Gloucester Road

Im not sure but I have several large areas that need to be covered, so we will see. I imagine it might be limited to the size of paper and how well the glue sets and how it peels. Thanks to all for you kind comments about the grass. The nice thing about this hobby ,and the this forum in particular, is the interaction of modelers helping each other and being able to inspire each other. Another learning curve today and something we need to be willing to do, that is correct mistakes or stuff we're not happy with. Spent today correcting areas that im not happy with, pictures soon.

Here is a shot of a Brand new Piaggio that i was assigned to in April 2011 the "owners" area looking forward Back to Modeling. Tried my method of grass today using a sandwich bag instead of gloss transperency paper and to my relief it worked a charm. I was also able to get all three pieces of grass started at the same time This has one layer of static grass applied; it is then allowed too dry. You can tell when its dry because the glue goes clear when viewed from the bottom. Once dry the strips were peeled off and then layers of hairspray and grass were applied. The following pic is three applications of grass and spray, looks more grass like. Glue was then placed were new grass was going. First piece of grass down, turf and shrubs added to blend This process was repeated two more times with grass being set down and blended in and this is what we ended with. 67027 was caught on a short enterpise service, only two VGAs, running past the new grassy area. Que gratuitous close ups. So thats where we are tonight. Much happier with the grass here now and will use the sandwich bag method as it really comes off easily. I also used more of a blend this time round, from several post ago I was using some burnt grass. This time I started with a base of light green, then closer to where the track is i went over with an application of burnt grass. Finally went back over the line made between light and burnt grass with a blend of light and burnt grass; this gives a thick grass and a nice brown towards the track with a blened green moving away from the track. Thanks for stopping by. Stephen

That looks really good, goes to show what you can make if you put your mind to it and save bits and bobs. Having a bits box myself it is very nice to have a place to go when you have an idea that you cant buy. The demo site is a good idea, if we are allowed to have input in what you make, then I would second this idea.

So having been released back to flying I have done a week of flying around the west coast, always fun to fly around LAX, San Diego, Mexico (cabos), Las Vegas and Seattle. Especially when its cold and snowy in New Hampshire. Today was to be a day I worked on some more static grass along the front of the layout, so out came some paper and we drew up some templates: This was then trasnsferred to some glossy paper and off we went (using my grass mat technique), however when it came to pealing it off it didnt work. There was no peeling, so we tried again....still it didnt work, so I gave up. Came to the conclusion that because I was using the same piece of glossy paper from previous entries that the surface was not smooth anymore. Tested my process on a plastic sandwich back and it worked, so we will try that tomorrow. I was not however going to let a day free to myself go by without doing anything on the train so I worked on the Small Corner Shops from Scalescenes in duplicate. I was kept company by our two cats: Here is the partial construction: Walls up: In place for the night (clearly not finished): That's it for today; have some free time tomorrow so will try the grass again. Stephen

That building looks good. Like the idea of the construction site and crane, aswell.

This just gets better and better each time photos are posted. Trully insprirational work.

Great to see trains up and running, big moment when trains run. That 60 and the RMC hoppers look really good.

Yes, I fly the avanti it is a fun plane and quite a performer for a turboprop. The b17 was a clean break and is repairable, all willhave to wait as work now beckons. Thanks for the kind comment about the grass. Stephen

Well I've been released back to active flight status, it's been an interesting three months. Modeling has been fun, not quite as productive as I thought it might be but fun nontheless, modelling returns to a biweekly schedule. Stephen

My son took 5 hours 20 min to complete it, mrs and i enjoyed the piece. So here are the pics as promised: crashed spitfire: crashed B17: Ok enough with the damage, here is the grass that has sprung up; it has centered around the container terminal. Areas that have been done with grass before and having seen how well my self made grassmats look i have decided to redo these areas. So out came the scrapper and vaccum and off we went. This is the area that leads into the container terminal, there was a small mound of static grass here but it looks much better now. the opening: overview of the area completed: drivers eye view crossing the road entering the container terminal: some things to note here. I decided that the green was becoming to overall so ive started adding burnt grass to the mix There is just a hint of it in most of the grass, however if you look at the grass against the fence it is mnuch browner. I like this touch and breaks up the colours. a view leaving the terminal: Here is the other side of the terminal next to the shed, it to has been done before but looks better now. This is the overhead view and is up to the fence and around the back of the containers. The same effect is used with more burnt grass towards the fence blending of grass, fence and scalescenes paper: Here is the loco stored in the terminal: So there we are. More grass is being readied and the buildings are being built still. Updates soon.

