The Furness Valley Railroad

[chaz]

I did a bit more work above the tunnel. I tucked a large bush in that odd corner at the back and planted a small tree on the slope. I also made up a large bush to sit on the edge - there will be more. I certainly don't want to hide the tunnel mouth but I do want the trees to hem the line in - this railroad is supposed to be running through a wooded valley.

 

 

Next job was a test planting of a large tree in the foreground.

 

 

I thought it better to fit this temporarily just to check that it will go in before I add the foliage. In fact some of the branches actually touch the sloping ceiling - headroom is very tight here - but that's a compromise I am happy with. I think one more smaller tree to the right of this one and a few low bushes along the edge of the trackbed may well see this section finished.

 

 

The last picture shows that there is plenty of clearance between the tree and a passing train. It's not usually a problem on the inside of a curve but it is as well to check!

 

So far so good - I am managing to stick to my original plan, each section is finished before the next is started. The next section is a "biggy" - the station at Stoke's Ferry. Suddenly there will be operating interest with a passing siding and a storage siding and (possibly) a team track. I have kits for a depot building, a water tank and a small foundry building. Tasty!

 

Chaz

Edited September 8, 2016 by chaz

[Jeff Smith]

Chaz, coming along. You might want to paint the edge of the baseboard matt black, I find it directs the eye into the scene.

[chaz]

Chaz, coming along. You might want to paint the edge of the baseboard matt black, I find it directs the eye into the scene.

 

Thanks Jeff. I am certainly considering painting the baseboard edges and the addition of curtains to hide the clutter underneath. I will decide on this when the the work is further on - probably when the long side is done.

 

Chaz

[51235]

Thanks Jeff. I am certainly considering painting the baseboard edges and the addition of curtains to hide the clutter underneath. I will decide on this when the the work is further on - probably when the long side is done.

 

Chaz

 

Hello Chaz

Take some time in picking your colour for your baseboard frontage, matt black is not always the best colour. It marks too easily, and IMHO can dominate and not become virtually invisible (which is what we want). I have used gloss grey on a diorama type layout, but as your FVR is in a woodland setting maybe a green will work well.

 

Keep up the good work

Andy

[Donw]

I tried painting the baseboard edge to match the scenery that meets it. So green where there is grass, a dirty grey by the yard the idea being to blend the baseboard edge with the scenery. I hadn't finished before it was all packed for the move.

 

Don

[chaz]

In his book about making models of broadleaf trees Gordon Gravett suggests the bracts from silver birch catkins as a good source of ivy leaves. Silver birch trees form their catkins in late summer so early September is a good time to go hunting. I found a tree growing on a grass verge not far from home and was pleased to find the ground around it strewn with small twigs to which were attached numerous catkins. My first thought was to pull the catkins from the twigs and pop them in a bag but this proved impossible. As soon as I touched them the catkins disintegrated leaving just the useless central stalk, like a piece of thin wire. So the technique needed proved to be to strip the catkins over an open bag, catching both the seeds and the bracts.

The first photo' shows, on the right, a twig with three catkins attached and on the left a mixed heap of seeds and bracts.

 

 

Next photo' shows some of the separated bits.

 

 

In front of my finger is a small group of the bracts with another pile to the left of the seeds which I discard. Separating these from each other is tedious. I do a teaspoonfull at a time, spreading it out on a piece of white card and sliding the bracts into a heap with a finger tip and then dropping them into a plastic pot.

 

The last photo' shows a couple of experiments on twigs. 

 

 

On the left some bracts have been added to a twig which was coated in places with PVA. This effect would do fine for dead ivy. On the other twig the "leaves" have been painted green with artist's acrylics. I used a mixture of chrome yellow and olive green to get a good shade and diluted with water to make it flow easily from brush to leaf.

 

Gordon Gravett does say thay he considers the bracts to be rather over-scale for O gauge and grinds them smaller in a coffee grinder. I am happy to use them as they come (I'm not happy using kitchen stuff with found-on-the-ground materials). I think that from any reasonable distance the effect is good.

 

Chaz

Edited September 14, 2016 by chaz

[chaz]

I tried painting the baseboard edge to match the scenery that meets it. So green where there is grass, a dirty grey by the yard the idea being to blend the baseboard edge with the scenery. I hadn't finished before it was all packed for the move.

