I was somewhat distressed to read the Testor Corporation announcement a few weeks ago regarding the impending demise of Floquil paint.  In fact, they are discontinuing not only the Floquil line, but also the PollyScale and Pactra lines of paint.  I don’t use the latter brands, but Floquil has been my mainstay paint since back in the 60s.

Floquil has undergone “renovation” at least twice since it was brought into the Testors fold, primarily changing the solvent in the paint to something less volatile and smelly.  I haven’t used the latest formulation, but have read that, while still good, it isn’t quite the same as the old Floquil.

Nevertheless, in my paranoia about having to switch to (probably) an acrylic type of paint (which I’ve never had any particular success with), I decided to stock up with enough Floquil to last me for at least a few years.  Fortunately, MicroMark recently ran a sale with their final price being about 30% off the (ridiculous) retail price.  I ordered 28 different colors, getting multiple bottles of my favorites, to hopefully last me a while.

R.I.P. Floquil.

I’ve done a bit more on the layout since my post a few weeks ago, finishing up those tasks last mentioned.  One of the things I’ve noticed about the Homasote now available is the inconsistency of its thickness.  This is most noticeable (and problematic) when butting sheets against each other.  I’ve tried sanding the high side to match the lower edge, but with limited success.  I’ve had better results using drywall compound to build up the low side.  It’s easy, but time consuming because it generally requires 2-4 applications to do a nice job of feathering the two surfaces into something roughly even.  I’ve done a bunch of that where track crosses the boundaries.  I’ve also roughly filled the seams in where there will be no track.

I prefer yellow wood glue for attaching my Homasote to the plywood base.  At wide panels, I use drywall screws to hold the Homasote to the plywood while the glue dries.  Afterward, I remove the screws for re-use elsewhere.  I back-filled all the holes created to date with the mud so I wouldn’t have scenery materials being swallowed up later by those holes.

I’ve started laying more of the raised roadbed for the mainline, and now have the tracks from the west staging yard actually entering the visible portion of the layout.

This weekend I plan to lay more roadbed and perhaps more track.  Stay tuned for further news.

-Jack