| Fitting the abutments |
 This part was fun. I just used my folding pocket knife to cut away the banks until the abutments were positioned correctly. I’m just a bit out-of-sequence in this photo as the bridge has been painted, weathered and otherwise distressed.
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 No science to this .. just attacked the banks until I was happy with the way the abutments ‘fit’ into the landscape.
My “high tech” tool for this .. you can see to the right. |
| Color on the abutments |
 Put some paint on the abutments. In this photo they are too dark -but the layout lights are brighter so they are not quite as dark as they look here. In any case, the next step was to dry-brush w/tans/off-white to lighten up everything. I figured that this should provide a good shadow base – a color modulation I suppose.
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| Rip Rap |
 Riprap around the abutments. This is decomposed granite. I went to my local Lowes and in the area with the paving stones are bags of ‘paver base’. This is the layer under paving stones. It’s decomposed granite .. and I paid $3.98 for 50-lbs. Hard to beat that!
Once it’s where you like it you set it with white glue and water per the normal method of securing scenery materials. The abutment has been dry-brushed with light colors to blend in the darker areas I had before. That water is only acrylic paint and a clear polycrylic. It has no depth. The appearance is just from paint. |
| Bridge Shoes |
| The last thing I needed before installing the bridge was some bridge shoes. You can read that thread here – Boller & Hodge Bridge Shoe |
