Glorious Steam - Diorama 1

[Reorte]

1 hour ago, teaky said:

Oh dear.  You've said it now!  I bet Jeff's already searching for suitable scale tuft material.

Good job that I didn't mention accurate to-scale lichen on the stone.

 

Oh.

[Physicsman]

3 hours ago, teaky said:

Oh dear.  You've said it now!  I bet Jeff's already searching for suitable scale tuft material.

 

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

Good job that I didn't mention accurate to-scale lichen on the stone.

 

Oh.

 

Rob, Simon - I love it!

 

I've got the microscope out of storage and have spent the last 3 hours performing microsurgery on the wires and walls. Woollen tufts and lichen with a diameter of 0.5mm aren't easy to model precisely. I wonder if I've done it right? If not I'll have to rip it up and do it again....then again....then again.... I sound like a Tellytubby! And I wonder if the detail is line dependent? Should I model it SDJR, MR, NSE .....and does being in proximity to third rail affect the density of wool/size of barbed wire or lichen?

 

Apologies, just having a larf and taking the pi55. I can be a sad ba5tard at times, BUT....

 

....and you know what? I looked at the length of walling adjacent to the lay-by (so pretty much in the forefront when viewing the layout). All the other wall is almost "background". But that 2 metre length (4-5000 stones in the new system) is going to HAVE to be replaced with the revised walling, or it's going to drive me nuts. As if I wasn't already.

 

Anyway, back to the bunker and the diorama. My brother has suggested BUILDING a MODEL Robin (bird, not car) and sitting it in a tree to see if anyone will notice it..... Oh, yes.....Now where did I put the microscope?

 

Cheers lads, great humour - especially as there's an element of truth in it!!

 

Jeff

 

 

[Physicsman]

Update on the diorama.

 

I've "completed" the trees, including foliage. Well  I thought I had.

 

All was OK until I put the foliage onto the large (non-diorama) tree. This used sea foam attached to the armature, then foliage added. The diorama ones, being smaller, used polyfibre. The sea foam one is...

 

I'll post pics later and you can draw your own conclusions!

[Physicsman]

Here are some tree pics. Let me say from the start that I WAS quite happy with using trees on the diorama using WS Polyfibre until I tried the sea foam technique. 

 

Pics 1 and 2: The largest of the trees for the diorama. This is about 12cm tall, twisted wire armature/4-5 latex coats/acrylic coating/polyfibre onto branches/WS fine turf and 2mm grass fibres onto fibre, after using hairspray....

 

 

 

Pics 3 and 4: Here's the 16cm tree, not intended for the diorama but, being slightly larger, supposedly more amenable to using sea foam as a foliage base than polyfibre. After seeing the results from this I'm going to make a couple of additional 12/10cm trees and use sea foam as a base - those trees will then go on the diorama instead of the polyfibre ones.

 

Twisted wire armature/5 latex coats/surface treatment with ground cork/acrylic topping/sea foam pieces superglued onto branch ends (fiddly - took me about 3 hours)/repeated hairspray with predominantly WS coarse turf and topping of WS fine turf sprinkled on....

 

 

 

My philosophy on modelling.....

 

I'm very happy to be self-critical and laugh at some of the nutty things I get up to - as in the previous posts. I'm NOT an obsessive for detail. HOWEVER, what I think is that you should ALWAYS be aiming to improve on what you do. If you discover a new technique, or refine an old one - if it IMPROVES what you did before, consider re-doing the job or use the new method in future.

 

The polyfibre trees are fine - they'll be used somewhere on GH. The existing walling on GH is fine - more than adequate for purpose. BUT, I now know that I can build a better tree (providing it's big enough) using sea foam, and my walling can be a LOT better. So that's what I'll TRY to do. I f*ck it up like everyone, there are probably better methods I don't yet know of and there are CERTAINLY much better modellers out there..... But my philosophy is to always try my best.

