Building A Small Scenic Diorama – Part Four

Foot Crossing

For the foot crossing board walk across the railway line, I used the modern boardwalk with anti-slip surface. This easy to install kit comprises of two base layers to level the footway with the railhead of the track. It also comes with a pre-weathered anti-slip walkway texture sheet, which you simply cut to length & glue on to the baselayer. Three sections were needed, one for sitting between the rails in the four foot, & the two side approach sections.

The kit also comes supplied with crossing safety signage & signpost rod. Cut the rod to the required size, drill a small hole, apply glue to the end of the rod, Insert rod into the hole. Make sure the post is kept upright whilst the glue sets.

Next cut out the crossing signs, touch up the edges with a black or grey felt tip pen & glue onto the posts. Some more Tubeclamp safety railings was added to the far side of the crossing.

Anti-Tresspass Grids

To complete the footcrossing, the single crossing track Anti-Tresspass grids where glued into place either side of the crossing. The two smaller sections sit in between the rails in the four foot. The four wider sections sit either side of the outer rails as shown in the photo on the right.

Prepping for water

As I was going to be using water modelling material, both ends of the stream/burn bed needed to be sealed off to prevent any spillage. Masking tape was applied across both ends of the stream/burn bed as shown on the right.

Water time

Having sealed the ends of the stream/burn bed, Deluxe Materials Aqua Magic was poured onto the stream/burn area. A flat bladed plastic tool was used to drag & push the Aqua Magic into all the edges of the stream bed. This was allowed to set for 32 hours.

More water

Once the first water layer had set, a second layer of Aqua Magic was poured on to the stream/burn to add more depth. This time soon after the Aqua Magic had been poured, a wooded stirrer dipped into some liquid white pigment. The stirrer was then dragged through the Aqua Magic leaving a trail of white pigment. This creates the  white foam & bubble trails in the small water. Attention was paid to the small waterfall area in which more white pigment was added too. See the photo gallery for more images of the water.

Final detail

For the very last item to go on to the diorama to complete the scene is some bull rush reeds. Noch produce these as part of their laser minis series. One pack contains 16 Bull rush reeds. These where carefully cut from the parts sheet, the reeds folder up & then a spot of PVA glue added to the base. The Reeds I planted around the Culvert sides & around one of the bridge legs.

That completes the diorama. The diorama was well received at the Warley Model Railway Show, & also appears in a video film by BRM magazine.

Happy modelling.