progress so far

[tankist]

I think its coming along very nicely. Makes me wanna start on my layout so bad but cant, might just have to do a lil 18" x 48" shelf scene just to do some sorta work.

as far as the colors on your hills, are they gonna be dirt, with some vegitation or the evemtually gonna have grass, trees, ect??

i'd say definetly go for it. i'd desing the 18*48 as part of your layout so later to just drop it in

for hills and plain ground thinking to do cover with actual dirt, and some WS products (already got couple different colors and mixes), some places will be grassy, bushes and trees will also be here and there. couple rock faces will be "protruding" from the brown. i think i'll be ok with that.
its the "cliffs" that bother me somewhat as i they are require more precise painting... tried to do highlights over base gray but the end result wasn't anywhere near what i waned. reading the thread about airbrushes makes me scratch my head - i do have HF store right near me. but before that i'll try grey/black/white spray cans i have.


did some house cleaning in pictures folder. some of the older pics were removed so they will no longer show up here

 

[tankist]

ok, here is my first wack at coloring those rocks.
something hit me today and i decided to skip test pieces altogether, thought worst case i'll just coat with base color again and start over.

painted some pieces with peach base and some with yellow/peach/dub of grey. used textured grey, flat gray black and at places white (to lighten up the to much black) spray cans. next time i do that i'll definetly open the garage door early and use face mask,

kinda uniformish grey on the output.

black spots visible. will let it dry and try to lighten those up later

that one i actually like and could almost leave like that , what do you think?
although it does IMHO look better on picture

another ok'ish area.

al in all i'm ok with results so far, a lot of places i will still need to pass again. thinking to get yellowish and reddish spray can to ad to the mix.

 

[UP2CSX]

Depends on the locale you're modeling. Some places, like California, have a very uniform gray color because most of it is monolithic granite. Down here, most of the cuts would be through an almost rust red clay and conglomerate material. The best advice I can give you is to work from actual photos and try to reproduce those colors.

Another thing to remember is all but the most vertical surfaces have some plant life growing from it, even if it's just small weeds. Adding vegetation to your cuts will do a lot to improve the realism.

 

[tankist]

oh yeah, it will be full of vegetation clumps, i looked through my pictures and i see those walls almost but completely covered with green. i wasn't trying to model any specific area, i'm just hoping to get something that looks close to any kind of rocks. i guess i'm not to far from pic below. will try to mix something brownish/yellowish, highlight some spots and then blend it in a bit...

 

[GrampysTrains]

HI tankist: You've a good start on making rocks for your layout, but if you want to make some that are close to the ones in the photo, you might want to invest in a couple of WS rubber rock molds and some Hydrocal lite. These molds will give you some great detail. There are many ways to color rocks, and, as Jim mentioned, depending on the location, different rock colors. I model South Central Pa. and a lot of the rocks here are grayish. And, vegetation will grow everywhere, even in sheer rock walls, just needs a crack. I used an alcohol/India ink wash, and let it run down the rocks. Then I used a thinned earth colored latex paint with another wash of alcohol/ink. When the rocks are the color I want, I drybrushed them with light gray paint. This is how they turned out.

 

[stang_crazy]

HI tankist: You've a good start on making rocks for your layout, but if you want to make some that are close to the ones in the photo, you might want to invest in a couple of WS rubber rock molds and some Hydrocal lite. These molds will give you some great detail. There are many ways to color rocks, and, as Jim mentioned, depending on the location, different rock colors. I model South Central Pa. and a lot of the rocks here are grayish. And, vegetation will grow everywhere, even in sheer rock walls, just needs a crack. I used an alcohol/India ink wash, and let it run down the rocks. Then I used a thinned earth colored latex paint with another wash of alcohol/ink. When the rocks are the color I want, I drybrushed them with light gray paint. This is how they turned out.

Grampy you make me agry everytime you post a pic LOL, jk your pics looks so realistic.

 

[tankist]

HI tankist: You've a good start on making rocks for your layout, but if you want to make some that are close to the ones in the photo, you might want to invest in a couple of WS rubber rock molds and some Hydrocal lite. These molds will give you some great detail. There are many ways to color rocks, and, as Jim mentioned, depending on the location, different rock colors. I model South Central Pa. and a lot of the rocks here are grayish. And, vegetation will grow everywhere, even in sheer rock walls, just needs a crack. I used an alcohol/India ink wash, and let it run down the rocks. Then I used a thinned earth colored latex paint with another wash of alcohol/ink. When the rocks are the color I want, I drybrushed them with light gray paint. This is how they turned out.

