Week 1: Dec 6, 2009
Painting the Base Module
Painting the base of the model is the same as painting any standard carpentry project. To remain consistent with the edge colors the Delta Model Railway Club provides a paint kit consisting of a brush and sufficent paint to paint the long ends of the module with two coats of paint. The short ends of the module are left as raw wood. Completed modules are clamped together when they are on display and a painted edge tends to stick to another painted edge. Leaving the edges raw removes this problem.
The display surface of the module was painted a sandy brown with two coats of standard latex paint purchased from the local hardware store. To get a good finish using a brush we started near the end and worked with the grain of the wood keeping the stroaks long and even. By using a reasonably dry brush and working from the inside to the outter edge we were able to prevent drips from going down the side of the module.
Laying the Cork Roadbed
Normally, you can lay a cork road bed by locating where you would like it and gluing it down with white glue. Unfortunately, for us we have painted the surface of the module. While it looks good the wood is sealed so the white glue doesn't have anything to adhere to. We must nail it down. This is fairly simple by adding a HO Track Railbed nail (SL-8413) every two inches.
To make laying the cork road bed easier we used a large steel ruler as a straight edge so that the road bed didn't wander. 