This post is all about how I made an N gauge platform using DAS clay so if that interests you read on. Firstly why? My platforms are scalescenes and while for most things in N I find paper texture to give me the desired effect, I was never happy with paper asphalt. It's too flat and I don't like the joins. (Yes I know asphalt is laid in bays and has joins but I was never happy with it. I started looking for alternatives and found Chris Nevard's method with DAS clay. (Link in the comments) wonderfully DAS now make stone coloured clay, perfect! Step one, I made a base for platform from cereal card and added further strips of cereal card the same width as the flagstones to the edges. This gave me a kind of trench in which to infill the clay. Step two. Masking taped over the raised edges. Step three. I infilled the trench with DAS using my son's play doh spatula. (Here I made an error. Too much water, the card got very wet and warped.) Step four. I weighed it all down around the edges and left to dry for a couple of hours when I returned it was flat down on the edges with bumps in the middle. The surface was dry enough so I turned the whole thing over and weighed it down on the underside. Step five. In the morning the whole thing had dried flat! Great relief and much rejoicing! I topped up the clay as it does contract as it dries. Step five. Once dry I sanded flat down to the masking tape then peeled it off. (In reality the masking tape and a layer of paper both came off here. ) This left me with a little ledge along the sides. Step six. Fit and glue the scalescenes paper flagstone edging. Step seven varnish. I really like the effect of just varnishing the clay with no paint. It darkens it and gives a patchy effect. Any questions I will be only too pleased to explain further. Hope this is useful or at least interesting to you! Thanks, Tim

Posted by tim.fairweather at 2021-07-11 10:33:49 UTC