thanks for your input. this is first class work and i did read allover that thread where you discussed your technique. before i start next project i will probably get couple rock forms, i probably shouldn't have rushed in with it like this. perhaps i can try and improve on it down the road (understanding it will take more effort then) but i guess i'll have to settle for ok'ish/mediocre rocks. i was actually thinking to replace the flatter section against the wall with printed background altogether but i'll .hopefully added vegetation will hide and improve how it all looks together.

worked some more on the color last night, made all the sections look more consistent with one another. tried to keep different angles while spraying from different cans. then mopped everything with thinned out brown/yellow mix of latex. it doesn't look completely bad from afar, but no macro detail like grampy. was to tired and bit frustrated to take pictures

 

[tankist]

decided to take break from the rocks and do something quick so i started gluing the roadbed on the other half of the layout. well it does take time as well all righ
glued inner portions of road bed for both lines last night, glued the outer ones the night before. made a pad for one of the turnouts.

no pics again - the contents of my pantry is pressing down on the drying roadbed and the view is not something.

 

[tankist]

didn't have much chance to work a lot on layout on weekend. one would think that weekend is the train time but no
i also started on long overdue drill press bench project. finished cutting joints in the lumber, will be assembling it later this week.

i still managet to squise in couple sessions here and there.
cut and glued down wooden shims for the height transition from the mainline to spurs (no roadbed on those)
cast rocks on the last missing wall.
cast "concrete" overhanging supports for the bridges. drilled holes in the "rock" foundation and used hanger wire to serve as armature for the supports.shaped plywood strip is resting on those supports and has a cast "bracket" (for the lack of better word) around it to keep it in place laterally and serve as transition from cork roadbed to the plywood bridge.
i will still need to figure out and build another support somewhere in the middle of the longer climb bridge, it holds its own weight but since it is curved the center of gravity will be shifting sideways when train passes and it will capsize.

took some pictures but windows crapped out on my main PC and the rest of the evening i spent bringing it back to life. will be uploading tonight




i'm long way past this however

 

[RexHea]

Anton: Your progress is looking good. Anytime you work with scenery, you will learn as you go and redo, redo, redo . I don't know if it was mentioned somewhere in your thread, but I had my Dentist save me dental picks for carving. They sterlize them and are great for carving rock. Anytime an area doesn't come out of the mold right or is just not what you want, dive in with these picks and "pick and chunk" until you its what you want.

 

[Laidoffsick]

 

[tankist]

REX, thanks for the comment and thats good idea for dental stuff. remimnds me that i'm so verdue on my dentist visit. perhaps now i will have another reason to go, lol

laidoff, those are first class rocks as well. however personnaly for me that 3rd rail completely screws everything i don't know, i just can't get those things mentally out of the picture. even the marklin solution that is supposed to be better is immidiatley apparent to me and seem to grab all the attention.

 

[tankist]

main PC was flaking out on me latley. after fresh reimage it became apparent that the it is hardware. luckly enough the problem was resolved installing and imaging spare hard drive meaning it is not the onboard controller. guting and sending mainboard to service (still under warranty) avoided. phewww... but the HDD is going for a trip to its maker.

finished gluing roadbed where i'm going o have roadbed. decided to not use roadbed for underpass line to squeeze all the vertical clearance possible. slopes took extra work but i think i got the best i could get out of them. the breaking out for bridges did not make thing easier climb slope is okish the descent one however is ungodly. had to take a hammer to a section of cast "rocks" as it wouldnt clear the cars. glued foam "retaining wall" in place

so, some more of those pictures pictures. and since its been bit time there are more then usual

granary area. yes that curve rail is smack near the edge. measures to prevent the train fromfalling down if derails in the middle of curve will be taken.

western industry area. (not sure which one it will be)

playing with rail layout for upper portion. r18 sections right after curved peco . not ideal but should be doable with slow moving switcher. allows me to have an industry on each line. suggestions on what to do here are welcome. i tried different arangements but i just keep coming back to that dblslip.

if there is a picture i'd be doing this entire thing right now it would be that one

Bridges. notes welcome

roadbed is flush with the plaster and recessed plywood forming level transition.

climb. the middle support is visible here. drilled holes in the "rocky" wall, inserted a contraption build from hanger wire and "poured" plaster of paris. still need to give it proper shape

climb bridge upper support

descent bridge lower support

upper

note. coloring is obviously not final and will be revisited

 

[tankist]

took a break from the entire thing for couple days but now i'm slowly getting back.
i've been itching to run some trains already so i tacked down the track. before i start soldering track i'd like to se how everything works. was surprising to see how my seemingly endless (i had 15 pieces ) pile of flexi track was thinned. i love the "continuously welded" track in the curves . the underpassing line is still in sections. was watching watching the train doing loops for over an hour. actually not all time wasted most of it i run the CF7 and that thing needed serious breaking in - was very noisey even for athrean.

i realy like this engine for some reason

the underpass curve needed careful positioning not to rub against stuff and the clearance is quite tight but it is workable. i am going to install a roadbed there as well, it is significantly noisier without and it would be nice o quiet things down. as long as highest car clears that bridge it doesn't matter how much more room left.

i guess i'm not going to surprise anybody when i say i am disappointed in atlas switches (i don't have enough shinos to cover everything). as much as i don't want to spend money now i will start getting better turnouts before i solder everything together. on the bright side the test engine pulled 8 cars up the climb slope no sweat which is huge relief. the second slope is still not ready.

