Finally my long term project is coming to a close. There are only some small details missing and here and there some weathering and ... 

... of course the wire ropes. What would a wire rope transmission  be without them!

After some unsuccessful attempts, here my interpretation of the wooden planks on the gangway.



 

I completed the gangway that leads half around the abutement. To me it became a nearly endless bothery and in the end it is very fragile because of the tiny soldering joints. I will be happy when it is fixed in place - what you can see, is only a provisional installation.
I want to take this opportunity to introduce the two guests on the gangway I received this morning. Modelu3d.co.uk printed them for me  in exact 1/50 scale.
They are some of the best figures available and it's an innovative company who offers an excellent service. I will have to modify them a little bit, but they fit perfectly in this period (1870-1890). 

The real side wall, here in1/50 scale in the background, was built up from limestone. This sort of wall you can find in my hometown at almost every corner. The major challenge was to imitate the roughly applyed plaster in the gaps. 

 

 

I have almost finished the scaffold construction on the front and the back side. The ladder in the foreground will be supportet by a gangway that leads from the stone pillar to the riverbank.

Towards the end of my projects imperfections catch one's attention more and more. In the current project, it's the water. It's too clear, a slight opacity would be more realistic. Furthermore, the ripples, caused by currents are only visible from a certain angle. Here is an additional need to improve something.

 

I got a little time in and worked on the brass ladders. In absence of an alternative, I soldered it piece by piece. Countless attempts failed and there are more then one burn marks on my desk! To hold the tiny parts, I had to create or modify some appropriate clothespinds. As you might expected, there are still a lot of ladders to do!

 

Here another detail shot of the mechanism and the stonework. 

A prominent detail of the construction: The lower most gearwheels were protected (from flooding?) by some sort of fenders. They seem to be of zinc coated sheet metal (may be it's more artistic license then reality), so I tried to represent that kind of surface by using a new technique copied from figure modelers: the wet-in-wet acrylic method. As basecolor I used Citadel game Color, Boltgun Metal. Then I applied very thin cloudy coats of creamy white and traces of dark and light rust. This technique allowes you to control the colors carefully.