 

I simply cannot understand why anyone would model something in a crap way and be prepared to accept it. Unless they were planning on giving it to someone else/selling it (and why would you sell crap to anybody?)

 

Sorry to go on, but I felt the need to explain why I choose to do some things some people think are "crackers"!!

 

Jeff.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Physicsman

[Physicsman]

And to add to the tree discussion above, here's a couple of diorama-related pics.

 

 

[Reorte]

Definitely better with the sea foam.

 

Interestingly the first picture of it would be perfect if you were modelling spring, when the leaves are just starting to come out, then add the turf for summer. Nice to have a technique that can be adaptable like that.

[Ramrig]

I like your honest appraisal above. In life you never stop learning, or trying to improve on each new task you undertake. This is something we try to pass on to our apprentice’s as part of the learning process. 

[Chipster]

Good morning Jeff, 

 

I saw this and immediately thought "I bet Jeff's pleased he doesn't model Cornish railways".

 

Chip.

[Physicsman]

Evening Chip.

 

Thanks for that photo. I look forward to building a wall like that alongside my new China Clay based Cornish layout......

 

.....oh, yeh!? No chance - and not because of the wall!

 

Jeff.

[Physicsman]

I've made a couple of new tree armatures today which will go onto the diorama with the sea foam treatment.

 

Here are a couple of views showing the trees in skeletal form in situ on the diorama (I fitted amputated-nail spigots) and a close-up of one of the armatures - it's had 4 latex coats and cork texture added. Both trees have been painted and await foliage (tomorrow).

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by Physicsman

[teaky]

The seafoam versions of your trees are excellent Jeff.  I do wonder if the walls and trees have finally pushed you over the edge though.  Is that last armature coated in ground up Ferrero Roche?

 

You are the ambassador and I claim my £5.

[Physicsman]

1 hour ago, teaky said:

The seafoam versions of your trees are excellent Jeff.  I do wonder if the walls and trees have finally pushed you over the edge though.  Is that last armature coated in ground up Ferrero Roche?

 

You are the ambassador and I claim my £5.

 

Rob, I KNEW the trunk of that tree reminded me of something, but couldn't put my finger on it.

 

They say that (most) modellers have keen observational skills and the ability to see laterally to solve problems. It looks like said modellers are attracted to THIS thread (maybe by the "promise" of chocolate sweets from Uncle Jeff?)!

 

Good. You keep me on my toes.

 

And Rob, I've had a totally mad idea. You don't fancy building an 8 foot viaduct using home-made DAS clay bricks, do you? Lol.

 

J.

[Physicsman]

Evolution of a 12cm tall tree in pictures....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Physicsman]

Some pics of the diorama with the trees in place.

 

Jobs still to do: add some coloured flowers, add telegraph poles, one more tree, paint a backscene. So that's a couple of day's work. Then I can finally pose some locos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rowsley17D]

Hi Jeff, just noticed the barbed wire line protecting the top of the dry stone wall. A very nice touch and I don't recall it ever being modelled. Cue lots of posts and photos of exactly that!

[stevel]

Hi Jeff, love the trees, they sit very well with the overall scene, creating a wonderful atmosphere. I hadn't noticed the wire fence before it pointed either.

 

[Dragonboy]

Very impressed with those trees Jeff. I picked up a couple some time ago at a show but they’re not really tall enough so making my own seems a good option as I’ll get a better sense of scale as I go along. Something else to add to the list but I do think trying new things and ideas is part of the modelling journey. 
 

Brian

[Physicsman]

Morning Steve, Brian.

 

Thanks for your comments, always appreciated.

 

Trees are one of those things that we are told are greatly under-modelled on layouts, and I'm as guilty of this as anybody. Though modelling my area of S&C does get me off the hook a bit, as it has less trees than a lot of other places.