 

[RexHea]

Ain't it FUN! LOL!
Anton, don't get into a big hurry with soldering the rails. Not only do you want to make sure that everything is working perfect with them, but you also want to make sure that you are happy with the plan. That is one of the last things I do in an area or only when I have to because of scenery or a flakey connection. Sometimes this may be a couple of months. Much harder to undo soldered rails; don't ask me how I know .

 

[tankist]

Ain't it FUN! LOL!
Anton, don't get into a big hurry with soldering the rails. Not only do you want to make sure that everything is working perfect with them, but you also want to make sure that you are happy with the plan. That is one of the last things I do in an area or only when I have to because of scenery or a flakey connection. Sometimes this may be a couple of months. Much harder to undo soldered rails; don't ask me how I know .

yeah, instead of "before i solder everything" i probably should have said "not soldering Anything just yet" as it fits more i plan to keep things without solder until i get all the switches i need and test everything running. somehow i managed to plan the lower section with 7RH and only 2LH turnouts while the lot i had won was the opposite - 2 right ones and 6 left ones,
talk about strange unlucky coincidence...
looking through ebay, but though is not leaving me that i might need to break down and just buy the 5 missing switches... most probably walters, which is going to hurt the wallet...

as far as being happy with the plan i think it is to far to back out. and i'm generally ok with it. roundy round with a bypass lane, two areas to switch to and a switcher stab. i think it might even have some potential for multi people operation. i would have loved to make the switch branching into granary a double slip so to enable the train originating from there to stay on lower level but i sacrificed it to squeeze better grade at the climb.

 

[tankist]

for the most part i'm taking a short break from this. while there are other things to do, i'm holding off untill i find good turnout lot. i will not surprise anyone here when i say i'm disapointed with atlas turnouts. if i woulnd't have seen anything better i'd keep them but next to shinohara they just look pathetic. and performance got acceptable only after tweaking.

i can't stand not having all the materials at hand and this time i'm missing 6 right hand turnouts. kinda puts stop to desire to work on things. i might settle for less and use the atlas ones for the less critical places (sidings). but so far it looks like i might need to go to a hobby store and just order new walthers switches. over 100$ of them. yaikes...

cut and nailed plywood sides to the bench and painted several places - almost but hidden the pink. amazing how much such a small detail changes things.

 

[phillip]

Hi Anton
Im a new member to the forum and came across your thread,regarding the rockwork I have been using a similar type and some ways of meking the foam look like rock without using hydrocal or plaster.If your interested I can give explanation and images .

 

[tankist]

Hi Anton
Im a new member to the forum and came across your thread,regarding the rockwork I have been using a similar type and some ways of meking the foam look like rock without using hydrocal or plaster.If your interested I can give explanation and images .

i have seen that youtube series on making rocks out of pink foam and tried that technique. somehow i didn't like the outcome, i probably should have kept trying some more and perhaps get it done. but plaster seemed doable...

ANY and ALL input is welcome. lets see those pics.

however at the moment the train project is on hold - i'm rebuilding my kitchen. old cabinets are in the yard, new cabinets and appliances are piled in garage (so i can barely squeeze in there) and i'm working the walls/floors/electricity. plugged the gas line, pulled 2 240V 8 gauge armored lines for the cook top and the oven (and filled with pride ), removed portions of the suffit (who on earth though it is good idea to make one in the first place. ) to install ceiling high hanging cabinets. still lots to be done. wife is scared sh*t-less since she knows that i don't know 100% what i'm doing and mostly can't help either . but it was hers idea, so she can only complain to herself. it will be awesome kitchen however when it will be all done.

was hoping to keep some of the kitchen budget for my toys (as in budget for labor) but we went so over budget it is not funny. so all i got is this lausy new jigsaw (awesome actually) hopefully a good meal out of it for a change when its all done, lol.

 

[phillip]

I get you, my wifes not much for cooking either and im useless. Did a lighthouse sene today and I was pleased with the rocks,I hack the foam with a clay modeling tool vertically and a steel brush horizontally ,piant one colour and springcle with varios colours of powders or pigments.Ill take some pics in the next few days and let you know where I post them, mostly I use cheap hardwarestore materiaal to save money.

Cheers vir eers
phillip