In an effort to make my crossing gate and electrical control box look more prototypical, I decided to blend the black base into my foam layout so that the gate and electrical box were both flush with the ground. You don't see many gates with large black bases in real life.
I started by mocking up the electrical connections between the base, the dwarf signal, and power to make sure everything worked ok and to set the gate speed and noise options by sliding the pin connectors on the bottom of the base. My gates came as pair that can be hooked up to work in tandem, but I didn't have a good location for that and you can use them individually, which is what I decided to do. The gate worked like it should, so I placed the base in a location I liked and marked its outline in the foam with a pencil. (pic 1)
I then cut through the foam with a sharp utility knife and popped out the foam piece. I next drilled two holes through the plywood - the smaller one to pass the wiring through and the larger one to be able to access the pin connectors from underneath the layout if I ever want to change the speed and sound options (pic 2). The depth of my foam (1") is taller than the thickness of the black gate base, so I cut some strips of wood to make up the difference so the base was basically flush with the surrounding foam. I cut and arranged them so I would still have access to the pin connectors and glued them in place (pic 3). I then covered the hole in the black base with painter's tape and used museum wax to affix the base to the wood strips - I didn't want to permanently glue it in place in case I ever needed to remove it.
I then masked off a section of track near the gate and applied some vinyl spackling compound around the perimeter of the base to smooth out the seams and gaps, being careful not to get any on the gate base or electrical box (pic 4). After it hardened, I sanded around the perimeter to smooth out the transition from base to ground - you don't have to get too cute with leveling everything because - well, mother nature doesn't make everything perfect level anyway.
I next painted the base and surrounding area with brown earth paint and sprinkled green and yellow turf on the area while the paint was still wet (pic 6). Because some of the compound and brown paint got on the road, I went back after it dried and repainted the road in silver cement color (pic 5).
I've done this procedure with other accessories like my MTH Gateman and I think it came out good and hope this is of help to anyone looking to do the same.
