Canyon progress

Progress on the Thompson River Canyon has been steady this week. Last Sunday I only had a couple of blocks of polystyrene, but over the last few evenings I've fleshed this out into many layers of sculpted polystyrene, and added some tracks.

Working closely from reference photos of the area, I used a saw and craft knife to roughly shape the foam, then a SurForm tool to grind off the rough edges. Then I worked the foam with a knife, breaking off chunks to form rock faces. I used the saw blade to scrape over the surface and add more texture. By the end of the second night I had this:

The last couple of days I have been fillin in the joins between layers with some lightweight spackling compound (Red Devil brand). I have no idea what spackle is, or what it is made from, but it is extremely lightweight and pretty easy to form.

Yesterday I cut out all the fascia wood from 3mm MDF, which I can get for $8 per massive sheet here. It's very easy to work with. Tonight I spent some quality time with the jigsaw and a tube of Gorilla Glue to attach each of the eight fascia panels. I had a bit of help in the process:

As each piece was drying I went over with the spackle and filled in the gaps between the foam and edging. Although slow and frustrating work when I just want to get on and start making rocks, it is far easier to get the fascia in place now before the scenery.

While attaching the final piece of the fascia I realised I hadn't seen the kitten for a while. Sure enough he had curled up and gone to sleep under the railway! He was quite happy there and in no rush to emerge, but when he did it looked like he'd been in a blizzard. We gave him a good brushing down afterwards.

And here is the final result:

Long weekend, so I look forward to adding all the rocks and gravel.