We spent the first part of the day attaching the expanded metal lath to the frame we welded up yesterday. The display piece was relatively shall compared to most of what we build but the detail was also smaller making the wiring job a bit tricky. Once the mesh was in place it was time to begin the sculpting process. The rock work and bill board face will get a thin first coat of sculpting epoxy and then a second coat which will have the details. But the wooden trestle bits will be sculpted in one go. I started with the trestle beams, pushing on a coat of epoxy over the 1" x 2" tube steel. I then used a sharpened popsicle stick to carve in the woodgrain.
The railroad ties were cut from 30 lb Precision Board using the bandsaw. I then pressed on a thin coat of sculpting epoxy over these and sculpted in the woodgrain using my trusty sharpened popsicle stick once more.
Tomorrow I'll glue on the track rails and mount the train engine. Stay tuned...
