Well, i havent had a chance to do much to the rail road, but i finally got to run a little bit of equipment that i had laying around. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwnNtws757E Go to run my Model Power steamer and noticed the front wheels do not always turn.... going to have to figure out how to fix that.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtnVaFQxvbA&feature=related
I was able to get some work done on the RR over the weekend. It was cold and snowy outside, seemed like a perfect time to get some work done. I was able to get the trestle and tunnel portal to stagging close to finished. From this.... To this... Still need to go over much of it with another layer of sculpta mold, and then i get to try and make it look like rock I am hoping that if i keep working in small sections at a time that i will start to see some progress, instead of feeling overwhelmed by the entire project. Mods: is it no longer possible to edit the first post in this thread? I am guess not since the forum upgrade....
That scene is looking good! I hear you on working in small sections: sometimes the only time I have to work on the layout is 20 minutes in the morning before the kids get up for school. But I try to do something on the layout everyday, even if it's just cleaning up the mess from the day before And all those little work sessions do add up! As far as editing posts, I think you have about 40 minutes / hour before the edit function disappears Looking forward to more progress, no matter how small!
I like it so far from the pictures. A man and a saw and some electricity ! Are you sure about caulking the track down for what is not yet done? It ain't gonna come up if there is a mistake or alternation in the works. Elmer's White works well and is easier to undo.
Thank you Guys! White glue will hold the tack and cork down? I did notice in an area that i had to rework, that the track does not come up very well once caulked, i was able to save some of it, by taking my time. The cork, well it didnt make the change at all.
I got some more work done over the long weekend. Lol i broke the bridge twice messing with it. once not to bad the second time, every bent broke off, so the bridge is still not up to what it once was. the fixes worked ok though Spent a lot of time getting the coloring for the rocks. Seems to take more time than i thought to correctly mix the pigments i used. I am not 100% happy with the coloring yet, but its a thousand times better than stark white Enjoy: Still a lot more work to do in the area, but it is nice to see something other than plywood and white everywhere. It is also helping to keep my interest high, changing from porject to project WOW that first pict came out horrible. i will try and get another.
Wow Jerry! I’m impressed with the mountain. Hopefully when I build mine it will look half that good.
Thank you Steve! Yours will come out great! once you get to them. It took me some trial and error before i found a way to form the mountains. I have tried foam in the past with and without rock castings. I tried sculpting the foam, but that just lead to a huge mess and highlighted the fact that i have very little artistic talent, at least in 3d. The rock castings worked ok in a few spots (none on that mtn.) I could never seem to get them to blend together very well. They looked great in spots but just 3" to teh side they looked very bad. I found i like the chaotic method of chance better. I place some card board or some of this thick card stock stuff i found somewhere and create the base form. From there i use copier paper and crumple it into rock like forms. I use the copier paper instead of newspaper because it is thicker and holds a form better. I then stack the paper in odd shapes and cover it with plaster cloth. In the final steps before coloring i use at least two batches of sculptamold, one thick to cover up the holes in the plaster cloth, i typically only use one layer of cloth, its expensive. The second batch is typically a little thinner to cover more ground and it is easier to get smother. If need be i will mix some thicker sculptamold and add it to areas that need more definition. Then i blindly attempt to mix colors into something realistic, still practicing on this
i would spend a lot of time watching this location - super cool. you could invest hours and hours into making this scene a focal point and really come to life - i like it. my layout has a scene like this one that will just beg people to watch. great job!
Thank you everyone!!!! I hope to get some more added to it over the holidays. mr1967.... Its kind of funny how this has turned into what seems to be one of my favorite spots on the RR. at first i was dreading it and wasnt sure how i was going to make it look realistic. I have never been a big fan of tracks crossing over tracks, i personally have never seen that in this part of the country. But i am very pleased with the scene so far.
Wow I’m sorry I have been slacking on this thread. Although I haven’t done a whole lot, just little things here and there. I’m kind of stuck on the track plan for using up the remainder of the room, so just odds and ends working on areas that have track laid. Recently I have been working on a removable tunnel section and some fascia. I have never built a removable section. I decided on a the tunnel because I wanted to separate the scenes. The “main” scene will be the first thing that people see when they enter the room and I want to give the mountain railroad effect to them. I carved the tunnel portals from foam and then covered with sculpta mold. Getting the correct clearances takes some trial and error. But I think I got the visible one to look okay. I used pink foam for the base of the mountain and as the removable lid to the tunnel. I then covered it with paper wads and plaster cloth. I tried something different with the sculpta mold, I added water color tints to it hoping that it would color the area. At first it looked great, however after it completely dried the color was washed out by the white. So that didn’t work, live and learn Super elevation on the curves! I forgot I had done that so long ago, and that proved to cause problems with clearance in a few spots. Even when using the gauge the entire time I had to make corrects. I think I fixed the clearance issues, considering I don’t run much over 50’ cars I should be ok, but I need to run a few of my steam engines through to make sure they all fit, before I “finish” the area. Clearance outside: Not an issue Inside track: pretty close, we will see if the slight amount of money saved in dynamite was worth it in the long run… Lid in place: Topless: Cont ……
More clearance: tight From the top: had to make some adjustments, will need fix some areas I had to adjust So far I am happy with it and I think it will serve the purpose well. I am hoping that trees and such will be able to conseal the removable section well enough. I will be adding more soon……..
