Hello folks.
In addition to normal stuff like going on holiday and redecorating the dining room, I have added some more scenery to the layout, in particular some rocks and hills.
The rocks were cast from WS moulds and cut to suit, and the hills were made from plaster bandage shaped over carved polystyrene sheets. When dry, the plaster was painted with brown 'tester pots' from the local hardware shop (B&Q) and earth scatter was sprinkled on while the paint was wet, to give a basic impression of landscape.
This will eventually be hidden when I get started on the grass and shrubbery ('Ni!')
Here are some progress photos starting with the foreground stuff-
Southern freight house in situ.
Rock outcrop
Rainwater outflow, yet to be detailed.
East yard with rock outcrop
Bridge photos to follow.....
Jon
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Thanks David.
The scratchbuilt bridge (thanks to Dale Burns of the Alrails Yahoo group for the photos) hides the gap through the backscene and the hills will eventually be heavily wooded to match the backscene photos.
I also spent some spare time detailling and weathering the Proto GP38-2.
The scenery continues behind the backscene and will eventually have its own tree-covered backscene
Some overall shots to follow...
Finally a few overall shots of the new scene to bring things up to date. I will be continuing with the basic scenery around the freight house for a while yet, and will post more progress shots as I go.
And finally a couple of Birmingham Southern locos.
Jon.....Looks good!!
I really like the ex.Railbox/CSXT. Could you send me some pictures of it????
"Rust, whats not to love?"
As usual, your new changes looks wonderful!
Hopefully, after you get the shrubbery in place, you won't be tasked with chopping down a large tree with a herring :-)
Grin,Stein
steinjr Hopefully, after you get the shrubbery in place, you won't be tasked with chopping down a large tree with a herring
Hopefully, after you get the shrubbery in place, you won't be tasked with chopping down a large tree with a herring
Robby P. I really like the ex.Railbox/CSXT. Could you send me some pictures of it????
I did three railbox cars using similar weathering techniques, basing them on photos in the Railroad Picture archives.
You can see more of my modern freight cars by following the link to my Railimages albums using the link at the bottom of this post.
Jon, it's amazing what scenery does. No longer the Plywood Central! But I know a lot of work is ahead of you. Enjoy it.
Wolfgang
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Jon, this one´s turning into a jewel. Nice of you to let us participate in the making of it!
I've spent the weekend finishing off the basic scenery on board one - styrene and plaster bandage hills plus plaster surface in the yard. Ive also finished off the ballasting in the yard.
The area behind the freight house will be wooded, to blend in with the backscene
The yard will eventually be overgrown, difficult to imagine at the moment.
A couple of views from behind where the backscene sits
Next for some photos of the painted and ballasted yard
Once the white bits were covered over, the scene started to look a little more realistic, even though there is no vegitation to speak of, although I propped up some old plastic trees behind the freight house to get a visual effect of what things might look like.
In the first 2 photos, I temporarily placed a small patch of some of the ground cover I will be using - visible in the foreground
I've also been patching a GP38 into CSX, although I still have to weather the crap out of it.
Lastly for this weekend, I took a few updated shots of the GP38-2 now that the bridge has been bedded in and the ballasting has been completed.
I also remembered to turn on the DCC this time!
I thought I'd have a go at adding foliage to some of the bare trees, so I knocked out a couple of Autumnal/Fall trees this evening.
The basic 'tree' is a flat plastic example from either Heki or Noch (I've had them for 20 years), twisted to shape.
I glued some fibre strands to the ends of the branches, sprayed the lot with the cheapest hairspray I could find, then sprinkled some medium ground cover onto the tacky mess to represent leaves.
Finally, I sprayed 'track dirt' to the undersides of the branches to tone down the 'in your face' COPPER colour.
Here's some photos of the trees in 2 different locations. There will eventually be some ground cover.
Back to the workbench to make some more.
Very nice Jon!
