With the completion of the upper storage yard and reverse loop late in 2024, the Helix Move project seems to be finally at an end. With trains now running the full length of the line I returned to some proper modelling after the holiday season was over.
The next area to work on was to be the river scene, but as you will see this quickly turned into a scenic project covering from the river, past the distillery, and to the exit onto the lower helix, in effect, the remaining non scenic section of level 2, the lower scenic level.
My hills and mountains are made using foam insulation boards that you would put in your walls or ceilings. I picked up a job lot of offcuts from Gumtree a couple of years ago, bagged them up and kept them in the garage. These are cut to size and shape with a kitchen bread knife, or as someone nearby would say, the good breadknife! Once cut and laid out, I stick them in place with No More Nails, or the cheaper equivalent from Screwfix. I should say this is one of the messiest jobs there is, this stuff gets everywhere, several vacuum cleaner were filled, clogged, and emptied!
Once set, I cover the foam in plaster bandage before applying a layer of Sculptamold over the bandage. This is the first time I have used the proper Scultmold product and I must say it is excellent stuff. A couple of cups of material gives enough to cover a decent area and work it to the desired shapes before it starts to become stiff and unworkable.
At this stage I also made a supply of rock faces using my Woodland Scenics rock moulds and plaster of Paris. These are also stuck in place with the same glue. and Scultmold used to bed them in. As you can see in the below images, the bridge supports were cut down to size after the river bed was put in place, I made knew bases for them with Sculptamold before setting them in place.
As you will see from a few images below, I also built the hills round the corner towards the distillery.
While waiting for the Sculptmold to dry (it took the best part of a week during a cold January) I used Das Clay to repair some gaps I had on the Laggan Bridge station side of the layout. These gaps were the result of me hacking off the goods yard as part of project Helix Move. The Das Clay worked a treat. I gave it a couple of days to dry and applied ground cover and static grass. You would never know it had been there! You may also see a rather annoying shadow in the images below. This is due to my led lighting strips being mounted on a 1/2 inch length of wood, hence the 1/2 inch shadow. Another jobs on the list.
After the Scuptamold had dried I spent a Saturday afternoon painting over all the white scenery ready for further detailing. It’s starting to look better now.
The start of February is going to be busy so I don’t anticipate much modelling time will be available, still a good start to the year!
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