Jonathan's Layout #3

[WoundedBear]

You need more locomotives

I like your night scenes from your earlier posting. I was late in considering lighting, and adding it now will be considerably more work.

Your trees look good. The size and density both make a convincing valley scene. What are your armatures? Natural stuff? They don't look like WS plastic ones. Any Supertrees in the mix? Trees are the bane of most model railroaders. Expensive and you can never have enough.

It's all shaping up nicely Jon. The effort is showing.

Sid

[Ken Huck]

Those trees are beautiful.  Especially the variety !  A little dead fall will be the icing on the cake.

Ken

[jonathan]

Hey thanks for the kind words, guys. Much appreciated.

Can never have enough locos.   one day I'll post my other locos, including the brassies.

Sid, 90% of the trees are indeed WS armatures. I paint them with a couple shades of gray to make them more "Barky". After I attached clump foliage I sprinkled some of the trees with fine yellow foam. You know how trees seem to change color when the wind blows? Or when it's about to rain? I was trying to add a little contrast.

A few of the trees I attempted the twisted wire thing or are actual sprigs of some plant that I dried and sprayed with dullcoat to preserve them.

Regards,

Jonathan

[jonathan]

I was able to do some work around my small yard:

DSC_0349 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

The hardest part was building up the ground as close as I could get to the top of the rails, and not interfere with the travel of the locomotives.  Couldn't quite get it close like the real thing but everything travels ok so far:

DSC_0350_02 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

The figures have wire drilled into the bottom of one foot. So I can drill a #75 hole into the ground to plant the dudes without having to glue them:

DSC_0351 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

I placed some junk around the structures to make it look like it's a reasonably busy place:

DSC_0354_02 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

DSC_0355_01 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

DSC_0356_01 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

Regards,

Jonathan

[Ken Huck]

I'm still amazed at how everything just keeps blending together.
One of these days I'll get an engine house and cram it in somewhere.
That last shot is especially appealing.

Keep up the momentum.

Thanks for the pics,

Ken

[ebtnut]

It's all good Jonathon.  Keep at it. 

[WoundedBear]

Always enjoy your pictures Jon. I've been distracted with automotive subjects again.

Thanks for the kick in the inspiration to get me back on track.

Sid

[jonathan]

Thanks, again, folks.  I'm keeping at it.

It was time to get over my fear of plaster and start working on a rock face... No better way to learn than to just get to it.

I have a large cliff-face that will eventually get buried in the background, after the layout is fully landscaped and sceniced (sp?).  It will be 4 feet away from the nearest observer and hidden enough where I can't make the layout any worse by messing around with it.  Here are three angles of my experimentation:

DSC_0362_01 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

I mixed up 3 total batches of plaster through the process. The first batch was to cover the area.  The second and third batches were for playing with shapes, to see if I could make a rock free-hand, well, with a couple of flat tools anyway:

DSC_0363 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

I painted the whole thing black, then brown, and criss-crossed stripes of every color I had in my paint box.  I hear rocks actually have lots of color in them. Should have taken a picture of that, but I was rolling and couldn't stop.  

After the coats of paint, I made some washes of tan/white and gray/white.  I alternated between the two washes, adding a little white each time:

DSC_0364_01 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

Finally, I threw some plant life around the cliff-face.  I believe I will go back and dry-brush a little white on all the edges, for a bit more contrast.

This ain't perfect, but I feel more confident now, that I can make some rock outcroppings towards the front of the layout, and not make a total mess of it.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Ken Huck]

Jonathan that's outstanding.  I couldn't have done better at carving than that.  I've learned that it's better to 'angle off' the corners to fit between adjacent sections of scenery.  You can still 'break off' the lower corners to fit it between two hills or the uppers corners to fit it between two valleys.

Maybe you should do a tutorial.

Ken

[jonathan]

Thanks, Ken.

I dunno about a tutorial.  I'm making this up as I go. 

Regards,

Jonathan

[Terry Toenges]

I like the way it's coming along. You're rocking it!

[bbmiroku]

For deadfall, just use twigs and crap from your nearest tree or bush.  Get the new growth, as they'll be the smallest on the tree/bush.  If you have a gas oven, put them on a baking sheet and stick them in there overnight.  The warmth from the pilot light will dry them out extra well so they'll have less chance of rotting, since new growth is often wet.

[Terry Toenges]

I wonder if putting them in a zip lock bag with those little white packets of desiccant would work.

[WoundedBear]

Probably not Terry. Just put the dirt or twigs on an old cookie sheet and bake them at about 200 degrees for a couple hours. Dirt will dry, twigs will dry....and any bugs will die.

Sid

[Ken Huck]

You guys have heard of Bald Cyprus leaves, haven't you ?



...or even just crumpled up dead leaves...



You can even put them in a blender to get them really 'fine'.