workbench update

Polystyrene Day

Work on the viaduct continues at a snail's pace, however this weekend the Utrainia Engineering dept were proud to erect two out of the four (yes, it's growing) bridge towers. One is going to be the full 100 feet height, the other has a sloping base to accomodate the steep valley floor.

To the right you can see the beige bridge girders, produced on-site from patterns taken from the masters. The two remaining towers still need to be produced, and for these Management has grudgingly conceded that two more tower kits shall need to be ordered in from overseas. The paperwork is currently pending with the government paper-pushers.

Meanwhile, the civil engineering forces have been a little more productive. The base for the viaduct scene has been triangulated and is now very sturdy, so construction can move into the polystyrene phase.

Workbench update

What's been happening in Utrainia this week?

Corner module #1

After making the skeleton of the first corner module in record time, I ran into a bit of a road block with the bridge. I realised that it was too short and too tall, and would take a bit of work to get it curved. What I really needed was an extra bridge tower to make the chasm sides a bit less steep.

So rather than just biting the bullet, ordering an extra span and waiting a couple of weeks for it to arrive, I decided I would make my own. The girders were easily cast, however the A frames for the bridge towers were a different story. I had to make a two part mold, and then inject the resin in at one end, using a combination of gravity and pressure to distribute it throughout the mold. Second attempt went reasonably well, good enough for my purposes:

A lot of flashing to clean up, and a fe...