Troy's Midnight Abbey Mythical RR 3rd Edition

[troyphoto]

Playing with techniques to blend the two colors of purple for the night sky.

I tried wet blending with both the small foam rollers - meh... to much of a line.
then I tried a slightly damp 2inch brush with up and down motions between the two wet paint zones. Slightly less meh, but not what I wanted.

So it's sponge time! I cut up a cheap scrubber sponge and have been dabbing the colors into a mixed zone. Bringing the lighter color up, and the darker down with two seperate sponges.

The above is wet sponge application on top of mostly dry two coats of each color to soften the definition line.

It's still wet, but I like the effect. It will darken down as the flat finish paint dries.

 

[troyphoto]

And a few of the panels in place.

Drill battery ran out of juice. It's charging, then I'll finish up the screws, and put a bead of caulk in the corner. After that, i'll do some touch up painting.

For the record, the red corded drill is an el-cheapo. Works with drill bits, but not screws. It has one speed: Strip the screw heads at Mach-5

 

[Kusojiji]

Who was it that was posting those awesome night time shots? Those were nice so I wonder what was used for lighting.

You thinking of doing some fiber optic stars?

 

[troyphoto]

Who was it that was posting those awesome night time shots? Those were nice so I wonder what was used for lighting.

You thinking of doing some fiber optic stars?

I was going to do the white paint on the toothbrush splatter technique. Maybe some grey & pink clouds.

 

[troyphoto]

Update:
Working on the backdrop today. Need to get the divider up along the central peninsula. And, there is a bit of the old existing benchwork that is making life difficult for me

If I cut off the left end of the bench against the wall, then I can move the backdrop frame to the right. That will close the gap and save me some real estate on the central peninsula.

So I got out the oscillating tool (as opposed the the machine that goes "PING!") and removed the offending piece:

And I shortened the backdrop frame along with it. The backdrops now touch the center support for the central peninsula's backdrop/divider.

I've got the backdrop pieces up. Lots of scrapes and such on the stuff I already had up. Fortunately I remembered to pick up another quart of purple paint on this morning's hardware/board run.

What I'm pondering... to overlap, or do the labor in taking everything in the center divider apart, and make to cut to fit the bullnose in?

Here's the shot as someone hits the bottom of the staircase into the basement:
The bullnose (curved piece of backdrop) is there temorarily.

The central divider extends out from the back wall all the way to where the bullnose begins closest to the camera. IF I line the the back edges of the bullnose up with a support for the central divider, it will overlap the existing backdrop/divider by over a foot.

I'm thinking of just scabbing the bullnose over the existing divider, and not worrying about the overlap. Since I'm not taping the seams anywhere, nor coving the corners, I can live with it. I think... May need some tactical placement of rock formations, trees, and an odd zombie or four.

Otherwise, I have to pull both sides of the divider down, cut them to but joint against the bullnose. And probably need to trim the bullnose.

 

[DeaconKC]

Since you're not taping the other seams, do with the overlap. Maybe even have half a zombie sticking out from it as an Easter Egg.

 

[traiNscale]

btw troy. check out the april episode of Railroad Model Craftsman. In the april episode they talk about building your layout in sections and build up i think they read this forum and get inspiration for articles maybe that article gives you also some inputs on how you could approach your project

Cheers
Marco

 

[troyphoto]

btw troy. check out the april episode of Railroad Model Craftsman. In the april episode they talk about building your layout in sections and build up i think they read this forum and get inspiration for articles maybe that article gives you also some inputs on how you could approach your project

Cheers
Marco

Thanks for the suggestion. It's a good idea, but....

The problem is the very next step. Roadbed and track laying. And the electrical work. That is where I stall.

I enjoy the scenery making. But the track laying? Ugh... Blah...

If I install 6 feet of track, wire it, then scenic it, yes, that gets a section of the layout done. But I'm not running any trains.

Trains moves Forward 6 feet. Backward 6 feet. Forward 6 feet... backward 6 feet. Then another module done. In a year, I'll be up to 12 feet of track... Forward... backward... Forward... backward....

