Good morning
Made some progress on the interior arch pannels.
I Scotch taped the stensils to the styrene to be able to cut them out with a scissors. The exacto took way to long the last time.
After cutting them out, the four seams where fused together with styrene solvent. Half inch strips of 3M packing tape we're put on the back of the seams after cleaning with alcohol.
I had to finesse the styrene panels to loosen up the retention so they would bend easier into the arches. The panels were glued with E6000 to the styrene ribs. I found out the hard way E6000 melts foam. That is why styrene strips were glued onto the face of the foam ribs with 2 in 1 poly seam seal. The eight corner strips were not done yet in this picture.
After the arch pannels were installed I used a wallpaper knife to trim the edges and a light sand.
Are you seeing what I'm seeing? Skateboard Park! The professional skateboarders skate to the left
Next I have to come up with some kind of trim to hide the seams. I have plenty of prefinished styrene left over but it's going to be tricky.
Thanks for looking.
TF
That is some excellent progress, TF! Bravo
The PRR was a big user of this type of stone arch bridge. Of course, lots of railroads chose this type of construction.
Excellent work, my friend nice tutorial photos, too!
Cheers, Ed
I agree with ED - Great progress and tutitorial! Looking forward to seeing more of your excellent work.
DEW
Looks great TF. I'm trying to think what you could use for a trim on the arches.
Cut out individual stones from the same material, and stack them around the arch, with a big keystone at the top?
Mike.
My You Tube
I'd say 'rusticated trim' which is using thicker stones, dressed with a rougher outer surface, along the edges -- they would need to be thick enough to hide the physical brick arch edges, probably a few courses deep...
so thicker pieces of stone arranged around the opening as suggested, sized so their 'seams' line up with the exterior brickwork. You would not need a 'keystone' feature at the arch top because the stone isn't structural in a meaningful sense -- but you could sure put one there if you like the appearance!
Great-looking results, TF!
If you're worried about the joints between the arches and the face of the viaduct, you might try Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty. It comes in a tube, and when you open it, there's usually a lot of liquid (thinner) at the top. The info on the tube suggests kneading the capped tube to mix the contents, but I've had good results simply by dipping a small screwdriver into the tube, and withdrawing a clump of the filler, along with some of the thinner. I mix it a bit on a scrap of sheet aluminum, then apply it using either the screwdriver or a suitable X-Acto blade (the chisel type is quite useful). The stuff I use is red, but it may come in other colours.
It dries quite quickly, is easy to sand, and can be scribed with mortar lines, too. It's also a lot cheaper than the usual body-filler stuff meant for model-making.
Wayne
Track fiddlerNext I have to come up with some kind of trim to hide the seams.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Good evening
I would like to thank each and everyone of you for all the compliments. You put a great big smile on this old carpenters face
I would like to add I very much appreciate all the suggestions and advice as well. A lot of food for thought to think about.
A trim job can make or break end results cosmetically. I humbly say I'm a great trim carpenter but it ain't like I can go out to my ice-cold truck and grab my power miter box on this one
Some great ideas guys. I think I'm going to do some experiments with these Ideas before I proceed
Thanks again
Looking really good, TF. Well done.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
I resumed work on the bridge yesterday. I did a lot of experiments between now and where we left off. It took a while to come up with something that wouldn't be too time-consuming.
The styrene for the arch stones wasn't exactly what I was looking for. It also came in white instead of tan like the rest of the styrene was.
At that point I knew the arch was going to be a slightly different color but as the old saying goes "contrast is good" so I went with it. Looking through pictures of Viaduct bridges on the internet I noticed many of them had an accented color for the arch, different stone types.
Plastruct doesn't make any stone trim pieces as they should so there's not a lot of choices out there. Availability is another issue so I chose 91535 wood planking. A piece of tape was used on the ruler because it likes to slip all over the place while cutting.
The styrene is not resilient enough to flex a sharp curve so I put slits on every course, 44 per stick for a total of 704 cuts.
