Sunday, February 10, 2019

Streckenende: Making a proper module


A month ago I used one of Harald Brosch's laser cut module ends to experiment with home made Maerklin track. I figured that if this doesn't work out, not much is lost, and if it does work, I can experiment with Fremo modular connections some more. This all worked, so I decided to make this a proper end module with track bumper and scenery.


I brush-painted the track with two coats of Model Master Leather, which has a pleasing color surprisingly close to what rails look like when they're weathered a bit. I measured and cut hardboard sides and started glueing pieces together.


After rummaging through my stash for a while, I finally found the bumper from Faller's B-141 kit I had put aside for "I may need this in the future at some point". With a slight extension of the track base it fits quite well to the end of the track.


This is a fairly old plastic kit and it needed some modifications. First thing was to cut off the Maerklin-style car bumpers, and cut a small hole under the bumper board for the coupler. I used some styrene to build a box behind the hole.


The box is supposed to be filled with old ballast, but the kit's version is quite crude.


I put a thin layer of Woodland Scenics Brown medium ballast over the top and it looks much better already.


Finally, I dry brushed some white on the bumper board, as well as marked where car bumpers left their prints. The box got some dry brush treatment with lighter and darker browns, as well as a coat of India ink wash to pull it all together.

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