Thursday 16 February 2012

Ballast Takes Longer to Dry-Shock! Horror!

If watching paint dry is your thing the watching Ballast Dry must come a close second!
Previous efforts in my modelling room (the loft) have presented no problems.
However, this cold snap has meant that the glue is taking longer to set- so solution is to leave the loft hatch open during the day to allow more warm air in. And it seems to work as the first board is now dry and the second nearly so.
Next time the lot goes on the dining table and we have TV dinners!

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Ballasting

 The tools needed for this part of the process are quite simple.
A screw top jar to mix the adhesive, in this case PVA mixed 50/50 with water plus a couple of drops of washing up liquid, plus an eyedropper to surgically apply the mixture.
With the water misted on from a plant spray, the mixture is added. Having the washing up liquid added breaks down the surface tension, so as you apply the mix, it spreads out through the ballast hopefully leaving no high or bald spots.
P.S. Valentines Day today- DON'T FORGET!

Sunday 12 February 2012

Ballasting begins.

The tedious part now begins. I haven't found a quick way of ballasting so pour some on, spread it out and hopefully get it somewhere looking realistic.
Using a Granite ballast this time as I couldn't get the Magnesium type that I used on Hennock.
The lower shot see's the ballast spread out and the shoulder formed.
Next time will see the adhesive applied.