The World Is Not Pink (Or Blue Either)

The New New Project Part 9

Now that the foam was complete (plus two plays, Christmas and New Years over), came the final step before track. I wanted to put a coat of paint over the foam as a primer for eventual scenery and to cover up all that pink and blue.

I thought I would pick up a couple of bottles of cheap acryliuc paint and brushes from the dollar store and Bob’s your uncle, I’d have that done in no time. I was wrong. Wrong about a few things.

I wanted to paint the surface an earth tone and found a burnt umber at the dollar store which suited my purpose, plus I picked up a package of foam brushes. I went through both bottles and ended up with one table cover in blotchy dark brown paint. Sooo I went back and snapped up 6 more bottles.

I found out that, just because the shelf label says burnt umber, it doesn’t mean that all the bottles there are that colour. I ended up with bottles of cinnamon brown blended in with the burnt umber. I attacked the painting task again resulting in some more blotchy tables. Eventually I catch on and so I got the brilliant idea to buy a small roller and tray, a small brush, plus more paint (verifying this time that I was actually getting the burnt umber) plus some hunter green for the harbour.

The cheap foam brush, I shouldn’t have bought.

The roller, tray and brushes I should have bought first.

The paints.

Wow. I realized that I should have bought the roller in the beginning. The paint went on the way I orginially thought it should. In the time it took to slop paint on one table, I had them all covered and covered well. I painted the harbour area with the green (which I will eventually put resin in to simulate water) and now I was ready to lay track!

The Kato Unitrack mainline only took minutes to assemble but then I noticed a few problem areas. Where track crossed table joints in a few spots, there were gaps under it because the joint was higher than the surrounding table. In one spot I goofed and the subroadbed curved the wrong way. There was a small section with a noticable gap under it.

Now I had to break out the plaster to prop that area up and then sand down the offending joints.

Oops, missed with the subroadbed.

Gaps!

Gaps!

And more gaps!

It’s a..you guessed…gap!

I filled in the gap and used a piece of foam to make it as flat as possible. When it dried I sand it down plus the offendin table joints.

The high areas and this low area after plaster and sanding.

I then put the track down and check it. Not perfect but 99%, close enough. Any remaining issues could be dealt with using shims. I repainted the sanded areas and laid the mainline back down.

Now I had to deal with an issue I had kind of been avoiding…wiring! That’s a topic for next post.