The past month I have been able to complete more of the enjoyable part of building the layout. Building up the scenery including completing the station signage and building up ground cover, bushes and trees.
Below is the completed station scene including overhead stanchions, catenary and station signage on platform signs and platform seats.
After much thought and research, I decided to name the station and layout, Wardell. Wardell, is named after Dr Robert Wardell, a barrister who became quite wealthy after he arrived from England and owned a large
estate in the Petersham area in the 1820s. He was murdered by
bushrangers on the boundary of his estate in 1834. His estate was subdivided upon his death1. Trafalgar street that is currently running parallel to Petersham station was previously called Wardell St.
Making Signs
To do the signage I made my own decals using a computer and Publisher to do the lettering. This technique I used previously with my previous layout.
Testors has a Custom Decal System kit which includes decal bonder and decal paper in white and clear paper. The kit only includes 3 papers of each A5 sheets. I ran out of clear decal paper and could not source any Testors clear decal paper in Sydney. I found an alternative supply in Redfern. Below is a printout of the decals I had printed. To maximise the use of the decal paper, I think of all the decals I need for future projects which can fill up the decal paper.
Ground cover
I had a stash of foilage and scenery material from my previous layouts. However, most of it was dark green, I recently purchased a stack of lighter and medium green bushes, underbrush and coarse turf to complete what I had, to vary the scenery.
Using a mixture of what I already had and what I recently purchased I was able to provide a more realistic scenery scene for the area around the junction of Trafalgar St and Crystal st. Trees were reused from my previous layout Bilby Beach however I replaced the light green foilage with medium green foilage, The foilage used was from Heki which is like a coloured hair net that can be stretched.
Above is the completed scenery of the ground cover and bushes.
Below is the completed station scene including overhead stanchions, catenary and station signage on platform signs and platform seats.
Making Signs
To do the signage I made my own decals using a computer and Publisher to do the lettering. This technique I used previously with my previous layout.
Testors has a Custom Decal System kit which includes decal bonder and decal paper in white and clear paper. The kit only includes 3 papers of each A5 sheets. I ran out of clear decal paper and could not source any Testors clear decal paper in Sydney. I found an alternative supply in Redfern. Below is a printout of the decals I had printed. To maximise the use of the decal paper, I think of all the decals I need for future projects which can fill up the decal paper.
Once bonder is dry I cut out decals and apply to the platform seat and signs using warm water and Walthers decal solvent. The seats and signs I used were Uneek white metal detail kits from Anton Trains. After the decal is set after a day I seal with Testors Dullcote.
Ground cover
I had a stash of foilage and scenery material from my previous layouts. However, most of it was dark green, I recently purchased a stack of lighter and medium green bushes, underbrush and coarse turf to complete what I had, to vary the scenery.
Using a mixture of what I already had and what I recently purchased I was able to provide a more realistic scenery scene for the area around the junction of Trafalgar St and Crystal st. Trees were reused from my previous layout Bilby Beach however I replaced the light green foilage with medium green foilage, The foilage used was from Heki which is like a coloured hair net that can be stretched.
Above is the completed scenery of the ground cover and bushes.
1. http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/wardell_robert
