Paint shop update

Just a quick update from the paint shop. The bridge parts got their first layers. The stone work was primed with Tamiya grey primer. The steel girder bridge received so far two coats of various Revell and Humbrol colours (dark green, white, bronze green, ...). To be continued.

Overview of the bridge location. Looking at the Ikea Billy holes, I realise that I really need to do something about the fascia and background soon.

Really happy with the bridge colour so far. More layers and weathering to come.

One of the prototype images that I use as example for my own bridge colour scheme.

Bridge construction

The siding of the Kiesgrube Klieben line is spanned by a standard gauge railway bridge. I have started construction by adapting an Auhagen kit (No. 11441). I lowered it substantially and adapted it to fit into the dedicated space on the micro-layout. In a next step, the bridge will get a new colour scheme. The plate girder parts will get a green coat and the stone buttresses will get a more realistic stone finish. And of course an embankment needs to be built. The open front part will ultimately be covered by the fascia.

A new Gmeinder for the Kiesgrube Klieben

 A delivery from Minitrains brought a new, red Gmeinder (Art. No. 5012) and a variety of cars to support the operations to my Kiesgrube Klieben.

Narrow gauge ballasting

 I continued with working on the tracks of the narrow gauge micro layout. With the sleepers and rails painted, ballasting was the next job on the list. I opted for a light coloured mix of different Woodland Scenics ballast, namely 873 Fine Buff (biggest content), 874 Fine Light Grey and 875 Fine Grey. For the first time I used Woodland Scenics "Scenic Cement" to glue the ballast down. I must say it worked really well. It is of course more expensive than the traditional method using wood glue, water and a drop of washing up liquid, but it is very efficient.

I left some ballast on the sleepers in some spots that I normally would have carefully brushed away. This to reflect a  little less maintained track bed. Finally, I greened the roadbed up with materials from various suppliers. Once everything was dry I removed any ballast on spots where it should not sit. In this process often the rust paint also comes off, leaving annoying, shiny silvery spots. I touched up these spots with Humbrol 113. On a next layout I might do the painting of the rails with Humbrol 113 only after everything is ballasted. With the current method I seem to have to do the painting twice.. I am curious if that would be a more time saving approach.

I will still go over everything with another round of weathering, but so far I am really pleased with the effect.

"Catching-up" on the newly ballasted narrow gauge line.

The ballast is mixed. Let's start the fun..

First stage completed. Now the detail work starts with removing ballast in the wrong spots, filling up "holes", adding plants, re-painting spots, ...

Letting it dry. The shiny appearance will disappear once the Scenic Cement is dry.

Some more images of the finished job:

Feldbahn track works

Track works continued on the narrow gauge Feldbahn micro-layout following a 3-step process:

1) Painting the sleepers in a mixture of Humbrol 98 Chocolate Brown and 33 Black to get rid of the shiny, plastic appearance;

2) Dry-brushing Humbrol  34 White over the sleepers to create more depth and a weathered appearance;

3) Painting the rails in Humbrol 113 rust brown.

Next stop: ballasting.

The Peco tracks after step 1.

After step 2 with the tracks dry-brushed

Drybrushed Peco tracks.

The first test run after step 3, the painting of the rails with Humbrol 113.