My plan: I just have to power through laying most of the track... If I get the loop and a few sidings dones, then I can run the trains. From that point I get to do the fun parts of the layout: the scenery.

Once the trackwork is mostly done, I can section off the layout and begin working on the part I enjoy.

 

[traiNscale]

Or you could

- track down for the MAIN
- then work in secions
- put in siding after siding



Like that you can run trains, and if your feeling it, add a siding/industrie add scenery, go to the next. but you always can run trains
Or you try to fight trough, and when you need some mental support, just come in this forum, scream for moral support and we will step in!

Wish you a great weekend!
Cheers
Marco

 

[DeaconKC]

Or you could use Unitrack, trouble free and quick to get trains running.

 

[troyphoto]

Or you could use Unitrack, trouble free and quick to get trains running.

If I didn't already have two boxes of Peco Code 80 N scale flex track sitting here, I might look into that. But, back in Covid times, when researching how to do this, I thought, laying track looks easy!

Yeah... my lack of attention to detail bit me a couple of places. It wasn't a bad thing to tear out that old half-arsed attempt.

 

[traiNscale]

i have to say, kato unitrack (at least in my eyes) looks bad to say it polite. dont like it at all.

 

[troyphoto]

i have to say, kato unitrack (at least in my eyes) looks bad to say it polite. dont like it at all.

You have to ballast it, and not leave it as it comes. But, yeah, when it's "naked" on the layout, it looks like a toy.

 

[troyphoto]

The last couple of days have been productive.

But I've hit my engagement limit on one hobby. Today I got to a good stopping point. Then I cleaned up, vacuumed twice (shop vac, then the shark).

Here's the finished layout as it stands now.

After making a run to Lowes for a 4x8 sheet of foam board, and transporting it in my Camry:

I started working on the layout.

In addition to foam, I added stars to the backdrop

I mixed blue with titanium white and a bit of water. Then I got an old toothbrush (don't use you're spouse's toothbrush)

dab some paint on the bristles. Use your index finger, aim the brush at the backdrop. Then, with the index finger, pull back on the bristles, releasing them as you tighten the grip of the finger. Just like squeezing a trigger on a firearm. But you're fingling paint, not lead.

I found that no closer than 6 inches, and maybe about 8 inches out from the backdrop worked best.

I'm going to take a break from working on the layout for a while. I've got other tasks I need to work on. Like adding more puck lights in the drop ceiling above the layout.

 

[DeaconKC]

That looks really nice.

 

[traiNscale]

great progress troy! enjoy your „break“

 

[Kusojiji]

Hey, I can see Orion's belt from here! Nice job with the toothbrush method.

 

[Snowman]

If I may offer a suggestion, Troy: If it were mine I would sponge paint higher up with roughly the same lighter purple in quite few places so as to make it look like there are night-lit thunderheads up there, instead of the relatively horizontal line you have right now. There is enough of a difference between your deep background color up top and the sponged lower portion that it strongly suggests, at least to my eye, there is a line of nighttime clouds. Moreover, your backdrop has the overall height to pull it off.

As far as the spatter...yeah that works pretty well. It's well known technique (mom used it all the time in her own work as a professional artist) and I think Mike Danneman does as well, although I don't recall him painting any night backdrops.

 

[troyphoto]

If I may offer a suggestion, Troy: If it were mine I would sponge paint higher up with roughly the same lighter purple in quite few places so as to make it look like there are night-lit thunderheads up there, instead of the relatively horizontal line you have right now. There is enough of a difference between your deep background color up top and the sponged lower portion that it strongly suggests, at least to my eye, there is a line of nighttime clouds. Moreover, your backdrop has the overall height to pull it off.

As far as the spatter...yeah that works pretty well. It's well known technique (mom used it all the time in her own work as a professional artist) and I think Mike Danneman does as well, although I don't recall him painting any night backdrops.

Good ideas.

I was going to add some cloud cover, and perhaps shadows along the bottom. The former in towns and areas with some light pollution, and the latter in the more rural spaces between places areas. But I'm not sure where those will be yet.

 

[Kusojiji]

Stormy weather, the going pattern at this time of the year.