Many thanks for the welcome in the "Ground Level" thread, I thought I'd better introduce myself after many months of lurking and admiring the outstanding work of you guys on here. I got back into modeling after a break of 25 years, with some 4mm scale narrow gauge items I had never quite managed to throw out. Then I happened to see a Marklin US starter set on ebay, and you can probably guess the rest. A couple of years and far too much money later I now have a small (!) collection. I have to confess to being more a fan of the models rather than the railways, so I'm afraid my collection is a bit random. At least it's 99% North American! Hopefully you guys can educate me as to what items on my roster could be seen together... Anyway, as time off from airbrushing a crash helmet (my main hobby, which pays for all the others!), I thought I'd try to make a small scenic oval to run some trains round, and so here are the results of my efforts so far... I hope you like the photos, please feel free to offer constructive advice, but be gentle, it's only my second try at a layout since I was at school! Thanks Phil
Phil the rock work looks fantastic, I love the way you have captured the look of rubble, can you let us know how you did the rocks and the added detail:tb-biggrin:. Great pics.. Mike.
Hey that's pretty cool! :thumbs_up: The only thing I don't like is the "S" curve. Something you NEVER do in model railroading is have back to back curves that tight. You'll run into all sorts of running troubles. Other then like I really like the rock formations. What kind of track did you end up laying?
You are off to a flying start on this one phil. Now with a little bit more shading and coloring (not much) you just about have it I would think. And just a little bit off "dry" foilage perhaps?
Thanks all for the kind words, very encouraging! I understand about the "s" bend, but you'll really love the fact that the trackwork consists entirely of 16 x Marklins 145mm radius curves! I wanted the whole thing to be as small as possible. It measures out at 2' x 1'. I did do some prior testing, and took great care when laying down the track (with double sided foam tape) and ballasting, and I am happy to report no problems so far. My B&O F7 A-B will push its 6 passenger cars backwards at silly high speeds with no mishaps, so it should be ok. The base is cut from a piece of 2" insulation board (pink foam), and the mountains are formed with a base of board off cuts. The rock formations are from woodland scenics moulds, with the gaps filled with plaster which was either pressed with crumpled Alu foil before it set, or hand carved after. The rubble/talus/scree is entirely from broken up bits of rock casting. I think this gives a better variation in size than the commercial products. This is heaped in place with a pallet knife, then secured with dilute white glue just like ballast. Larger pieces need at least two coats of glue. The outside edges of the base are just the foam after being attacked with a scalpel, then painted, just so it's not smooth. I was going to finish the edges off with more castings, but I have had a couple of ideas about developing the whole thing, so that can wait for now... Torsja, I agree, a little more colour and some light vegetation. Thanks again, more pictures soon! Phil
Nice looking rockwork! But as mentioned, if you have a 145mm radius S-curbe, you would have problems if you run anyhing else than marklin..
I really love the shape of the little Layout and I'm interested in the upcoming progress so please share the pictures with us. Thanks!
Fortunately I don't have to deal with such tight curves bashful, but I guess 40' boxcars and 4-axle motive power equipment from Micro-Trains will work on them. Dom
No real progress yet, but I posted a couple of videos, sorry about the quality! [ame="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0KdycuehraE"]YouTube - Mountain diorama[/ame] [ame="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ABWN_zMJgeU"]YouTube - Mountain Diorama 2[/ame]
Nice video! I have to say Rockwork is something I just have a hard time with. You real made some convincing looking formations on that layout! What type of track did you use?