 

Don

 

Hmm - I'm not sure a changing colour appeals to me Don. I have to say I have never been distracted by a baseboard front edge, the models on the top grab the attention (or at least they should!). I will leave a decision about this until later - it's my intention to add curtains to the basboards when the work is further on to hide the clutter underneath which really is a distraction. It makes sense to sort out the baseboard edge colour and the curtains together.

 

Chaz

[chaz]

Twigs into logs....



And in place on the layout.

 

 

It may be that when the MoW gang cut down the trees that were threatening to encroach on the line some of the logs may have been left on the slope by the stumps.

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I have made a second, smaller tree to go with the larger one which will stand in front of the track near the tunnel mouth.

 

 

The photo' shows the trees temporarily planted. I will remove them both to detail the trunks and add the foliage. While they are absent I can add a line of bushes along the edge of the track. I will arrange these so that they don't totally obscure the view of the track or tunnel.

 

 

There is plenty of clearance for the trains to pass.

Edited September 16, 2016 by chaz

[chaz]

[Donw]

The spiders which seem to have set up home in my wing mirrors do a good job of collecting birch bracts in their webs at the moment. There are a lot up on the quantocks. They do look quite effective.

 

Don

[chaz]

The spiders which seem to have set up home in my wing mirrors do a good job of collecting birch bracts in their webs at the moment. There are a lot up on the quantocks. They do look quite effective.

 

Don

 

I have spent some time today putting the "ivy" on to two or three of the unfinished trees I have. My first efforts, sprinkling the bracts on to PVA painted on the trunks did not work very well - most just came away when I tried to paint them. So today I put patches of diluted PVA on to the tree trunks and touched the bracts onto a blob of PVA, holding them with tweezers, so that the backs were glue-y and then placed them in position on the tree. As you might imagine this takes rather longer then just sprinkling them on!

 

Once I have painted the ivy (probably tomorrow) I will post a snap or two here.

 

Chaz

[chaz]

Some ivy work - first some bracts glued on but unpainted.

 

 

Next painted with artists' acrylics - olive green.

 

 

I thin the paint a little with water. This makes the paint easier to apply as it flows from the brush more freely and it also allows the relief detail on the bracts to show through - making them look more leaf-like.

 

Next photo' is of a tree with ivy, moss and lichen - the full set (well not quite - I still need to find a way of modelling bracket fungus!).

 

 

A close-up of the same tree.

 

 

In this view the bracts certainly do look overscale - but from any normal viewing distance the size is not so obvious - the texture of overlapping, slightly glossy leaves is effective.

 

Chaz

Edited September 20, 2016 by chaz

[CourthsVeil]

Really good, very convincing, Chaz.

Regards, Armin

[chaz]

Really good, very convincing, Chaz.

Regards, Armin

 

Thanks for that. I'm very pleased with the result HOWEVER you will have seen that I have already got a lot of trees on the layout - if you count the three "half-relief" trees above the tunnel I have thirty in place already. The level of detail I have put in with the ivy is only really worthwhile on trees that will be in the foreground. Some of my trees have detail work and painting that is almost completely lost in the Furness Valley woods (although you can occasionally get glimpses of a "good bit"). I don't consider the time spent wasted however as I started out never having made a tree before - all the effort was good practice as I got better at making them.

 

There's a railroad in there somewhere (you can just see rails if you look hard enough)...

 

 

Chaz

Edited September 21, 2016 by chaz

[BG John]

I don't know if American ivy is the same, but British ivy can be found right up in the branches, connected to the ground by quite woody stems wrapped round the trunk. It's great fun to cut it near the bottom, and see if it's possible to pull long lengths off without falling over when it comes away suddenly! On my own trees of course.

[chaz]

I don't know if American ivy is the same, but British ivy can be found right up in the branches, connected to the ground by quite woody stems wrapped round the trunk. It's great fun to cut it near the bottom, and see if it's possible to pull long lengths off without falling over when it comes away suddenly! On my own trees of course.

 

I must admit I am working on the assumption (possibly erroneous) that ivy in the US is much the same as ivy in the UK. Gordon Gravett uses plumbers' hemp to model the woody stems you refer to and, if I can get some, I may have a go myself. As to "ivy can be found right up in the branches" - I reserve the right to stop when I get bored!  Rule One applies to trees as well as rolling stock!

