The Great Cover Up

There are no missing 18 minutes here....

It's not pretty, but it works.

I spent a few hours tonight covering up the ridge behind Brooke. The deep scene areas were not as bad to access as I feared. I used a step stool and was able to reach all spots. I was surprised how sturdy the cardboard web was, especially after I added a few vertical supports underneath.

This cover is just the first layer of paper. Next will be a another layer with paper soaked in white glue. The final layer will be paper soaked in Durhams water putty, white glue and dirt. This was a very inexpensive way to make such a huge hill. Trying to do this with foam and plaster cloth would have cost a couple hundred dollars. I used about $12 in hot glue and about $3 in paper. The cardboard webs were recycled  boxes.

Marty stopped by to glue in a small piece of foam (which promptly fell off), eat dinner and take off. Oh yeah, he dropped off a cool present for me. I'll get a shot of it later.

Adding the paper layer over the cardboard web

An overview of Brooke, The tunnel is to the left. The brown paper is almost dirt color.

With the terrain covering the light sources, the tunnel is getting appropriately dark. The structures are just
there for ideas. The actual layout is not final yet.

 At the end of the evening, I mocked up a structure to represent the planned water mill at the deep end of Accokeek. I am using the mill at Piney Branch, VA for a prototype guide.  The plans are available at the HAER. It is a cool mill with some good civil war history as both Union and Rebel troops occupied it during the war. It's not too far from my modeled area.

The issue really is that the mill scene works best with the creek flowing out of the wall. But the creek should be flowing into the wall.  Hmmmm...... what to do.

Mocking up the Mill scene. The mill will be in a smaller scale, about 1/60th. Now, which way should the water run?