In the area where this bridge is to be placed, I had already installed the MDF sub-roadbed and the ceiling tile on top of that. This was done to make sure that each side of the bridge area would line up perfectly. This next photo shows the area where the bridge will be. You might be able to make out the faint lines indicating where the cuts will be made. I cut the section out using a hand saw.

The abutments appear to be made out of cut stone. From studying the photos I have found, my estimate is that each of these stones measures about 16 inches high by 36 inches wide. I'm not sure how deep/thick they are. However, weeds and grasses will probably cover up the tops, so their depth is not too critical to me. The design diagram below shows the arrangements of the stone for a single-track plate girder bridge abutment (measurements are in inches). Again, by looking at prototype photos, the top row of the stack of stones is about three times the width of the ties, so about 20ft (6m). For the models I am building I need about 13ft (4m) from bottom of the ties to the top of the modeled creek, so eleven rows of stone are needed. By offsetting them with each row, the bottom row winds up being 49ft (15m) wide. The top three rows of stone are set back so as to allow for overhang support of the girder span (see prototype reference photo above).

Because I will be making two bridges, needing a total of four abutments, I decided to cast them. I have written an article about how I made the mold for these abutments. Preparation for installation included filing down the bottoms of the casts until they were even with the tops of the ceiling sub-roadbed. I made sure that they are vertical (as shown in the next photo).

To get the castings to be the correct height, I filed them down with two flat files. One is very rough and removes a lot of material. The other one is more gentle and allows for delicate adjustments. It generates a lot of plaster dust. The brass brush shown in the photo was used to clean the files every so often. I also made sure the benchwork surface upon which the castings reside was flat and smooth.

I kept filing down the casts until they were even with the top of the sub-roadbed, as shown in the next photo. This takes a bit of time and quite a bit of elbow grease.

The next set of photos show all the layers of paint I applied to make the castings look as real as possible. I decided to show them all so that I have a record of what I did (so that I can duplicate the steps in the future). The first thing I did was to cover the entire casting with India ink diluted in rubbing alcohol. The purpose of this layer is to bring out the dark shadows of the mortar lines.

For the remainder I used acrylic paint thinned way down by taking a very small amount of paint and stirring it into a small container filled with water. The first layer of paint is "Raw Sienna". On the left side of this cast I accidentally dipped too deep into the container and wound up with some solid paint on the bottom of the container. Subsequent paint layers should minimize this mistake.

Next was some highlighting done with "Burnt Umber".

Then some more highlighting with "Burnt Orange".

The prototype photo above shows quite a bit of green, probably from algae, so I tried to simulate that with "Hooker's Green Deep Hue".

I then covered the whole casting with a thin layer of "Yellow Oxide" to give it a more rusted, yellow look.

Now I am done with all the bright colors. It was time to focus on the years of traffic on the bridge above. I used very diluted black acrylic paint to make the heavier vertical marks. Once again, on the other casting (barely visible on the right) I accidentally dipped too deep and got a little bit of solid black paint on the brush.

I then applied several layers of diluted "Charcoal Gray" over the entire casting. I added even more layers (probably around 7 or 8 total) on the bottom two rows of stone. The idea is that previous high-water lines have deposited extra debris on the stone's surface.

The final layer is a dry-brush application of pure white acrylic paint (undiluted). This brings out the edges of the stone and makes them look like rock. It also is used to identify streaks of bird dropping.

The next two photos are close-ups of the abutments.