Page 26 - 39. MRH13-05-May2013
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Up the Creek Column - 5
the styrene because I had lost my faith in glue joints. Instead, I
thought shoving the styrene in the corner and letting its natural
springiness work against fillets (berms) to hold it in place mechani-
cally would make a durable joint.
Spackle was the first thing I thought of to make the fillets and it
worked well, but something was needed hold the coving in place
until the spackle hardened. Staples solved that problem.
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17: Once the spackle dries and the staple shanks are
set flush with the coving surface, it's time to sand the
spackle smooth. I use a long particle board sanding
block wrapped with a sheet of 80 grit sandpaper.
18: Sanding spackle makes LOTS of dust. I vacuum
it up while I'm sanding to avoid having it accumulate.
Work slowly to avoid putting lots of dust into the air
where it floats around and lands on everything nearby.
I also worried about cracks along the joint between the backdrop
and the styrene. Cracks are appropriate in roads but not in the sky.
I made curved formers for the previous layout. Even without glue
failures these had proven to be a pain. I cut the formers from 3/4"
plywood using a band saw and found it nearly impossible to make
them uniform and install them in perfect alignment.
For the coved corners on my current layout I elected to skip the
formers and depend on the styrene to form a natural curve when
compressed between the fillets (berms). I also hoped that letting
the styrene float in the corners would compensate for any settling,
or expansion and contraction of the walls due to changes in tem-
perature or humidity.
19: Cutting the staples' shanks and setting them flush
doesn't result in a perfectly smooth surface. I use
Squadron White putty to fill dents or cuts in the surface
of the styrene.
20: I squeeze a small dab of putty on each staple shank
and smooth it with a 1" putty knife. This stuff releases
nasty vapors, so use lots of ventilation.
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MRH-May 2013
