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………....--- Spackle, Spackle, Paint – Pt. 1 ---=======================================

With the foam board scenery all roughed in time to Spackle first and then paint before track laying begins.

I knew that the area that needed Spackle and paint just to the right of the finished rock wall was going to be the hardest area to work in on the layout and it was. I was able to remove the scenery over the hidden coal mine track which helped but still couldn’t see what I was doing without a mirror or walking to the other side of the layout to take a look. I had to step up and down on one of the platforms I use to reach in and after about an hour of that I was done for the day.

The next day things got easier as I moved down where I could look over the top. The Spackle goes on pink and dries white. I have mixed in color before but then it becomes harder to match colors when I get to the painting of it.

The scenery lifts off above the hidden coal mine track and that helps a lot.

When an empty train gets to and under the coal mine loading chutes it goes across a crossing, thru a building and into/under the curved mesa and back to the hidden staging yard. An identical loaded train comes out of staging under the far hill, upper left, and appears from the other end of the loading chutes giving the impression the train was loaded via the chutes. You can find our more about how all of that will work ( HERE ).

Spackle is more expensive than regular Sheetrock mud but works better for this application in my opinion. I bought a big box of Sculptamold but so far the Spackling has worked great. I do have an area coming up that the Sculptamold might work better and will give it a try.

I take what would be a ‘handful’ of Spackle and put it in a small plastic tub and add just a little water to it. Then mix it until it is a thick cream consistency. Then use a plastic putty knife to spread it around and push it into cracks. Next I’ve found that cheap 2 inch chip brushes work great to further spread it and work it into the terrain that was carved into the foam with a hot wire knife. Final step is to dip the brush into water and shake most off. Then smooth the Spackle out and put some brush marks into it if I want to show some strata lines.

This all goes pretty quick. Once I got the areas where I could see what I was doing I finished a fairly large area it a couple hours.

Being able to take the mesa top to a work station helped speed putting the Spackle on it.

The arch is pretty similar to Wilson Arch right along Utah Highway 191 about 5 miles north of us and south of Moab, UT.

The mesa top slides in and out easily.

Time for some paint. A lot of the joint line between the Mesa top and the bottom will start to go away at that point.

To be continued and a link to this whole build ( HERE ).

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