Exercise day and wanted to hear the Presidents speak at the memorial service in Dallas so I didn't get downstairs until 3:30. That being said, it wasn't a wasted day. Cut and glued in some more cardboard strips as I was working down the right side. I also needed to build some support on the existing platform to support my weight as I need to access other parts of the mountain. It is surprising how the woven structure begins to firm up sufficiently to support all the plastered towels which will follow. That little cardboard wall in the foreground is just another form of support for the strips. I'm going to add some more of these as I move across that broad, shallow area at the lower levels.
The towels will not hide the cardboard weave pattern. They will just build the overall shell. It will be up to Sculptamold and rock casting to finish out the topography in a more realistic manner. I may have to use paint brushes taped to a pole to paint this beast once all the plastering is done.
In the next pic, you can see a piece of OSB that just fit nicely between the mid-wall former and the two new 1 X 2" vertical supports I added today to give more support to the overhanging (and floppy) horizontal cardboard former. With this piece of OSB I will be able to kneel or sit on that portion of the layout without worrying about anything. I will also use this support of the left side when I start working on that.
Sitting under the OSB is a piece of cardboard to protect the existing track that it's all sitting on. I find that if you spread the load, Ross track can take some loading without damage. Tomorrow will be a longer work session and I will hope to get the right side stripped and start on the left. Depending mostly on cardboard, I don't think I'm over-engineering this.
