A new scenic interest opportunity spotted

A step by step tutorial of my methods.

I need to get the corner to the right of Cuspidor town as finished as I can to be able to move back to the opposite end and start working there.  However when looking at the rockwork, I felt that a small platform on the cliffside could be put to better use than just sticking trees on it as originally planned. There is an abandoned mine adit just above and right of the City Hall and I thought another part of this derelict mine working could be a fun project, especially if I could make the dilapidation convincing.

So Here's what I did.

First I carved the rock shelf level with a chisel. Then after measuring the tiny site I drew up a rough scale sketch of what came to mind.

The Site, room for an ore bin at the bottom

The Plan and the wood for the base

Starting distressing the wood

Drill a hole, enlarge it  and thin wood from behind with a grinder

Break up sides of hole

Grind visible side down to board thickness

Scratch with Xacto and make various cuts and holes

Light wash of alcohol and stain followed by heavier washes

Light sand to bring up relief

10"x10" scale Kappler lumber was distressed by running a razor saw blade along all sides, then defuzzing with sandpaper.  A coat of Creosote coloured Alcohol and aniline dye was followed by a grey/black wash of the same.

Then wood wiped with white acrylic straight from the tube

Next I assembled the frame for the adit entrance and rock gallery straight onto the base.  Cut and fit trial and error.

TBC

Summer's over back to the railroad..

Here's a little coaling stage I'm building for my depot.  The sides are from an old MDC plastic gondola kit. The deck is wood siding. I  will have to work out a crane system for the buckets which are made from the ferrule from a paint brush and some thin wire.

MDC gondola sides

Removing ejector stud marks with an xacto and sandpaper stick.

Distressed

Glued together

Glued together

Floor in

Broken board

Dirtied

Dirtied

Buckets finished

Finished

The crane was made from plastic odds and ends with four white metal cable sheaves glued in pairs.  A length of sisal fibre coated in superglue and held to shape whilst drying formed the cable and the hook is a bit of bent wire pushed into a bit of thin wire insulation.  Easy peasy.

Hill Street nearly finished

Yippee! Texture on the roads done, just needs weathering.  One more structure to build so I created an empty lot for it that I can live with for a while.

Finishing the upper side of Hill Street, the last building really failed to grab me. It was a much mangled Downtown Deco plaster kit. Nothing wrong with these kits at all, the walls are mini masterpieces and deserving of decent treatment.  I just didn't seem to be able to "get" the plaster medium and tended to be a bit hamfisted with it. It won't be my last DD kit as I hope I've made all the mistakes there are on this one and Randy has some great designs. Sadly though it was destined to be scrapped, but then I thought "With little to lose but pride, why not really scrap it?". Here is the result and I think it will be a showstopper for visitors.  Never lose hope eh?  Named for a great mate, Dave Bowles, a seriously mean guitar player.

Trying old structures out for suitable locations.

I have an old, scratchbuilt garage and a collapsed WS Tucker Bros welding that look just right in this slot in front of the boilerworks.  The boilerworks diourama needs refreshing and the WS building needs a full rebuild. Should be fun.

Magnuson Merchant's Row 1 kitbash.

I needed a bunch of store buildings fast to fill up Hill Street and got this kit at a reasonable price in the UK.

A one hour scrapbox project

Colour for a corner