Its good to have Rmweb back, like having an old friend return. A belated Merry Christmas. Not much done over the Christmas break as the Santa brought loads of legos so Dad (me) was hired to assemble various lego kits,an airplane, helicopter, terminal building, star wars republic frigate, star wars slave one and a sith lord interceptor. The boys did a great job of putting them together and then dad was used to figure out where all the "extra" pieces went. All in all a good time and many hours of happy playing since. On the modelling front more grass has been planted, pics to follow. Awoke this morning to an interesting and sad scene on the layout. Some 30 years ago a mate of mine gave me some model planes he and his dad made, they are around HO scale but have been happily flying above every N layout I have made. Well this morning the Spitfire had crashed into the Loco shed entrance roads, no major damage to trains or aircraft (only lost a blade on the prop) the B17 however crashed into the container yard, then continued its journey to meet the floor; wings, props, guns and tails scattered all over the floor. Do damage to the layout but the plane might be beyond repair. Pics to follow Oh well. Happy New Year to all! Stephen

Ive used a very similar method for applying grass and am really pleased with it.

Yes there is a liitle grass on the sleepers and ballast sort of an experiment to see if it affects the running, hasn't yet (fingers crossed).

So here is a shamless plug for a book; i know its the wrong scale but it's really is good. Nigel Burkin's book "Modern Wagons in 4mm Scale" has a good overview of the major modern wagons and 4mm models, and ways to improve and modify them. The book focuses on 4mm but all the wagons mentioned are available in N and most of the detailing can be done useing parts from N manufactures/detailers. There are some good pictures of real and model railways; though it focuses on OO there is no reason that it cant be used in N. Right plug over. Meant to mention the other day that I did something different with the grass this time. I had to use a template to get the grass to fit in the area needed so I traced it out on a piece of paper and then transfered this onto the acetate paper, once the layers of grass had been applied I wanted some longer areas than others. So i cut holes in the template of where I wanted longer grass, set this template with the holes on the grass mat and applied hairspray to the holes and then grassed it; let it dry and did it again. What i ended up with was areas of longer grass ie. close to the bushes, several other longer clumps and some longer areas near/in the track. From the images you can't really see this as the phones camera doesn't pick it up, but it's there when you see it. It helped to get away from that mowed lawn look that was starting to happen Back to scalescenes buliding. Stephen

Ive decided to leave the gate and stop lines as is. In an effort to keep the thread upto date with the layout here is a short update. First, spent time cutting out scalescene windows and putting on the base layer. This is an amasingly fidilly think to do in N and took some time to do, by far the part of constructing these kits I like the least. Then I filled in another grassy area with the prevouse technique, some rusty rail and wheel sets need to be added to fill in this area to complete it. looking across the yard to new shops: close up of shops: close up of new grass: overhead of grass: Stephen

Good to see it all together. It is really going to be something.

