Day 32, Post 3:
.
I cut the molded-on rocks away from one of the Mountains In Minutes random stone tunnel portals. This will make the two of them I am using on this segment not look like twins.
I hooked up all the wires, and decided to run some trains.
This is the first locomotive to cross the big bridge:
I got out a Mikado (still no STRATTON & GILLETTE lettering on this one), and ran it real slow in both directions and routes through the turnout. There was no stalling or any operational issues.
A+ success, except for me nearly cutting the end of my finger off today.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Day 33, Post 1:
This will be my last daily update post. I have completed all of the basic benchwork, tracklaying, and wiring. That was the point of this excersize, to try new ideas and learn as much as possible. I learned about Homasote, I tested my framework design, and I proved a couple of other concepts. This has been time very well spent.
There will be cabinets above the layout, so I added a 12 inch wide shelf to see where the bottom of the cabinets would be, and if there would be enough room to work on the layout with them in place.
I hung angle brackets from the "stud" locations.
I put up two four foot boards to become the "bottom" of the cabinets. I could have done a much neater job, but my finger is killing me right now.
This is the overall view of what I have accomplished so far.
Thank you to all the people that have contributed comments.
There will be more to come about this project. I will keep adding new weekly updates as I work on the scenery and take some pictures, but progress is going to slow down. I need to get back to work!
Weekly update 1:
This week I worked on trackage some more.
I assembled both of the Atlas 9 inch bridges this week and tested them in their final positions.
I made both bridge abutments for the through girder bridge from a cut stone retaining wall that I cut into two pieces. I think this will work just fine.
I make filler ties from cut pieces of 0.060" by 0.100" styrene strips. I cut these to length to match the ties from Atlas sectional track.
I primed these filler ties with Krylon oxide red primer from a spray can and let them dry.
The filler ties are installed in the locations where I removed ties from the Atlas sectional track. Ties were removed from the ends of each section, and where feeder wires needed to be attached.
I needed to fill the holes in the center of the ties that Atlast provides for track nails. I drilled holes for spikes in the proper places. I use Blue/Yellow Kneadatite epoxy for this job. It is easy to work with and is a product that Model Railroaders seem to have ignored.
The scuplted Kneadatite will look fine when it is painted. It sure look a lot better than a big hole in the middle of a tie.
I mixed up the paint for the rails. For those of us that miss Floquil "Rail Brown", I have found that Model Master "Dark Earth" is a very good match.
Then I masked off all of the trackage that I did not want to be painted. This is the trackage that is inside of tunnels.
Then I painted the ties and rails with my airbrush.
This is where working in the garage has a huge advantage. I have never been able to use solvent based paints and an airbrush to paint rails and ties before. This was much better! I need to work out a way to do this indoors when I build the real layout.
I carefully positioned the switch points mid-throw before I painted the turnout. This was to avoid painting the points and getting them stuck in position.
I will post another update next week. As always, comments are welcomed.
Well the painting part is easy - build the big layout in sections, each section being built and painted in the garage before being brought in and atteched to the end of the previous section. Instead of one big monolith of a layout - which it could be, in the end, as you carry other scenery right over the gaps between the modules.
This is the approach being widely talked about over at the other magazine. No one says you have to maintain the ability to remove the layout piece by piece in the same manner it was built.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Being in the house never stops me from using solvent based paint.
Sure, painting cars, locos, structures is done in a paint booth (mostly), but it is what it is. It's not like you are going to do this everyday.
Sheldon
I need to stay aware of my wife's asthma triggers. I think if I paint the track before we go away for a week we should be OK.
It was so much easier I simply need to do it this way from now on.
Kevin,
Model Master 4708 Rail Brown is a close but not exact match to RR tie brown.
Ive personally used Apple Barrel (craft paint) black paint followed by Nutmeg Brown on the rail and burnt umber for the ties. You might be able to figure out how to airbrush these paints, and they may not trigger asthma. Don't know.
Ive also used Rustoleum Camouflage Brown on piles of rail outside, but I handlay everything. Flex track ends up not flexing/you get little spots of exposed rail, so thats probably not a solution.
BMMECNYCModel Master 4708 Rail Brown is a close but not exact match to RR tie brown
Good information. Thank you.
There is a lot more painting and finishing on the track yet to come... stay tuned!
ATLANTIC CENTRALBeing in the house never stops me from using solvent based paint.
