Moving the Dunlop Tower
With
the size of the Tower and it spanning the track it made it almost impossible for
me to see entering or exiting the turns on the far end of my layout so I decided
to move it.
I figured moving it to the middle of the straight-aways wouldn't block the vision of either driver. I have a driver at each end of my track. Now, I need to build something for it to sit on.
I went out and bought some Evergreen styrene pieces and made a platform.
I
haven't decided what colors I'm going to paint it yet but I think the platform
itself is going to be "astroturf" and I'm going to put "Picnic"
tables from my RVs on it for people to sit at
I
ordered a 1/32 scale stairway from Tower Hobbies.
I
decided it was time to fill in the hole on the far end while I was motivated and
laid the Plaster Cloth down. I put down the 1st piece and while it was still wet
pushed the 1st 2 retaining wall sections onto it.
When it dries it'll be ready for me to put the green on it then the white glue and then I'll sprinkle, ok, toss, on the "Turf". I'll use a couple close shades of green and make a couple small patches of "Burnt Grass". I'll probably add a few small rocks that I cast years ago surrounded by some "soil" on the flat part..
Tuesday:
I figure I'll finish this part today.
I put the Green Undercoat on..
Next
was brushing on a liberal amount of white glue. I squeeze out enough glue to do
about 8" at a time and brush it out leaving it thick so it doesn't start
to dry before I'm done. I stop "throwing" and "sprinkling"
the "turf" on about 1" from the end of the glue so I don't get
it in the brush as I continue with the overlap. I say throwing it on because you
can't "sprinkle" on a verticle wall. This leaves big piles of "unstuck"
turf at the base of the work, but I'll recover that after it dries.
Here's
the pile of excess turf I swept together with my small brush. I just throw it
back in another bag.
I
take my cordless vac and get all the rest up and spray it all down with a diluted
mix of white glue and water to seal it. I soak it pretty well. Don't need "Turf"
getting into my cars and it dries clear anyway. While it's wet, I put a few patches
of "Burnt grass" on it and sprayed over it too. It'll show after it
dries.
Wednesday: After a day of watching the congressional
hearing I went down and finished doing the part between the tracks on the far
end. I was just going to use the Woodland Scenics Grass Mat but for the small
area that was left I decided I'd keep it the same. Then I put the track back together.
I
painted the Tower Platform and railing. Stairway should be here Friday.
The
stairs came and I cut them down to fit. The piece was 15" long. I can get
at least 2 more sets this long out of it. I also repainted the railing on top
black and put some patio tables and chairs on the platform for spectators. I'll
paint those too. They aren't very visible white.
I
made some railings to put across the top of walkway on the tower and bought some
for all the stairs
