Stations-platforms

Further on this page: Sidings and stones

Flower Pots

An article on this subject appeared in Modelspoormagazine 55. More text and photo's can be found there.

A master model was made from polystyrene, glued in layers and then lathed. A double-layered silicon mould is cast. The drills are used to get alignment holes and pins.

After the first half is thoroughly hardened, the upper half can be poored. The result is a neatly fitting mould, with pooring entrance and an air exit.

A home-made vibrating clamp is used to reduce trapped air in de resin casting. The paper gutter protects the clamp from spilled resin.

The resulting casting is cut, sanded and filed to shape.

PolyScale Reefer White is a good base color

Used grinded coffee gives excellent "earth" for the plants. It is fixed with diluted matte medium.

The plants are made from small pieces of "Iceland moss", glued in place and painted with small dots of red acrylics.

A layer of matt varnish finishes the flower pot, so it can be placed on the station platform.

Sidings and stones

In a very early phase of constructing "Marche-en-Bières", in fact while still busy with railroad foundation and laying track, I had to start doing some scenery work.

As you can notice on the track plan, the 'Boulroie' passenger station has two levels. The upper level couldn't be build before (partly) finishing the lower part. It would have been very difficult to construct the platforms of the lower part underneath the upper part crossing. So, in March '03, I decided to start building part of the lower platforms. This meant:

• Platform sidings following the Belgian prototype - I decided to construct them myself. Starting from a prototype, pouring a latex mold from it and then copying it in plaster.
• Between the glued siding "stones" I poured plaster, until it reached the correct height.
• After drying, the surface was sanded in shape, and then footpath-stones were scribed into the plaster. A self-made tool (5 hobby-knifes clamped together) made for a time-gaining device.
• The track ballasted with little stones, glued together with a mixture of water, white glue and rubbing alcohol. This was airbrush-painted afterwards.

Painting the platform top was done using inks and various acrylic paints, using airbrush, dry-brushing and regular painting techniques.
I hope the pictures say as much as my words: