The White Rabbit

Almost anything gets better with practice. I spent part of today assembling Busch dandelions (HO/OO) for a diorama I'm working on. The small size of the components can be intimidating and you need to make sure you don't breathe out heavily (and sneezing is right out!) but a bit of practice and they were fine. This a picture of part of Mortomley - not one of my creations but the builder has bought various bits from us and I like his style.

For a comparison of colours: I know the light green is currently unavailable from Gaugemaster, but I think the other three are, I know I got what I ordered...

I will do, but it could be a little while, there's a few things to do first. (Including looking again at some of your work...). The next but one project is a marsh scene, so I will probably have some spare water from that to play with. I have some of Greenscene's white water sheet and am planning to do some experiments. I picked the wrong usename, I should have called myself the Mad Scientist!

Thanks Allan. I've learnt a lot from you, Mr R and the others on this thread, so I'm happy to contribute when I can ... I think 'difficulty' could be a candidate for understatement of the week. I've been taking photos for a while with a view to modelling a mountain stream - this is of the River Dart at Staverton Weir. I think Dave and Shirley Rowe did a model of a quayside scene (Exebridge Quay?) using real water, but that's the only model I remember seeing that looked convincing, as you say, it doesn't scale down well. Cheers, Simon

I think you've been looking at too many old copies of Railway Ribaldry... I'd like to see a cartoon of that, with the jungle being drawn as the (exagerated) primitive conditions at an exhibition... I think you've got the texture right, but as far as the colour goes, I think the first picture's best. I've found colour is the tricky part, as water reflects the sky so much and the colour varies according to the sky's light ... (where's the smilie for an old lady sucking eggs?) Here's a few of my snaps of 'ruffled'/'agitated' water:

Allan, just what sort of a machine have you? Described as a vicious circle, known to the (not very local) constabulary and suspected of the abduction and forcible recolouring of socks, in collusion with your chest of drawers. It sounds like the most feared device known to man since the dreaded Yorkshire Wallet. (Shudder). For those brave enough, these are the adventures of one specimen http://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6647

I remember playing with my father's Minibrix and Bayko, very interesting and good fun. For the nostalgia: http://www.shirebooks.co.uk/store/Building-Toys_9780747808152

It's a material commonly mentioned. I've never tried it myself. I had a little play experiment modelling thatch a few years ago, and thatched this cottage with GreenScene 'rough grass' (GS431), what a friend of mine calls 'the dead cat', after it was seen stretched over the armrest of the sofa waiting for me to cut it to size... I trimmed the rough grass mat using a beard trimmer, then rubbed a small quantity of grey paint in using my fingers, working the paint into all the fibres and being careful not to clog them, dyeing/staining the fibres rather than painting them. After this, I 'combed' the fibres to point downwards and did some final trimming with scissors. (The 'host' building is part of the Metcalfe coaching inn I had left lying about from something or another, with some 'timbers' added from very dark grey paper strips). I've seen better, but I wasn't disappointed with the result for a first attempt and if I ever model a thatched roof again, I'll have another go and see if I can improve.

When I was at Chester, my landlady had sash windows which opened either at the top or bottom. When I built this model about fifteen years ago, I used the Wills window pack (and dressed stone sheets). To give the building some 'life' I modelled several doors and windows in an open position. Being thoughtful, I had the sash window of the stationmaster's office open at the top, so his papers (modelled on a desk just visible in the second shot) wouldn't blow onto the floor... The photos are from near the end of construction when I just had the final details and weathering to sort out. The building dates from when I'd just returned to modelling - I've learnt a lot about scratchbuilding, colours and photography since this was built, but I am still fond of it, for all it's mistakes.

Note to Andy, we need a 'Magnificent' rating...

Or CK or Gary H. (Thankyou both for posting photos and updates about the damage and repairs. Stay safe).

We'll look forward to it.

This reminded me of gabions and Hesco bastions, which when I looked the latter up for a web reference - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesco_bastion - I found were originally used for emergency flood defences before seeing military use. They would be more easily transportable than containers and sound as if they might be useful in Somerset but looking at the recent pictures of Dawlish and how much damage the containers have suffered, I guess they'd not be of much use there. Has any RMWebber had experience of using them (for 'flooding control')? Typo!

What's "the sun"? The pictures look great. If you'd shot those against trees or foliage, I would defy anyone to tell them from the full sized article.

I know that feeling. I can't draw or paint to save my life, but I can make a decent effort at a reasonable 3D model of a building or tree - but I like to be free to make small alterations, like an artist painting a person or scene, making tiny changes to reality to emphasise characteristics or features, so as to convey a theme or atmosphere. Or, more prosaically, to work round any variation in the raw materials! As you say, artistic interpretation. Would anyone following this thread dare suggest you (and the esteemed Mr Robinson) lack it?

Sorry for the late reply, I thought I'd already posted... (too much going on at the moment). One for me too please.

That was not intended as a cheap shot at politicians, but as a possible explanation why money for rail improvement schemes/other capital investment projects could be restricted. I think 'CHARD in post 713 makes a fair analogy.