 

Chaz

[BG John]

I must admit I am working on the assumption (possibly erroneous) that ivy in the US is much the same as ivy in the UK. Gordon Gravett uses plumbers' hemp to model the woody stems you refer to and, if I can get some, I may have a go myself. As to "ivy can be found right up in the branches" - I reserve the right to stop when I get bored!  Rule One applies to trees as well as rolling stock!

 

Chaz

I was thinking more that it might be hidden by the tree's own foliage, so you could just model the woody stems!

[Loconuts]

It depends on what zone the layout is based in, there are some parts of the States that has a climate similar to the UK and many parts of Northern Europe but other parts are very different. Take the Southern States and the most common tree is the cotton wood, northern areas near the Canada border and mountainous areas we have conifers and aspens (Colorado). Desert it is a different story. The States has many climate zones and one needs to research the zone your layout is set in.

 

Mara Harbour is right for its zone, east coast where they have sea fogs that bring moist air to the land and a temperate climate, very much like Cornwall UK. However similar conditions occur on the west coast but there they have conifers like the Redwood.

 

Try this site http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/regional-guide-native-trees or http://www.treeremoval.com/us/guide-to-trees-of-the-united-states/#.V-Koh_ArJdi.

 

There are a lot of sites that will give information to the flora of the States.

 

Loconuts

[chaz]

I was thinking more that it might be hidden by the tree's own foliage, so you could just model the woody stems!

 

Ah, I missed that one!  I don't think I could cheat like that - it wouldn't be cricket....

[chaz]

This afternoon I finished the two trees that will close the gap in front of the line near the tunnel. As they are both foreground trees that both have ivy on their trunks.

 

 

A second shot with a train of loaded coal hoppers passing showing how the trees break up the view.

 

 

A couple of shots with the camera on the track.

 

 

Pity that you can see right through the tunnel into the staging. I must think about ways of improving this - even if only a temporary something for photos.

 

 

Chaz

Edited September 22, 2016 by chaz

[chaz]

 

Video is a cab run through the finished scenic bit. pity the Hedcam can't cope with the greens.

[BG John]

Can you put a curtain like in this link at the entrance to the staging yard?

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/3354-jacks-in-or-shortliners-shortline/page-9&do=findComment&comment=154143

[chaz]

Can you put a curtain like in this link at the entrance to the staging yard?

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/3354-jacks-in-or-shortliners-shortline/page-9&do=findComment&comment=154143

 

It's certainly a possibility. However you can't actually see in without performing a strange contortion - it's only the camera that sees the staging and not a long dark tunnel. So maybe a temporary plug or cover that fits would do the trick.

 

Chaz

[chaz]

It depends on what zone the layout is based in, there are some parts of the States that has a climate similar to the UK and many parts of Northern Europe but other parts are very different. Take the Southern States and the most common tree is the cotton wood, northern areas near the Canada border and mountainous areas we have conifers and aspens (Colorado). Desert it is a different story. The States has many climate zones and one needs to research the zone your layout is set in.

 

Mara Harbour is right for its zone, east coast where they have sea fogs that bring moist air to the land and a temperate climate, very much like Cornwall UK. However similar conditions occur on the west coast but there they have conifers like the Redwood.

 

Try this site http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/regional-guide-native-trees or http://www.treeremoval.com/us/guide-to-trees-of-the-united-states/#.V-Koh_ArJdi.

 

There are a lot of sites that will give information to the flora of the States.

 

Loconuts

 

I suppose it's quite likely that somebody soon will say "What part of the US is this supposed to be? It doesn't look anything like any part that I have ever seen." In which case I would have to admit that my wooded valley and everything in it is a total fantasy. But then the railroad is On30 and the stock is Bachmann RTR with all its shortcomings.

 

One of the things in my mind when I first thought about building the layout was that I didn't want to do Colorado which seems to have been done rather a lot. I thought somewhere much further east (and I don't want to be much more specific), with coal the main traffic would do.

 

Chaz

[keefr2]

"I heard that lonesome whistle blow" - cracking sound on that neat little video Chaz, I enjoyed that ride!

 

Keith