James River Branch: Round the Bend

The James River, Part 2 of 2: The River Goes 'Round the Bend

After a fit of what I can only describe as solo brainstorming, I decided to add a mirror to the layout to extended the river 'round the bend. Of course, all of this meant another round of changes for the layout, which includes altering the far end of Front Street with an intersection, revising some of the finished scenery on the other side of the river, and building a road bridge to disguise the top edge of the mirror.

Random modeling tip: The specific type of mirror I'm using for this trick is called a "first-surface" mirror. All mirrors have "silvering," which is a thin coat of aluminum. For ordinary mirrors, this is applied to the back of the glass to protect the fragile coating. But on a first-surface mirror, the silvering is exposed. This makes the mirror very delicate and prone to damage, but it also makes it ideal for modeling because an ordinary mirror will be obvious by its telltale signs: first, it will have two reflections, the primary reflection from the silvering, plus a faint secondary one from the surface of the glass; and second, because of the glass, there's always a gap between real objects and their reflections. A first-surface mirror eliminates these problems and creates a perfect illusion. They are available from stained glass suppliers.

After evaluating the locale with a scrap of first-surface mirror, I determined where the scenery would need to be cut back in order to create room for the mirror. This is necessary so that the reflection of the bridge piers is correct: if the mirror was simply placed behind completed piers, they would then be doubled in size. So the idea is to make half-piers and let the mirror complete them; the bridge surface, however, is being modeled in full (to hide the top of the mirror), which means the mirror will run under the center of the bridge.

Another consideration I've had to keep in mind is making the mirror removable. This is necessary in order to clean it, since it's a certainty that it will collect dust and dirt over time, and cleaning it in situ is out of the question. Plus, during the construction process, the mirror will be installed backwards to protect it from damage, then flipped around when the scenery that abuts it is completed.

This project was last updated on 22 October 2009. More as it happens.

A scrap of mirror is temporarily placed in position across the end of the river.

This view shows how the river will be extended perfectly by the mirror.

The scenery is cut back so the mirror can be centered under the bridge.