Well fellas it has been quite some time since I've posted some progress photos of the layout construction.Fife's post on the Coffee pot regarding mountains made me rethink the area I've been working on and I decided to scrap the foam cliff face and go with the ceiling tiles instead.This scene is in the far right corner of the train room, there are two tunnel portals, a cement wall, and a bridge planned here. Here you see the tunnel portal for the reversing loop:This is looking back toward the corner, you get a good shot of the cement wall, and the subsurface for the bridge.This shot is just past the reversing loop tunnel portal, eventually there will be a small station and water tower to the right of the track:This is a shot of the cliff face:Some of you may recall I had to redo The Three Sisters Bridges. The steel under girder bridge wasn't doing much for me so I decided to go with some more mountain work... Here you can see some of the work:This is a shot looking back toward the new tunnel portal coming up from the first level:This is the car responsible for all the newly raised tunnel portals:OK - so now back to the cliff. What I'm doing is building the ceiling tile cliff inplace, once I have the cliff face in the shape I like, I take a wire brush and lightly knock off any sharp edges. Then once that is done I've created a soupy paste make from Elmer's White Glue (100%) and saw dust from the drum sander, this helps the glue bond faster to the ceiling tiles and not to be absorbed as much. So far I've done about 1/4 of the cliff's face. From here I'll give it a coat of dark gray, then lighter gray, and then lighter still. Once I have the color I'm looking for I'll give it a spritz of Matte Medium and sprinkle some ground foam over that.
Looking good Brent keep us informed and if I ever get mine going I'll do the same
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
88...looking good. What is the height of the double stack from the rail to the top container?
Celebrating 18 years on the CTT Forum.
Buckeye Riveter......... OTTS Charter Member, a Roseyville Raider and a member of the CTT Forum since 2004..
Jelloway Creek, OH - ELV 1,100 - Home of the Baltimore, Ohio & Wabash RR
TCA 09-64284
Impressive. Of course you are going to run some Susie Q double stacks!, Right?
Dennis
TCA#09-63805
Thanks for the props fellas.Buckeye - the height is 5 1/8" from top of track to top of top container... and MTH, in their infinite wisdom forgot to check the clearance on their single and double tunnel portals - either that or they modeled the portals after those East of the Mississippi River as there isn't enough clearance for the car to pass. They need about 1/4" more clearance for it to look good.
Jon
So many roads, so little time.
Dennis - I may if I can find some! I know C&O never ran these, but the car just looked neat and I couldn't pass it up for the price ($20.00 - guess everyone figured they couldn't run it on their layout).
jonadel88--excellent job, trust me, one can never make tunnels too tall or the corners too wide. Believe me.
Nice job, Brent - now I have Basement envy.....
I am the monster in your head...And I thought you'd learn by now, It seems you haven't yet.I am the venom in your skin --- Breaking Benjamin
That's the style, B! Lookin' sharp. May have to bring Lexi over to paint those walls.
Picture number 4 is remmeniscent of the west portal of Sand Patch Tunnel. The cut leading up to the bore is a brick red color. Perhaps check out some photos of that location before committing to the grey.
I feel a work session in the near future.
About time you got some work done. Look at all I've done this year. You are getting behind.
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
Lookin good Brent! Glad you were able to get going again!
Kurt
Finally! The cliff face is looking good. I'm looking forward to seeing more progress.
don
THis sure looks great. I love the decisions you made about how to track placement..
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
fifedog That's the style, B! Lookin' sharp. May have to bring Lexi over to paint those walls. Picture number 4 is remmeniscent of the west portal of Sand Patch Tunnel. The cut leading up to the bore is a brick red color. Perhaps check out some photos of that location before committing to the grey. I feel a work session in the near future.
To achieve the "Red Rocks" color in Cumberland, I first painted the ceiling tiles white (no reason you couldn't use grey..) with latex (gots to have this or the tile will "drink" up the acrylics). Then I used a dark brown artist acrylic to add the color (several coats applied to get the color I wanted). Then a thinned down wash of black artist acrylic to fill in the joints, cracks and fissures.
Instead of posting suggestions, you would think that old HOUNDDOG that lives near you would come and help. After all, we all know he can do good work as he has been featured in CTT. Too busy scratching fleas I guess.
NICE BRENT U DA MAN!!! Keep up DA GOOD WORK!
laz57
After a couple days, here are some more updates.Here I was testing the look against the Chessie Special:Here the entire cliff face has received a coat of the glue & sawdust mixture.There is no glue between the layers, just on the cliff face. This technique seems to really hold up. It is still slightly flexible (the right edge against the tunnel portal could use a screw to pull it tight to the framing, but I'm leaving it as is for now to see if the rest of the scenery will prevent having to damage the cliff face. It is still strong, so this is why I'm not too worried).Here it is Saturday morning with a coat of Stone Gray paint:Close up shot:Overview:Put the Chessie GP-30s on the track and put the water tower back in place:Coming out of the tunnel portal:When this is done I think the scene will be rather impressive. The scene also took shape very quickly, you are looking at about 3.5 to 4 feet, approx 7 inches high, that was constructed in under 3 hours to this point. Over the next few days the transformation should be quite dramatic.
Go, Brent, Go! Looking really good!
RIP Chewy - best dog I ever had.
After the light gray was applied I applied a coat of 'Rusty Rail', here it appears a bit too orange but it dries about 2 shades darker.
With the 'Rusty Rail' still wet, I applied a coat of 'Lava Gray'... this really blended nicely to give the base color I was looking for.This shot provides a good depiction of the 'Rusty Rail' toned down with the 'Lava Gray'Again with the paint still wet I splattered on some Autumn Gold and Earth Blend flocking:Once the cliff face looked good I moved down to the base and started with some brown paint I had left over from messing up the basemoldings in the Master Bathroom - makes a better base for dirt than base moldings):With the brown still wet, it received a flocking of Conifer Green and the Earth Blend:With the basics for the ground cover complete, some ballast for the track:Then it was time for a test shot with the Kitties:There will eventually be a rural station beside the water tower, so till that arrives, is built, painted, and in place the rest of the ground cover in this area will not be completed. The tunnel portal also needs a cap and then weathering, and above the tunnel portal we need some additional hill and trees around the oil pump.
Turned out nice, B. May even want to place some green clump truf sporadically in some of those nooks. FYI, the B&O Sandpatch (SA) brick tower would be situated pretty near to your above photo angle.
I was thinking about the tower, but couldn't find one that was all brick that resembled it...
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