The bridge is just shy of 2.5 inches long. Big concern was when sectioning the bridge lengthwise was to insure that there was adequate clearance for both tracks and equipment.
Culverrts are a neat idea for that spot. Now a couple of bums camped out in or near it.....Or a railnut staging a shot looking up at the train....Ooops, having fun here! Looking good. Echoing George, putting the accomplishment bar up there again. Aaaah.
I think I am finally finished the hard shell application. That is until it dries overnight and I flip it up to have a good look in the AM. Tried using Rit dye as I had stated earlier. Doesn't work for squat. The areas on the upper level left, and lower level right are supposed to be green. I would have been better off going to my local arts supply store or Micheal's and buying a tube of water based green in the shade I wanted. However the Woodland Scenics liquid color additive worked great. They are the gray and brow hues seen. Next up is to seal the creek beds, pond, and the discharge channel from the mill. I will use a Hydrocal slurry that I can paint on since I want to set some rocks in the stream bed areas. Still up in the air on deciding what to put where the log load out was going to be. Thinking about a high foothill in the right corner then a bunch of trees, maybe a small barn and small herd of sheep. Hunting lodge will tuck somewhere.
Visited Michael's today and picked up some cheap Acrylics and at last I have a nice green base to build my turf on. With the colored base it doesn't matter if over time a little of the grass gets a bare spot. I also can use less of the turf finishing the area. So far it is working out well and still drying. The stream beds are a toned down blue revealing where erosion has exposed some of the rich Moly ore bed beneath. Time to clear the workbench and set up the rock molds so for the next few days I will be busy trying my luck casting some rock strata. I am going to try and create a blue vein in some of the rocks for the Molybdenum veins.
Cut down yet another Atlas bridge tonight from a 5.0 inch bridge to a 3.50 inch bridge in length. Thought some about maybe using a Z scale bridge but not sure it would be wide enough. Depending on what I end up doing with the upper left level I might do yet another. Had a little humor tonight when the Big Guy walked in the room to take his usual supervisory position on the upper left. Not more than 2 secs after planting his ample behind than he let out a big catterwall some where between a large Bobcat and a small Mountain Lion. Nice soft comfy foam had been replace by rough hard shell upon which he displayed his dissatisfaction with.
Gotta love it when the supe gets a surprise like that! Like how you are getting the bridges together. Hadn't thought about cutting the Atlas bridges shorter like that. Neat!
Well first my 2 cents worth of imploring Atlas to expand their bridge line up as far as sizes. Need to have some short spans, the current size, and some a few inches longer. Plus double track in all their designs. Now to the cutting and chopping. First one needs to determine the span length needed to cross. In the case of the deck girder it came out for me to be exactly half, or five sections for each half since I needed a double track span. With that particular bridge there was a slight space between two rivet lines right in the middle and that is where I cut. I have a small razor saw that has a little thinner blade and cut than my others that allowed my a very careful cut right between them leaving a small raised lip and a line of rivets on each section when I finished. I cut both sides first then flipped it over and cut the bottom lining up with the two side cuts for straightness. By the way I removed the track before cutting. Now I have two short deck plate bridges but I need double track and want the bridge as one unit. Studying it I knew I needed ample enough clearance to pass two locos and I could have just joined the two sections as was. However I did not want both mains separating some more to cross the bridge than I had already determined their lay and glue them down so some side material removal was needed. I removed the one vertical side section on one bridge and checked for separation distance. After determining that it wasn't quite narrow enough as a double unit I removed the side vertical section on the 2nd piece. Fitting both together then I had what I needed and approximately 1.25 inches clearance between the inside rails on both tracks. Now a little sanding to smooth some edges and finish trueing up the cuts and glue them together. Since I had a small cut line right down the middle I elected to first glue a .015 X.0250 styrene strip on the bottom as additional support. The top join line was covered with some scribed wood planking one can use scribed styrene also. This covered the cut line and added a nice detail. About a 2 hour after dinner project. The single bridge span just done was again by just carefully cutting between the rivet lines to remove the center section. Cutting across the bottom with the track removed to join the side cuts again. Once done I remover the vertical beams remaining at each end. Again some careful sanding to true up the ends as much as possible and glue together. I have a small trick I use if there is any small remaining gaps. I have a stock of very small styrene rods that I use like welding rods. When there is a slight gap I need to hide I will coat the gap slightly with a good thin solvent cement like Ambroid Pro Weld and then I coat the plastic rod with it also and simply push the small rod into the gap. It fills the gap nicely and adds structural support just like a weld which in a sense it is. I then painted the bridge with flat black after the glue dried. Project consumed about an hour after dinner. I need to add that the supports are also too tall for my use so they have been cut down also. In the case of the double bridge l just cut off the one end of each base plate and then joined two together for the right width. Now that the hard shell is on the Big Guy, AKA the Super, has a new inspection vantage point. The end of the workbench.
Finally got to some rock casting and in the process trying something a little new. I am adding color to the casting mix before pouring. I also tried applying some straight color to the molds in thin lines to simulate ore veins then doing my pour on top of that. Who knows but I will have the result either late this PM or tomorrow since I tend to make a rather thin slurry for my mix that takes longer to set up. And the felines struck again. I had to go searching for a paint brush that one sneaked out of the room when I had my back turned. Found it in the middle of the living room floor downstairs. Then I went into my hall bath to rinse out my mixing bowls and check on the old cork roadbed I had soaking. Okay what happened to the roadbed dangit. Found it downstairs in the middle of the living room again, wet but intact. Room door will be shut when I am not in attendance so I don't come in and find paw prints preserved for posterity.
