New On30 Track Plan

[BayHighRY]

Track has been laid and scultamold and rock ceramic mold has begun, along with locomotive weathering and stock car weathering.

 

[Topherisme]

Nice, love watching it all come together

 

[BayHighRY]

Thanks! Should be another month of sculptamold and rock work and track leveling to be done. Then comes a test run and ballasting.

 

[Neophyte]

I’ve been itching to do a On30 (my first) and this is very educational!

 

[Guilford Railman]

This looks amazing! I’ll be following along.

 

[BayHighRY]

I’ve been itching to do a On30 (my first) and this is very educational!

Get started on the digital track design first would be my recommendation. And searching on30 layouts on YouTube. Lots of inspiration I'm pulling from to create my own layout. Good luck!

 

[BayHighRY]

This looks amazing! I’ll be following along.

Thanks! Some updates here, after a major rock mold and plaster push, we're almost ready to get to rock painting on the main mountain side.

With DCC on the engines hopefully there will be a point in the future to get a double train loop going at the same time.

 

[BayHighRY]

Hi all,

Things are finally starting to look like a proper railroad now. Grass tuft going in and painting has started on the rock face. I've found it a learning process with the rock molds, I managed to get a good technique going on the upper mountain, the one in front is a little rough texture wise, but that should all be disguised when I come back with some brown paint, filling in with grass on the ridges, etc. Next will be the switch, getting the grass down, as well as a fence and some cows on the field.

 

[Neophyte]

The mountain behind the Derrick car looks great! Nice weathering on the Derrick car, as well. Are you converting the ravines to tunnels or leaving them as they are?

 

[BayHighRY]

Thanks! The mountain is actually just awaiting another coat of paint and brush to be applied to it. I have a couple layers of acrylic wash to do, the issue was with my sub-par sculpting, I left lots of gaps difficult to reach with a standard brush, so I had to come back and do some indoor spray painting to get into all the crevices. Not recommended but it was a solution. Next I'll go over it all with a redder rock wash and then a white highlight. The ravine is planned to be a tunnel, first I'll have to finish the inside before putting a hood over it so to speak. I don't mind for now having it be open

 

[Neophyte]

What colors of paint/wash did you use to get the rock colors?

 

[BayHighRY]

What colors of paint/wash did you use to get the rock colors?

Honestly just going down to the craft store and getting earth tones and grays. I've been experimenting with a mix of browns and blacks, I actually would like a much lighter color when I'm done

 

[dave1905]

4% is reaaaaaaallly steep. As long as you are ok with trains of two or three cars, you will be fine.

I would be tempted to saw off the top of the steam dome and fill up the saddle tank with birdshot (or plaster for that matter) and glue the top of the dome back on to make sure the engine had enough pulling power.

 

[BayHighRY]

4% is reaaaaaaallly steep. As long as you are ok with trains of two or three cars, you will be fine.

I would be tempted to saw off the top of the steam dome and fill up the saddle tank with birdshot (or plaster for that matter) and glue the top of the dome back on to make sure the engine had enough pulling power.

Yeah, 4% was a necessary evil to get the size of the layout I wanted with the double loop. It might even peak 4% past in some areas. I'll be having short trains anyway due to the shorter size of the layout so that doesn't bother me, 3 cars max. Maybe if I get a double header using DCC I could swing more. Have you done that type of modification on an engine of yours before? Haven't heard of that one

 

[BayHighRY]

Added highlights to the rock faces which has helped bring them to life. They turned out to be more gray than originally planned but I think I like the effect. Next is finishing the highline and then working on the other side, which will be a small pond under the trestle (which I'll have to figure out how to make low budget but still strong enough to support the trains).

 

[BigGRacing]

This looks so great, I have a slightly larger canvas ready here for you any time !

 

[logandsawman]

What did you use to get the rocks lighter in color, technique and products?

 

[BayHighRY]

This looks so great, I have a slightly larger canvas ready here for you any time !

Ha! Thank you. I actually have a Bob Ross paint kit that I've ignored for a year so far..might be time to bring that out!

 

[BayHighRY]

What did you use to get the rocks lighter in color, technique and products?

I did some YouTube research and found that simple acrylics mixed in water seemed the easiest to first put on. So I experimented with mixing different grays, and I have 3 different rock colors I'm using. I'm still unsure if it was worth it to do the base coat with a wash - while it produced a really nice texture that filled all the crevices nicely, I ended up having to go back with a spray bottle anyway and get all the hard to reach spots, painting over 50% of the rock face in parts. So maybe it's better to have a base layer of spray paint, I'm not sure (the reason for so many gaps was my bad rock molding technique which left them there). The other issue that you run into with washes up close is you can see where it runs a bit. So you have to be careful how much you apply, your dabbing technique and what kind of ratio paint/water you're using..too much and it'll look like the rock is crying!

 

[BayHighRY]

Just a picture update, painted some trees and looking to get them on the layout soon enough. Next step, creating the tunnel roof, and finishing the front of the mountain's coloring after more plastering.