Parking Lot mask

I then mixed up some acrylic gray paint and put a brush coat on the parking lot itself AND the road connecting to it. The road has a white line down the middle.

 

The color mix is black, white and some yellow to warm up the gray a bit.

 

Parking Lot Paint 1

 

After looking at the road with that curved notch removed I realize how little space there is for traffic. That curve seemed like a good idea at the time. I may fill that corner in during the plastering operation. 

 

These parts need further weathering and then gluing to the platform with the foam adhesive. The blank space to the right is where the station will lie when it's finished. The blank space to the left could be a spot for another building. I'm going to have to be careful on how much plaster I put there. Maybe I won't plaster it at all and keep it open for further real estate development. I know the zoning official...

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Images (10)
  • Cecil wo Water
  • Cecil w Water 02
  • Cecil w Water 01
  • Cecil w Water 03
  • Water Leakage 1
  • Water Leakage 2
  • Parking Lot mask
  • Parking Lot Edge 2
  • Parking Lot Edge 1
  • Parking Lot Paint 1
Last edited by Trainman2001

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