jukebox

Ha! I was waiting for someone to make an observation about that. The lady who is now my companion of two+ years, and who has been wonderfully supportive of this endeavour, saw my ragtag assortment of ice cream tubs and Moccona jars that I had blended and stored my different ballast shades in when she first visited the layout. She made the observation that she was something of a bower bird, and had bulk purchased empty take away containers, and would I like some? I took 20 off her hands, and when I'd used all those, she delivered a shopping bag with another 100 or so! They have been an absolute blessing, and I thoroughly endorse them as being close to essential for any large landscaping job. The ability to see what shades you have available, and sort the static grasses into short, medium, and long, and the flocks and scatters into fine, medium, and coarse, is a god-send. Take the blackberries - I was able to see I had no dark green fine flock, and so that was on my radar this morning. And when I was messing around with some ground textures yesterday, I was able to gather three different shades of WS "undergrowth" (medium flock) to try layering with. If those were in opaque ice cream tubs, I may have missed them, or spent 20 minutes looking. In the absence of being blessed with a clever girlfriend, you can pick up 50 of them on eBay for around £8. I can't recommend it enough. (Both, actually!) Cheers Scott

Those were very timely - and useful - references, Gordon. Thank you very much. I have been struggling for many months to produce reasonable looking low shubbery, with almost no success. To wit: First attempt last week. Whilst only blutak'd in position, these are too flat, and too dense. Lifeless. (they will, however, find a home near the backscene...) 2nd attempt late last week - an improvement, but still not passing muster: Adding static grass helped, but still wasn't what I am looking for. The volume, however, was an improvement... And then a quick visit upstairs after watching the video you linked too got me to here: Texturally, much better. Still too monotone, but that was as a result of not using the right materials. They look good up close, too - the photo doesn't quite show how fibreous they are. Poly fibre. PVA glue. Paint. Fine flock. It's perverse that I had all the right kit, but just didn't know how to use it properly. Every time I had tried to apply glue to the poly-fibre, the nylon seemed to repel it, and nothing would stick. When I could make it stick, using lots of glue, it clumped too much into a dense mass. This time, I persevered by following the video, and although the fibre didn't seem coated, by using the finest flocks, they did stick. *** At 9am this morning, when I saw my work from overnight had been a success, I went online to check my local hobby store. Just two bags of poly fiber left in stock! Luckily, they are open from 11am on a Sunday, and so I made a 130km/2hr round trip dash up the freeway to grab them both. With our State closing its borders tonight - even to residents - and international freight supply lines being hampered, there's no telling if this is something that may be hard to get a hold of in 6 weeks or 6 months time... so I wanted to have plenty of raw material available., I also took the liberty of picking up some more appropriate shades of flock to create blackberries and brambles... and some very dark green static grass. No prizes for guessing what I was up to this afternoon. Cheers Scott

Memory is a strange thing. As a young lad, I remember doing a run around the Western Suburbs loop (unsure of the exact path) behind 3801 in the mid 1970's. If you asked me, I'd say it was a lot more granny smith/lime green than the current shade. Not that the current shade is wrong, of course, just that my first impression was probably erroneous benchmarked by what it was painted back then. This photo from Jim Jarron on Flickr is Lidcombe 1975 - would have been the time and sort of trip I made...

