Dioramas

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Another possible method of putting rail gaps is to use an xacto knife and press it down on top of the rail. This could put just enough of a notch to look like there are two rails joined. A little buffing after would remove the burrs.
 
The second coat is on. I really like the Floquil pen; goes on nice an thin. Also when it is completely dry, it is easy to remove any minuscule specs of dust by simply running a stiff brush along the side of the rails. Since my jewellers saw is in storage, I'm going to cut a little notch above the fishplates to depict the the tight gap between the rails with an xacto knife. When this completely dries, I'll brush on a very light coat of orangey chalk dust and seal it with a light coat of dullcote. Then it will be time to ballast!
 
I was shucking corn today and brought some of this stuff home. I think I can make beach wrack/seaweed out of it. Will probably cut it up and dry it out. I like the colour of it.
 


The beach wrack came out a little darker than I wanted it too; probably from over drying it in the oven and later the wet glue so I gave it a wash yellow ochre today. I noted some ends of the cornsilk is sticking upright. Haven't decide yet if I'll try pushing some those down after they dry or leave them there to depict debris/small twigs. I'm going to put it outside today in the sun to see if it lightens it up a bit. If not, I may dry brush it a bit with a little yellow chalk dust to highlight the higher areas, which would be drier.
 
zoegraf said:
The beach wrack came out a little darker than I wanted it too; probably from over drying it in the oven and later the wet glue so I gave it a wash yellow ochre today. I noted some ends of the cornsilk is sticking upright. Haven't decide yet if I'll try pushing some those down after they dry or leave them there to depict debris/small twigs. I'm going to put it outside today in the sun to see if it lightens it up a bit. If not, I may dry brush it a bit with a little yellow chalk dust to highlight the higher areas, which would be drier.
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Hi Zoe,
The Sea shore scene is looking very good as the heavy retaining rocks looks very natural, as does the sand along with the Wrack. The idea of using Corn silk for Sea Weeds was very creative indeed and fits perfectly. :)

Glad I saw your post.
 
Trussrod said:
Hi Zoe,
The Sea shore scene is looking very good as the heavy retaining rocks looks very natural, as does the sand along with the Wrack. The idea of using Corn silk for Sea Weeds was very creative indeed and fits perfectly. :)

Glad I saw your post.
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Thanks Trussrod.

I'm glad I went out to get corn and while shucking it, I noticed a gooey darker part of the silk. The grocer noticed the cornsilk I saved in the bag along with the corn, but didn't say a thing.
 


Just finished ballasting the track. Now I have to to some research on how to weather the track/ballast for a coastal mainline look. In the meantime, I'll be working on adding some driftwood and hopefully later this week a shrub or two.
 
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skillman said:
You know zoegraff, I really enjoy where you're going with this. Nice job and great imagination.

Steve
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Thanks Steve.

I'm going to the art store this week to pick up some tempera powdered paint. I read an article where a modeller mixes plaster powder with tempera powder to weather ballast by brushing the powdered mix over the ballast then seals it with a mist of water. I'm going to give it a try on a small section, but before that, I'm going to slightly rust up the spikes and plates.

Cheers.
 
I've been looking at various prototype photos of coastal mainlines that are not heavily used and noted that there can be wind swept sand on the track and a bit of surface rust.
I mixed plaster powder with some tempera powder to weather the track then went over it with a mist of water, which made it settle in between the ballast. The photos do the track no justice due to the poor artificial lighting. Tomorrow I'll photograph it in natural light. Since I took these shots, I slightly sanded down the centre of the track and dusted the side of the rails with a bit of rusty coloured chalk. Before I photograph it tomorrow, I'll dust it a with a bit of chalk dust (I'll try to match the colour of the beach) to depict wind blown sand up against some areas of the rail.
 
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