Still haven't had time to do any modeling lately, but here are a few recent photos…
Multiple crossings over Serenity Canyon:
The sorting house at the top of the Mineral Ridge Mill, with the Cliffside Mine visible in the background at upper right:
A train passes through the town of Mineral Ridge:
Enjoy!
Let me be the first to say, great work! Looks very typical of the old mining towns in Colorado. Is the mine structure scratchbuilt? How about the wooden tressle in the first photo? Very impressive! The corrugated siding on the mine buildings really sets the structure off and brings out the details. I aspire to do work that is half as good as that and I wouild be improving!
Thanks Tom! Yes, the buildings are all scratchbuilt, as well as the trestles and bridges. The railbus is also scratch, and the RS-3n is heavily kitbashed.
It's all 1/24th scale, outdoors.
Ray!
Great modeling! The attention to detail is superb.
Nice job on the gazebo too.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks!
I actually hired someone to assemble the gazebo, it would have taken me days to do. Plus it's so heavy one person can't get the legs set up under it.
Here are a couple new pics. In this first shot, a train is seen from below as it crosses the big trestle over Serenity Canyon:
Here's a shot from late in the day as a freight train crosses a stone arch bridge at the west end of the line. Above it is the Princess Shilo Mine. The Cliffside Mine can be seen in the distance at the top:
Great pictures and modeling all around. Boy the natural light and real sky backdrop can't be beat. Dan
For the past few months I haven't been able to get any modeling done, but recently I had a little time and felt the need to work outdoors. I've long planned to put a small depot between the tracks at the town of Dos Manos, so I decided to do some prep work for that.
Until now, the tracks going through that area have just been on dirt, rocks and ballast. Even on the two stone bridges, there was a couple inches of soil under the tracks. I wanted to replace this with a concrete base, and also create a concrete foundation and sidewalks for the depot.
In this shot I've removed the track at the edge of the layout, dug out the ballast under it, and poured some concrete into the bridge. I used 1/4" hardware cloth to reinforce the concrete. The concrete is actually a mix of vinyl concrete patcher and high strength mortar mix:
I built up the track base, foundation, and sidewalk a little at a time, in sections. I also left a depression in the middle of the foundation -- this will be used to hold the wiring for the depot's lights. There is a 3/8" copper tube used as a conduit for the wiring. Then I marked the position of the tracks onto the concrete base, and built two forms out of foam core art board. These were positioned on the base in preparation for pouring the sidewalk:
Here's how it looked the next morning after I'd removed the forms:
Here's how it looks with some ballast added to two of the tracks. I may use a different colored ballast on the track closest to the town buildings, or I may glue on timbers between the rails, like at a grade crossing:
The depot foundation is still rough. I won't finalize it until I have designed the depot, and know exactly what the dimensions will be:
Anyway, that's all I've got for now.
Ray DunakinThe depot foundation is still rough. I won't finalize it until I have designed the depot, and know exactly what the dimensions will be: Anyway, that's all I've got for now.
With the rain parts of in CA, is the foundation now a swimming pool??
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Ray, Looks like lots of outdoor fun, nice work!
Thanks and regards, Peter
Looks like an out door large scale RR in the spirit of Malcom Furlow southwestern. To the new comer the name sounds Japanese or maybe native American?
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
riogrande5761To the new comer the name sounds Japanese or maybe native American?
Yes, it's from a Native American word meaning "east people", referring to the tribe that lived in the area, and is now used as a place name for the In-ko-pah Mountains and In-ko-pah Gorge.
Ray - pretty impressive
Way back when I first envisioned this depot, it would have been one of my first buildings on the layout. I used an antiquated 3D modeling program to create a couple renderings of what I had in mind:
However, at the time I decided that I should wait until had some more experience with structures, before attempting something as relatively complex as the depot. I'm glad I waited, because I know a lot more about what I'm doing now, than I did then. I will be using different materials than I had originally planned to use.
Today I put together a crude foam core mockup of the depot and placed it on the layout, to help me get a feel for how it will look and fit into the town. The center part of the building will be two stories. Both that section, and the west wing, will have peaked roofs covered with Spanish tiles. I decided to add an east wing which will be an open, shaded waiting area. This will have a flat roof supported by arches. Here are some photos from various angles:
What do you think?
Ray,
Looks good to me. It'll be impressive for such a small station, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes together.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
You Rock Ray!
