I've Been Working

 I was hoping to post more often but my real work has got in the way a bit on Sunday nights as I get ready for the week ahead.

There is not a lot to tell, but I have painted the trackwork in the industrial yard. This took a couple of days as my airbrush compressor was getting hot.

Then I decided to put some plaster down. The first step was to try and use casting plaster. This was not a very good attempt. I created a two litre plaster brick.

So... I went on the internet. I once used Pollyfilla to do the job. A trip to Bunnings and some similar stuff was bought and put in place. But... I started at the front. It didn't dry as quickly as I hoped and when I leant on it, it did not end well.

So... It came up again and I tried again with casting plaster. I had used it before and it wasn't a problem on the cutting. However, by now I was making a mess.

The above photo was last Sunday. On Friday afternoon, I hurried home to paint it. There were storms and I wanted to get it done 6pm. I put the buildings and stock in place after rubbing the track down. You can see the new mill with most of the windows in. This is another thing that I've been spending 15 minutes a day on. Up close, there were problems. Some of the plaster wasn't holding too well and was powdery. Some chunks were taken out as the paint was rubbed off on some areas.

A trip to Bunnings for some sanding blocks, and breaking out the multipurpose interior filler saw the whole area sanded back and patched. Another section was added to support a crane in the container sidings.

After watching Socal Scale Models on YouTube, I noticed that he mixed some matte white glue in with his paint. He also watered it down a bit too. The glue helped seal the plaster. I reckon I'll add a bit of Mod Podge when I paint next time, which hopefully will be Friday.

One thing that I need to do before then is ballast the incline behind the yard. I was ballasted a long time ago but I adjusted the incline and haven't put the ballast down again. I'm hoping to do this this week.

Another task was installing some phone holders around the layout. I use old out of date iPhones for throttles. They hold enough charge for a running session. However, some locos have assigned throttles such as 7002 with the Digitrax throttle, so operators need to put the phones somewhere. One thing that I have noticed with modern phones is that they don't like to use a network that is not fixed to the internet and they drop off from the digitrax wifi boxes. I'm sure there is some sore of fix.

That's all for this update. Until next time.