Glad to be of service. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Since we weren't going to the place we're going to for TG dinner, I did get some layout time and got the paving and ground cover done. Sometimes you get really productive. Today was one of those days.
I mixed another batch of paving color much lighter than the first and covered all the paved areas with it. I then pulled the masking tape and did some very minor touch up. It worked well. Funny thing though... When I revised the parking space design, I have the spaces going down a slight slope where the Masonite plate tapered down to the main base. From above the lines look parallel, but from across the room, they look completely whacked. Oh well.
I'm going to weather all this asphalt and add some cracks filled with pitch, oil spots, etc. Still have some pavement to add to the front door, and some vegetation at the building front to separate it from the parking lot... I think.
It was time to put ground cover on this new work. After putting a second coat of earth brown on the triangular space on the right I added various W-S grasses and "dirt" to fill up the space. I'm not concerned about this vacant lot since it's going to be repurposed at some point.
For the refinery proper, I dreaded having to paint the entire base with latex paint to hold the ground cover so I tried an experiment in the right corner to see if just using scenic cement and the gray fine ballast would be sufficient to hide the base and do the job. Putting on the cement was much easier than painting since it dries clear so if I got any on the apparatus bases it would be invisible when dry.
The experiment worked so I was able to quickly do the entire surface. I diluted the thick scenic cement with some of the thinner stuff so it would cover easier and faster. I haven't added any further liquid cement to the coverage. I'll wait until it dries and may go back and add some wet water and liquid scenic cement to further fasten everything in place if needed. Since nobody or nothing is going to mess around back there, if some gravel is not attached it really shouldn't cause a problem.
What was truly miraculous was I didn't break anything. I was amazed that I got the brush with the glue into and around all the stuff without knocking anything. I did lightly bump my elbow into the flare tower, but I caught myself and was more careful going forward. The parking lot still has a lot of sheen so I'm going to shoot it with some Dull Coat to flatten it out. I may do this after weathering.
Makes a big difference with the surface uniform and not all marked up like it's been. Now I have no reason at all to procrastinate finishing up that chain link fence which has been patiently waiting to have bridal veil attached and painted. The fence will install right at the margin between the gravel and dirt.
I finished this post after having the TG celebration so I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I know ours was very good.
