New and Improved Hills

As the photo shows, I finished the sculptamold and did the coloring. Not too bad. I've also added a bunch of clump foliage as shrubs along the hills. That was fun, not.

I started using diluted yellow glue, 50/50 with water. That worked, eventually, but took 2 days to completely dry, and the foliage feels stiff to the touch (not that anyone else would really be touching it). I asked some fellow modelers, and they usually used either Mod Podge, Matte Medium, or LiquidTex to attach foliage. I had some old Matte Medium on hand, but couldn't get the lid off, even with pliers! So, I threw it away and ordered some from Amazon. I bought a few different types, figuring it was a good time to experiment and see which worked best.

So far, I've only used LiquidTex. I use some full-strength with a brush on the hills, install the clump foliage, then drip thinned 50/50 with water onto the top. It remains soft to the touch after drying, although it still takes a day. I may still add some more foliage later, but I'm going to leave it for now and see how it looks after doing other areas. I'll also test the other two materials to see which seems to work best for me.

I will be adding some turf coloring to the shrubs tomorrow after the LiquidTex dries. I usually sprinkle one to three colors and then spray with Scenic Cement.

Before I did the foliage, I drilled the wire holes next to the track. I then went under the layout and drilled one-inch holes approximately under the wire locations. I then fed the wires through the holes, grabbed them under the layout, cut them to the correct length, and soldered them to the rails.

I grabbed my test car and placed it at the top of the track, and let it roll. Oh, no - interference! I actually had two issues. First, one of the wires just past the tunnel entrance was sticking up too high and actually slowed the car down so much that it didn't make it to the bottom. Second, the crib wall on the side of the hill at the tunnel entrance was sticking out a little (it wasn't before). I took a 1/2-inch track nail and, using needle-nose pliers, nailed the cribbing to the hillside behind it.

The second test run was perfect!

I still need to run a train around the loop, but I won't be able to do that until maybe next week. I need to focus on the club Train Show tomorrow as I have my clinic, the module demo/movie, and kit building that I'm doing during the show duration. All is ready, but I need to pack most of it into the truck tomorrow and make sure I don't forget anything.