Mountain Modules One More Go Around

Robert,
As you well know, the main disadvantage to height is the difficulty in transporting them to shows. Bring your modules up to Medford for the N scale convention in May I think it is, and help SOZME rock the N scalers back a couple of feet. Eric Smith wants SOZME to display at the convention.

Covered the entire mountain areas with Sculptamold this evening and also fit the side boards to the module to protect the sides from getting damaged.

Tomorrow I'll add a bit more Sculptamold to the outer edge of the straight tracks border and do some sanding of the sides.

I need to snap some pictures too and show an update.

As far as running some more with you guys, I may be able to come down in January for the Sacramento show, but that depends on weather, money, and time.

 

Loren,
The bottom three layers of foam board appear to be 2" thick, the top ones appear to be thinner. What thickness did you use on the top. What will the height of the summit be when done?

 

For height, do what Dave George does and that is have removable mountain tops. With a little planning and scenicing, it is darn near impossible to find the joint(s). Just don't make them even.

...don

 

That is exactly what I did with Castle Crags module with the highway. The varied edge is the way to go as you mention Don and hiding the seams with some vegetation helps too. The only trouble with the varied edge is the fragile nature of the edge itself. If you hot glue blocks under the bottom then the top section will sit slightly off the surface of a table when you set it down.

Quote........"What thickness did you use on the top. What will the height of the summit be when done?"

Jerry, I had a piece of left over foam from I don't know where that was 1" thick. There used to be a wonderful foam store down here years ago with everything from 1" up to 4" but it closed. Only source of blue foam around here is Lowes with 2".

 

Use some of Joel Bragdon's resin material along both the top and bottom of the joint area and NOTHING is going to damage the edge.

...don

 

Don,
The joint is all Bragdon's material, but since Castle Crags was my first uneducated attempt at removable mountain tops, I did not plan well enough in advance and tried to 'feather' the edge. Next time, if there is one, I will design the same sort of staggered joint line, but will build the thickness into the design to insure no broken thin pieces. I live and sometimes I learn. You are absolutely correct in saying NOTHING will break the edge... short of dropping it......which I have done.
Bad fingers!!! (

 

Well, YOU were teaching him how to use the stuff a couple of years ago, at some big layout. Why don't you become his drop zone R & D Department??

...d

 

Not a lot of progress in the last 24 hours.....funny how life gets in the way too often.

I do have the mountains covered now with Sculptamold as the first picture shows.

Svein,out of fairness to you I did apply Sculptamold directly to the blue foam as you suggested, and while it did stick, I did not like having to apply it thicker to cover the rough pitted surface. I found that with only one layer of plaster cloth covering the foam and then applying the Sculptamold, I could put on a thinner coat by rubbing it in with my fingers, (messy but fun). I ended up using about two rolls of plaster cloth so it cost me a few bucks extra, but I do like the results.

I spray painted the track a flat brown and then began to hand paint the top of the ties with flat black as you see in the second picture. When I apply ballast only the top of the ties will show and then I'll clean off the rail heads and ready for electricity as soon as I wire it up.

James, I quote you now......... "Loren, put the chainsaw and the rotozip down and step away. Oh and forget that blowtorch too!"
And this will prove I am nuts so your worst suspicions are confirmed.........

Notice the freshly cut slot along side the track. This will shock you to find that I actually used my electric chain saw to cut the groove along side the roadbed so as to allow for a deeper slope along the track work. On my other modules I have not had enough 'ditch' along side so after realizing I was heading in the same direction as before I got out my Oregon style adjustment tool and cut some wood. I was going to have Karin take a picture of me actually chain sawing my ditch, but once I got going and realized I could get away with it if I had a steady hand, and didn't blink, I didn't stop until I had finished. That was going to be the shocking picture I had promised. Sorry, no picture, but you can let your imagination run wild. I would have added that picture to the one where I blow off my modules with a leaf blower. Yes, we do things different here in Southern Oregon. Not for the faint of heart and 'don't try this at home' is my motto.

As I glibly cut away with wood chips flying I was very much aware that one slip of the hand and I'd tear up an awful lot of carefully laid track. I did NOT slip.

So, now I have the other side of the module track ties to paint and then I'll cover the track with blue painter's tape and begin adding rock castings made from Bragdon's cast resin. I'll paint the Sculptamold a dark grayish color to hide the white before adding ground cover, rocks, etc. I should have added color as I mixed the Sculptamold........"too soon old, too late smart"

26 days till show set up...........work faster Loren

 

Loren, you crack me up. Modeling Z Scale with a chain saw. Yup, you're an Oregonian.
-James

 

James, No chain saw today. I did fill the outer edge of the outer straight track with Sculptamold and finished hand painting the ties on the other two tracks.

A little bit about painting ties and track.......It's never a quick and easy job to make your rails look rusted along with weathered ties. One technique I learned from Robert Ray was to spray paint the sides of the rails with flat brown or your favorite tint and then when dry, go back and spray straight down with flat black to hit the tops of the ties. It is quick and thorough, but the problem is that when you spray the black, the force of the spray not only coats the tops of the rails, but the spray also is reflected laterally and covers to some degree (too much for my liking) the already brown rail sides, thus erasing your 'rusting' endeavors.

This time I sprayed the sides with brown as in the past and decided to hand paint every tie on the outside of the rails plus the tops of the inner ties.

Now that doesn't sound too daunting a task until you figure you have to very carefully paint hundreds of ties in three places without getting paint on the rail sides. On this module that equals 16' of ties to hand paint. Boring!!!!!!!

