River on the mend

 Part 1 Redone Gloss medium ripples, finer ripples to be added when fully set. Then I'll get hold of some water effects to finish off.

Ooops! River fun continued - a setback

My experiment using PVA glue for ripples has turned into a complete disaster. At a pinch if I'd left it alone it would have been reasonably OK. However I wanted a bit more shine so tried a coat of Future acrylic polish/varnish. This sent the PVA opaque and made it brittle. The one good thing is that the PVA came off without damaging the Magic Water.  I'll get hold of some decent water effect gloop and do it properly.  Still if you don't experiment you don't move forward.

Just for a change a seasonal view from my workbench.

The fodder sweetcorn has been harvested from the field and the farmer's winter wheat is springing up as the leaves colour and get blown away.

Revamping the Atlas signal tower.

I bought an upgrade laser kit from Vector Cut in the States and here is the build log.  The kit is superbly detailed but incredibly delicate. We'll see what my ham fists can do with it..

The Roof

I started with the roof. I used Green Zap CA as recommended but it was not easy to keep the trim veneer lined up.  PVA warps the thin trim like mad so avoid it.  I'd swap to a contact adhesive or something really grabby for the roof.  The ridge trim didn't want to lie flat even with the plastic ridges shaved off. I filled some gaps with Plasticene and re-sprayed. I'm not that happy with the roof as it is, not sure if it's due to my ham-fistedness or a design/material issue with the ridge trim.  Frankly I wish I had left the roof as it was.

The Windows

Once you've figured out the window muntin/frame assembly it's relatively easy to put together, although I would suggest you build an assembly jig (see post above). 

Lovely, scale muntins and the layers mean you can paint the frames in contrasting colours very easily should you wish. I sprayed my windows white with a rattle can and when dry laid the rear frame flat. I smeared a very thin, even coat of PVA onto my steel worktop and dropped the next frame onto it right side up then picked it up and glued it to the first. Rinse and repeat as necessary.....to be continued.

Atlas Kit deconstructed 1

Atlas Kit deconstructed plus Lemsip for cold Bah!

Vector Cut kit

Roof with shaved ridges, not necessary but makes sense.

Shingles on

Bending ridge trim - careful!

Trim on

Grey primer coat

Gaps! Not sure if this is a design issue or due to my ham-fisted work.

Ripples getting there

I'm pretty pleased with the ripples so far but will go over again.  What it needs is a thicker or less viscous PVA than the usual craft/woodworking stuff so it holds up higher before setting or maybe I'll wait for the unusually high October temperatures to subside, let my loft get cold and that will do the trick.

Looking better - almost there

Finalising river water surface

On Harry Brunk's famed UC&N his rivers looked decidedly wrong to me with their green/blue colouring.  I should have trusted the eye of the artist.  When we got to Colorado and stood at the side of the Animas river, there it was coloured with copper oxides.  I wanted to feature this colouring while keeping the rock bottom of the river just visible.  Several coats of Magic Water were poured over the river base with some brown stain added to the last layer in places where the water runs deep.

I had put in a coat of straight brushed gloss medium along the river to represent flow then covered it with Future polish/varnish etc for shine but this didn't look right. So I brushed over some neat PVA white glue and stippled it with a 1/2" wide brush from bank to bank on a test patch.  This was more like it so I went ahead and treated the whole river surface. I may need to gloss it up a bit when finished but time will tell once it's dried.

Original straight brush strokes

Test ripples

Top river with PVA coat

Pool before PVA coat

Pool with PVA coat

Details - evolution of an old white metal toy van body

Building the beast
 As a standalone model
On the layout

An old toy van body recycled