Smooth-It Base and lighting

I have the next phases of Soyokaze moving forward and I'm trying to make the best of the Labor Day weekend now that the HORRIBLE month of August is gone gone gone! :)

I saw a photo in a Japanese N Scale magazine that made me realize that I just wasn't going to be happy with a simple, painted "cement look" on the foam I'm using. I needed something more. I also wasn't going to be happy with buildings that didn't have light during the dusk hours. I could live without streetlights, but I really wanted to see the buildings with the soft, orange glow going. So, I grabbed my assistant and started in on the work to get there. :)

My Assistant  :)

I started by laying the Smooth-It tape down around the area where the buildings were currently.

I popped the tops off my houses and marked where all of the light openings were. I love Tomytec for this reason - they have the lights in mind with their items. It was easy to push the drill bit through the foam to mark the spots. Then I had to pull all of the buildings off and put them aside. Setting them next to the Yamato seemed right. :)

Working with the Smooth-It stuff was MUCH easier this time. I was working with a larger area, so it just required a mixture of patience and speed to make sure I could get the area covered before it started to set. It's basically plaster, so the dry time is rather fast. The white spots are wads of tissue in the drill holes so the Smooth-It didn't flow into the holes.

I used the remaining Smooth-It to rework the vendor area and pond shoreline. Now the land doesn't run flatly up to the water. There is a raised area where the docks come off of. It's working really well. With some tuning, painting and details, it should be pretty cool. Much better than what was there before. I can't wait to get painting today!

The cool thing was the Smooth-It this round. It was almost dry, but still had a wetness to it and I started to run my finger over it. I noticed that I could sculpt out the rough spots seen in the image above so I don't need to sand it - thus avoiding the dust and madness that i had going when I did the road last time. It worked out really well and was fun to work with in this way. I smoothed out the land area, the area around the docks and the area on the hillside in the top of the shot. Painting and some scenic elements will really make this area pop nicely. The vendors will be very happy with their new location! heheheh

The next steps are painting and getting the lights placed. I need to work with the lights I have to give them a softer look with an orange hue. I'm using the Tomytec lights. I purchased them a year or so ago for this very purpose. Nice that they are finally coming into play.

I need to take them from white light to more orange, so I'll be researching optioned that won't burn the house down. :)

Speaking of, I have painting to do!

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