Martin Machine is turning out to be quite problematic with the castings. The base is on foam board to rise it up a smidgen which in hindsight was a bad idea as it is quite flexible. I copied the base plan and glued it on. It is right as I’ve checked the measurements, however, the castings just don’t quite fit… It shouldn’t be too much of a problem but they are all shorter than the plan. I wonder if plaster castings can shrink over time as the kit is 17 years old. The wood risers have also warped over time:
Anyway, I glued on the plaster pieces and filled the gaps as per instructions with a soupy plaster painted on with a brush and wiped it off with my finger. It works a treat and I’ll use it again in future.
You can see from this photo how warped the wood risers are. I hope it won’t be a problem at the end but time will tell… The black is because a small piece of the wall shows through. You have the choice of painting at the beginning or when the walls are up. Given that I knew I would be filling the joints, I decided to spray with Halfords’ grey primer after the walls were up. That way the gaps are sprayed too.
I painted the walls with what SRMW calls it heavy wash – A&I, one pint with 2 teaspoons of india ink in it. It’s quite heavy but colours the white paint that goes on top nicely. I then put on the rubber cement – I tried to put it on the edges of the boards only, where it would naturally be worn off by the weather. Sorry the photos a bit blurry but I had done the top corner only:
I painted the sides with the top liquid of the Floquil bottle – Reefer White – on top of the wood. I painted both sides to help prevent warping and then I’ll put them under bricks once the paint is dry. Last time I stuck them under too early and they stuck and left bits of brick all over them… not again:
I also spent a bit of time putting ripples and white water on the river. I put ripples on with acrylic gloss medium:
This is the river before ripples:
And after, they’re white because they are still drying but will be clear:
I kept the right hand pool above the falls quite smooth as a contrast to the more turbulent river upstream:
I added some white paint mixed with gloss medium too. I’ve since put an extra coat of Mod Podge on over the white to give it a bit more shine and depth:
Here’s a view up river:
Here’s a view of the rapids:
The next thing is to decide what kind of bridge to put in place for the railroad. I would like to do a plate girder but it would be too much of a rise for the track. I’m not sure what to do. A friend suggested an I beam so some research called for.