This update will get the thread up to date with where the layout is currently. Spent some time bedding in the the mat that I talked about last entry with some dirt around where it meets the tarmac and some details added. A delivery van has been placed that when viewed from the front will hide the STOP. We then moved to the other side of the depot entrance and made another grassmat following the revised process described (removing the grass before applying hairspray), It came out nicley. To cover the areas' length I needed two strips; the advantage of the grass is the join can be hidden by teasing the fibres over the join. I can't see it and I put them together. I had some left over fence that included a slidding gate and decided to put it across the entrance of the depot. Not sure if its entirly correct but... In the photo you can see on the right where the mat is blended into the pavement area with some fine turf and the van hiding the STOP. Here is a shot that shows the grass standing proud and blending in with the wall. The PD marsh car is looking a little dated when compared to some others! (ie the mini) Lee, the small layouts dimension are 14"x10"x5". It was lots of fun to put together and I learned alot whilst doing it. There is a small sector plate that attachs to the right so that trains can run off the layout and come back on on the other line. Thanks for looking. Stephen

Hmm, I hadnt realised that a stop line was so complicated; they are at 85% of the intersection here in New Hampshire. Anyway it is to late to change so maybe a strategicaly placed vehicle will hide it. So the buildings and roads have made it over to the layout now there was another little problem to solve. As anyone who has used static grass knows there is a lot of glue and hairspray that can be used to apply and build up depth of the grass. However the area i needed to fill was surrounded by Scalscenes paper, not a good mix with glue and hairspray. So what to do. I have a vague recollection of reading about makeing grass that could be pealed off paper and stuck into place so i decided to experiment. Step one was to measure the area I needed to cover. Step two was to was find all that i needed and hobble my way to kitchen table. Acetate paper (the same i use to print off the clear scalscenes windows), straight white glue, ruler, static grass, applicator and hairspray. Then I took the measurements from the layout and traced it onto the shiny side(and thats important) of the acetate paper. White glue was thickly spread out on the traced area and allowed to set for about 10 mins, just enough to go slightly tacky. The static grass was then applied. This was allowed to dry and the excess was then shaken off. A spray of hairspay and a second layer of grass was applied, This step really makes the grass thick As you may notice from the last picture there are some spots that grass didnt adhere. This can be done later but I did it now; I added some clumps of course turf to the bare areas. The whole area was then given a couple coats of hairspary and left to dry for several hours. Drumroll please. After two hours it was all dry and the pealing could begin. A sharp blade was used to lift up one corner and then as I pealed the knife was used to help seperate glue and paper. It came off nice and cleanlly. Some things to note: a fairly thick layer of glue seems to work better than thinner, it seems to peel off more evenly. When doing the process above the only thing I would change is the order, Having pealed off the grass I thought the paper was going to be used again, however the hairpray had rendered the paper bumpy so the next lot of grass didnt peal aswell. So the next batch I have done the grass was pealed off then hairsprayed and it allows the paper to be used again. Another nice thing is you can cut the grass patches to shape any area. Once the piece was placed and clued into place some "dirt" was scattered over the area to tone down the green. Trees and other scatter was then added to blend in the wall and thin grass areas Now some gratuitous shots of grass: This has been a lot of fun to do and seems to work very well when you have an area where you can't spray hairspray and spread glue around due to paper. I have done another piece and did the hairpary post pealing and am able to use the paper again. More detailing and blending of the grass/pavement has been done and i am very pleased with how it has come out. More pics shorlty, hope this helps any one looking at doing static grass. Stephen

The left hand side of the layout has been attacked recently. Decided that if i'm going to build the small terrace houses and corner shops that iIshould start at the bottom and work my way up; so roads and foundations first. Here is what we looked like back on 30 November: This whole area was lifted off and placed on the workbench, roads and a parking lot from scalscenes were tested and then fitted: Cars were then added to see how it looked: Liking how it looked I pressed on. I took great care to hide the joins of paper and most of the cuts were made and hidden by lining up patches in the paving. Other areas were hidden by cutting close up by the painted lines, then the area was given some light weathering. There are seven diffferent pieces of paper in the following photo. Once I was happy with the road another piece of curb was added and some yellow lines added. Slowly pieces have been cut out of card for the buildings, here is a test fitting: With the test all looked good so walls were added as were the rest of the yellow lines and it was done. Three days of on again off again work and we ended up with this. The photo has been stiched together so there is some fuzzyness to it. Now to get this on the layout Then a bit of a teaser of what's next: That's it for now. Stephen

thats an excellent idea, and description of the assembly.