Three Tiers or What You Will

[CourthsVeil]

Now the retaining wall is duly weathered, with some wild plants growing. The track is ballasted and the platform has already a cover of sand.

 

 

Armin

[CourthsVeil]

Interim report.

Without words.

Time is pressing...

 

 

 

 

And this:

 

[CourthsVeil]

Yesterday I could finish the small buildings and put them onto their places (well, I’m not so good at gutterings and downpipes, so I let them for later…); the wasteland beyond the retaining wall got some bumps (papier-mache again).

 

This morning I sprayed this area brown-green to have a dark underground for the grass & shrubs:

 

 

Which later could grow as they wanted:

 

 

 

 

to be continued...

[CourthsVeil]

Yesterday I was not able (don't know why…) to upload more than the above three pictures - here comes the remainder:

 

 

 

 

And the yawning gap between ballast and wall is filled with gravel - real sand from the garden in this case (on other spots I use mostly chinchilla sand):

 

 

 

Lesson learned (again): do not let came water - even a single drop - too near to paper printed with an ink printer; makes ugly stains!

So I will have to hide such stains left on the concrete floor before my little buildings.

 

But the the basics will be done on this middle section of my three-drawers diorama. Then on to some details - so much time left…

 

 

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

 

Armin

[CourthsVeil]

This morning I gave the plants on wasteland and wall a fine mist to tone their colours down a bit: black, brown and olive rattlecans did the job.

 

Here is an overview of what has been achieved so far - all three drawers together:

 

 

 

and partly stowed away in their box:

 

 

 

and then in line:

 

[CourthsVeil]

One of the details missing was a boat for them indefatigable fishermen. So I did dive into the new experience of (scratch-)building a rowing boat.

I’m still wondering about how quickly I did it! In fact, the search for an outline lasted longer than the process of scaling, printing, then glueing it to ply, sawing and adding strips of balsa…

It went along so swiftly that I overlooked to make photos. So just the nearly finished boat already swimming -

 

 

 

and now with two „Preiserleins“:

 

[bcnPete]

That looks great.

 

Love the concept and seeing them unpacked, arranged and repacked.

 

Those last two photos are very effective too...

[CourthsVeil]

Pete, your favourable comment is of great help for me! You got two issues rather important for me: the concept and the water.

Thank you very much!

 

And - as already said - your Moorswater thread keeps always amazing.

 

Regards

Armin

[CourthsVeil]

Another item overdue is the gantry at the end of the track on my pier. It has to lower the link span when the ferry has arrived (and to lift when it departs). I see an old ferry terminus, so the mechanics is rather uncomplicated and not so well maintained.

This gantry therefore was not so difficult to make: some lengths of 3x5mm cut and glued to triangles; then stained dark brown and finally glued together.

A short piece of track got boards made of balsa, it is the link span to the track on the ferry boat. What I’m missing is a fine chain to „lift“ & „lower“ this piece. Can’t get one before Saturday, unfortunately…

 

 

 

So the whole port with track will be put onto its place on my quay as it is, i.e. not quite finished.

What’s still missing now? Two sheds, some passengers, and - yes, of course - rolling stock!

 

 

In addition I was working on a small tree. I feel there should be one between the buildings on the middle section. A sycamore (plane, platanus) would have the outline I wanted: broad and not too high (see my second post above).

A bunch of florist’s wires (10cm = 4in; 0.6mm = 0.024in) was bundled, groups of wires (4-6 each) bent horizontally

 

 

and twisted to form branches:

 

 

Next there is the half-finished tree: smaller branches bent upward and cut to fit, smaller twigs (0.3mm wire) added.

Credit is due here to Grove Den; he led me to try tree making, and he is - in my opinion - not only very talented in forming trees, but also a marvellous teacher. See here what he does achieve! Absolutely stunning!

Following his advice I covered the stronger branches with PVA plus wood powder (in fact it is cork powder – much easier to make!):

 

 

 

After drying this will get finest twigs plus leaves. Pic to follow tomorrow…

 

 

 

And last - not least - there has to be some light to the platform in the middle section - when the commuters arrive early in the morning.

I got a very nice set - a simple construction and easy to make: an old fashioned wooden lamp post.

 

 

 

I imagine some unwise vandals, having aimed in their boredom at the bulb, and one of them having been successful - replacement now has to wait until the line has found some bucks in its budget. Until then the commuters have to trip their way in the dark…

(shhhh: Fact is, however, that those bl**dy f**ls (the vendor) did include a lead in the package, but NOT a grain of wheat.)

 

More to follow

Armin

[Stubby47]

Very impressed with your grass and shrubbery, and the speed at which you do things !

[CourthsVeil]

Stubby,

thank you for your comment - such words help!

 

You are the front runner here and tell me what about speed... (tbh: no wonder, I'm retired and The Better Half is rather patient, at least until today ).

 

Regards

Armin

[CourthsVeil]

This afternoon something strange happened: I had a Scalescenes set on my desk to make the Small Goods Store. Instead of becoming one store with front and back side, however, it turned into two low relief sheds, one like usual with sliding door, the other one with corrugated roof and hinged doors.

 

The corrugated roof is self made: the metallic lid of a pill dispenser treated with a kitchen knife and a ruler, then primed. Easy to make, if one has some patience.

 

It turned out, however, that the two structures on the limited space look a bit cramped - so I left the „normal“ one aside.

 

The following pictures are just to prove that:

the sycamore now has its leaves as promised (and the building next to it is only good to be torn down asap),

the remainig shed has gotten proper dirt & rust on its roof,

the middle and right section have some population: workers, commuters, and tourists etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plus some rolling stock:

 

the little shunter named Köf:

 

 

 

the prototype of an DMU, the Schweineschnäuzchen (swine snout)

 

 

 

the Kittel Dampftriebwagen

 

 

 

and last AND least: the siding queen

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it! Fin !

 

What a relief - looks like a spot landing.

 

Thank you all for following this thread. My special thanks go to bcnpete, blackrat, and Stubby47. Without their positive comments this project would have stopped prematurely…

 

The main point is that I tried some unknown things and doing so learned a lot. To my surprise it doesn't look bad. How goes the saying of Prof. K.? Aim to improve!

Yessir!

 

Kind regards

Armin