Stanstead - Steady Progress and Stone Carving

Work has continued on the Stanstead module. Maybe not at the pace I wanted due to waiting for some scenic material to be shipped at my door. Nevertheless, progress is progress and meanwhile I worked on kitbashing Roundhouse Overland passenger cars into something closer to GTR practices of the time.

Among the chief achievements is the station platform made of 6mm plywood covered in Mt Albert scale lumbers individually stained. It took two good evenings at a leisure pace to get it done. However, I've learned from my mistakes and decided it will be screwed in place when the wet scenery is in place to make sure it won't warp due to water.

I really like the result and you can get a sense of the place just looking at this picture. Such a classic sight seen on so many old time pictures. The platform is a little too clean to my taste, but weathering will come later.

I then tried to carve stone foundations for the water tank and the freight shed as depicted on the few pictures I have of Stanstead station. I started with a frame of pine covered in carpenter's glue on which I wrapped a 1mm layer of DAS air drying clay. With a small piece of sharpened styrene, I started to sculpt individually each stone according to pictures found online. Working in heritage building preservation certainly helps with this step.

When dry, the clay was painted dark gray and I started to pick up each stone in a different color. About 4 colors varying from warm light gray to rusty brown were used. At that point, mortar lines were added using unsanded light beige tile grout fixed in place with water.

Weathering was done by streaking the surface with AK Kerosene and Oil wash. It's a blackish grungy color that works well with old weathered stone work. Streaking was achieved by using their Odorless Solvent to work the effect around. Finally, dark olive green PanPastel was brushed at the base of the wall to add a layer of damp moss growing there.

The final product is not bad, but it looks a little bit dark on the layer and I'm really tempted to mist it later with a vey light white wash to blend it better with its surrounding. I may be tempted to do the same with the structures. Adding a wash really made them look dark and gloomy!