Hello. I have bought two Tunnel portals, but want retaining walls coming away from at least one. I have seen some online to buy, but also forms to cast my own. There is also videos about making your own. What is your feeling about it?
My view is that it may be dependant upon the type of tunnel portal that you wish to use. A purchased retaining wall from the same manufacturor would likely match the type of construction of the tunnel portal (cut stone, random stone, a certain style of poured concrete...). I have built retaining walls, mostly of the wood variety) and have purchased them. In that they tend to quickly "blend in" to the background of the scene, I now would be more likely to purchase them as construction can be time consuming. On the other hand, if it is an unusual location with odd elevations, then build as needed.
Bill
In the old days, I bought one, Chooch I think, and made a rubber mold and cast my own out of hydrocal. I colored them with an India Ink wash and liked them better than the original. I do not remember what latex mold making stuff I used. Here is another thread:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/168745.aspx
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Thanks Bill, I am still ruminating over the nest plan.
LION build wals of him own. Him pake cardboard, wood or plastic wall, him apply latex caulk to wall and then him put in one by one the random field stones. Buy stones at pet store. Buy washed natural stones, attach to wall one by one. Takes time it does, the results are good, and ewe can say I builded it myself.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
To get the look I wanted I bought a Chooch cut stone wall and cut out my two side retaining walls, which are an angle and almost like a set of steps up and down. By luck I was able to make one wall = two side retaining walls. I can tell you that Chooch resin is NOT easy to cut and emits a powerful odor when it is cut.
For another project I went back to an old technique by prolific modeler and author E.L. Moore, who prided himself on the low cost of his models. I took balsa wood and a wood burning pen and created the stone myself with the burning pen, having first inked in the parallel lines and verticle separations between stones. The burning pen tends to seal the deep grain of the balsa, and when I was done a light application of white glue further sealed the grain for final paint and weathering. Does it look as good as the Chooch? Well ....Nah. Does it look OK? Yep.
Dave Nelson
Retainng walls can be made a number of ways, 6x6 or larger stripwood stacked or cribbed , brick walls made from molds or carved individually into a smooth wall, stacked rocks and boulders, can even make your own strips the size of blocks and cut them down or buy baby blocks, can even take some scaled size trees and sink them into a plaster of paris wall.
Lynn
Present Layout progress
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/290127/3372174.aspx#3372174
One more vote for hacking something to fit your location. Otherwise, you'll build the scnery to fit the purchased walls and that usually isn;t as effective as making your scenery fit as best you can, then using the retaining walls to hold back what fit the space you're working in.
This doesn't mean to not use any you can buy, but to see them as raw materials to adapt to your needs as several seem to have done. Here's a couple more examples. On the right in this one are IIRC some AIM bridge abutments I repurposed. On the left is some cribbing that was leftover from some other project I don't recall now.
The lower cribbing here was IIRC a Chooch casting that I hacked some to fit the need. The "rocks" in between are cast into the cribbing. The stuff holding up the Haymarket Tram House on top was made from a bunch of Grandt cribbing sections, good if you need lots of timbered cribs like in the San Juans or California. The rock you see peeking out of it is the real thing, collected in the San Juans and sifted to appropriate size to fill the cribbing.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Wow Mike this looks great!
Thanks, Joe.
Retaining walls just need a little thinking to put together a solution to fit your specific need. Get some materials and give it a try. If you're just starting this sort of thing with your scenery, buying several different solutions won't be wasted, what you don't use now will come in handy later. These could range from buying strip wood to cut and stain to entire preassembled cribworks like Chooch sells. Sometimes having several options on hand helps you work things out, too, because having the parts in front of you helps you visualize the end result more easily, if your budget can afford to spend to have more options.
BTW, the Walthers part# on the Grandt crib sections, as they're called, is 300-5260 (or just 5260 with Grandt). You get three in each pack. No instructions, but they are made so the can snap together, which makes building some up to get a look at how the finished scene would look like is easy.
If you just want concrete walls, you can make simple molds out of foamboard from the Dollar Tree store and some waterproof sandpaper as the base. At the Dollar store get some LAs Totally Awesome spray cleaner and soak both sides of the foamboard. Wait a minute and then peel the outer layers of paper off the foam. Cut it to the shape you want.
I like the plaster a bit thinner than what the directions call for. After pouring it into the mold, place a pane of glass over it to get the backside flat and force the plaster into the nooks and crannies.
Steve S
I'm also a fan of hydrocal castings. I made this turntable pit wall by pouring a casting into a commercial mold, waiting about 10 minutes for it to set up but not dry solid, and then curving the casting around a form.
Of course, it's easier to cast straight walls.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
You can also scribe brick and rockwork into extruded foam and colour as you desire. I have done it on thicker foam and then with an electric knife cut the scribed part off like cutting a slice of bread. When you get a thin slice it also curves nicely. You can get a lot of brick walls off a scrap of foam.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I have made flat retaining walls and abutments by drawing a stone pattern on a scrap piece of drywall and then using a utility knife to score the joints between the stones thru the paper cover into the plaster below. I then pul/peel/scrape the paper off the face of the "stones" to leave a rough surface. I paint the surface a base coat and then use washes to stain/tint the individual stones. Works great for large cut stone retaining walls.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Here in London we have few model shops but several excellent architectural supply stores (more architects than railway modellers in London) - they have 5mm thick sheets of blue foam. Simply scribe the pattern you want into the foam with a blunt pencil, cut and fit to your layout, wash with a coat of diluted PVA glue, and then paint it. This works best with field stone patterns but I think you use it for other things too.
dehusman I have made flat retaining walls and abutments by drawing a stone pattern on a scrap piece of drywall and then using a utility knife to score the joints between the stones thru the paper cover into the plaster below. I then pul/peel/scrape the paper off the face of the "stones" to leave a rough surface. I paint the surface a base coat and then use washes to stain/tint the individual stones. Works great for large cut stone retaining walls.
