Progress Near Loading Ramp

Thanks to a couple of quiet weekends during Autumn some very basic ground cover on the loading ramp module and around the wooden building was fixed in place. Then the layout was left untouched for most of the Winter, but has now finally been given attention again.

With the ground still wet from the mix of glue and water, some of the containers and small bags of scatter material can be seen. Most of it supplied for free by mother nature. The injection needle is perfect for applying the glue/water mix in a controlled manner. Other means of application may be faster, but I've very seldom been hampered by deadlines in my modelling.

During Autumn I had most of the ramp segment of the layout covered with a mix of used coarsly ground coffee, sieved gravel and commercial ballast products, dried birch leaves and small twigs and stones. Only the small footpath leading down from the loading ramp work platform was missing. With dyed toothpicks and scraps of wood I fabricated the front reinforcement of the steps and building up the body of the steps with dyed plaster. I covered the surface with fine gravel and small stones.

 

Work on the primitive stairs leadning to/from the loading ramp. It's Spring and I work outside in the sun.

When I applied grass and shrubbery under the loading ramp I learned that in 1/19 scale it is very important to detail the ground cover beneath the grass. Due to the larger scale the grass is best left with a certain spacing between the single grass fibres and quite a lot of the ground below consequently shows through the grass cover.

With the finished relief building being made ready to be permanently fitted to the layout, I also began the landscaping around it. Current status is that the ramp segment is fully covered with earth scatter material with some basic grass tufts placed near and in the track. The grass tufts are the ones I bought from Spain last Summer. Near the loading ramp itself, a short section of track has also been ballasted. 

A close up of the ballasted section near the loading ramp. In addition to the grass tufts placed in the ballast I will add further tufts on the ballast surface as well as adding static grass later.

Next stage in the development of the layout will be adding of static grass on the loading ramp segment and more ground scatter on the main part of the layout.