Flattening the O-Gauge Zen Garden, Part 2

It wasn't long after I posted Flattening the O-Gauge Zen Garden that I decided to make an additional change. P.T.F. Designs offered a flat that not only had the dimensions I was looking for but the design as well.

The Incandescent Lamp Electric Company's building had a long loading dock. I thought it would look great set against the straight part of the outer track loop.

Flat means flat!

Of course, this was a flat. So all I had was an image of the dock -- on the same plain as the rest of the structure (see image, right).

Fortunately, building out the dock wasn't a difficult task or even an especially lengthy one.

Gathering the resources

I did two sets of image/mirror image.

The first step was to make scans of the dock area. Using Photoshop, I made sure the images were exactly the right length. I also reversed the image.

The paper printouts needed mounting. I had several scrap pieces of hardware store rulers, which turned out to be the perfect backing material. The rulers were the same height as the dock image.

The dock addition is basically just a small rectangular box. I cut all the pieces to fit, and then glued the paper dock images to them.

The overlap from the sides
cover the wood backing of the front.

Building the base

The joints were constructed carefully. On the sides of the dock, I trimmed the paper so it overhung the wood back by 1/4". This covered the exposed wood of the dock front.

I also glued a small block at each corner. These ensured the joins were truly square. And they provided additional strength to the joint.

The finished box. Note the corner
braces don't exend all the way
up. That space will be needed for
the next step.

 Remember I had reversed images of the dock? Here's why. For the sides, I used the reversed images. There's no visual break between the grass line and brick patterns at the corner. The image seems to just wrap around it.

If the side had been really long, I would have needed a different solution, as the mirroring would have been obvious. But for a 1-1/2" section with limited visibility, I think this works.

It's the same technique I used before in Part One.

Creating the dock floor

There are score lines on
this surface -- really!

For the dock flooring, I used a piece of scrap Foamcore. I could have just covered the dock with paper, but I wanted something more substantial. I wanted the option of placing figures and goods on the dock (some of which could be diecast metal). It had to be sturdy. 

I scored board patterns into the surface. They don't show that well in the photos. But in real life, they provide a realistic texture to the Foamore's surface. 

I also carefully notched the underside of the dock floor. I wanted it to sit flush on the dock. The finished piece fit so snugly I didn't need to glue it at all. 

Before painting the dock floor,
I did a test fit. It fit perfectly

Just one step remained for this phase -- painting the dock floor. This was another instance where I used the reversed images. I had cut out just two relatively short pieces from either end,

I had plenty of the image left to experiment with. The loading dock has grayed wooden bumpers on it.

I mixed white and black paint together to match that shade of gray. The simplest way to test the mix was to dab it onto the scrap image.

When the paint blended seamlessly with the image, I was ready to paint the dock floor.

Paint-matching was easy.
I had plenty of printed
images to test with.

 Once the paint had dried, all that was left was to finish the assembly and attach the built-out dock to the building flat.

I'm happy with the result. The building looks like it belongs in the space  I did need to shift the flat I had previously built. And while that all looked fine, the American Flyer station that occupied that corner looked a little crowded.

That's something I'll need to address.

Another time.