Road Work Ahead

Work continues at a breath-taking pace on my soldier table (call for a better name still in effect).  Recently I completed my roads and fences.

The road surface is a thin board of MDF cut on the band-saw with the wavy shoulder profile.  Separate shoulders (traced from the lower layer) were glued and clamped into place.  The edges were rounded off on the belt-sander

After painting and texturing the shoulders I spread a uniform coat of Liquid Nails on the roadbed.

Onto the still wet adhesive I liberally sprinkled fine sawdust.

Next step was to press wheel tracks into the surface...

followed by plenty of hoof-prints.

After the adhesive cured I brushed all the loose sawdust from the surface and applied a light wash of very thinned-out black acrylic paint.

When that had dried thoroughly I lightly dry brushed the road to highlight the detail.

Definitely not the road less travelled.

Next it was time to put up fences.  I patterned them after the five rail post-and-rail turnpike fences found at Antietam National Battlefield.

The posts were milled from pine and drilled to accommodate four rails.

Using scrap oak I made the rails, each about seven inches in length.  The ends were tapered with 

a razor blade.  As I was working with oak this was a breeze.  There was no splintering and the rails are very durable.

The taper must be thin enough to fit two ends into each hole on the post...

thus:

Now with road established and fences erected our artillery battery can gallop into action!

Never a dull (nor idle) moment around here.

Soldier on!

Mannie