Last night I painted the walls of the Walthers roundhouse that I am building for the club. I thought it would be okay to do the painting in the garage and then bring the pieces into the house to dry. The garage is not heated so I couldn't leave them out there. I have done this many times in the past with Polly Scale paints and we never had a problem. Unfortunately, this time I used a cheap can of red oxide primer. There were enough fumes coming off of the drying paint that my wife spent most of the night coughing her lungs out and feeling dizzy. My bad! I'll have to wait for warmer weather if I want to use rattle cans again.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critterUnfortunately, this time I used a cheap can of red oxide primer. There were enough fumes coming off of the drying paint that my wife spent most of the night coughing her lungs out and feeling dizzy.
You are 100% right Dave.
The red oxide primer I use is really bad on my wife. She knows if I spray it outside.
hon30critter ATLANTIC CENTRAL Being in the house never stops me from using solvent based paint. Last night I painted the walls of the Walthers roundhouse that I am building for the club. I thought it would be okay to do the painting in the garage and then bring the pieces into the house to dry. The garage is not heated so I couldn't leave them out there. I have done this many times in the past with Polly Scale paints and we never had a problem. Unfortunately, this time I used a cheap can of red oxide primer. There were enough fumes coming off of the drying paint that my wife spent most of the night coughing her lungs out and feeling dizzy. My bad! I'll have to wait for warmer weather if I want to use rattle cans again. Dave
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Being in the house never stops me from using solvent based paint.
I understand. This is one of the reasons I don not use rattle cans.
They create way more fumes/over spray than an airbrush, even using paints like Scalecoat.
I do most work in front of the spray booth, except for scenery obviously.
My wife sometimes comments on the smell, but it has never caused me or her any respiratory distress.
My old layout was not in the house, but my model building workshop and spray booth were in the basement of the house.
This time around both workshop and layout will be in the basement, I already have a ventilation plan.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL I already have a ventilation plan.
It is good to plan for ventilation. My house will have the master bedroom opposite the garage when the remodel is finished, and I hope that helps a bit. Right now the master bedroom is right next to the garage, and when I come in, my wife can smell the paint fumes.
Weekly Update 2:
There was no weekly update last week. I was too busy visiting train shows and hanging out with the family.
I finished painting the ties. Now I am ready to start scenery.
As we know, this is an experiment in layout contruction. I usually paint my ties a very limited pallet of dark gray and brown. I am going to try to exagerate the colors a little on this segment. If I like the results, I will do this on the real layout. We will not know the final effect until the ballast is in place.
I organized ten colors of my Vallejo paints and got the Masterson Wet Pallette ready.
I paint about 20% of the ties in the darkest gray that I have. In this case is it Vallejo Black-Gray.
On the turnout I paint more of the ties dark. It should look a little better maintained.
Then I Paint about 20% of the ties the next darkest gray. Now about 2 out of 5 ties should be painted. Be sure to keep the color distribution random.
I use an assorted pallette of 8 more colors for the last 60% of the ties. Only very few are painted the lightest colors. I used a mix of gray, brown, and dark red.
In this overall view the nice look of variation of color is evident and on full display.
The stock Atlas sectional track is on the left. The painted track and ties are on the right. It is easy to see the difference all this paint work makes on the inexpensive sectional track. The unpainted track will be inside of a tunnel.
Now on to Rail Gleaming. I clean off all of the paint from the top of the rails and remove any excess solder. Then I use 1,000 grit sandpaper to lightly clean the rails.
Then I get out the 4/0 emery paper. This stuff is awesome for rail polishing. You can sand rough plexiglas with it and make it clear again. It is an extremely fine grit, almost perfectly smooth to the touch.
The tooth is so fine on this paper that the nickel-silver removed from the rail actually looks like chrome on the paper.
Then I use a silver quarter to gleam the rails. I know most people use a stainless steel washer, but I prefer to gleam my track with silver. This Walking Liberty quarter has gleamed a lot of rails. You almost cannot tell what it is anymore.
There your have it, rail preperation is done. I test ran a locomotive on all of the sections to make sure it is all good. No problems.
I am looking forward to experimenting with Hydrocal-30 this week.
Stay tuned.
Not seeing any pictures ?? I can see all of your pictures prior to this last post.
Mike.
My You Tube
mbinsewiNot seeing any pictures
I was having trouble making the "Insert Picture" function work for some reason.
They should be there now.
Yep, now I see'em. That is an old quarter!
mbinsewiThat is an old quarter!
I bought that quarter at a flea market over a decade ago. It was in poor shape when I aquired it, but I sure have made it a lot worse.
Weekly Update 3:
Time to get down to scenery building! I love scenery. This is where the mechanicals get concealed and a model railroad appears.
First things first. I need to protect all that work I did to the trackwork last week. Masking the track is a must, and I am surely not going to let any adhesive touch my silver-gleamed rails. I make masks from manilla paper. I start by embossing the track onto the paper, and then trim the mask to the width of the ties.
Then I tape the mask to the roadbed. No adhesive from the tape will touch the rails or track.