 

I've bought-in some trees for previous layouts, but decided it was time to build some of my own. Not only is it a LOT cheaper, but it's a lot of fun - even if it does take time. The bigger trees in the diorama probably took me about 5 hours each.

 

These trees are pretty generic. At some stage I'll have a look at some templates for specific species, such as oak, birch and sycamore.

 

There are many good guides to making trees on YouTube. I'd recommend anything done by Luke Towan. But my favourite is from "Geek Gaming Scenics", link below. If this doesn't inspire you to have a go, nothing will!

 

 

[Physicsman]

I'm no artist, but I still enjoyed creating a backscene for the diorama (actually 2 x 60cm boards).

 

Pics attached.

 

 

 

[John Besley]

Fantastic work as always Jeff, will need to go over your tree build again as that is something I need to do for Exhill ... Trouble is a 7/8th sapling is around 8" tall... 

[Physicsman]

3 hours ago, John Besley said:

Fantastic work as always Jeff, will need to go over your tree build again as that is something I need to do for Exhill ... Trouble is a 7/8th sapling is around 8" tall... 

 

Yes, if you're working at around 21mm to the foot then a 30 foot tree, as in the ones on my diorama, is going to be 2 feet tall. Wow! That will be great fun to build - if you can get the wire.

 

I used 30cm-ish lengths of florist wire, rather than taking it off a reel. I also used 28AWG. You could use, say, 22AWG for rigidity on the first foot, then solder some thinner stuff onto those strands. Or maybe you have a ready-made supply of longer length wire?

 

I'll be building at least another 2 40' and 2 30' trees for the station area. Might try and model a proper species using some published branch profiles. It's a great hobby when something we've never done - wire trees in my case - become a real pleasure to make.

[AdeMoore]

Just caught up Jeff, wonderful stuff. The whole thing is looking bang on the money and those trees very inspirational.

The Cornish coast I’m currently modelling doesn’t have big trees as such! Just thought of some! Perhaps I’ll give it a go. Keep those updates coming great reading.

 Cheers 

 

[Physicsman]

1 hour ago, AdeMoore said:

Just caught up Jeff, wonderful stuff. The whole thing is looking bang on the money and those trees very inspirational.

The Cornish coast I’m currently modelling doesn’t have big trees as such! Just thought of some! Perhaps I’ll give it a go. Keep those updates coming great reading.

 Cheers 

 

 

Hi Ade. I could say good morning, as it's just past 2am.

 

Glad you're enjoying the project. If recommend you find an excuse to model some trees as it's great fun and very satisfying. I've been putting off having a go for a few years and I'm annoyed I didn't try earlier.

 

I've just been looking at photos of the area around the old Ais Gill signal box and was pleased to find there's opportunities to build a few - maybe 10-30 foot - specimens in the planned Hell Ghyll Sidings layout.

 

As for the diorama. A little bit more work on the vegetation, another smallish tree and the telegraph poles. And that'll be that!

 

Jeff.

[Rowsley17D]

Jeff, any thoughts on making some 1/2 trees (trees with flat backs) to actually place/stick on your backscene as a halfway house between the full 3d ones and the ones painted on the backscene? I was mostly thinking about the group of 4 trees to the righthand side for instance. Not easy to describe, so I hope you get the gist of what I am trying to suggest.

[Physicsman]

2 hours ago, Rowsley17D said:

Jeff, any thoughts on making some 1/2 trees (trees with flat backs) to actually place/stick on your backscene as a halfway house between the full 3d ones and the ones painted on the backscene? I was mostly thinking about the group of 4 trees to the righthand side for instance. Not easy to describe, so I hope you get the gist of what I am trying to suggest.

 

That's an interesting point and a valid suggestion. A project for a time when I return to the diorama, I think. I like your idea, but I think it'd require at least 3 half trees at that end and, for the moment, I want to be doing something different....

 

.... So this afternoon I'm going to be rearranging my storage under the boards as it's a real mess under there. Not modelling, but looking forward to it!