Post by Beekster on Sept 15, 2024 14:55:50 GMT -6
So this thing has been percolating over the last couple of months. I've had the 12" x 24" piece of thick plywood hanging around for a couple of decades, originally intended for a tank transporter scene that never found traction. I decided to use it to build some scenery and lay a little track just to get my toes wet (there's not enough here for wet feet) in the pool of working with model railway stuff. Here's where we stand today;
Let me describe what you are seeing here, beyond the obvious that the line is running past a basalt cliff face like one might see in the Columbia Gorge. The cliff was built up with layers of 1" insulation foam from the home store and sculpted with a hot wire cutter followed by serrated knives bought cheap at Goodwill and then some Dremel work with sanding drums and cutting discs and finally some work with files typically used for woodworking or smoothing metal. After a few hours I liked what I saw...and then I made a mistake. You see, I could have just coated the foam in diluted white glue to seal it and started painting. But I wanted to experiment with materials, so I used plaster cloth to cover the cliff and create a durable surface. That worked well, but it also obscured some of my carved detail. Note to self; don't do that again. The result was rather too smooth and rounded, so on to the next technique: Rock faces made from plaster in a rubber mold. That's most of what you see here, pieces from a single mold rearranged and broken up to make it less obvious that at present I have only one mold. The castings were attached with Liquid Nails and blended in with Sculptamold. I used cheap bottle acrylics from Michael's and a wash of india ink in rubbing alcohol to paint the cliff face.
The foreground area is a layer of foam with some hummocks added by using some foam scraps and sculpted using the same tools as the cliff. The foam scraps were still too obvious after a layer of Celluclay, so I added bulk to the hummocks using Sculptamold. The brown color is a base coat/underlayer of Sherwin-Williams Tiki Hut brown which we used on the walls of our kitchen remodel a few years ago. You see white areas atop the cliff, at its base, and around the bridge. Those will be painted with a ground color and covered with scenic materials like ground foam and possibly more curb grunge. I'll explain that shortly...
The creekbed and falls were carved out of the cliff and ground base and skimmed with plaster to make a smooth surface. I embedded/glued curb grunge to texture the areas to be covered in water. Curb grunge is that stuff that accumulates at the edge of the curb. It is a mix of soil, street rocks, organic matter, and particles washed off asphalt roofs. I collect the stuff and use an old large measuring cup to wash the stuff several times with hot water (and sometimes bleach). I allow woody bits and other organics to float to the top and slowly drain off the water to flush that away. Same goes for the smaller bits of material like dirt/mud. After a few soakings and pour-offs I hold back the material that's left and drain the water off before spreading the remaining rocky material out on a blue paper shop towel to dry. After that it goes into a ziploc bag. I've been using this stuff for armor diorama for years. I painted the creekbed with a gray-green acrylic mix and eventually there will be resin water in there and down the falls.
The bridge is a concrete girder bridge scratchbuilt from Evergreen stock. The cork roadbed and Code 100 brass flextrack is stuff I've had lying around for years, remnants of stuff I bought to do a train wreck scene for my wife's office Halloween party: Her department did The Addams Family (she was Thing, which is a story in itself...) so I swiped back some rolling stock from my childhood train set that my young nephews were then playing with (I returned it all after the holiday). The roadbed was glued down with Liquid Nails for Projects and so was the track, after soldering the two pieces together. Oh, and I cut off the ties in the area of the bridge and added extras using a simple jig to keep the spacing fairly regular to represent bridge track which always has more ties for a given span than track laid on solid ground. Obviously I have yet to ballast the track, which will probably be the last thing to be done.
It's coming along nicely for a first effort, I think. I've already learned a lot, and when finished it will be a display piece for a rotating supply of rolling stock as I accumulate that. The next step will be more ambitious and more expensive: A plank railroad 12" x 60" or 72" long. The big expense will be the DCC control system and my first powered locomotive (probably $600-750 for both). I will build that the same way I will approach the benchwork for the larger layout to follow. I will wire it so I can run short trains back and forth and eventually add the plank to the layout as a staging area along my long interior wall. That will likely mean modifying the track plan, but demolition and rebuilding is part of the learning process too.