I know sometimes people like a "behind the scenes" post. That, and layering static grass is not very post-worthy until you're done. This is what the station area looks like right now: After I finished plastering the bunkers, I tidied up that end, so I'd be able to put most of my "palette" out and visible, to make my job of grassing easier. I try not to use a single source of ground cover, as it ends up looking too flat. I am also experimenting a bit in small test areas, which can always be covered over or scraped off if they don't work. Left to right: Across the back are my static grasses, decanted so I can see them. Those are the browns - 2mm to 6mm. Mid screen are the paints I used to colour the cuttings. Just three shades, but I mix and blend these as I apply them. Up front are my working tubs - where I blend shades using the base colours. Sometimes it's for variety, other times it's to try and create a transition from one area to another. Masking tape to get a hard edge on my cess, and rags to wipe my hands. In the middle more static grass across the back - deep greens going into light greens. Tools across the front - for applying glue, then flock or static grass. A couple of tubs of Fine Turf in "earth" colour that I use to add texture to large areas of the same colour static grass on the right. And off to my right, some long static grass - 12mm - and small tubs of 2mm shades that I use sparingly because they were a tad pricey, and those tubs are small. In the rear are tubs of flock in two sizes of grind, plus the canisters of Woodland Scenics static grass, which I find too short and flat to use on thier own - but they are handy to blend in to the other shades. There's my 5L bottle of PVA, and behind it the WWS static grass glue. I like using it, but the spray nozzle is a dud, so I keep a collection of assorted nozzles from pump packs around the house, but have to clean them after each use, as the glue clogs these very quickly. It needs to mist to work best - but at a pinch can be brushed on. I keep a couple of buckets of water with me - one clean, one that gets progressively dirtier. The drop cloth protects the floor - well, it's supposed to... and there's a pedestal fan and heater there for days when the weather doesn't play nice. The extension cord leads to the vacuum cleaner, off screen, that gets a solid work out recovering 80% of what I apply each time. An iPod and powered speakers complete the tools, and makes the time pass very quickly. Enjoy the weekend, everyone! Cheers Scott

Something like the left hand side of Tring appeals... Wrong "denomination" of course....

Now about the cutting... I am really happy with the grass texture and tones I have been creating - a close enough match to my previous work not to be jarring (though it's not finished yet). The area toward by the junction in particular tickles my fancy: I will gussy this up with some patches of detail to break it up more, but it's coming along okay. When I covered the main cutting, I noticed that some of the slope was quite steep, and imagined that grass might not grow there: I was happy enough with the exposed surface I painted - it's a close mimic to the remainder of the open soil/rock in that area... but I am wavering on leaving it bare. In the above view in particular, the slope seems not much worse than the left hand side. The thing is, there's another steep bit right on the bend, you can just see in this view: I will probably cover the closer one with grass - perhaps a little deader-looking than the rest - and just leave the more distant slope exposed. This is also why I'm not rushing the golf course - accessing here to apply static I need to lean on top of the hill. I will want to disturb the grass on the fairway as little as possible once it goes down. I shall put on a little thinking music while I debate the options! Cheers Scott

I also am working on creating the cess. When I flocked the hillside, I used masking tape to create a hard edge. Now I go back and fill from the toe of the ballast to the grass, with PVA: Before the glue skins, I sprinkle dried coffee grounds onto it: Once that is set, I will vacuum up the excess, then go back with a slightly dilute PVA mix, and cover that with some very fine cinders. Cheers Scott

I have paused a little, before tackling the golf course. There's a couple of reasons for this. I want to get a proper sense of scale, and exactly what besides loads of grass I need to model, and I also need to have a play with creating the right textures. I have started by using fine flock to mark the locations where I think I want substantial trees - by that, I mean anything with a wire body, not just clump foliage. You can see these on the aerial shot that follows: I have started by flocking the ends that aren't golf course. At the river end, that means digging up the flocks I used across the tracks. I kept my containers of these for this very reason: Don't be scared by the lurid colour. Once I add two or three layers of static grass, it cuts that back to a more realistic tone for lush field. At the station end, I'm experimenting with applying Woodland Scenics flocks directly to the plaster - different shades either side of the fenceline there: I've also pre-laid the path from the green to the next hole. I plan to have that disappear into an area of heavy foliage to disguise its exit. Cheers Scott

Lots of nibbles of progress today, so I'll narrate it across a couple of posts, to bypass the photo upload limit. Fritz and Klaus, my tame Noch labourers, batched up some plaster, and brought the bunkers up to final levels. They then jumped in to test the depth. A stiff brush added what might be rake marks, or just the sides of the holes. They will disappear under any sand I glue down anyway, so it doesn't really matter (the marks will disappear, not Fritz and Klaus). "You know Klaus, ven it schneit here, zis may be a wunderbar schnee slope..." Just visible in this view is some dust where I sanded gremlins on fairway level... Cheers Scott

Breakdown crane?