Happy to say, the job is done and now I can ballast the rails any time I feel like it. I may add talos along the ditches before I ballast or ballast first.
Any ideas on which you think may be the best way to do it?

No matter what I do about the ballast, next on the agenda is some rock castings and then I next will paint the entire mountain areas and stream bed the appropriate back ground colors before beginning to add ground cover, shrubs, and trees.

Onward slowly.

 

I lied to myself last night. I was looking for my rock molds to make castings next and spied the can of gray latex paint that I used on Castle Crags. Couldn't help myself, so I turned my landscape into a hilly version of the moon....just gray rock. This is a good back ground color as much of my talos and castings will be differing shades of gray to begin with and in this way I already have a good base for adding soil, what little grass there will be and such. I have a tendency to get in a hurry and since it was late the other night when I coated my plaster cloth with Sculptamold and I had forgotten about the can of gray latex, I failed to tint the Sculptamold.

I found my molds so now it is time to glove up and make light weight rocks out of Bragdon's cast satin two part resin. These will be applied with hot glue sticks and the edges blended into the base with a bit more Sculptamold. Then will come the talos, dirt, and greenery.........after I tint the castings.

The talos is made by adding liquid acrylic pigments to Hydrocal and pouring thin layers onto a sandwich wrap surface. When thoroughly dry I place the 'cow patty' chips of gray Hydrocal into a zip lock bag and pound away with a hammer until I have 'bite' size pieces.

Anyone have any suggestions for ease of securing all the talos to the surface? I suppose a tacky glue base painted on first is a good start and then follow up by some white glue/water mixture for the little pieces that aren't quiet secured well enough. I believe I will tilt the module for ease of applying the talos without all of it piling up too think at the bottom of the slopes........which by the way is the what happens when mother nature does things.

 

8 months of promising me that he would finaly do a module that I can shoot photo's on (re...FLAT)...this is as close as it's going to get )

I think you answered your question on the talos thingie. White glue and lots of it

Joe

 

My dear Joe, i.e. MTL slave and master R&D genius,

I have yet another 2x4 module which is bare bones at this stage and I promise with no toes or fingers crossed, that this one will have very low 'bumps' at best. Remember that airport module I have sometimes mentioned to you, (at least I think I said something to you once about the possibility) I may turn that into an airport that promises no serious visual obstructions. Just be wary of the prop wash.....

 

Hi Loren, what the status of this new module? Have you any images showing it finished and on the road, to share?
I can't remember seeing any images, so I wonder if I have missed something?

 

Svein,

Not only do I have this module still under construction. but also another end module which I need to wire up so I can run trains at home. I have never in all my Z experience been able to run trains at home because of not having enough end modules to take care of my Tee module which of course requires three ends.

Life has been unusually busy since last November just after my dad died. Karin and I bought Dad's home and remodeled inside and did new floors and painting and this summer I have been busy working on the outside. The lament of many modelers is a 'lack of time' to do what we love to do so much. I am constantly lamenting..........

So, in summation, I have not touched my modules in all that time, but keep thinking about it.......does that count for something?

Seriously, I need in the worst way to spent a lot of time on my modules. I am even skipping my usual Thanksgiving weekend train show right here in Medford because of nothing new to add. I've won people's choice 1st place award the last three years running so I doubt the other scale guys will be disappointed to not see me this year. I do want to make the show in December in Portland, but have some doubts about that one too.

Trust me, as soon as I am back in the modeling saddle I'll be posting new pictures as I go along. I am very jealous of all the fine work I see others doing.
And speaking of recent work.....I love your latest module! Great scenery and so well done. The colors really pop out on that one. Would love to see it in person, but I'm afraid I'll never get over there unless the wind blows strongly in that direction.

Feeling very guilty,

Loren

 

I find it hard to believe it has been five months since I last touched this module......not that I haven't thought about it a lot, but somehow life gets in the way all too often.

Well, the other day I told myself, 'it is time' to get off my butt and do something positive. Besides, John Mui has been riding me unmercifully like a trail boss would a wayward calf. So, to get him to back off my tail and make him happy at the same time, and feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment, I finally buckled down and got the track ballasted.

Took me a couple of days of off and on effort and by the time I had hand ballasted a total of 16 feet of track, I was seeing ballast in my dreams.
The job of ballasting is done and the white glue/water mixture is now drying so my track is secure and I'm now ready to proceed with some actual scenery work.

I think I'll tackle the river bed first and then begin to cover the hillsides. This module will have less evergreens and some deciduous to replicate the actual scene I'm attempting to copy. There will be a lot of talos and rock work jutting out of ground cover and bushes will also fill areas.

I only have a picture of one hillside as you can see from previous posts, so I'll have to invent the rest of the look I hope to achieve. At least I'll have freedom to go in any direction I so choose without too much criticism. Ah go ahead and criticize, I have broad shoulders.

I hope to start hauling rock in the next couple days. And don't anyone tell me I have rocks in my head.........I already know that.

John, this Bud is for you.

Here's the ballast pictures...

 

Actually it looks very good. That track bending around the rock is nice and gives it a realistic touch.

I think we all get into that time rut when it comes to completing projects. I have a few projects "on the table" myself. I might have to do what you did, take a couple of days. (after the mikado comes out of course )

 

ohhhhh......you mentioned the word 'Mikado' That word does get the antenna perked up and the juices flowing.

I am excited by the prospect of turning the curved track section into a close representation of the actual scene in real life.

More when the spirit and flesh moves me.......hopefully soon.