Swiss Rhb Nm9 Photo Plank

[backofanenvelope]

Some days you lose, some days you win.. but progress is progress. I hadn't thought about doing that way, but I like it.. 

 

[Gook the Goblin]

20 minutes ago, backofanenvelope said:

 but I like it.. 

 

 

Thanks Tom. I am happier tonight with this having glued the end bits in. It sits a bit proud so will be abused on a sanding block tomorrow once fully set.

 

Nigel

[Gook the Goblin]

Progress update. The concrete apron is now "cast" with the two infills between the rails completed and glued in. Technically they easily meet the "back to back" gauge even though nothing will ever pass through those doors! In real life the slot for the flanges would only need to be around 0.5mm wide at this scale so I am way over scale but I am not going to loose any sleep over that. I am quite pleased with the extra effort and the concrete is slightly distressed too to show some wear and tear purely by happy chance.

 

The embossed stone plasticard is still held up, so I gave up and deleted that from my order. A new strip of foamboard was cut for the retaining wall remembering to create a slight batter. The DAS modelling clay was placed on wet PVA. I tried David Wrights method this time placing the clay by hand rather than my previous method of rolling out a sheet and icing. The subtle undulations are very pleasing and more realistic so I will use this method in future. The tedious carving the stonework out on the dried clay was done a bit at a time over three evenings. I did have a reference photo of a Swiss retaining wall but quickly defaulted to random coursed stone as my "one trick". Despite a layer of PVA on the rear side of the foamboard the wall still became a distorted banana shape from the shrinkage of the clay and the wall needed propping while the glue set to stick it down to the board.

 

For the photo the doors have just been propped in position and they will only be stuck once painted and glazed. The next step is spray painting which will give me a nice base colour for the concrete. 

[backofanenvelope]

Nigel, I really like your efforts and the wall certainly looks the part. I spent a rather long time talking to David about his methods and techniques at the Stafford show one year and came away inspired to try DAS out. I think it’s really relevant to Swiss modellers

 

I think the whole combo really catches the “Little Red One”

[Gook the Goblin]

16 hours ago, backofanenvelope said:

I spent a rather long time talking to David about his methods and techniques at the Stafford show one year and came away inspired to try DAS out.

 

Thank you Tom. I had a good chat with him too at a show, I already had one of his books but I did not realise until afterwards. We discussed the merits of his technique over the one I had kind of made up myself. A very helpful guy who has created some wonderful dioramas and models. DAS clay is great stuff for a number of uses, that is until it turns into a solid brick! However, I have found out if it is not too far gone it can be re-constituted. All the clay on "the plank" has been reconstituted - left in a margarine tub with water for a few days, broken down, turned into a slurry, regularly mixed whilst open to air until workable again and wrapped up in clingfilm.

[PaulRhB]

Any chance of a little how to on the das technique? I used das extensively on Rhätia because it didn’t crack like the cheaper clay and was so light once dry. 

[Gook the Goblin]

Yes, no problem, I could do that. I used DAS for the quarry rock face and a lot of other places on my other layout Cefn Ddu and carved it while wet, it came out pretty well although painting and shading helped a lot. I have used it as ground cover - a cheap way of lifting levels to top of sleeper level. I have never had any problems, though have resisted buying the slightly cheaper Hobbycraft versions.

 

I will put together a little demo, and I would also recommend David's book "Making rural buildings for model railways" as well.

[PaulRhB]

1 minute ago, the Goblin said:

though have resisted buying the slightly cheaper Hobbycraft versions.

Yes I tried that when I did Rhätia and used it up in inconspicuous places as it cracked so much. 

[Gook the Goblin]

Never enjoy the painting phase I find myself in now. I read a post elsewhere on RM Web about using a sponge to build up patches of off-white emulsion to get the appearance of concrete. It looked good but may not work scaled down to N scale. I am struggling and I am not sure about the colour of the concrete to the shed apron. I am tempted to start again.

 

Nigel

 

[MrTea]

Hi Nigel,

 

I reckon that’s not too bad. I also know what you mean about scaling down from 4mm to 2mm. 
 

Maybe try dry brushing a bit of mid grey on top just to see if you can tone down the texture a bit?

 

Good luck!

[Frutigen]

I’d second what Mr Tea says. You’re not far off achieving the effect you’ll find in photos of RhB sheds. To my eye Swiss concrete is usually just a simple shade of grey without the Portland stone creaminess that you can get in the uk. 
 

