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Solar panels and stairs

More news from Mt Adams...

It's been a quiet couple of weeks on the railway. We've had visitors staying, the change in seasons has bought new chores around the garden, various tasks around the house have needed doing, etc. So poor old railway has been on the back-burner a little recently, however I've still ticked off a few things.

House

My first house is almost complete. I've added some solar panels to the roof, as Utrainia is a very forward country keen to maximise renewable energy production. Significant subsidies and tax breaks make it a no-brainer for new houses to set up great swathes of panes on their roofs. I still remember being stunned by the extent of solar power when I traveled through Greece, both for hot water and generating electricity. Compare this with my hometown of Christchurch, where new subdivisions now have covenants prohibiting visible solar panels from the road!!! I still can't believe that...

DIY Sculptamold

A bit of a quiet week this week, not so much to report. So instead I thought I'd share my recipe for DIY Sculptamold. This is a lumpy, lightweight paper and paster based material that holds its shape well. It is great for building up terrain, or filling in gaps around scenery.

You can buy a commercial product called Sculptamold, which is really quite excellent. Only it is quite hard to get ahold of here, I have only ever seen it on the shelves in a retail store once. So when my supply ran out, I decided to make my own.

Ingredients Toilet paper Paster of paris Glue (optional) Technique Grab some toilet paper and stick it in a mixing container. Add water and it will immediately start to break down into stringy paper pulp. Mix it up a bit. You want a small fistful.

Scenery and buildings for Mt Adams

Another Sunday, another Mt Adams update...

More excellent progress this week, helped along by some good rainy weekend weather.

Platforms

I wasn't especially happy with my platforms as they stood last week. However today I masked off the flagstones and used my trusty foam roller and some Resent "Half Gravel" paint to add some asphalt colour to them. The foam roller gives a nice fine texture, and by adding a little of the concrete colour to the roller, I can create nicely varied tones.

I then dug out my Woodland Scenics yellow roadway marking pen and used it to add in the yellow safety line around the edge of the platform. I discovered very quickly that a ruler is essential! Although if your platforms are curved like mine...

48 hours later

What a difference 48 hours can make at Mt Adams...

Chomping at the bit, I pulled out the craft knife Monday night and attacked the expanding foam with gusto. Then I mixed up all my remaining Sculptamold and trowled it over the polystyrene, filling in all the gaps and making a nice smooth surface for the next stage.

While that dried I applied washes of very dilute Resene Sambuca (dark brown colour) over the rockwork, watching it soak into all the nooks and crannies. Here and there I added very dilute washes of Sandcastle (sand colour) and Gravel (dark gray) to add a little variation. Within minutes the rocks had come to life and looked amazing.

Today was another beautiful sunny day, so I carried Mt Adams outside and gave the Sculptamold a good coat of cheap brownish paint to seal it. Already it is starting to take shape.

Mt Adams weekly update

Another week sails by on Mt Adams...

Lots of mixed weather here this week. From torrential downpours and snow flurries, to baking heat and cloudless skies! While the rain poured down I busied myself with inside jobs:

Wrote a program to play sounds while I drive the trains; I can now toot the horn for each tunnel, and open and close the doors at the stations. Added more rocks to the canyon scene. Painted up the bridge girders for canyon scene. Made and installed more tunnel portals. Painted up the Japanese-style retaining wall in preparation for scenery.

So lots of little odds and ends getting attention.

My main goal for the weekend was to get the station platforms installed. I always struggle a bit with platforms, and this was a pair of platforms on curves, so even more complicated. I made up the frame from Palight PVC foam, and laser cut some Taskboar...

Mt Adams scenery progress

After a long break in updates, you'll be glad to hear Mt Adams is still alive...

Despite not posting much, I've been busy beavering away on my railway. I've also been busy re-painting our bedroom, renovating a back hallway, cleaning the property, fixing some wiring, putting in new lights, tidying up in the ceiling, etc etc. Mrs A describes it as "man nesting mode".

But in between all of that, I've still got plenty done on the railway. All the electrics are in and debugged now. I've added track sensors to detect where the trains are, and wired it all up to my laptop. I can even control trains from my phone, without even turning on my computer.

The track work is also complete and mostly ballasted, and the double crossover is running very nicely. Ironing out the trackwork niggles took quite a while, but definitely aided by having trains running. I've really enjoyed getting out my various little locos and railcars and r...