Heating up and pouring more water!

Out for my daily cycle ride this morning to avoid the heat of the day I passed the service station that I have kept an eye on with their fuel price. They went past £2 a litre a two weeks ago as I blogged here on the 8th June. Although the latest price has not risen as fast as previously it is still heating up with another 3 pence a litre.

Back at WMD HQ I mulled over the heat issue of fuel price and the weather and suddenly realised I needed to take advantage of the heat. The river on my 009 narrow gauge layout is created using a resin. I foolishly put the first layer down on the last day in a particularly unseasonable warm spell at the start of the year. I think I blogged the equally foolish words 'What could go wrong?'. Click here to see that post. Well what went wrong was it took about 2 months rather then the advertised 72 hours on the bottle for the resin to set as the cold weather returned the next day and continued, as you would expect it would in the Winter, unless of course you are Woody! Doh! Anyway I did vow that the next layer would be poured once warmer weather arrived. Despite the warmth of the past few months, in my usual way, I have put pouring the next layer to the back of my mind but sense and taking advantage of the heat has prevailed and so I have now poured another layer of the Jarvis Simulated Countryside Water into the river bed. I did firstly take the precaution of putting a spirit level on the baseboard just to make sure it was still level - no use in having a sloping river unless it is a rapids!

The spirit level almost makes it look like I know what I am doing!

A steady hand is required when pouring to avoid bubbles - pity my camera hand was as steady!

With the resin poured, a hot environment and the weather heating up what could go wrong? Why did I say that????

Back with the MiniArt Egyptian T34 tank I have done some more track work but more on that another day as progress is slow with all those individual track links to assemble.

Water drying out.

It rained last night disturbing my slumber but reminding me that after nearly a month the resin water on the narrow gauge layout should really have dried out by now. So in the light of day I had another look today and pulled back the cover that I put over the water to stop dust getting onto the surface. Whilst apart from a small patch that is still sticky the rest has hardened off. That should be joyful but having pulled the cover off this was the first time I had seen the complete river since pouring the resin. It was slightly disappointing! Whilst a small amount had leaked at the edge of the baseboard the rest had shrunk! It was lower than when I poured it. I can only assume that as it dries it shrinks. As I had sealed the river bed with several coats of varnish before pouring the resin I can not see it having been absorbed by the landscaping. 

 Well I could leave it as it is as a token gesture to a dry summer or I do have two thirds of a bottle of the resin left so I can increase water levels which is what I will do. However in the hope of a warm summer I will await pouring anymore resin until later in the year when the hopefully warm weather will lead to a setting time of days rather than weeks!

Following a bike ride (360 miles this year so far) I went back to spend an hour on the Scania 143H. The steering box and linkages have been built and installed and one or two more bits added to the chassis or prepared for fitting such as the various air tanks and fuel tank. The engine needs a bit more work as well but it is coming together.

Pour it on!

Pour it on! That us something I would say when the cream comes round at desert time. However in this case it relates to the river on my narrow gauge layout. Having put some more 'greenery' in parts of the river bed and banks to simulate river weed it was time to pour the water or in this case the resin model water - you certainly would not want to drink it. The bottle even has a warning not to drink it but then takeaway coffees warn that the coffee may be hot! A final look around the river bed and banks gave me sufficient confidence that it was time to create water! What can go wrong????

The product itself is made by Jarvis and marketed as their Simulated Countryside Water. It comes in a 250mm bottle and the instructions say to pour it in 1mm layers which take 48 to 72 hours to dry. Well the question is going to be how many finger prints will I leave in the surface as my eagerness and curiosity get the better of me? Only time will tell! The water pours but is very thick but should find its own level before it sets. I have been wise enough to seal each end of the river to avoid a recreation of a water fall feature as the resin cascades down either side of the baseboard. Again how successful that will be only time will tell. You may have deduced that I have my concerns and I have to admit apart from a pond on one layout this is the first major water feature that I have modelled. As they say - Never too old to learn! 

The two photos below show that the resin still needs to find its level but then again rivers do not always have a flat calm surface so at the moment I am not too concerned. It also shows that my 'greenery' and river bed appear as I was hoping so I will keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way. I was toying with the idea of adding a fish or two but thought better of it - maybe a shark might have been interesting though! 

I have covered this first pour of the resin with a piece of card to dry to minimise dust settling on the surface but there will be at least one further layer added. Surprisingly I have only used about one third of the bottles contents so far.

Stay tuned to see if the swear jar gains any contributions over the next few days as I wait for this resin to firstly stay in the river bed and secondly dry without issues.