 

[Gook the Goblin]

12 hours ago, MrTea said:

I reckon that’s not too bad

Maybe try dry brushing a bit of mid grey on top just to see if you can tone down the texture a bit?

Thank you Mr Tea and Keith for the encouragement.

 

The state of play is as below. I took the advice of Mr Tea and last night lightened a few dark areas with light grey sparingly applied (I took the excess paint off first so a sort of dry brush effect) by sponge and smeared by finger! Some brown staining from brake dust was added (seen on a prototype picture) and i am more happy this morning.

 

I need to paint the rails again and throw some weathering powders around next.

 

Doors are done, not glazed or fixed yet.

 

Nigel

[Gook the Goblin]

Snowed last night on the plank. Good job the doors were hung and the windows glazed!

 

Nigel

[Gook the Goblin]

Since the last photo I have applied the base course of snow throughout. The yard will require another layer to bring up to rail top level. The ballast which can be seen will be covered - it has only been used as a easily workable filler between the sleepers. This layer of snow has been done with DAS modelling clay, I am planning on using polyfiller to bring the yard level up as I need to create some effects and the clay I think will be too sticky.

[Gook the Goblin]

Footprints in the snow! I had a plan to form some footprints in the snow on the plank. These could be formed with some legs from a suitable figure. I did also have an idea about forming a jig with plasticard, but recent posts on the RhB forum suggested maybe I could create this as a tool with a 3D model. 

I did have a go at 3D modelling a few years ago using Sketchup which was web based. I did find it difficult to model accurately the object I was working on in 4mm scale - a slate barrow. It did print out okay in the end but took a long time to model in CAD. Following some excellent 3D modelling posts by @JimFinon the RhB forum I took a look at Tinkercad and it looked fairly user friendly so gave that a try. It did not take long to measure my construction site boots and a typical stride length/spacing. Creating a tool in Tinkercad waas surprisingly quick. Attention then turned to creating a tool for creating the grooves in the snow from wheel flanges - a sort of snow plow design emerged even quicker. Footprint tool below left and snow plow below right as modeled in TinkerCAD.

 

 

 

A contact kindly offered to print these for me with his resin printer and the prints came out fine. Finished prints below.

 

 

Nigel

 

[Gook the Goblin]

My snow reference picture was based on the below link of a similar shed!

 

http://rhbstations.co.za/stations/pontresina/loco-sheds/ photo 10 of 78

 

With the help by  @PaulRhB and also from his excellent Bonsai RhB thread

 

Paul recommended that the consistency wanted to be like soft icing, malleable but not quite runny. I applied it with a small pallet knife which I occasionally wetted to smooth down the surface and stop the plaster sticking, I also used a wetted half inch brush (advised by Paul). Once I had the yard covered to rail top level I used the 3D printed snowplow tool which was well wetted to form the flange grooves and this worked very well. It also needed to be well wetted to avoid the plaster from sticking but overall I was pleased with the effect. Especially with the impression that a snowplow had passed as the width of the 3D tool matched that of the locomotive. With the brush I added some heaped snow in places to avoid a completely flat appearance and show some drifted snow. I had so much plaster left over I added another layer to the whole of the bank to level off some small depressions.

 

The footprint tool was used to represent someone walking to the cab of a parked locomotive and a paper template was prepared in preparation with the location of a cab door for the longest locomotive in stock. The plaster was a bit too wet and so initially this did not work well, but after the plaster started to harden off the footprints did create an impression, though perhaps not as crisp as I had hoped but acceptable nonetheless.

 

 

Nigel

 

[Gook the Goblin]

Some of the brush marks on the previous photo were removed by sanding.

Deluxe materials scenic snowflakes have been applied over a mix of white emulsion and PVA. The paint/glue set quite fast and while I did work quite quickly the areas I started with did not take the scatter well. After a good 24 hours drying time I used the same mixture of paint/glue to cover the bare patches. After another 24 hours I was still not quite happy. I masked the track, shed apron and front of the shed and used a spray applied adhesive concentrating on the areas looking a little thin. The results are as below and I am fairly pleased with the end results. Two things to note are the imprinted footsteps which were so quite small are now largely hidden and the retaining wall stonework is not very visible anymore, but both things I can live with.