There is now an online petition to reinstate the Exeter - Okehampton - Tavistock - Plymouth line at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/60302. Shame about the grammatical and spelling mistakes, they give a very bad impression even before you start thinking about the problems & practical challenges of reinstatement, many of which have already been pointed out and discussed.

From what I heard, part of the planning gain was the re-instatement of the railway from Bere Alston. I don't know if things have changed but I heard it was a done deal and scheduled for construction in 2016?

That's quite a building - really demonstrates what I call the symmetry of irregularity... The wall stonework looks fine to me. I'll have to find the time to have a go myself, there's an old church in the Dales I want to model with similar stonework.

The pictures above remind me of a diorama of a mill that used to be at Pecorama - was that your work? I don't think you should worry too much about the bridge. I get the impression the main viewing angle is from the front, when the bridge is right at the back and so the narrowness is not emphasised. In any case, some bridges are very narrow, there's one at Glaisdale in the Esk Valley that's only a few feet wide - http://www.dougthwaitesphotography.com/glaisdale-featuring-beggars-bridge.html

Opinion varies on this, but I would suggest: You don't need to put groundcover down but it certainly doesn't hurt. When putting a base coat of paint down, I use a coat of water-based paint - either GreenScene's textured paint or cheap emulsion depending how thick a coat of fibres I plan to apply [on top]. This is very much the 'slosh it about' application, you don't need to be fastidious. I then throw some scatter and or textured material on and let the paint stick it down. This helps build up colour and texture, but most of this layer will be hidden, so don't put much on or worry about being tidy. When that's dry, time for the glue and first coat. Second coats are tricky to do, as unless you are only doing tufts here and there, it's not easy to apply the second coat without flattening the first - you are right. If you are careful, you can apply glue to the tips of the existing grass either with a brush or a spray adhesive, but it's not as easy as the first coat. I'd always suggest you make the first coat a good one and as thick as possible - assuming that's the effect you're going for, sometimes you might want sparse grass. Some of the groundcover will show through, how much depends on how good an applicator and glue you have, how thickly you apply the fibres, how closely you look and how good the lighting and your eyes are! It's always better to have just one layer of fibres instead of several - ie if you want 12mm long grass, use XL 12mm fibres not 2/3 layers of 5mm long ones. Second and third layers can be useful to represent very long, tangled grass. But do put other things in there, small plants and weeds as well as bigger bushes. I was looking at an old copy of BRM last week and Re 6/6 had built a diorama of a disused branch which had great vegetation in the cutting and on the hillside, he'd used all sorts of things. (Some pictures in this thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69876-a-couple-of-snaps-of-netherhope-halt/?hl=netherhope ). And if you go back on this thread you can see Giles hasn't just used grass fibres on his siding diorama either. Edited to add a link.

For modelling clumps of grass half in the water, if you use pre-made clumps, you may be able to add these while the water is setting, depending on the product you use - Deluxe Materials, whose water I'm using at the moment on a diorama, say after 8-10 hours at room temperature the resin can be textured. I'm guessing if it can be textured, it's flexible enough to take some clumps of grass and - hopefully - sufficiently viscous not to form the meniscus Giles mentions. I've not tried this myself yet, all my water so far has been neatly bordered by quayside walls... I'm going to find out soon though, as the next but one diorama to build includes a marsh. Noch & Heki do packs of XL fibre clumps and you can also make your own using loose fibres, an electrical applicator and a non-stick surface. For a marsh/bog, I suggest Noch as Heki's tufts are rather wide angled - see my picture in post 11. Another alternative is to let the water dry/set completely and then drill a small hole into it for the grass/reeds. However, I've tried this in the past and if you use a high speed drill, depending on your water product, you can end up with a visible white mark round the hole - presumably from the heat of the drill. I was going to say never apply static grass using an applicator before the water is completely dry/set, otherwise it's a recipe for disaster, but I have just wondered if a bold and skilfull modeller1 could apply a light coat over partially set water and the water might hold the fibres firmly enough without letting them sink? I think a little experiment is called for... I'll let you know how I get on. 1) What we call someone reckless enough to try a crazy idea and lucky enough that it works...

I don't know if it's the angle/lighting but I think they look better as walling than groundcover, I think there's just a bit too much unevenness (pressing of the concrete) for paving. Freebs beat me to it re gritstone for civil engineering & retaining walls, if they were a darker colour - absolutely perfect. You realise you're going to be responsible for a surge in the sales of fire cement?

My most used tool is equally hi-tech - a small shank made from a thin needle and dowelling. It is very useful for putting holes in for 'medium plants' after you've applied a coat or two of static grass - and then marking the hole until you are ready to glue the plant stems into the ground. I also have an offcut of aluminium tubing which I use for rolling Metcalfe chimneypots. It's just the right diameter. (I do scratchbuild in plastic when modelling for myself, but do quite a bit of Metcalfe modelling for work). If you're modelling a town scene you need quite a few and using this makes rolling a pot very easy and is quick. The most valuable and sought after tool of all has to be a 'round tuit' - how often do we say, "I'll do it when I get around to it"?