Let me describe what you are seeing here, beyond the obvious that the line is running past a basalt cliff face like one might see in the Columbia Gorge. The cliff was built up with layers of 1" insulation foam from the home store and sculpted with a hot wire cutter followed by serrated knives bought cheap at Goodwill and then some Dremel work with sanding drums and cutting discs and finally some work with files typically used for woodworking or smoothing metal. After a few hours I liked what I saw...and then I made a mistake. You see, I could have just coated the foam in diluted white glue to seal it and started painting. But I wanted to experiment with materials, so I used plaster cloth to cover the cliff and create a durable surface. That worked well, but it also obscured some of my carved detail. Note to self; don't do that again. The result was rather too smooth and rounded, so on to the next technique: Rock faces made from plaster in a rubber mold. That's most of what you see here, pieces from a single mold rearranged and broken up to make it less obvious that at present I have only one mold. The castings were attached with Liquid Nails and blended in with Sculptamold. I used cheap bottle acrylics from Michael's and a wash of india ink in rubbing alcohol to paint the cliff face.
The foreground area is a layer of foam with some hummocks added by using some foam scraps and sculpted using the same tools as the cliff. The foam scraps were still too obvious after a layer of Celluclay, so I added bulk to the hummocks using Sculptamold. The brown color is a base coat/underlayer of Sherwin-Williams Tiki Hut brown which we used on the walls of our kitchen remodel a few years ago. You see white areas atop the cliff, at its base, and around the bridge. Those will be painted with a ground color and covered with scenic materials like ground foam and possibly more curb grunge. I'll explain that shortly...
The creekbed and falls were carved out of the cliff and ground base and skimmed with plaster to make a smooth surface. I embedded/glued curb grunge to texture the areas to be covered in water. Curb grunge is that stuff that accumulates at the edge of the curb. It is a mix of soil, street rocks, organic matter, and particles washed off asphalt roofs. I collect the stuff and use an old large measuring cup to wash the stuff several times with hot water (and sometimes bleach). I allow woody bits and other organics to float to the top and slowly drain off the water to flush that away. Same goes for the smaller bits of material like dirt/mud. After a few soakings and pour-offs I hold back the material that's left and drain the water off before spreading the remaining rocky material out on a blue paper shop towel to dry. After that it goes into a ziploc bag. I've been using this stuff for armor diorama for years. I painted the creekbed with a gray-green acrylic mix and eventually there will be resin water in there and down the falls.
The bridge is a concrete girder bridge scratchbuilt from Evergreen stock. The cork roadbed and Code 100 brass flextrack is stuff I've had lying around for years, remnants of stuff I bought to do a train wreck scene for my wife's office Halloween party: Her department did The Addams Family (she was Thing, which is a story in itself...) so I swiped back some rolling stock from my childhood train set that my young nephews were then playing with (I returned it all after the holiday). The roadbed was glued down with Liquid Nails for Projects and so was the track, after soldering the two pieces together. Oh, and I cut off the ties in the area of the bridge and added extras using a simple jig to keep the spacing fairly regular to represent bridge track which always has more ties for a given span than track laid on solid ground. Obviously I have yet to ballast the track, which will probably be the last thing to be done.
It's coming along nicely for a first effort, I think. I've already learned a lot, and when finished it will be a display piece for a rotating supply of rolling stock as I accumulate that. The next step will be more ambitious and more expensive: A plank railroad 12" x 60" or 72" long. The big expense will be the DCC control system and my first powered locomotive (probably $600-750 for both). I will build that the same way I will approach the benchwork for the larger layout to follow. I will wire it so I can run short trains back and forth and eventually add the plank to the layout as a staging area along my long interior wall. That will likely mean modifying the track plan, but demolition and rebuilding is part of the learning process too.
