On the Layout: Still Waters Run Deep

    The Port of Montreal sits on the shore of the St. Lawrence River.  This river visibly moves, you can see ripples in photos and satellite images (in person, too).  When I built my Port of Montreal, I spent a lot of time debating if I should put some sort of boat or ship in the scene.  I first thought about putting the back part of Sylvan Scale Model's container ship there.  

Image from Sylvan Scale Model's webpage.

The whole ship would be over 3 feet in length, and I don't have nearly enough space for the entire thing.  It didn't make sense to buy the kit only to use one a small part of the entire ship, so that idea was ruled out.  I did buy the kit when it was first released but still haven't built it (I plan to still build it for a shelf since it doesn't fit on the layout).  My next thought was to put a tugboat in the port.  At this point I realized that if I put something in the forefront of the layout it would undoubtedly hit it and break things when reaching behind it.  I finally decided that the scene would just look better without anything in the water and went ahead and poured the water using Woodland Scenic's Deep Pour Water System.  I used it before in the Don River.  It's a great product and easy to use.

    A few years have gone by since I did the pour.  It needed to be finished, and that's what I worked on recently.  The water was too still, it needed to look like it was moving.  I used another Woodland Scenic product - Water Ripples.  This gives the water the illusion that the water is going places. 

    Water Ripples gives some texture to the surface of the water, without giving the water larger waves (Woodland Scenic makes a product to model waves).  Although the St. Lawrence is big enough to have waves in the water, the river in this cutout of the port would be calmer.  This is why I went with Water Ripples.

    I applied the gel with a clean paint brush.  It takes 24-hours to harden.  The tops of the ripples can be softened by spraying isopropyl alcohol on the surface of the water once the gel has been applied.  I did this when I used the product on the Don River. 

Port of Montreal right after applying the Water Ripples

 I decided not to spray the alcohol this time because I figured the St. Lawrence would be a little more active.  This photos below show the difference.  It looks like the river at the port is a little more active.  That was the goal.

The Don River slowly moving along side of the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto.  Storm water flows out of the pipe into the river.

The finished effect of the St. Lawrence River at the Port of Montreal.

Merry Christmas!

 

On the Layout: Lara the Cat

     Do you see her?  ...Lara the black cat?  ...She's sitting on the edge of one of the highrise balconies.  ...Toward the top.  ...Looks like the 13th floor.  ...See her yet?

There she is!

Lara made the Toronto news a few weeks ago when she fell off a 19-story balcony in the city and survived.  Hopefully the HO Scale Lara doesn't follow the same fate has the one in this story.  Luckily this one is glued down to the railing.

On the Layout: Populating Toronto

     My largest city has plenty of buildings and the streets are filled with vehicles.  One of the things that it has been missing is the feeling of crowded sidewalks.  As I've worked on projects, I have added people, especially if I would have a hard time reaching the space once it's on the layout, but the streets were missing people at intersections and just walking from one place to another.  I added those people today.  

Construction workers were added to make a small scene under the railway bridge on Yonge Street.  I drilled a small hole so the (half a) worker on the street had a place to go.  These figures and details come from a Woodland Scenics set.

A few figures added to the Yonge St. and Front St. intersection.  I found a postal worker to go along with the Canada Post truck.

I added a few people at each crosswalk at Bay and Front. 

People waiting for the light to change.  One woman is flagging down a taxi and, in the process, the taxi is cutting off an off-duty ambulance.  At York and Front.  

Some folks crossing the street at John and Front.

This overpass is void of cars, but there are plenty of people on the sidewalks.

A brief pitstop at the Shell station on Front St. for gas and then she'll be back in her convertible and on her way.  Gas is 97.4 cents per liter.