Dioramas

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HOexplorer said:
zoegraf, I've been gone for a week and just found your thread again. Thanks for the comments. Looks like you're on the right track. (pun intended) Jim:)
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I now got to find me some gravel to represent talus and boulders for the causeway. No luck with finding any turkey grit as there is no feed store in my area. In the meantime, I'm sealing the roadbed and foam. Then will glue the track down and start painting and weathering ties.
 
All sealed and I gave it a light coat of primer. I'm going to wash the ties with a brownish colour, but before I do that, I will experiment on a piece of left over ME track to get the desired look I want for the ties.

After that, I'll paint the odd tie here and there with different shades of brown and black to represent newer ties on the diorama.

I've seen the results on some sites on the net and was impressed by the method of priming the ties then washing them with a diluted burnt umber.

I haven't figured out what colour to paint the rails yet; still have some more research to do.
 
Today I gathered some rocks.
I've been positioning them just to feel what they look like and to get some feedback. They kind of look too big to me, but I've been looking at some causeways especially saltwater coasts and the rocks appear to be a quarter of the size of a boxcar!
To give you an idea how big the rocks I collected today are, here's a description of them - Two or three of the smaller rocks would fit in an HO scale pick up and one of the larger rocks would fit in the back of a dump truck. I need to get some smaller rocks to fill in the spaces. The big rocks on the bottom are suppose to be partly beneath the water when the tide is in.
Next week I'm going to go hunting for more rocks.
 
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I took out the larger rocks, but still don't like the look of it. I think I made my causeway too short in height for a coastal one. Might have to make it a lake causeway instead or a causeway that goes through shallow waters, mud flats or swamp.
 
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The height of the causeway is approximately 8½ scale feet to the base of the roadbed. I have no idea if this is a realistic height for a causeway. If not, I could always cut the foam away from the base and insert another piece of foam underneath, but that will be messy and might ruin my clean edges at the ends. I glued everything down with carpenters glue; not a good idea I think.

I tried to improve the angle of repose in these shots. I think I’ll try to find more of these stones and smash them up into different smaller sizes.

In theses shots, I think this is high as I should go with the big boulders and put the smaller ones above it. And the crushed ones, in between the boulders and on top of the slightly level heap up to the line of the base of the roadbed and have the ballast from the track blend over it and of course having the ballast angle of repose correct.

To achieve that 45-degree angle I’ll have to push some of the stones into the foam. Good thing I used foam; now I see the advantage to it aside from the weight factor.
 
Yea, pushing some of the stones into the foam would help the looks. Since those would start some distance under water the ones at water level would not be at the same level.
 


waltr said:
Yea, pushing some of the stones into the foam would help the looks. Since those would start some distance under water the ones at water level would not be at the same level.
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Sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean by the last sentence.
 
Ok. Look at the pictures of the rip-rap in this thread:
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28501&page=2
and this picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CansoCauseway.jpg

The rocks were dumped onto the bottom of the water to build up the causeway. With the water level part way up the pile of rock many rocks are completely submerged, some rocks are almost submerged, some rocks are barely submerged.

In your model I imagine you will paint the flat foam the water color then pour a fairly thin layer of artificial water. Since the real causeway rock are partially buried and under water having the rocks in the model all setting on the foam will look artificial.
But by pushing some down into the foam then you can acheive the look that the rock rip-rap starts much deeper under the water.

Make any sense now?
 
waltr said:
Ok. Look at the pictures of the rip-rap in this thread:
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28501&page=2
and this picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CansoCauseway.jpg

The rocks were dumped onto the bottom of the water to build up the causeway. With the water level part way up the pile of rock many rocks are completely submerged, some rocks are almost submerged, some rocks are barely submerged.

In your model I imagine you will paint the flat foam the water color then pour a fairly thin layer of artificial water. Since the real causeway rock are partially buried and under water having the rocks in the model all setting on the foam will look artificial.
But by pushing some down into the foam then you can acheive the look that the rock rip-rap starts much deeper under the water.

Make any sense now?
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I understand now. Thank you.
It is something I overlooked. I will be modelling the tide out so I'll have to create a bit of mud, which will mean I will have to have some of the rocks barely and almost submerged into the mud. I will have to also create a water line stain/mark to indicated how high the water is when the tide is in. Usually the rock has silt or mud on it up to the line. This will be a challenge because the base of the diorama is wood. Oh well, an exercise it is.
 
Ok. It is all these tiny details that combine to make a realistic scene.
Don't forget the barnacles and seaweed.

Have you looked and read through Jim's thread on building the Pinnacle Creek & Mining RR. He does a real nice water, dock scene.
 
waltr said:
Ok. It is all these tiny details that combine to make a realistic scene.
Don't forget the barnacles and seaweed.

Have you looked and read through Jim's thread on building the Pinnacle Creek & Mining RR. He does a real nice water, dock scene.
Click to expand...

HO scale barnacles and seaweed will be fun to make.

I've seen the dock scene; it is superb.
 
Today I went out and pinched some gravel about a quarter of the size of the rocks I was previously playing with. I like the look of these better especially the non-uniformed look. I think I'll go with something like this right up to the bottom of the roadbed. I'll shove them into the foam on the top area. Now I just got to go find some without pinching it from someone's driveway.
 
waltr said:
Ok. Look at the pictures of the rip-rap in this thread:
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28501&page=2
and this picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CansoCauseway.jpg

The rocks were dumped onto the bottom of the water to build up the causeway. With the water level part way up the pile of rock many rocks are completely submerged, some rocks are almost submerged, some rocks are barely submerged.

In your model I imagine you will paint the flat foam the water color then pour a fairly thin layer of artificial water. Since the real causeway rock are partially buried and under water having the rocks in the model all setting on the foam will look artificial.
But by pushing some down into the foam then you can acheive the look that the rock rip-rap starts much deeper under the water.

Make any sense now?
Click to expand...

I just looked up riprap ( I didn't know what it meant) on the net and checked out the images. A lot of good ideas there.
 


waltr said:
I like the smaller rocks with the different sizes. Looks good in the close up and distant pics.
Click to expand...

Me too.

I just noticed the foam under the roadbed in the middle of the diorama appears to have sunk a bit. So I check the board it is glued to and it is level without any warpage or dip to it. Then I checked the piece of pink foam where I cut this piece from and noticed it has a bit of a dip in it. I think from now on I'll use foam just for surrounding scenery and not place roadbed or track on it. I'm guessing even the dense foam can become compressed while in storage or in shipping.
 
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