Rail plates

The rails for the train require plates and spikes to make them look authentic. These will be glued into place but once finished with the rust paint will look pretty convincing.

 The vectors were pretty easy and all created inside EnRoute.

I created a flat relief with a bevelled edge using the bevel tool by limiting the height.

Then the spike was added using the dome tool. Once again I limited the height to give it a little flat top.

I needed enough pieces to fill a 4’x8′ sheet of 1″ thick 30 lb Precision Board and EnRoute makes this easy with the duplication tool. I set the spacing to suit the tool size I was using.

There wasn’t much detail so I got away with using a 3/8″ ball nose bit and an 80% overlap. Some minor tool marks are visible but it’s no big deal in this application. Once the tool paths were done I sent it off to the MultiCam.
The two halves of the rails will be glued up and painted. The rail plates will be added on top of each wooden rail tie.
I’ll post some pics of the finished product when we are done. Stay tuned…
dan

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.