The Little Rock Line

If you ask me, you've dumb-lucked a neat forced perspective technique into existence! Every now and then in modeling the stars align, and I know this photo is 100% going to be in my mind the next time I try and build a diorama scene to take advantage of small depth-of-field with a planned camera angle. My last attempts at that fizzled because they weren't even half as convincing as some unintended Surform lines can pull off

 

Maybe so, but the sad fact is that by the time I get the ground foam, static grass, trees, bushes and kudzu put in place, that perspective will be forever covered up.

 

Oh ballasting.
How do I love thee? Let me count thy ways...uhhh....ummmm.....

 

Oh man, you can just feel the sarcasm oozing from that comment.

Despite all that "fun" Allen, it looks good so far. The more I see these pictures the more I want to go get some of that green foam and a board and start experimenting. Really like how that is working for your terrain.

 

Sarcasm? There's no sarcasm in MRR'ing!!!

Thank you sir.
Honestly it works pretty much just like the pink/blue foam, but it's just a little easier to carve.
Not sure I'd do a large area like this again due to the expense.

 

Someone: "So, how's the ballasting going?"
Me: "Eh, Spotty"

 

The mainlines in Winnfield are ballasted.
What isn't will be the scrap yard, that'll come later.




Next comes the ground foam base.

 

Very nice work, Allen. Looking good. The scrap yard should be a very interesting scene.

 

Thank you Joe.
I'm gonna have to do some noodling on that scene before I can move forward with it.
I have some ideas and some 3D printed items that a friend made for me.

 

Well it's been a productive weekend for me.
First, I managed to get up the courage to paint the pond base. We'll see how that turns out?



After that, I decided to create a sloped edge between the tracks and fascia, something that's been lacking on the layout. Last winter I picked up a Milwaukee multi tool and some blades. I thought this might aide in cutting the fascia to an irregular shape? I also figured I could carve the ceiling tile with ease as well? It did

Here's the tool and blade. I used the round blade for the ceiling tile and a narrow straight blade for the fascia.




The subroadbed is made up of a plywood base with a layer of 1-1/2" white beadboard foam covered with a 5/8" ceiling tile. My goal was to make and angled cut from the ballast edge to the fascia, then cut the fascia down close to match the irregular shape of the tile.

Here are the results, though it's a little hard to see the slope.





Next I cut the fascia and then painted the carved ceiling tile.
I'm not gonna worry about the brown paint on the fascia as I'm going to repaint it all black at a later date. I'll do this to cover up the blue and orange lines.




It's not much of a slope, but hopefully enough to make a difference once the greenery goes on?
Hopefully the next images will have some green applied?

 

First, the pond looks good. The slope also turned out well, it shows up in the later pictures better than the first ones.

 

Allen...

Just a curious question. What is the height of your layout? I see what looks like a folding chair in that last picture. If so...it makes me think your layout is up there a ways.


BTW..everything is looking pretty darned good !

 

Looking good Allen! I like that idea of sloping the scenery to toward the fascia and cutting the fascia to match the terrain. Will be interested in hearing more about how the pond goes as well.

 

Thanks.
Yeah I should have shot from a different angle and then did a before and after.

 

Thank you!
I've got some ideas, but not sure if they'll turn out like what I have in my head?

 

I'm sure you mean "In action on the ceiling tile on my layout" But here's a decent video that shows it in action.


Basically it just oscillates the blade left to right extremely fast.
If and when I get around to cutting more stuff on the layout, I will try to remember to get some video of it.

As for the dust, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be? I could see clouds rising from it, but that was not the case, even while cutting the ceiling tile.

 

Thanks George.

The rail height is set at 52", the backdrop stands about 11" above the track, I'm 6'-2".
Our Bend Track modules had a rail height of 50".
I wound up using the yard module for the layout, so that's where I came up with the height.
But when I built the actual layout at 50", I later decided to add a layer of 1-1/2" white beadboard foam and a 5/8" thick ceiling tile on top.
The yard I just added 2-1/8" riser blocks so as to match the layout height.

That "Folding Chair" you see is actually a stand for an LED light panel. If you look closely, you can kind of see it just above the layout.

Here's a shot that should give you a decent idea of the height of the layout.
I'm the one in the middle (back) with the blue shirt and cap.
My buddy Matt in the gray shirt is about my height but he's not standing completely upright.
From pics I've seen of you, your head would probably bump the white air duct just above Matt if I had to guess?

Just another note, where I'm standing is where I'm currently working on the scenery.

 

I am 6'5''. My head hits just about everything...everywhere.