I've been following your work for some time now. I think this has been your best work so far.
Thanks for sharing.
Have Fun.... Bob.
Bob grech Very nice Jon! I've been following your work for some time now. I think this has been your best work so far.
Thanks for that Bob, it's quickly taking shape. I can't wait to get some more trees done and start adding some ground cover. So little time....
I added a couple more trees to the layout using 'the sea foam/hairspray/ground flock' method. the scenery is starting to take shape.
The trees are just added temporarily until I get some ground cover in place.
Next - more trees
With the scenery and trees on board 1 coming along nicely, I thought I'd do a bit of catch-up with the scenery on board 2, which was starting to lag behind.
Most of todays work involved glueing down the styrene blocks and cutting them to shape, messy but necessary.
I also cut and fitted scenic fascias from foam-core and fitted them behind the styrene. Once the glue dries, Ill get working on the plaster bandage and a few more rock outcrops.
jon grant Jon
Even at this point, your modeling is awesome! Simply incredible. The thought that you're only partly finished and that its going to get even better still, is simply incomprehensible!
John
jwhitten Even at this point, your modeling is awesome! Simply incredible. The thought that you're only partly finished and that its going to get even better still, is simply incomprehensible!
Thanks John,
The green bits in the last photo and most of the brown in the yard will not be visible, if everything goes to plan - Mother Nature and 'Jack in the Green' are coming.
jon grant
This project is looking great. Can you share you technique for embedding track in the paved surface? I've got some street running planned in the not-too-distant future, so any advice would be very helpful. Thanks.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasley This project is looking great. Can you share you technique for embedding track in the paved surface? I've got some street running planned in the not-too-distant future, so any advice would be very helpful. Thanks.
After laying the WS 'Smooth It', I levelled off the surface with an old metal table knife. While the plaster was still drying out I ran an old freight car with metal wheelsets over the rails. Choose a wheelset that has fairly thick flanges - old Athearn, Accurail, etc. I had to apply some downforce on the car, so it would cut through the plaster.
Once the Smooth-It was dry, I sanded the surface so it was 1/2mm below the top of the railtop, and cleaned out the inside of the rails with a jewellers screwdriver. Past experience has shown that, if the plaster is above the top of the rail, the painted surface comes off when you clean the track at a later date.
jon grantjwhitten Even at this point, your modeling is awesome! Simply incredible. The thought that you're only partly finished and that its going to get even better still, is simply incomprehensible! Thanks John, The green bits in the last photo and most of the brown in the yard will not be visible, if everything goes to plan - Mother Nature and 'Jack in the Green' are coming. Jon
Your technique for carving up the foam and stacking it to make hills looks interesting. Do you just cut it to the approx shape, glue it together, and then attack it with a knife or surform tool? Or do you have some other method?
jwhitten Your technique for carving up the foam and stacking it to make hills looks interesting. Do you just cut it to the approx shape, glue it together, and then attack it with a knife or surform tool? Or do you have some other method? John
Hi John.
You said it pretty much as is. Being a bit tight with my money, I only cut the WS styrene sheet deep enough to cover the front of the landscape, with a couple of inches excess extending behind, for the next layer to sit on - some folks cut the styrene sheet all the way back to the baseboard edge, which uses up a lot of expensive styrene sheet.
I cut the styrene with an old hacksaw blade or sharp Stanley knife blade and cut the styrene at roughly the angle of the hill. I build up the layers gradually and, when they are well and truly glued, use the hacksaw blade and a sanding block to contour further. I hide the void created behind the hill with a sheet of foam-core board cut to profile (gator board in the US, possibly)
Woodland Scenics do an instruction DVD/video which probably covers all these points and more. MR also covered hill-making a couple of months back for their N scale project and the principle is the same.
Hope this helps
A bit more progress - plaster bandage now covers the bare hills and the basic ground cover was sprinkled onto wet paint
Looking from the bridge end
looking great, very realistic