The rock casting attempt, notice I said attempt, came out like crap. As stated in the prior post I was trying to see if adding coloring to the mix would yield a decent product and save some time and effort. Well after a number of hours, this AM until after supper this PM most had not set up worth a crap. Should have been set in about 2 hours, enough to unmold. So I think adding Acrylics to Hydrocal is out. The couple that did come out have a sandstone like texture that the camera doesn't show. So tomorrow I will play some more, using one mold of the Hydrocal, one of plaster, and one a mix of 50/50 hydrocal and plaster and compare. If the 50/50 mix comes out I then may try some tinting again but with the Woodland Scenic tint mix and save the Acrylics for painting dried castings. This small layout has become a test bed to try new things for me. So far the HC door and foam build up of terrain has turned out strong and very light weight to the point where I can easily lift one end with one hand with little or no effort. And the few castings that did come out below. How the heck I got a vein or two of coal in there I don't know. Must not have had a good mix on my color blend.
How dd the cats not end up with rock castings on their snoots? LOL From bitter personal experience, the more foreign stuff you add to hydrocal or plaster, the longer it takes to cure and the rather than hardshell, you get softer stuff, as you may have found. Better to just use enough of the WS tint mix to get out the bright white if the surface gets chipped, and get your true rock colors from painting, followed by washes in time-honored rock weathering fashion. If you do your moly strata first as drybrushed blue, then the washes will help blend the edges. Apologies for walking back into the thread too late to warn you about Rit dye. It's pretty reactive/corrosive stuff (probably has to be to stick on clothing that will be washed multiple times) and doesn't behave like we want it to for scenery.
Thanks I came to the same conclusion about the Rit dye whether in powder or liquid form. Tomorrow I will try just enough of the Woodland Scenic product. I did add it to the water for the plaster hard shell and it worked fairly well. Back to the old tried and true methods. As far as the feline gang they were banned from the room after this A.M. bout of filching my tools. Deekus has taught her younger relatives well. As far as water goes no fear so that is why one of them managed to filch the cork out of a full sink of water. Had a bit of water in the tub on the weekend and two of them were playing in the water. As I have aged I have gotten a little slower on the uptake I believe while they have invented new ways to keep me hopping. You distract him while I grab his tools and run downstairs with them.
Been casting rock since this AM with finally some good results. I did add about 25% more plaster to the Hydrocal and added a bit of Woodland Scenics color. Those are the slightly darker ones on the right side upper level. The rest where cast without color. The real dark ones are the survivors from yesterday. All my castings were able to be unmolded within an hour. Leaving them all to dry for a good 24 hours before I think about paint or stain. Still have more to cast but not until I replenish the Hydrocal. Started some roadbed down the incline and applied another coat of paint to the green area.
Got to what passes for a LHS this AM and found both Hydrocal so I can do some more casting and Shaper Sheet Plaster which is for hard shell coating and affixing terrain like rocks. Also discovered that Woodland Scenics has a tinted plaster out. So finally about noon a got up to the workshop and starting applying some of the stone. Also installed both timber tunnel portals and retaining walls. So far have the right side done and the middle level of the incline. I think I have just enough larger rock castings to finish with but I will have to cast some smaller versions for the lower areas. The super just walked in the inspect the progress. No comment yet. Found and excellent video by Dave Frary on rock work and another on doing water that has me rethinking how I will do the streams and pond. I may do some fairly fast work but that gentleman makes me look like I am moving at a snails pace. And the link to Dave's video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsQ-LU2sFLs
Went from this ugly mess earlier today when I finished installing the last rock castings. To this this afternoon when I applied the first coat of paint to the rocks. It is a dark gray color. Carried it into the stream and pond. And taking advantage of a sale I found ordered 100 trees at about .75 cents per tree. Can't build them myself for that cheap.
With yet another visit to Micheals for some supplies I went to try my hand again at rock painting using the Dave Frary method. Came out fairly well considering I haven't even messed with this for awhile. I even managed to get the slight blue color of the Moly ore in a couple of blended veins. However the paint brought out one feature that I am unhappy with. That is the separation showing up between the rock castings way to much in my opinion. Fortunately I only did a small section to see how it came out so no big deal to mix up some Hydrocal and take a small fine pointed trowel and do some filling. Opinions?
John, I think it looks great. Of course, never having seen a Moly mine or even that part of our country, I have no basis with which to critique or criticize. So don't worry, be happy.
I'm usually not a fan of rocks molds. People end up using the same mold over and over...which causes repetition of rock formations. They do turn the rocks 90 or 180 degrees...but...you can still spot em as being the same. I dont see any repititions in yours John...it looks good ^5. BTW....center left in the pic...looks like a 'rock monster' face....LOL...adds character ;-)
Well the more I sat and looked, even called in the CFO, aka The Missus who has an artistic bent, I still wasn't happy with it. The terrain just did not flow for me so out came the Hydrocal and an artist's palette. Maybe that is what the Big Guy was telling me last night. He got up on the layout and let out two very loud yowls and then got off in disgust. I have to brush up on my Catonese some more. Any way It looks better to my eye now. So in about two hours or so I will go back at it again. Call the first time a practice run. The area is volcanic in origin, had more than its share of earthquakes and a few big whopping tsunamis. So sedimentary layers, old lava flows, and mother nature's erosion over time have shaped the landscape. Molybdnum is a steel additive to increase hardness, and can be found in several shades of colors from a silvery/white to a slight blue tint, and even a red hue. My Moly Mine is known as the Macie Moly Mine or MMM reporting marks on the cars. Cars are blue, and the model is named for a Granddaughter I lost in a tragic accident.
Very nice little layout. I agree; you have to trust the big guy's input on this. he he I've got several layout critics of my own. So far they've let me know that my track is perfectly comfortable for sitting and sleeping.
