Daphetid Tunnels
The double-tunnel I wrote about previously isn't the only tricky scenic spot on the Gorre & Daphetid; the tunnels under Daphetid are very similar in both their arrangement and the modeling challenge they present. The difference is that these are two distinct tunnels—and different tunnel types—situated side-by-side.
Although there's marginally more room between these tracks than the others, there's still much less than what John Allen had owing to the different track geometry. The lower tunnel interior was completed first: a pair of stone wall resin castings were shaped to fit the curve (ten seconds in boiling water), spray-painted flat black, and glued to the Gatorfoam with Loctite PowerGrab adhesive.
The upper tunnel was considerably more work. The first task was making a master for wooden tunnel liner parts, which I cast in resin just like the stone walls. In order to accommodate the upper tunnel liner, the adjacent stone wall casting had to be notched in situ—not a fun process (below). The wooden tunnel liners were then bent to shape, sprayed flat black, and glued in place.
Next, I painted all of the remaining tunnel interior surfaces—including the track—with black gouache. I used gouache because it dries absolutely dead flat, as opposed to acrylic paint, which has a slightly satin finish; brush-painting also afforded far more control than spraying, and could be done indoors. When this dried, I poured N scale cinders along the sides of the track roadbed to fill in the tunnel floor, and bonded it with alcohol and thinned white glue. Finally, I installed the tunnel lids.
The portals came last. The three-piece stone tunnel portal was carefully assembled to precisely fit the space, followed by a simple timber portal that I scratchbuilt from stripwood. Where the two portals overlap is where I had to depart from John Allen's original configuration: with more space, he was able to squeeze a tiny token of rock in between them. My two portals actually merge; I hand-carved stone blocks into the back of one retaining wall to blend with a bit of stonework tacked onto the side, which forms one wing of the wooden portal. It's something of a kludge, but it does add some interesting character, and I'd like to think it's what John might have done had he faced similar space constraints.
Armed with new tunnel liner castings and fresh experience working within really close clearances, I return to work on the troublesome twins.
Original Gorre & Daphetid images courtesy of Peter T. Prunka.