By all means, if anyone has a question, any question, ask away. I dont mind answering multiple times.
Ok, I have one. Will you come finish my outside chores for the summer so that I can start construction of my new layout? Please? There's not much left: - one more bundle of shingles to replace - rotten wood around chimney cap to replace & paint - assorted pieces of wood trim and siding to replace & paint - overall paint touch-up around exterior of house - fix last year's botched stain job on the deck - change oil & rotate tires on both vehicles Whattya say? :tb-wacky:
If I had more than just two weeks left in my semester break, I'm sure we could have worked something out to make the help worth while. Maybe next summer huh?
Ok, I have the first few rock castings permanently set with Joint Compound. These seemed to mesh together quite nicely, but I'm sure others will require more work to get the seamless continuation. I'm going to have to go extra slow with these to make sure I get it right. I've played around with rock castings before, but never achieved the transition from rock to dirt correctly. I think doing these rocks is going to be the hardest part of building Thunder Ridge. Wish me luck.
Thanks MOPMAN! It seems to have worked! I test fit some more rock castings today and I'm very happy with not only the final result, but that the process went much easier than I predicted. Wide shot of the river canyon. Eventually about 80% of this shot will be covered in rock castings. Close up of the rock wall:
Mark, those tree trucks look like they are 8 feet in circumference in NScale. Just how big are they? Pictures can be deceiving.
8 feet around is about right. It might not be exactly prototypical of real pine trees, however if you compare the thicker trunks to the bare skewer trunks, the added bulk looks more realistic (at least to me it does). Also, by bulking up the trunks a bit, the Forrest can appear more dense with fewer trees. I love the art of perception.
Here's a side by side comparison. On the left, an exaggerated, more realistic looking trunk. On the right, more prototypicaly accurate, yet flimsy looking trunk.
I just stumbled upon this semi-tutorial on making a Wooden Deck bridge by Torsja, one of our Z scale guys. I would have never thought to model the nails, but after seeing his work, I'm hooked. I'm going to follow his technique very closely for my own Deck Bridge on the Thunder Ridge high line.
I think it's time to start adding a little color to some of these rocks! Here's a test using Pastel Chalk. Close up: I've never gotten the hang of using pigment washes. I would either wash too heavily and dissolve a good amount of the casting detail, or apply the pigment too thick and loose the multi-color effect that the whole purpose of washing is supposed to achieve. Well, these pastel chalks are proving to be incredibly easier, and more forgiving, to work with. Furthermore the final result is a dusty, rock like surface, where as with the washes, I never liked how the rocks appear semi-glossy. The chalk is also easy to tone down if I apply too heavily, and once I get the result I want, I can seal the chalk in place with workable fixative.
Adding Color to Thunder Ridge!! My test went so well that I went ahead and colored the first few castings that have been set in place on the layout. Check out what just three colors of pastel chalk and a few trees does to the scene!
Looking fan-freaking-tastic Mark! Following very closely, will be using this on my mountain pass layout soon. Couple of questions; 1) I like your pastel chalk technique; what do you use as your workable fixative to seal in the chalk? And 2) since you're only using the Woodland Scenics rock molds, how do you plan to minimize the effect of repeated tilings? Thanks, --Michael
Thanks Michael. Two simple questions, two elaborate answers. the Workable Fixative actually is a product called Workable Fixative. The generic brands all work the same, but Krylon and Prismacolor also have Fixatives. It's pretty much a dull coat sealer except that it can be broken through with a bit of brushing/rubbing or can be worked over top of so that you can fix mistakes or continue after periods of rest. I originally used it when doing Charcoal drawings. I would spray my drawing in my pad so that during transport, any friction between the layers would not smudge the charcoal. I figured if it was good enough for that, it's gotta be good enough for MRR. I now use it after weathering my rolling stock and locomotives with chalk as well. I haven't gotten to a point where I need to test out reducing repeat on the rock castings yet. But for the most part, the idea is to use only a few full castings on perhaps the focal points of a scene, while using 1/2, 1/4th and 1/8th castings to make up the rest (idea taken from the Woodland Scenics website "Instructions" section). By making partial castings, you can flip rocks upside down, swap features side by side and ultimately end up with many different variations of a single mold instead of a pattern of castings. For instance, consider the rock casting I just colored. Before you read this, did you recognize that the rock formation at the center of the overall outcropping is copied, rotated 180 and moved to the right end? Also, I've only used two separate molds to make the current scene. I'm going to purchase 2, and borrow two more giving me 8 total molds to work from (but really 6, because two of the molds I have are "Washed" and "Weathered" rocks, which really aren't common at Thunder Ridge, but will help fill in the gaps if necessary. And finally. I have a chisel and pick at the ready. Once I have the overall rock castings in place, I'll give it a wide overlooking and hack away at any formation that appears to repeat, making the second instance completely unique.