I got sidetracked a bit into another project:
Recently I needed to build a small wooden shack using Sintra PVC foam board, to be featured in an article I'm writing for Garden Railways. At the time I didn't know where it would fit into the layout. Eventually I decided to put it in the town of Grandt Cliff. Until now the only other structure I'd created for that site was a miner's cabin. This will be an old shack which has been converted into a sandwich shop, called Serenity's Sandwich Shack.
The town site is at the base of Grandt Cliff, and was undeveloped. To prepare the site, I had to chisel out some of the rocks and mortar near the base of the cliff. I built up a foundation for the shack, starting with a section of miniature stone wall made of real rock and mortar. I also used some small slabs leftover from a previous project:
Strips of foam core art board were hot-glued in place to make a form, for extending the foundation:
Mortar was poured into the form, then shaped and leveled. The cavity in the foundation is to hold wiring for the building lights. A brass tube acts as a conduit. Another tube provides drainage:
Eventually there will be two or three other buildings at this site, including a RR depot. So after pouring the foundation, I also began pouring part of the slab for the platform of the future depot:
I added a small slab to one side of the shack's foundation. This will be part of steps leading to the shack:
Here's a shot of the unfinished shack, temporarily in place on the foundation:
A similar shot, with the more work done on the porch. The porch and shack are built as two separate pieces to facilitate painting. They won't be glued together until after both structures have been painted:
And here's a shot of the entire town site, located below the Cliffside Mine:
Well, I was going to try to hold off posting more pics of this until it was finished, but I'm so tickled with the way it's turning out, I couldn't resist. This has been a really fun build!
I've finished painting it, including many hand-painted signs. Still have to add the corrugated metal to the main roof. Also need to add some light fixtures and other exterior details, and glue the porch to the building. Also need to finish the surrounding landscape, and the stairs/path leading up to the building on either side. Eventually I'll build and detail the interior too. Here's how it looks so far:
Mike
'Always a treat to see your work,Ray...Thanks for posting.
Here's a bit of info about how I painted the signs:
The sign on the top of the front of the building (Serenity's Sandwich Shack) and the sign on the front of the porch (Sandwiches/Cold Drinks) was done with stencils. I laid out the lettering in Pages on my iMac, and printed it onto self-adhesive vinyl. Then I cut out the letters, peeled off the vinyl and placed it in position. I applied the paint using a combination of light, dry-brushing, and stippling. After removing the stencil, I touched it up as needed with a fine brush. Then I painted the dark outline by hand using a good, #0 artist's brush.
The large signs on the sides that say, "Cold Drinks" were tricky. Because of the battens, I couldn't use a stencil. So I used a pink colored pencil to very lightly lay out the shapes of the letters. This was not done to any detail, just very rough forms, like stick-figure letters, mainly to make sure I the size and spacing would fit the area. Then I hand-painted it with a #1 brush, using very thinned down paint and mostly kind of dry-brushing it. The outlines were done as before, with a #0 brush. The saving grace is that I was going for a not-very-professional look for the signs on the sides.
The smaller signs were were supposed to be very amateurish and crude, so I just winged it, painting them freehand with the #0 brush.
One thing that really helps when painting freehand, whether lettering or any other small detail, is that the hand holding the brush should have at least one finger resting against the model. This makes a big difference in steadying your hand.
BTW, I have an article about my layout in the June issue of MRH, free to read online or download:http://mrhpub.com/2015-06-jun/port/files/110.html
Ray: Thanks for the link - Well written,thoughtful article(the photo's are terrific,too) - Congratulations!
The figures that populate the In-Ko-Pah are very impressive - do I recall correctly that you make them yourself?
Thanks Mike! Yes, I made the figures myself, to represent various family members and friends. Still have a lot more to make, but they're very tedious and time-consuming so I tend to only do one or two at a time whenever the mood strikes.
Here's an update on the sandwich shack...
I wanted to have stone stairs going up the slope to the shack. To do this, I made a form out of foam core board:
Then I used curved tweezers to place small stones in the form, added some 1/4" hardware cloth, and then poured in some thin mortar:
The mortar wasn't quite thin enough to get into all the spaces between the stones, but that's fixable:
I rubbed thin mortar into the gaps, brushed off the excess with a wet brush, and after it set I sanded off some of the residue and it turned out fine. Here's how everything looks so far. The building itself is almost finished. I just have to add the lighting and a few other minor exterior details. I also have to finish the landscape around the building. And later I will build and detail the interior:
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Seeing your work is always a pleasure, those stairs are really neat!
Eat, I like it, saw that big faded word on an abandoned and dilapidated 50s era filling station turned BBQ takeout during a road trip thru north eastern Oregon a couple weeks ago.
Mr. Dunakin, all I can say is WOW!