Since Woodland Scenics C1203 plaster cloth finally arrived, work could resume on the missing terrain. What better way to see some progress than by extending the landscape to the right of the C(ross) segment (that would be the line partially covered by masking tape, and the 2 old flat PIKO cars at the end). This also involved finding a way to blend the right tunnel portal as well. For the portal, I took a look here to see how it should deal with abrupt terrain, and decided to go, just as the picture shows, with a wall next to the portal itself. Having made a mock-up of the whole area, a flow-chart diagram was created (second photo, the text is in my native language- romanian) so I'd know which tasks should be done, in what order, and what are those that could be done in parallel.
First thing was to solder together the 2 wires between segments P(re)-T(unnel) and S(mall) R(amp) - visible in the 3rd photo. Next, an infrared pair had to be installed on the remaining end of the C segment (where the cars are in the first photo), meaning that a place would have to be found for the MRD board (these boards were first introduced to this layout here).As was done previously, a hole was dug in the foam baseboard, 2 spacers - 5 mm long - were cut from the insulation material provided with the emitters/detectors and the corresponding holes drilled in the base wooden board. The 3rd photo shows the MRD along with the handmade spacers and the supplied screws right above it.
For the walls needed next to the portal, I used what I had left from the Noch retaining wall (seen first here) and glued the pieces together, two by two. Once these were glued, I looked at the way I painted the left tunnel portal, and the retaining wall placed there. Then I came up across an article from Chris Nevard, where the method I initially used, and quite popular around the web - picking up individual bricks in an uniform color - is not seen in a good light. So this time I went for multiple layers of drybrushing, using the same colors as before - Stone Gray, Raw Umber, Slate Gray and Concrete (all from Woodland Scenics). The result looks more natural, however I'm curious how it'll look when I'll take some photos of the finished area.
Most of the work however went into cutting and gluing the foam walls that would support the plaster cloth. The holes for the wires will have to be accessible after all is done, so the "mobile covers" must be employed again. The infrared pair was secured in place using plaster, and a check was done to make sure that the gaps between cars don't trigger false readings.
As of now, things are looking as shown in the last photo. Click for a bigger view.