The control panels were dropped back from the mounting openings and wrapped up in manilla paper also. I cannot let plaster get on them and ruin my graphics. I also removed the power packs from the layout.
I love the idea of the Chooch flexible retaining walls, but the self sticking adhesive of the walls is just terrible and it always peels away. I decided to try to secure one in place with wood glue. Hey, this is an experimental piece... I might as well experiment some more.
I brushed on a full coat of Titebond Wood Glue to the cardboard backer piece.
Then I clamped the Chooch retaining wall in place as best as I could.
When the glue dried, I removed the clamps. It seems like there is some hope for this to hold. It looks pretty good. I really hope I can find a way to make these work.
For the bridge abutments in the river area I am going to try another product that is new to me. This is a cut stone wall material from Faller. The stones are embossed into blue foam and painted. They look really good, and can be easily made into any shape needed.
The big bridge should look right on home sitting on this foundation.
The small deck bridge will look good too.
The rock castings went into place. I will fill in the gaps with sculptamold and blend everything together later.
Then I spent a couple days weaving the cardboard supports for the scenery together. This was sure time consuming.
The mountain on the left in taking shape nicely.
The river area is also starting to look like something.
I really thought I would get some plaster down this week, but things just took longer than expected. Maybe I am getting slow.
We should see some plaster very soon.
Very good progress, Kevin.
One item I might question is your use of the Simson galvanized mending plates and joist clips. Murphy's law tells me that you will be blindly reaching up through the benchwork to make some wiring changes and come away with a bloody hand.
I try to keep every screw point or sharp edge concealed anywhere under my benchwork. I still get nicked up sometimes but not too seriously.
Anyway... Nice Work! Carry On, Ed
gmpullman mending plates and joist clips.
The mending plates were used in a couple spots where multiple pieces of dimensional lumber came together. If I would have planned ahead a little bit better, they would not have been needed.
This is something I will need to watch out for when I build the real layout. For this segment they seemed like a quick and easy solution.
I certainly do not want a layout filled with concealed knife blades!
Weekly update #4:
It is time for the plaster cloth to go on over the cardboard forms.
I build my scenery in the following steps:
1) Cardboard former strips
2) Plaster Cloth
3) Hardshell
4) solid plasters for final form
5) joint compound for a smooth finish
I am starting with the plaster cloth this week. The cardboard is barely strong enough to support the cloth, but it works.
I required four rolls of woodland scenics plaster cloth for this layout segment.
I cut it into shapes roughly 8" by 8", 4" by 8", and 4" by 4".
I barely got started when I realized I never built the support platform for the only structure that I will have on the layout segment. Stop the cloth!
I had to put away the plaster supplies, rearrange the garage, and get the woodworking tools back out and set up.
I made a quick riser to support the structure platform
Then I secured this riser into place on the framework.
I added the platform to the top. The structure platform was cut from 3/8" plywood.
After I finished the plaster cloth, this is the progress I have made so far.
I still did not make it to the Hydrocal Hardshell phase of contruction yet. I had a bad delay, and then I decided to put decals on a few train cars.
I will update again next week.
Looks good Kevin!
I wondered about how sturdy your cardboard webbing would be, but if it works, it works. You like to build strong structures so I was surprised that you used something so thin.
May I suggest that you have a look at your local medical supply stores for plaster cloth. If Florida is anything like Ontario it will be much cheaper than the WS offerings, and it is exactly the same stuff. Our club just bought a bunch from a local medical equipment supplier for peanuts.
hon30critterI wondered about how sturdy your cardboard webbing would be, but if it works, it works. You like to build strong structures so I was surprised that you used something so thin.
Hi Dave! The cardboard strips are very weak. They can barely hold the plaster cloth while it sets. I use that style cardboard because it is easier to get flowing scenery profiles than with corrugated or other materials.
The cardboard will support the cloth, in a single layer.
The the plaster cloth will support a layer of hard shell hydrocal.
The hard shell will support a contouring layer of plaster of paris.
Then a smoothing layer of joint compound will be added.
When all the layers are complete, the resulting structure will be very strong... AND HEAVY!
That is why I tested the structure with 300 pounds of floor tiles.
SeeYou190Hi Dave! The cardboard strips are very weak. They can barely hold the plaster cloth while it sets.
I remember my days of building hard-shell scenery. One handy material I had on hand was a roll of sticky-backed, mesh fiberglas drywall tape. Sticking a few lengths of this stuff before the plaster goes down (I used reinforced "Brawny-type" paper towels) adds quite a bit of initial strength and helps to fill voids in the cardboard webbing.
https://tinyurl.com/y78t3dn8
What a difference a layer of skin makes over the terrain forms!
