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Hi,
I've never done any type of scenery before, so I decided to build a small diorama (10" x 20") to practice on.
So far I have a 3/8" plywood base with 2" blue foam glued on top. I also bought some foam roadbed and glued that to the foam base (first time using roadbed too).
Some elements I'd like to include are:
1 - Water - Drainage possibly crossing under the track.
2 - Road - I'd like to experiment with styrene for a road, and possibly a grade crossing.
3 - Hill - A small build up of foam to look like a rocky hill.
After doing some experimenting, I realize that's a lot to include in a small scene, but I'd like to give it a shot.
I plan to use this thread to post progress pics and ask for feedback. To help me get started, it would be great if you could post detail pics of grade crossings and water drainage from your layouts. Of course, any diorama examples would be great too.
Doug, there were some grade crossing photos posted in the thread you started about using styrene for grade crossings. What other kind of pictures do you want? I have a small creek that passes under the tracks and a rocky hill with the tracks running through a cut in the hill. I'll take some photos and post them. You should be able to include the features you want on a 10" x 20" diorama.
The grade crossing pics from the other thread were perfect. Exactly what I'm looking for. I would like to see your water and hill details as well.
Considering the feasibility of putting all of these components in one small space and requesting additional pics of grade crossings.
A concern for my larger layout is grade crossings of multiple tracks and in one case multiple tracks with an elevation change between the tracks. Should be fun to build. Anyway, the more detailed shots I can see the better.
Doug - a couple of possible considerations/suggestions regarding your project, if I may.
Concerning the cut you've made for what I assume would be a small creek on your diorama. It would be very unusual in the real world to find a creek gully so deep in comparison with its width. Such steep, high walls are sometimes seen where a creek has penetrated a wall of solid rock but generally the water would have found an easier path around instead. Likewise, normal erosion in regular soil will result in embankments that would be at a very much shallower/gentler angle, rather than almost vertical. If we are talking about just a simple drainage ditch passing under the tracks, as compared to a creek, it would typically appear to be little more than a shallow dip in the terrain with a culvert or miniature stone bridge a dozen feet, or less, long.
Concerning your earlier comment that you are considering a multi-track road crossing on your layout where there is an (significant?) elevation change between tracks, if the tracks are relatively closely spaced this would also be usual to find in the real world simply because of safety reasons. The road's track crossing would almost certainly be relocated elsewhere to a more level stretch by the RR's engineering dept. to avoid such a safety situation.
Yeah, I got a little carried away with the saw. I'm planning to cut to tops off the removed pieces and replace the lower portions to "fill in" the ditch. That's the nice thing about foam and caulk
Regarding the multi track crossing, the elevation difference is not large. I think it is similar to the example shown by Grampy above.
Thanks for all of the feedback. I'm learning a lot.
So far, 2" blue foam base with foam roadbed. The hills are both blue foam and white beadboard glued in layers. Figured I'd experiment with both. The road is plaster, so far. The parking lot is 2mm craft foam with white paint pen stripes. The stone is fish tank gravel, and the retaining wall is popsicle sticks and tooth picks.
Next steps... grass and road.
For the grass, I'm going to try ground foam and for longer grass, some faux fur. I saw a write up where the fur is glued to the foam base upside down. Once the glue is dry, you cut the backing off the fur leaving the fur strands as tall grass.
I like the retaining wall. To my eye, the creek bed stone is both too large and there too many of them. I would cut down the number by about 75% and use smaller stone to represent common river rocks. The way you have it now, it kind looks like peanut brittle. It looks like the craft foam would make excellent road and crossing material as well.
Water v2.0 is looking much better than the first attempt.
I carved out the old peanut brittle and lined the riverbed with some plaster. I mixed some earth brown paint into the plaster. Once the plaster set up, I painted the entire river bed with a tan paint, then blended some brown into the bottom, finally some black at the very center of the river.
After the paint dried, I added some general purpose sand, the type you would use in concrete (50# bag at Lowes for $4). I misted it with alcohol and then used a 50/50 glue/water mix to finish it off.
Doug, much better looking creek indeed. It will look even better when you complete the scenery along the creek banks, I'm sure.
If I may make a suggestion about your roads, you are making a typical mistake that a lot of modelers make with asphalt. If you think about a real asphalt road, the darkest part is in the middle becuase of oil droppings and less wear, the lightest parts are the wheel track area since the passing wheels tend to wear down the asphalt closer to the aggregate base. If you reversed the weathering so you have a very dark gray in the middle of the road and then a lighter (but not white) gray for the wheel tracks, I think you'll find the road looks more realistic. Don't lose the tar strips though, they help to define the age of the road - the more tar sealant, the older the road.
Grampys and Dougget, these are wonderful sights. I am working on my own landscapes at the moment and look forward to posting some pics when I will have finished them.
I have one observation about the road also. It is has abrupt vertical changes as it approaches the track, almost like ramps for launching skiers, bicyclists, etc. I can, however, think of one crossing that is similiar. My cousin said he hit it (probably 50% over the speed limit, knowing him) and all the stuff flew out of his shirt pockets and his head brushed the ceiling of the car.
