MiniArt railway crossing

[Scratchbuilder]

Now that was easy... Good idea Jakko.

[Guest]

I’ve started adding wall filler to add some texture to the verges, but when it’s wet it doesn’t stick much at all to the smooth card of the foam board, even after I cut a crosshatch pattern in it with my knife. It being 30° in my hobby room (and 28+ outside) also doesn’t encourage me to finish this job just now

[Tim Marlow]

I’ve started adding wall filler to add some texture to the verges, but when it’s wet it doesn’t stick much at all to the smooth card of the foam board, even after I cut a crosshatch pattern in it with my knife. It being 30° in my hobby room (and 28+ outside) also doesn’t encourage me to finish this job just now :sad:

Paint it with PVA first Jakko. It’s what plasterers do when they need better adhesion to the walls…..

[Guest]

Good idea, thanks Leave the PVA to dry first, or apply the filler while it’s still wet?

[Andy T]

Good idea, thanks :smiling3: Leave the PVA to dry first, or apply the filler while it’s still wet?

I've used pva with a sprinkle of fine sand in the past to give a grippy surface for filler.

I prefer to let it dry quite well just in case it causes cracking of the filler later when the pva dries and shrinks, but I've seen others go straight over as soon as its tacky (which won't take long in the heat you're working in!)

[Tim Marlow]

Good idea, thanks :smiling3: Leave the PVA to dry first, or apply the filler while it’s still wet?

Let it dry I think…..the moisture in the filler should reactivate it enough to generate the bond. If you are making the filler from powder it’s worth mixing some PVA in anyway. Improves the resistance to chipping and strengthens the bond to the substrate.

[Guest]

I've used pva with a sprinkle of fine sand in the past to give a grippy surface for filler.

Oh, that’s a good idea too, I think I’ll try that for the next section (three more to go!).

in the heat you're working in!

I kind of doubt I will be doing much work on that diorama today, given both the heat and that I feel like I barely slept last night for the same reason

If you are making the filler from powder it’s worth mixing some PVA in anyway.

I’m using pre-mixed filler from a tube, so this trick is going to be a bit difficult It does seem to be stronger already than the types you need to mix yourself that I’ve used in the past at various points, though.

[Gern]

Nice fix on that height issue. Coming along very nicely now.

[Guest]

With the heat finally over, my attic modelling room was habitable again today (after leaving the window open for a few hours beforehand). I wanted to try both Tim’s and Andy’s recommendations, so last week I had put PVA glue on two of the still unlandscaped areas and sprinkled sand over one of the two:

[ATTACH]490491[/ATTACH][ATTACH]490492[/ATTACH]

We had an official heatwave around here at the time, the first one ever in September since records began, so I very quickly decided to leave it at that until today. After applying the filler to both sides:

[ATTACH]490493[/ATTACH]

Unfortunately, it doesn’t feel like it made much of a difference, though it was definitely worth a try. The real problem, I think, was that the filler was a bit old and starting to get dried out. After doing part of one side, I went and got a cup of water, and just by dipping the ice lolly stick I was using to spread the filler around into it, I could get it to stick better than straight from the tube. In the end there was not enough in the tube to do all three remaining bits (I had to cut open the tube to get enough out for these two areas), so I’ll buy a new tube and see if that sticks better

[Jim R]

This is proving to be quite a learning curve Jakko. Your original plan seemed so straightforward. Looks as if you're getting there now.

[Guest]

I used to buil plenty of dioramas 20–30 years ago, but lack of room for them has left me long out of practice

[Guest]

Bought a new tube of filler today, a slightly different type but the same brand. It suffered the same problem: it sticks poorly to the card but well to the ice lolly stick. But again, a little water on said stick solved that well enough, so I now have all four corners landscaped:

[ATTACH]490527[/ATTACH]

That done, I could fit the rails:

[ATTACH]490528[/ATTACH]

The set gives you four rails, but you only need about one and half each side. You get fishplates to connect one side, while the other is meant to splice onto a second section of rail. I wanted the fishplates visible, so I cut a short piece off one rail and attached it to the next with those plates, then added the remaining section to the other side and cut it to length. That done with two, I glued them to the sleepers and added the little retaining plates-with-bolts on the inside. All of those only on the three sleepers where they will be visible, as you can see in the photo above.

With the rails in, I could fit the actual crossing:

[ATTACH]490529[/ATTACH]

Once those were in, but after taking this picture, I used a little more filler to close the gaps between the beams and the paving. Now I need to wait for it all to dry so I can start painting.

[Tim Marlow]

Could be the card facing was a little water repellent in nature. Looks like you’ve sorted it now though…..

[Jim R]

Glad that's worked.

[Scratchbuilder]

Good idea, thanks :smiling3: Leave the PVA to dry first, or apply the filler while it’s still wet?

Dry, if used wet you will have a bigger mess...