9. December 2020 HO Mountain Spur, Tunnel and Cutting commenced

To try and hide a steel support post I am trying to reduce its visual impact by constructing a mountain spur around it.

I have named it Column Mountain.

Post from front

Post from side

Mountain concept front on

Mountain concept from side

I have started to construct the mountain using polystyrene foam to form the outline.

The polystyrene will be covered by a thin material over which will be spread a render made from acrylic gap filler coloured with artist acrylic paint and mixed with fine sand.

The mountain will extend from the backdrop to in front of the loop rail.

Mountain from Left Hand Side

Mountain from Right Hand Side showing cutting in front

Mountain from Front

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8. December 2020 HO Loop is Complete and DCC Bus and Controller Installed

Work has recommenced on the HO layout after a break of almost a year as work on the G Division ( Ringbalin Light Railway G Division: About the Railway (ringbalin-light-railway.blogspot.com) ) took precedent.

The daytime temperature outside makes working on the G Division difficult so the HO division has now become the focus of attention.

The main loop was completed and tested using a toy train DC controller with trains being successfully run.

All that is now required is the decoders for the locos.

LH end of Loop

RH end of Loop

Middle of Loop

The  Capacitive Discharge Unit (CDU) used to change points remotely ( Ringbalin Light Railway HO Division: Point Control ) and an Auxiliary 12V Power Supply for accessories were mounted under the layout.

CDU in Centre, Power Supply to the Left

The next step was  to install the DCC Bus, Interface and Controller.

DCC Controller and Interface

The DCC Controller is an NCE "Power Cab" and it replaces a Toy Train DC controller used for initial wiring testing.

NCE Power Cab

DCC Interface Rear View

Toy Train DC Controller

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7. January 2020 HO Backdrop (Acrylic Rendered Cutting)

Because I did not have any clearance behind the line as it ran down the side wall of the shed, I could not use the "soft rock" method to give the cutting any detail.

To overcome this I used a render of acrylic gap filler and fine sand to give some texture. 

I then dry brushed some acrylic artists paint so that I could get some sort of detail onto the cutting backdrop .

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6. January 2020 HO Backdrop (Background Hills and Mountains)

I painted some background mountains behind the cutting and then painted some mid ground hills with "dabbed on" trees in front of them to give some impression of depth.  The mid ground hills were a continuation of the hills painted to blend in the Corner Mountain.

To reduce the visual impact of the steel support post I am considering building a mountain spur the will run towards the foreground which will necessitate either a tunnel or a deep cutting across the back and in front where the loop is planned to run. These sketches show an idea I am considering.

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5. January 2020 HO Backdrop (Soft Rock Cutting)

I made a cutting face using the "Soft Rock" method, to which I added some foliage to define the upper level and "boulders" made from polystyrene foam to blend it into the baseboard..
It extends from the extreme left of the layout (across the back wall of the shed) to the extreme end of the Corner Mountain.
I could not extend it to the extreme right end of the layout from the Corner Mountain (across the side wall) due to clearance issues so resorted to a "rendered cutting" for that area.

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4. January 2020 HO Backdrop (Corner Mountain)

To fill in a corner I constructed a mountain from polystyrene foam boards which I then coated with an acrylic "render" made from Gap Filler mixed with fine sand and acrylic house paint.  

This was then dry brushed with acrylic artists paints, some foliage foam for trees to give some detail was used to define the skyline and to highlight the foreground "soft rock" cutting detail.

On either side I painted slopes that had "dabbed on" trees to soften the stark edges and to blend it in with the middle ground hills.

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3. January 2020 HO Background Painting and Mountain Construction

A mountain outline was painted on the lower part of the backdrop and in a corner a “mountain” was constructed out of polystyrene foam board
This is still a "Work In Progress", over the polystyrene a mixture of house paint tinted grey and fine dry sand (as used to make bricklayers render) will smeared on to give a hard shell with a rough texture and more detail will be added like carving the polystyrene to give some detail plus a rock cutting across the front of the mountain scenes.

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