Experiments with T Trak module in the Swiss style

[MikeTrice]

Still drying out, but a quick teaser is this:

 

[artizen]

That's looking OK!

[MikeTrice]

Only OK?

 

It took over 24hrs for the Scenic Cement to dry out. With the land form being in pink foam, the surplus ran down and pooled at the side of the track so took longer to dry. In hindsight I might have been able to tip it on end and drain some off, but it got there eventually.

 

A few photos grabbed this evening while there was still some natural light:

 

 

 

On this close up you can just see the variation from the blend with the darked Woodland Scenics just being discernable:

 

 

Lots of stray ballast to pick off.

 

Next task is to remove the backscene image and replace with one that has been colour adjusted to be more in keeping with the rest of the colours. Also need to retouch up the black sides.

 

Trees next!

[artizen]

Now more than OK! I think you are onto a winner now. Just needs a bit of vertical variation with small bushes and trees. Not too many of course, the Swiss are very orderly people!

 

The single overhead post looks like it is cutting the scenery in half but with more details etc that will work out nicely as well.

 

Are the big flat plates either side of the fishplates something to do with the proprietary track you are using?

[MikeTrice]

I am please with it. As you say, it now needs some trees.

 

The catenary poles have been a pain and the rear one is still not vertical. This is more due to my repeated ripping up of the various coverings/ballast over time. With a module only 308mm wide it is difficult to know where to place them. It did not make sense to have one either end. I could have one at one end only and do the same on all modules, or do as I did here and put them centrally. I cannot see any practical way to add wires.

 

Yes, the flat plates are moulded into the Kato track that forms the basis of T Trak.

[MikeTrice]

I think I need more practice!!!! At least they cannot be accused of being too regular.

 

 

 

Oh and thicker trunks and the odd haircut would not hurt either.

[artizen]

Is that a twirly whirly tree?

 

Not really making fun! They would look good with a haircut and a thicker trunk as you say. More than one species will work better as well.

[MikeTrice]

Slight improvement but still straggly. Have thickened trunk by winding masking tape around then coating with PVA.

 

The main trunk is single strand solid core bell wire. The branches are made using sisal string separated out, and I think this is the cause of my problem, it is not straight. Spraying the branches and trunk brown before applying the ground foam is a great improvement.

 

I think it might be worth aquiring some plumber's hemp and trying that instead of the sisal. Has anyone experience of using this?

 

[MikeTrice]

Slightly different approach this time. Instead of using unwound sisal string to provide the branches I bought a wallpaper brush and cut off the bristles. Fiddly but not quite as scruffy, and yes I know I have not done the trunk yet.

 

[MikeTrice]

Making N Gauge trees has obviously not proved a popular topic. I will be offline for a while but wanted to post my latest findings.

 

Firstly regarding the sisal string and its curvature from being woven into a string, which results in pretty random trees. Having unravelled the fibres plunging them in boiling water straightens then nicely.

 

My first attempt at using brush bristles above I thought came out quite well, but the fibres were a bit fine and difficult to manhandle. Today I found a cheap hand brush made using soft coco fibres for the princely sum of £1.49, enought fibre to probably last me a lifetime. They are thicker so easier to manage and what is more are a natural brown colour to start with. This time I finished the tree with Gaugemaster GM151 Foliage Dark Green which gives a nice alternative shade.

 

For the latest trunks I have used Evergreen 1/8" styrene tube. The surface was scratched vertically using rough sandpaper, a length cut, and glued over the twisted wire using Tacky Glue. Whole lot sprayed brown before foliage applied.

 

Sorry, no photo at the moment.

[Sir Madog]

Mike,

 

there seems to be a general slowdown in participation, which could mean that people are spending more time actually working on their projects than searching the web

 

That last tree of your´s is super! Much, much better than those pre-fab bottle brush trees. Eager to see more of them ...

[SNCF stephen]

Those trees are looking the business. Is that the drill method you showed in Sir Madogs thread? If so I might give it a whirl (really bad pun there....).

 

I am about to take the plunge and go down the T Trak route. I have got a quote for some precise cutting to be done and may have the wood sooner than later. Only problem is that I cannot afford the track until Christmas really so I might have to trawl ebay for a few bits to make a test module...

Is there any software that has Kato Unitrack templates installed?

 

I really like your first module Mike. Keep up the good work!

[justin1985]

Those trees look really, really good! The texture of the branches and leaves looks just like a larch tree

 

Did you use spray mount glue, or drunk the tree in the leaf material when still wet with the brown paint?

[Tim H]

Is there any software that has Kato Unitrack templates installed?

 

Winrail does. It's several versions on from the version I'm using.

[MikeTrice]

Apologies for non response. I have been on a field trip to Switzerland studying amoungst others, trees!

 

Yes the technique is based on the drill method covered in the link on Sir Madog's thread although it never seems as straightforward as coveredin that video. The "foliage" is held on with hair spray as used in that video.

 

My actual method is as follows:

 

I take a length of single core bell wire from Maplins and remove the outer sleeving, then bend in half:

 

The looped end is put in a drill and a pair of pliars used to grip the wire pair:

 

The drill is used to apply twists to the wire up to the point the pliars are holding the wire. This forms the trunk.

