One of my recent projects was to start building the next module for my home model railroad, named the Get Out n Push railroad (GOP).  This module will start with a semi industrial area on the right, where it joins with my previous section.  In the middle I will be building a mill pond and mill, and on the left will be a logging scene above with a trestle lower down.

This picture shows the early L girder construction, over which I have laid cardboard to cut templates.  I used flex track to lay out my plan on the cardboard and then used them to transfer onto 1/4″ plywood for the sub-roadbed.

Here are the first sections of the plywood after being cut out.  The major difference between this table and the previous is that most of the other table was in plywood, creating a flat surface for my city.  On this one I want it to progress from city to the deep woods so I needed more flexibility for terrain.

The next step is to cut and install the elevation risers to bring the sub-roadbed to the correct grade.

The L-girder construction is very easy, relatively cheap, and very strong.  As you can see above I modified the basic design to create the odd shaped L table I needed.

Learning from my previous experience, I waited several days for the molding material to cure before removing the parts and the containers.  I learned another valuable lesson with these molds.  If you look at the mold on the left you see that it is very thick (to account for the thickness of the middle part).  I decided to mold some barrels made from previous casts, as you can never have too many.  The only problem was that it was very difficult to remove the parts.  The thickness of the mold should only be a little bit more than 1/4″ thicker than the tallest part.  Otherwise, the mold won’t have enough flexibility to assist in removing the parts.

One of the items I received from my wife for Christmas was this Downtown Deco kit, the Trackside Tavern.  It is a hydrocal kit, which allows for an incredible amount of detail to be molded into the walls.  I used white glue to fasten the pieces together, this worked well but was very slow.  I think for the next kit I will try epoxy cement.  I had to use the weight from the pliers to assist in keeping the walls straight while the glue cured.

After my decent success with the smaller molds I decided to try making casts of larger parts.  I created the containers for the molds using sheet styrene.  I scored and snapped the pieces into strips, and then hot-glued them into place.  After gluing the part to the bottom of the container I used BB’s to estimate the amount of material needed (rice would probably be more accurate but I made use of what was available).

I mixed the molding material according to the directions and poured it into the containers after I had sprayed them liberally with mold release.  Based on what I have learned from previous attempts I made the pour and then left them undisturbed for about 5 days.  The overall results were favorable so I will be letting them cure for up to a week before removing the molds from the container.

As you can see in the picture, I have added quite a few trees on the hill and in the tow yard.  I built most of them using various Woodland Scenics products.  I still need to add underbrush (maybe should have done that first, not sure) and a sprinkling of ground foam to some of the trees.

All that I can say is that it takes a lot of trees to cover a small hill.  I found that I like the fine leaf foliage product for the best realism (the olive green trees lower on the hill).  The ones here are just large pieces that I picked out and glued into place.  I realize now that I probably should have went for a darker color, though I should be able to fix it with ground foam.

I decided to try my hand at casting parts.  After talking with the staff at the local TAP Plastics I decided that urethane molds were the best choice for my desired results (I was also considering silicone, but this looked a little bit easier).  I followed the directions in creating the mold, making sure to use plenty of spray release on the original parts.

Here is a picture showing my first attempt at casting parts.  Note how only a part of the closer cast is white – this picture was taken right as it started to change.

I ended up doing two practice pours so far.  As you can see the results were slightly better on the right hand part.  Also in this picture you can see that I cut the mold in half; the mold sitting on the edge of the cork board apparently did not get enough mold release before I poured – causing major “stickage”.  I think that for the next molds I make I will only cast one part at a time.  The different masses of material needed in the parts caused wildly different curing times between each of the parts.

This technique was rather fun, though fairly expensive.  The level of details that you can get in the parts is amazing, though it takes a little practice to get it right.  If you ever decide to give it a try make sure to start on a relatively easy part until you get the hang of it.