Next they were given a couple of coats of black India ink diluted with alcohol.
Then a couple of washes of khaki/water mixture.
I saved the mortar color from before for the joints. A splat with a skewer and then schmoozed in the joints with my fingers.
The pieces were taped on foam and given two coats of clear matte finish prior to the mortar coat, otherwise the paint starts coming off. This picture was taken before the mortar was schmoozed into the joints.
I seldom throw any modeling stuff away so I had this cut out to make a jig to mark the center where the keystones go.
The strips were carefully doped up with E6000 and glued into place.
The thing I like about E6000 is if you get a little slop, it comes off with a little finesse without damaging anything.
The seam shrunk from before above the arch. If anyone knows of anything I could use to get a good Ivy or Vine effect to cover up that seam, please give me a shout as I would really appreciate it.
Immediately I did not like the keystone results. They were cut out of the styrene stock that was used to make the bridge. Being too much of a different color than the arch stones, I thaught they looked like crap. I knew right away this was not going to fly. I pried them off to go make some scratch ones.
I doubled up two pieces of railroad board and glued them together so it was twice the thickness of styrene. I cut eight wedge-shaped pieces like Illustrated above so I could slide them into place and mark them.
I taped a piece of tape down with the sticky side up so these fine young morsels would behave themselves while I was working on them. I put fast setting drywall compound on the top to mimic a rock surface.
India ink coat.
Basically all the steps done before.
These silly little keystones took over 2 hours
I think those keystone's look better.
Now I just need to add the styrene on the inner guard walls and cap it off.
Thanks for looking and have a great day gentleman
TF, I've got to tell you that you have made one of the best-looking model bridges I have seen. Great work!
York1 John
Hi TF,
I have to say that your bridge is absolutely exceptional!! The detail that you have added recently fits perfectly and looks great. Also, the fact that the bridge is curved and varies in width makes your work all that more amazing!
My layout is currently designed to be all on one level. There will be four short bridges over a water feature, but your work is sort of tempting me to toss all my plans and do something in which over/under bridges will play a part.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Great looking results, TF.
Your patience and perserverance is admirable.
Thank you for the very kind compliments this morning
It took more than two hours with my glitchy phone to post all the pictures sharing progress. So your compliments were very much appreciated afterwards.
Track fiddlerThese silly little keystones took over 2 hours
I happy to see I'm not the only "Nutter" on the Forum.
Well done Mr.TF.
Cheers, the Bear.
Now you're just really showin off TF. Amazing work. Looks great.
This has been a great thread, I have enjoyed watching your progress.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
LOOKING GREAT . KEEP IT GOING.
TF, a bridge builder extraordinaire.
Fiddler The Artist!
Who knew?
Excellent workmanship, TF.
Rich
Alton Junction
Very nice work.
Sheldon
I was a bit overwhelmed this morning with all the great Kudos here. Ya put a big smile on this old carpenter boys face over coffee. Thanks guys
I've always been fascinated with bridges since I was a Kid. My favorite part of this great hobby is building them and I'm getting psyched about getting closer to being done. I'm thinking I'll miss building them when I'm finished though.
Thanks again guys
richhotrainFiddler The Artist!
Hmmmmm. Related to Jared The Artist?
Looks great, Track Fiddler!
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
Mispost
GOT THE BRIDGE DONE!
Just added 20 strips of styrene to the guard walls and got rid of the gaping crack.
Before
After
Thanks for looking and being a part of the thread
Great looking bridge, TF.
Well done.
Thanks Rich
richhotrainGreat looking bridge, TF.
I agree!!! Excellent work!
Yes, very nice work. Has me itcing to get started on my layout. Still getting the space ready.
Thanks Dave. It's a bridge but I didn't design and build a rotisserie layout like you did for crying out loud
Thanks Sheldon. When you have your space finished I know a master carpenter such as yourself will bang out that bench work like there's no tomorrow.