Building out the mountain under the observatory

Rock work at Observatory Peak is finished

I can't help but start this post with a weather report as all my modelling these days is quite weather dependent: yesterday, 38°C on the deck, 34°C in the garage, 31°C in the shade, 25°C in the basement. The heat is predicted to remain for a couple more days. What all this adds up to is a bit of subterranean modelling time at higher elevations where it's a pleasant 25.

Stones glued in place to form boundary around the initial CelluClay application

After an initial application of CelluClay to build out the DAS base holding up the observatory some stones were glued in place to provide a boundary and add some natural shape to the feature.

Mountain extension before painting

When I bought my bag of CelluClay back in October 2021 it was so big - the 5lb bag was all that was in stock at my local store - I thought it would last the rest of my life. Well, it turns out with this little project I'm now scraping the bottom of the bag, so to speak, but I feel I have lots of years left in me, although my ability to estimate CelluClay usage is clearly impaired :-)

Moon Mail Madness. Lunar surface is 1/8" thick layer of CelluClay

On a side project I used a considerable amount of CelluClay to create a lunar base for my Moon Mail Madness diorama for an upcoming model show here in town. More on this in a future post.

Mountain side facing the Circular Bridge

Well, further progress in the short term will likely continue to be weather dependent, but I will say I've had to start making some more trees because although I thought I'd made more armatures than I thought I'd need, I realize I need more. More later.