Dave I like this idea as I have several sections of drywall left over from a remodel a few years ago. I may try my hand at this.
Joe Owens dehusman I have made flat retaining walls and abutments by drawing a stone pattern on a scrap piece of drywall and then using a utility knife to score the joints between the stones thru the paper cover into the plaster below. I then pul/peel/scrape the paper off the face of the "stones" to leave a rough surface. I paint the surface a base coat and then use washes to stain/tint the individual stones. Works great for large cut stone retaining walls. Dave I like this idea as I have several sections of drywall left over from a remodel a few years ago. I may try my hand at this.
This is a great method. I have done it as well, but one time found the drywall was too thick to fit between the track and the hill, after I had done the carving. This was the time I discovered the foam method, I was able to slice it thin.
The retaining wall, ramp wall, and bridge were started out as 1/2" drywall, scribbed and finish with a thin layer of 15 minute drywall mud, then painted and weathered.
Mike.
My You Tube
I built several retaining walls using stryene sheet, strips and textured sheets as well as some flexible stone sheet (Chooch?) as shown on these photos.
-Bob
This one is using flexible stone sheets I think from Woodland Scenics mounted on styrene sheet and capped with real stone blocks (don't remember mfg)
This one is styrene brick sheet on a wood base with styrene columns and cap.
this is a purchased cast plaster set I think from Woodland Scenics.
This is textured stone styrene sheet (Plastrut?) mounted on .060" styrene sheet with columns and a cap pc.
BTW, I bought a 4 x 8 sheet of .060 and .040 styrene from a local plastic supply house for about $30 and have over half of it left for more projects.
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
I can not thinknof where i saw it but somebody talked about using a foam tjey found at a crafts store that took detail carvong well. Along with paint. The drywall idea is great. Cheaper and quicker than styrene building plus for concrete it has the texture. One retaining wall you.could do is the rcok cliff face with the large anchor bolts. Cripple creek makes great rubber rock faces. And with a quick scratch build of the large bolts. Quick easy common wall.
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
NVSRRCripple creek makes great rubber rock faces.
That would be Cripplebush Valley Models RubberRocks: http://www.cripplebush.net/
They're great for making liftouts, too.
This one is around 6' long and is easy and light to lift. The armature was made of extruded foam. The Rubber Rocks were hot-glued onto it. Then Sculptamold was used to smooth and blend the edges and ends.
The scene today.
Joe Owens Hello. I have bought two Tunnel portals, but want retaining walls coming away from at least one. I have seen some online to buy, but also forms to cast my own. There is also videos about making your own. What is your feeling about it? I did not read all of the posts thouroughly but my idea is because it works is drop ceiling tiles glued toghether. i did this with old ceiling tiles and it works excellent and the cost is almost zip. I then went to home depot for a half gallon of returned paint and it was 4 bucks and the time consumed was around a half hr including the ride there. Time saving is also a a part of this hobby.
Hello. I have bought two Tunnel portals, but want retaining walls coming away from at least one. I have seen some online to buy, but also forms to cast my own. There is also videos about making your own. What is your feeling about it? I did not read all of the posts thouroughly but my idea is because it works is drop ceiling tiles glued toghether. i did this with old ceiling tiles and it works excellent and the cost is almost zip. I then went to home depot for a half gallon of returned paint and it was 4 bucks and the time consumed was around a half hr including the ride there. Time saving is also a a part of this hobby.
drop ceiling tiles glued together plus returned paint. total cost and time 5 bucks and under a half hr.
This is turning into a very informative topic. It would be nice if some ideas could be included for bridge abutments as well, wood and concrete , cement blocks etc . pictures would be a super bonus.
I build concrete bridge abutments from styrene sheet.
There isn't much to them, really. Just flat sheet assembled to fit the bridge, with the overall size and shape estimated from prototype photos of similar bridges.
This one has additional retaining walls adjacent to the abutments, built from wood bridge ties or 1/8" square basswood.
Abutments and wing walls around this bridge were assembled from more stripwood. I think I used 4X12s, plus some bridge ties for the vertical bracing.
The abutment on the right side of this trestle is cribbing, again using wood bridge ties. More cribbing supports another track farther up the slope, and next to that is a stone wall that i carved into plaster with a utility knife.
Rob Spangler
Nice work Rob.
Wow.
I really love all the options to a similar problem.
Here are a couple of my contribution.
The rock wall. I bought a section and made a rubber mold and cast several sections. I cut off the post on one side and joined them together.
The concrete bridge supports are wood blocks carved for looks. The concrete forms show and cracks are inevitable.
All good work Guys
Lee
cut some styrafoam to shape and cover it tightly with plaster gauze and put the color in the water for the plaster gauze and it will also save time for coloring it.
Here is a part of the 'stone' wall in my harbor, made from some pink insulation foam. I made the stone joints with just paint and some light scored lines with a dull point plus other 'pressings' to give a little texture to the individual stones. All the paint is done with cheap acrylic paints.