Fifth Annual International Spring Layout Party

okane Feb 4, 2007

  1. MOPMAN

    MOPMAN TrainBoard Member

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    A quick pic of whats left to do (when I get the west side somewhat finished). This is looking east. The rock work will extend all the way to the house in the background.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

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    Mopman,
    I love the rock. Can you give us a brief overview of how you did it?
     
  3. okane

    okane TrainBoard Supporter

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    Mopman

    Looking very good indeed, Is the color a wash of some sort.
     
  4. MOPMAN

    MOPMAN TrainBoard Member

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    I painted the strata with raw and burnt sienna plus something cooked up at Home Depot that I use for my base ground color. It is painted like layered strata. When dry it is a bit bright in color so I apply a diluted (play with this for the effect you want) wash of flat black latax over all of the rock work to tone it down. I will try and get an up to date pic on line tonight that will show how the rock work was carved. Stay tuned.
     
  5. MOPMAN

    MOPMAN TrainBoard Member

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    I'll try and cover this process in two pics. The first shows the foam base, then carved & painted plaster (there are pics of the unpainted plaster in this thread somewhere) and the addition of a little ground foam in the background

    [​IMG]

    The foam is stacked then shaped with a Stanley Surform plane to build up the base. I then apply a thin "skin" of plaster over the foam. The second coat of plaster is applied 1/8" - 1/4" thick and shaped with my hands. After the plaster sets 5-10 minutes (you can clean up your tools while you wait) I start stroking in the horizontal lines in the strata with the afro pick you see in the foreground. If the plaster balls up too much, it's still too soft. Let it harden to a point where it takes some pressure to carve the lines. I then go over the carving with an old toothbrush to soften the edges. Any flubs I "fix" with the xacto blade.

    Heres a pic with a little better lighting looking east toward Ozark (some of the foliage added tonight)

    [​IMG]

    That's the most current work on the layout. We'll see what this last week of the party produces.
     
  6. ppuinn

    ppuinn Staff Member

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    Your rocks ROCK! Looking very nice.:thumbs_up:
     
  7. Cleggie

    Cleggie TrainBoard Member

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    Cool rock faces Mopman, :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up:

    Good to see how others work, trully inspirational.:lightbulb:

    I will be doing something similar for the area behind the coalmine on my layout.

    Cheers, Ken.
     
  8. okane

    okane TrainBoard Supporter

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    Mopman

    Thank you for the further explanation.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 6, 2007
  9. ppuinn

    ppuinn Staff Member

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    Didn't get as much done on my Spring Layout Party project as I'd hoped, but put in a little bit of grass and shrubbery along the tracks, plus framed with grass the area I'll be making into Donovan Golf Course. Still need to do road striping and parking lot striping, and get some decent crossing flashers.

    I hope to get some pictures of the Illinois Dept of Transportation garages and offices across the street from the VOP Restaurant...someday I'll make a building that matches a little more closely than the cardboard mock-up currently representing the building.

    Another pic of the railroad crossing at Glen Avenue
    [​IMG]

    View down Prospect from Glen
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    Crossing by VOP
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    IDOTmock-up, Vonochen's Old Place (VOP) Depot Restaurant, and future site of Donovan Golf Course
    [​IMG]
     
  10. L Lee Davis

    L Lee Davis TrainBoard Member

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    Still waiting for track supplies, So about all I will be able to compleat on is buss wireing, Xpress Net wireing, and 12 volt wireing and that's a good bit. I can't seem to load a photo attachment up. So I will try to lad it up in the gallery.

    "Still training After All These Years"
     
  11. MOPMAN

    MOPMAN TrainBoard Member

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    Nice work ppuinn. That looks like a lot of scenery in just 4 weeks.
     
  12. Flash Blackman

    Flash Blackman TrainBoard Member

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    I think I missed 2-3 weeks of the party. Sometimes things don't go as smoothly as you would like. Maybe I will just keep posting an extra 2-3 weeks to catch up. :teeth:

    I have read all the posts and I am amazed at the progress. It seems like things stand out more when you don't follow them every day on the thread.

    Hemi: Are you an advocate of double gapping now? I had always heard that was the best way to go, but I never knew exactly why. Maybe it is just simpler than to follow positive/negative rails through the layout.

    Michael S: Great layout. I like the SFO houses; that is effective. Your bench work is really nice and looks like a museum display with the lighting above.

    Okane: Marvelous recovery after that catastrophic fire (inspection) at your house! I am amazed that you are already on the the bench work. It's going to go fast now.

    I have done nothing since the last picture a few weeks ago. I will try to finish some roof work and maybe begin painting the Central Warehouse structure.
     
  13. okane

    okane TrainBoard Supporter

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    Dave, how wide would the bench work be in the area of that town scene?
     
  14. Flash Blackman

    Flash Blackman TrainBoard Member

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    MOPMAN: Great rocks. This is a "paint-light; highlight-dark" as I classify rock modeling. There are may ways to do them that give different results. Yours are really nice. Looks like a pretty good section of layout completed, too. It will be nice to see that area with the vegetation in place. I think the green is a very nice contrast.
     
  15. MOPMAN

    MOPMAN TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks Flash. The area I'm working on is about 10' long which is about half the length of the wall. It's taking longer than I had planned to get to this point, but between this week and next I should get a lot more done since I will be off for spring break next week.
     
  16. ppuinn

    ppuinn Staff Member

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    Thanks!
    Most of the work occurred during the first week or so when I had 2 snow days and a 3 day weekend. Most of the houses and about 1/2 of the trees were in place at the start of the Layout Party, but The roads and remaining houses and trees went pretty quickly that first week. Not much more than cosmetic fine-tuning recently.
    Ah, well...one step at a time.
     
  17. L Lee Davis

    L Lee Davis TrainBoard Member

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    MOPMAN, Very well done rock stratta, You have captured the flavor of the Southwest. I like the use of the afro pick, I will have to try one. Lookin' Good.

    "Still Training After All These Years"
     
  18. MOPMAN

    MOPMAN TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks L Lee. Its something I tried back in the 70's and loved the results. In fact thats the same pick I started with.
     
  19. okane

    okane TrainBoard Supporter

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    Tonight, I started to lay some of the track down. :teeth: I managed to get an Atlas MP15 with an auto rack around about 10 feet of track and several turnouts before I ran out of juice. I forgot how much I missed this. Now to get back and keep on with the track placement. Perhaps some pictures later. :w20z6q:
     
  20. Michael S

    Michael S TrainBoard Member

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    Last Week

    I've gotten a bit off track. (poor pun) This week I hope to start laying track. I got some building mock-ups done. So my priorities are to lay track (and run trains), finish building mockups, finish backdrop. I guess I have another month of work to finish this segment. (not counting acutally time to build the model buildings).

    I post some photo's by this weekend.

    Since I have my finial project in for school, I have two weeks unfettered to work on the RR, before it's back to the books. Yahoo!!

    Michael S
     

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