Worklist:
Gas holder
Trees and shrubs
Water tank path
Laurence was celebrating something, by having some surgery with a chain saw. We
hope to see him next week....
Stephen presented a tree he'd made using leftover power cable, copious amounts of solder, paint and plaster filler. It followed the Gordon Gravetts process and produced a decent trunk. However, the 'postiche' foliage material was proving elusive, so some fleece/wool sprayed black, had been used as a trial. In the workshop, flock sprinkled onto a coating of hair spray was applied.
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| Wire armature, wool and fine flock |
Geoff also had arboricultural leanings as he had purchased a box of Noch 'Sea Foam' - dried foliage - together with some leaf flock.
Again, hairspray and leaves were applied directly onto the 'raw' frameworks. The effect was coarser than Stephen's, but far more suitable for the 7mm layout. Against the newer trees, Stephen's looked more 4mm scale.
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| 'Sea Foam' structure and leaf mix. |
Stephen fell back to fitting the gas holder components. A hole in the baseboard and a bolt through the base held the gas holder firmly in place. The frame fixings adapted the previous week were assembled. The chain and counter weights were repaired and glued onto the frame. All was now firmly in place. The gasifier was repainted a shade darker and washers to represent a flanged joint with the flue sourced.
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| The hose and tap fitted last week. |
At the same time, Geoff was busy filling in areas around the workshop and gas holder with gorse/shrubbery. He'd bought some more foliage matting used elsewhere, but was surprised to find it wasn't the same. It transpired that Heki matting was used originally, but he'd bought Noch matting second time. Although almost identical in the packet, once stretched out, the Heki formed a much more realistic foliage texture. It will all get used on one layout or other, but sourcing some more Heki might be more difficult.
Experiments with the Sea Foam trees showed how important height is on the layout, which prompted Geoff to add some more trees along the trackside and up to the bridge. The latter, extending above the parapet was very nice effect.
Stephen's final task was to create a path from the side of the water tank around to where the ladder will be positioned to reach the tank access panel.
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| Another snap from last weeks work, weeds growing in the water seepage from the mine/retaining wall. |
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| Geoff and hair spray - who'd have thought it!!! |