 

The branches are made using the bristles from a soft cocoa fibre brush. Not a bad quantity for £1.49!

 

A handful of fibres are pulled out and loosely laid out bwteen the two upper wires. Rather than attempt to do all the branches in one sitting I find it easier to do them in two phases. The lower branches are again trapped by gripping the two wires:

 

Use the drill again to start the twisting process. All chaos will ensue:

 

Manually rearrange some of the more erratic branches, then continue twisting. Repeat for the top section:

 

Keep twisting until the following mess results:

 

Previously I had straight horizontal branches, however this does not happen in nature. The majority of branches actually slope upwards. This can be reproduced by repeated pulling the "brush" through the fingers:

 

For the trunk I found some natural straw reeds in a craft shop in Switzerland which are cut to length. In hindsight I think I will keep with the Evergreen 1/8" tube:

 

The tree is trimmed to shape with a pair of scissors and the trunk glued over the wire with tacky glue:

 

At this point I spray the whole thing brown:

 

Now the magic can take place and foliage added. For this I use a piece of old newspaper, some hairspray and Gaugemaster conifer green foliage:

 

Spray the tree with hairspray (until droplets form) then sprinkle foam over the tree, shaking eccess back into the container. This can be repeated to suit your preferences:

 

If you are lucky you will end up with something better than this:

 

Failing that bin it and have another go, or relegate to the back of the scene. Hope this was useful.

[Sir Madog]

Wow, Mike, thanks for showing us how to make these good looking trees!

[MikeTrice]

"I used to be indecisive, now I am not so sure". Sums me up beautifully.

 

Making these trees is highly addictive so be warned before you start.

 

I mentioned that using the cocoa fibres resulted in very uneven branches that end up getting caught up in the wire twists so wanted to retry an earlier attempt. I have collected a number of different materials to experiment with some of which can be seen here:

 

Surprisingly the combination of different wires and fibres gives quite different results. The trees illustrated here are using the wallpaper brush on the left which spin with the wire with less irregularity and the green covered florists wire:

 

Trees have been shaped prior to spraying. This time I have gone back to Evergreen tubing for the trunks but kept them separate from the trees. I also used Montana Gold CL6420 - Manilla Dark which contrary to the name gives a lighter slightly grey shade of brown compared to the spray used previously.

 

Foliage applied as demonstrated previously. Once this was done the trunks were attached with Tacky Glue.

 

Well, I will try and leave trees alone now and get on to something else. I should have enough usable ones to add to my scene.

[MikeTrice]

Quick update.

 

New colour adjusted backscene has been applied and areas where the trees will go have had a ground covering of Woodland Scenics' Fine Turf Soil.

 

Next, taking some of my carefully made trees, I then shaved the backs off and planted them along to back with pva.

 

Complete trees this time were then planted in front.

 

The final result (in artificial light and with background clutter removed) looks like this.

 

Quite pleased with the result. Now where did I put those cows?

[Sir Madog]

Quite pleased with the result. Now where did I put those cows?

 

... behind a fence!

 

Swiss Federal Railways certainly have something against cows populating their tracks, so you´d need to run a fence along them. This could be one of those dang electric fences - just a few post with a single wire strung along them.

 

The module is looking nice!

[MikeTrice]

Agreed. Electric fences are quite common however whether I can make one fine enough is another question. Tried taking some photos (with cows, but no fence) with flash tonight but not worth uploading. Will have another go in natural light at the weekend, weather permitting.

[MikeTrice]

As promised here are some photos of the module taken in natural light. Surprisingly difficult as the sun is very low in the sky hence the long shadows. Still not fathomed out how to do an electric fence in "N":

 

 

 

The cows are just temporarily in place and as soon as you turn your back between photos, one falls down. I did intend to add some people but did not want to glue them down and they would not stand on their own.

 

The following shots really blew me away when I saw them (as my expectations were lower) especially when you consider the physical size of these models. A benefit of my revised module design is that you can lower the camera angle to look up at the loco. Shame about the lack of wire on the catenary though.

 

 

 

[Sir Madog]

Excellent pictures!

[SNCF stephen]

Those pictures look great. I really like the track. How did you get it to look that brown? Did you spray it before ballasting or use some sort of brush/roller?

 

Well done!

[MikeTrice]

It was hand painted by brush before ballasting. In future I think I will mask and spray.

[MikeTrice]

I spotted an unconventional angle on the module and thought "that might make an interesting photo". So I gave in to temptation and had a go:

 

 

I have now reached the point where I need to decide how to move forward. I have lots of ideas spinning around my head that I would like to try and will probably not take this particluar module any further.

 

Am I happy with the result? Yes and no.

 

On the positive side I have learnt a lot especially regardng sequence and am very happy with how the trees worked out (thanks Sir Madog). I have a nagging doubt in my mind that I might have been better sticking with static grass rather than use the foam types and would like to have a bit more depth to the module, mainly in front of the tracks. The 308mm length is quite limiting and I think it would be worth going to a double length module of 616mm perhap increasing the depth to 400mm. This should still be quite manageable.

 

The end profile I finally used is not far off one of the profiles in the Fremo module standards which by coincidence are also 400mm wide so I am considering doing something that is a blend between the T Trak and Fremo standards. Suggestions for a suitable name for this hybrid are welcome.