"I got up at 3am with this idea raring to go..." I see your problem right there. (love the tight clearance and confines of that rope-way. Very atmospheric!)

I hate it when the quizmaster never supplies the answer - don't you? Turns out these are Agathis robusta. Queensland kauri pine. I emailed the local council the park is in and eventually got an answer, along with a very hand live tool to look up almost any tree in the area! http://maps.victoriapark.wa.gov.au/intramaps96/default.htm?project=VictoriaPark

Back in January, when my mojo was somewhat adrift, I focused myself by pinning up a 6 month plan. Three months in, just a reminder of what I thought I could do. End of Feb: Have the wooden framework for the hillside cut, screwed and glued in place on the layout. End of March: Complete the plastering and terraforming End of May: Complete ground cover - flocking, static grass End of June: Complete details - fencing, trees, hedges End of July: Build and fit fascias to Eastern side Now the sharp-eyed amongst you might have noticed I seem to have skipped April. That was quite deliberate. You see in May last year, I booked a holiday for myself and my two youngest to spend two weeks in April touring Japan and Hong Kong starting at Easter. I'd actually held out hopes of still going as late as two weeks ago - the thought of seeing Tokyo and Hong Kong almost deserted of people was fascinating, and I'd rather presciently made the pronouncement in January to my elderly parents that going to a Covid hotspot was not going to be any riskier than staying in Perth because the virus was coming to us anyway. How true that was. But eventually Cathay withdrew Perth-Hong Kong flights, and our government has actually put a travel ban on Citizens travelling overseas - which is pretty hard core. That actually means my travel insurance would not cover us, so early last week, I gave in and cancelled, and am now engaged in a solid battle to recover airfares and cancelled accommodation. It was a year in the planning, and the kids were bitterly disappointed - as was I; this was my first big trip with them solo, and I needed the holiday to recharge. I'm lucky enough to be working from home for the immediate future - hundreds of thousands of other Aussies are jobless right now - but that's not the same as getting out and exploring, seeing new sights, and creating family memories. Blessings counted and we shall try again in April 2021, I guess. The one silver lining is my modelling schedule is looking healthy. I've started flocking right on time - end of March - and have an extra three weeks to work. What I'd not counted on was the number of trees to manufacture, so that time will not go to waste. Stay safe everyone. Cheers Scott

Lovely handiwork on those wall, Shaun. Hope it was therapeutic for you! Cheers Scott

There's no gentle way to admit this. This afternoon, I c*cked up. I'd added another layer of lighter flock to the plain test green. It came out okay: So I thought I'd cut it to shape, as a practice green, and see how it looks. I took the same brown paper rubbing, went up stairs, marked the kidney shape on it, cut it out with scissors and checked it fitted, then brought it downstairs to overlay on the green, to cut with a sharp scalpel. When I took the neatly trimmed green to the layout, it didn't seem to fit... I'd not marked the brown paper mask with "front" or "back", and stupid here cut a mirror image of what the green needs to be! That's better! So ignore the shape, which was the whole point of the exercise, and gaze at the plain green texture, in a lighter shade than before: With four layers of flock, that card got quite thick. If I did a plain green, I'd chance flocking the plaster directly I think... There's plenty of flocking going on behind the scenes - but it's like watching paint (glue) dry - 15-30 mins of work, followed by 4 hrs of glue drying. I'll spare you the permutations as I add different palettes/texture to a rather bland looking cutting surface.... Cheers Scott

I remove all mine, and think I have a few waiting to be installed in my MPD area, Iain. Sleep on it, and I should have a photo and dimensions by (your) morning. edit - here you go: Hope that helps! Cheers Scott

It's way too early in the week to be doing such learning... but today I discovered what a revett is. Cheers, Gordon. This hole is local for my layout. I do like the detail that can be seen in how the grass on the green morphs into the bunker at the front edge. Very helpful...