 

 

Drifted snow will be next to be applied into the nooks and crannies of the apron. @JimFin sent me some scenic shoveled snow to use for that.

Thanks for looking.

Nigel

 

[DGO]

You might want to add some tyre/track marks from a small snow blower along with some extra snow blown up onto the bank, in my experience Swiss Railway Workers are often out first thing (before sunrise) clearing essential areas of any depth of snow  

[Gook the Goblin]

20 hours ago, DGO said:

You might want to add some tyre/track marks from a small snow blower along with some extra snow blown up onto the bank, in my experience Swiss Railway Workers are often out first thing (before sunrise) clearing essential areas of any depth of snow  

Some extra blown snow on the Bank sounds like a good idea. Thanks.

[Gook the Goblin]

@JimFin kindly gave me some Deluxe Materials shovelled snow to try on the plank a while back. After an experiment on a piece of card I took the plunge to add some to the plank. The idea is that it will show the concrete apron in front of the shed being cleared of snow by shovel or salt with it being piled up out of the way. Some would remain in the corner recesses and help in hiding any little gaps from the front of the shed - mentioned in previous posts.

 

The shoveled snow was mixed with PVA roughly 50:50 and cut into small portions and moulded to shape. I placed some PVA down first with a brush as a previous experimental piece became unglued. I used the end of a brush to poke the snow into the recess. The whole process was a bit messy, it was carried out quite quickly as I could feel the stuff was starting to go off. It was left to cure for a day and has hardened off quite well.

 

The result is shown in the photo and I am fairly happy with the result so far. I have decided following a bit of research (finding the useful video below) that I will need to add some more of this snow to emphasize the edge of the ploughed track. It was mentioned that some blown snow may be deposited on the bank and I am tempted to do this but need to visualize how this might look, a sort of splattered pattern I guess.

 

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/rhb-locomotives-shunting-in-poschiavo-station-stock-video-footage/481000992

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Nigel

[DGO]

For showing where a snowblower has been, start with a smooth snow covered embankment and you want to create a rough area in the middle, the snow gets thrown anywhere from about 1.5M to 5M from the track but typically will land in about a 2M wide strip, this will tend to make a dip in any new snow, as it lands on top of the light stuff, but will pile up on top of older frozen snow, this clip of the modern RHB snow blower might help. Operators have to be careful as the snow leaves the machine with a lot of force, enough to break windows so no pointing at nearby houses ;-)

 

 

[Gook the Goblin]

Thank you DGO for the video. That is really helpful and thought provoking. My options are at one extreme to go for heavier snow generally that has been cleared which will mean raising the height of snow everywhere, with a furrow for the track and blown snow on the Bank - as per the video. Or to go for a lighter snowfall earlier in the season here the snow is less deep but with some snow clearance. 

[DGO]

In my experience the Swiss will start clearing tracks after about 5cm has fallen, for small amounts on platforms they typically just brush it off, for anything over 10cm then there will be a petrol powered snow blower on wheels or tracks to clear the hard standing, plus of course the train mounted snowplough or snow blower, again for small amounts it's the plough, they generally leave it where it's not obstructing track or walkways.

[Gook the Goblin]

I was not happy with the amount of shovelled snow in front of the shed apron and so added some more including some snow plough grooves. Again this is some strange stuff to use, a bit like mastic sealant but without as much stickiness. Once this had hardened I was a bit happier with the piled up snow - below.

 

 

However, the shovelled snow set brilliant white and showed a marked difference to the scattered snow I had set with the spray glue which had more of a creamy colour. The area I had masked from the spray glue though looked okay. I could not live with this and so set about re-covering the plank with scattered snow. To start off with I used some slightly diluted white emulsion mixed with PVA glue. Learning from past mistakes I generously painted the mix onto small areas, scattered the snow quite thickly and pressed down with a finger while the paint was still wet before moving on. Later on I omitted the PVA from the mix without any loss of bond. This has improved things to my satisfaction.

 

A representation of blown snow on the bank has started to be created with some piling of scattered snow (a third of the way up the bank from the retaining wall towards the rocks). I plan to be building this up a bit more to create some slightly more distinct mounds.

 

[DGO]

I do like that snow, the effect you have ended up with makes me think it's been cleared but then it's had just an inch or two of fresh on the top and they are just thinking about clearing it again.