Retaining wall was needed on mine module where narrow gauge line is descending towards the mine itself. Between wooden one and carved stone one we decided on former. It turned out to be a nice, relaxed 2 evening project.Dimensions and spacing was taken from pictures of real ones. Beams are cut from balsa strips, glued together using white glue. Beam frame has only three sides but fourth one was added to bottom (w/o glue) to keep everything square. Planks are cut from coffee stirrer which are bit on a thick side but its thickness can’t be seen since they will be mounted on the back of the beams. Width of the planks is right on. Since wall has a “kink” in middle, planks are cut for the length of two spaces on one side and three spaces on another (to avoid too much gluing).
One size (left) was put together first and then another one which had a slight taper on top beam so it can be glued on an angle.
After glue dried (it wasn’t long since I used “express” one) wood was stained using combination of dark brown and black Vallejo washes. I added some bracing on the back since whole wall looked to fragile without it.
Connecting plates for the framing was made out of thin styrene, cut to the shape and then painted with thin mixture of dark grey and brown. NBW casting is from Kadee, painted brown. Paltes are glued to beams using CA and NBW casting is glued into the holes through plates and beams (also using CA).
Final weathering was done with dry pigments (shades of brown, gray and black) placing some lighter shades down by the ballast, and dark rust on and around plates and NBW.
Wall was mounted on the module and blended into surrounding with additional scenic material (ballast, ground cover and few bushes).
