Designing a shadowbox diorama

[Hauk]

Thanks for all the encouragement!

[finescalerr]

See? That took hardly any work at all! -- ssuR

[Barney]

Grone - spit & a cough - but it looks great !!
Barney

[Chuck Doan]

Wow!

[Design-HSB]

Congratulations Hauk,

very delicate work.
Thank you for showing.

[Hauk]

And again it has been more than 120 days since an update...
But I am puttering away on my little creation. An awful lot of time was spent figuring out the guardrails for the track in the floor. Finally I figured out that the rails had angles on the outside.  Between the layers the floor was lower. I think this was done to make it possible to cover the track and the maintenance pit entirely when the track was not in use.

So I ended up making track with brass ties on the outside. The ties will also support the boards running on the outside of the maintenance pit. It looks strange but it will all be covered up, of course.





The plan is to cast the floor in plaster, and to keep it from coming loose from the rather smooth Forex subfloor I have stapled done some "rebars". This might be a bad Idea, as it struck me that the staples might rust and bleed through the plaster. Have to do a test pour, I think.



A little test to se how the elements will fit together:



Thanks for looking!

[finescalerr]

WOW! -- Russ

[Hydrostat]

Hauk,

this is some beautiful fabrication! I don't think there's going to be a problem with the plaster rebars. I used plaster on rigid foam for the street segments of Quiet Earth and never had any problems. But you're right, iron does rust immediately and bleed within plaster, but you can color it afterwards. Howsoever for different reasons I don't use plaster for this purpose anymore, first of all because every tiny scratch is going to leave a miscolored white line. Meanwhile I'm using 'Molto Holz Feinspachtel', mixed with pigments, stone dust and water to some kneadable consistency. It gives a very fine surface, and if kept moistured you have a lot of time to treat the surface. Once dry it is maby times tougher than plaster.  

Cheers,
Volker

[Hauk]

Hauk,

this is some beautiful fabrication! I don't think there's going to be a problem with the plaster rebars. I used plaster on rigid foam for the street segments of Quiet Earth and never had any problems. But you're right, iron does rust immediately and bleed within plaster, but you can color it afterwards. Howsoever for different reasons I don't use plaster for this purpose anymore, first of all because every tiny scratch is going to leave a miscolored white line. Meanwhile I'm using 'Molto Holz Feinspachtel', mixed with pigments, stone dust and water to some kneadable consistency. It gives a very fine surface, and if kept moistured you have a lot of time to treat the surface. Once dry it is maby times tougher than plaster.  

Cheers,
Volker

Thanks for the input! So you think I dont need the staples if I use plaster on the Forex? I was concerned that it might come loose if the diorama is banged around a bit in transport. But that should be avoided for a lot of reasons! The "Feinspackel" could probably be a good alternative. I have used something similar for some other projects, and it looked quite convincing. Tests have to be made...

[1-32]

Hauk.
It always great to see your work it is so fine and well thought out.
cheers

[Bill Gill]

Hauk, I haven't used plaster for any of the groundcover on my layout. I used various mixes of Sculptamold, precolored with craft paints and/or universal paint tinting pigments and mixed with yellow PVA glue or acrylic matte medium along with some water. I applied it on top of extruded blue Styrofoam insulation.  Where the foam had been contoured with a rasp or serated knife, the mix was spread on it as is. Where the mix was spread on top of the smooth factory finish of the foam, then before spreading it I poked lots of shallow holes all over the foam with a bamboo skewer and firmly worked the mix into the holes as it was spread over the surface.

In most cases the Sculptamold layers were less than 0.125 in (0.3175 cm) thick and in many they were less than 0.0625 in thick. That basic ground cover has been covered all the foam on my layout for over 20 years and has not delaminated anywhere.

However, in a few places where the Sculptamold mix filled the area between the rails of track on a few sidings. The track had been held in place with small steel nails. the nails rusted and bled through the thin Sculptaold layer, leaving a small round rusty mark that bled through even when the area was painted over with waterbased paints several times.

I experimented with covering the area with a shellac based primer (Kilz)which prevented the rust from continuing to bleed through, but that gave the Sculptamold a different surface finish and texture that was difficult to try to blend into the surrounding scenery.

[Chuck Doan]

Nice to see your progress!

[Hydrostat]

So you think I dont need the staples if I use plaster on the Forex? I was concerned that it might come loose if the diorama is banged around a bit in transport. But that should be avoided for a lot of reasons! The "Feinspackel" could probably be a good alternative. I have used something similar for some other projects, and it looked quite convincing. Tests have to be made...

I don't know - for sure you may use a plastic primer at the forex to improve adhesion, or simply sand it with some coarse grid paper. Your stapler pins seem to be zinced, so I wouldn't expect a problem with bleeding there? Feinspachtel is this one: https://www.bauhaus.info/spachtelmassen/molto-holzspachtel-holz-fein-spachtel/p/15171343. Don't know, if it is available in Norway. It's a compound of vinylacetatcopolymerdispersion, calcite, talcum, water and so on.

Cheers,
Volker

[Hauk]

Appreciate all the feedback and encouragement!

I probably should prime the track spikes as well. As I any case need to paint the maintenance pit grey, I can use a grey primer on the entire floor, spikes, staples and brass ties included.

But I will experiment with alternatives to plaster, even as I still are quite happy with my testsamples made following a recipe by Marc Reusser in an old Modellers Annual. Its been posted and discussed before in this thread, I just added it to avoid a post without an image...

[1-32]

Hi Hauk.
I am trouble viewing your photo maybe it is my end I was also having trouble with Frithjof but that is fixed now.
cheers