The push now is to get all the ballast down on boards 1 & 2. It's always completely satisfying to lose the visual of bare wood. Regulars will know that I do all this back to front, opposing the time-honoured order of ballast down first followed by scenery. As most of the things I do are of the 'light and narrow' variety, there is little of the hard ballast shoulder required. This means that (prototypically) the ballast goes up to and over the landscape and not the other way around. This may not work for more main line subjects, but no. In the case of Hopwood all the platforms and walls etc. went in first and (again prototypically) the ballast runs up to them. I doubt that the myriad of beginners texts will change this stone-built edifice of model railway instruction anytime soon, and I don't know anyone else who routinely does it this way, but I see no reason to change.
It works. There are too many conventional 'rules' which newcomers must find quite daunting and off-putting. Symptom of the age we live in I fancy.
ReplyDeleteTry and persuade people that most model railways don't need cork underlay and see how far you get. That particular trope turns up at least once a month on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI must too admit to little use of cork underlay. Early on and once I even used the thin foamed polystyrene. Now its usually direct to board and then the rest of the world is made up after. Mind you I have used FoamCore on a couple of recent mainline examples. Horses and their whatevers?
ReplyDeleteAndrew K
Track underlay - no, not essential but useful for getting point wires (or even thin section feed cables) under the track safely and invisibly.
ReplyDeleteGiles