Making Cisco Townsite, part 3

: filling the gap with clay

A dirt road connecting Pennsylvania Street with the Cisco Oil Field north of the town used to cross the railroad until the 70s. I added the fills for the road and filled the gap between the terrain and the fills with paper clay.

Next, I applied a layer of thin paper clay to the overall surface of the insulation board slightly filed by sandpaper to represent the accurate grade and terrain. I mixed the clay, water, and PVA bond(white bond) to prevent the thin layer of clay from cracking. After the clay was dried, I filed its surface to make it smooth. Fortunately, the insulation board didn’t warp after all these clay works.

As the layer of clay work is thin, the surface of the diorama is still so soft that even a touch of finger leaves a mark. So, I coated the surface of the clay work with acrylic gesso and modeling-paste mixture to make it hard.

I repeated the clay-filing-gesso process several times. I added different colors to the gesso each time to make it easy to recognize each coat.

: first layer of clay applied
: applied clay before filing
: finished clay work
: filed clay
: gesso coating
　　
　　　
南から北に緩やかに下がる勾配はスタイロフォームの縁に張った額縁で生成する。細かな起伏はスタイロフォームの表面をサンドペーパーで削って表現した。別パーツとして用意した線路や道路を嵌め込み、隙間などを紙粘土で埋め、サンドペーパーで削りなじませる。その上に、ジェッソにパテを混ぜたものを塗布し、下地の完成とする。

ストラクチャー類は後のメンテナンスを考え、取り外し式にした。光源を仕込まないストラクチャーは磁石で留める。光源を仕込むストラクチャーは、その土台部分に設けた光源・配線スペースごとベースに差し込むようにした。