Keep up the good work
Cheers, Ed
I just have to ask, why so many "steps"?
I have done hard shell with Hyrocal for decades, no card board webing, just balled up newspaper or other "stuffing" that gets pulled out later. Learned to do it that way at the Severna Park club. That layout is 60 plus years old, scenery still in great shape.
No plaster cloth, just newspapers dipped in hyrocal, with some supports and "anchors" for it to grab.
Then softer plaster over top for carving, etc.
OR, my preferred method, is still wire window screen as a base. Faster and easier than the cardboard strip thing?
gmpullmanWhat a difference a layer of skin makes over the terrain forms! Keep up the good work
Yes, it was an amazing difference. Thank you for the kind words. My wife is always so amazed how much one of these projects changes as soon as the wood is covered up.
ATLANTIC CENTRALI just have to ask, why so many "steps"?
Well, a lot of it has to do with the way I work. I try to move as fast as possible on a project. I really want to get scenery down. I just cannot wait.
I can get the forms I want very easily with the cardboard strips. I have become very good an weaving these together and getting nice flowing landscapes.
The plaster cloth is very fast to use, and hardens in about an hour. Hardshell goes on fast and can cure overnight.
Then I use thick plaster of paris to actually sculpt the landscape. I blend together anything that does not look right and take care of strange dips or indentations.
After the plaster of paris hardens, I hit it with a drywall rasp and knock down all of the wierd high points. Then I smooth over evrything with a thin layer of drywall joint compound.
I have covered 30 feet of layout like this in a week.
The result is a very nice and smooth scenic base. The biggest disadvantage is how heavy the whole thing turns out to be.
hon30critterMay I suggest that you have a look at your local medical supply stores for plaster cloth.
I found a place where I can buy a massive quantity of plaster cloth for about $150.00, it comes out to about 35% of the cost from Woodland Scenics.
Thanks for the tip.
SeeYou190I found a place where I can buy a massive quantity of plaster cloth for about $150.00, it comes out to about 35% of the cost from Woodland Scenics.
That's great. That is about the cost ratio that we found too. However, we may not need to buy any more plaster cloth at all. One of our members walked into the club on Tuesday night with a huge box of cheesecloth (eight cubic feet maybe) which he is willing to sell to us for peanuts. He also has a large bag of dental plaster to go with it. The dental plaster may be a non-starter though because it has been sitting in storage for about 20 years. It could be one solid piece by now!
He also made an interesting suggestion. My immediate idea was to soak the cheesecloth in the dental plaster and then apply it to whatever surface it is going over. He suggested that we should spray the base with a light coat of glue and then put the cloth on dry. Then, after the glue has had a chance to dry, he suggests 'painting' thinned dental plaster on to the cloth. The theory is that there will be fewer drips and therefore less mess. It's worth a try. Woodland Scenics sells plaster brushes that are designed to hold a fair bit of material.
Weekly Update #5:
Did not get much done this week. I went to a train show and spent the day with my wife on Saturday, and I spent all day Sunday working on the freight car fleet.
I did get some work done suring the week.
Before doing hardshell, I always mask off the tunnel portals. These were left unmasked for the plaster cloth, but hardshell is messier.
Then I opened the box of Hydrocal 30 I bought online.
The mixing rationis 100:38 plaster:water by weight. I carefully measured 100 grams of plaster.
Then 38 grams of water.
I do not know what type of paper this is. We get parts for work wrapped in it, and is makes great hardshell. I have used it for decades, and it is free. I just rip the paper to a usable size.
I do not have any pictures of the actual hardshell going down on the layout segment. It is too messy to even think of using the camera.
I will have more next week.
Weekly Update #6:
I tried something with the hydrocal that I know does not work with plaster of paris. I tried finishing the surface with a grinder. It worked! This stuff dries so rock hard that you can grind it with a coarse diamond bit and it does not clog the grinder. Amazing!
I tackled the riverbed this week. The frist step was to break out a 3/4" wood chisel and remove all of the plaster from the subsurface that will be the river.
Then I made a paper template of the path the river will take. I just taped pieces of notebook paper together and marked the pathway with a black sharpie and cut it out.
I am using the diffuser lense from a florescent light fixture to model the water. This was suggested in another thread last year. It seemed like an interesting idea, and I am experimenting, so I am trying to make it work.
I transfered the shape of the river to the diffuser using the paper template.
Then I cut out the river water. It took a lot of careful work with a box cutter utility knife, but I got it done.
The test fit was OK. The river fit in the alotted space perfectly.
Then I took some drywall compound and applied a thin layer to the plywood to form the bottom of the river. I like using a Bondo spreader for drywall compound. I seem to get better control than when I use a putty knife.
The adventure will continue next week.