So it's not just bunkers on V2's this NE region modeller needs to consider... To construct the bunkers, I needed to excavate the plaster. Plan A was to use a craft knife with a saw blade. The plaster resisted that. Plan B was to stitch drill. It then took some pretty forceful breaking, but eventually the plug came free... The chciken wire underneath was handy. I could re-set the level of the bottom of the bunker... In the above shot on the rear bunker, you can see the cavity where I had to build up the land about 40mm to create the green. I just pushed the plug back into the hole and built up off that. Then a nice stiff mix of plaster was used to create the bunker edges Don't worry about the bottoms - I need to fill the base of these with something to represent sand. Probably fine sand. Right now, they are between 3ft and 5ft deep... Looking down the fairway, to my eye, they "work". Meanwhile, serious acreage of base flock has been applied to the right hand side of the cutting... Cheers Scott

I honestly, couldn't tell you, Gilbert. But my version certainly could be. To the point that I could almost model the tee, too, at the top of the hill.

So long as you don't get the two confused, you should be okay...

You could put the putting green from a golf course there... I'll get my coat.

Which one, Steve? (it's a bit like that at the moment!) The one in my photoshop in the post above yours is Old Thorns, North Hampshire, apparently. This is the unmodified image: Gordon's video is of course the NSW Golf Club, La Perouse, in Sydney. The original chequerboard image that guides me is from Brancepeth in Durham. Cheers Scott

I've used Hydrocal, and Densite, both imported from the USA to Australia, and sold for about £12 for a 22.5kg bag. Do a bit of investigating and I'm sure you will find a "life casting" or perhaps even dental casting supplier who is importing them in the UK. Much more cost effective for casting large numbers of rocks, and works just as elegantly as the Woodland Scenics stuff. Cheers Scott

Cheers for the input, everyone. That video in particular, has a very similar in lie toward the hole. Nice! The plain disc is complete, and down the fairway, this is what it looks like in situ: It's not as flat as the first one, as I used cardboard for the base rather than plasticard. I can glue it down flat easily enough - it's quite flexible. With 20:20 hindsight, I'd probably try a lighter shade of green, if I proceed down this path, but it just doesn't work as well for me as the cross cut version. It looks flat, and two dimensional compared to this: To answer your earlier question, Gordon, the disc is an oval, but I had chalked out the green as kidney shaped, notionally - the shot below is almost directly above: The drop away behind the hole does have a little play room: The purple line is the arbitrary railway boundary, that works with the rest of the contours in the vicinity. As of lunchtime Sunday, my thinking is keep the kidney shape (cutting the green to suit the chalk markings), see if I can fit a thin/wide bunker in there (yellow), have some progressively longer grass in the light green area, and a hedge/undergrowth up against the fence (dark green). I know a couple of you have mentioned trees behind the hole to stop over-hit balls... and I could fit some poplars in there - but I really want to preserve that view down the fairway to the church, thus: TBH, Gordon's video is exactly the sort of visual I'd imagined - herbaceous border that is below eye level until you reach the hole... (it's also that video that makes me want the green about nine shades lighter....). Anyhow... the hot weather has eased off here, and I've now got the modeling momentum up. Shall report back on progress at week's end! Stay safe and keep your social distancing, everyone. If you do not need to go out, seriously: Stay at home. Cheers Scott

A very good question, Gilbert. I was waiting for you and Gordon to give me some real work input on that, too! There's not a lot of room off the back behind the green - the land does drop away quickly... I'd certainly contemplated one each side near the front: There may be room for the suggestion of one at the rear, but if it's not large enough, it might look contrived: My fallback was to have a very overgrown border fence--hedge there... Once I get the green sorted, I'll have a play with the space. Bunkers *should* be easy to produce - cut a hole in plaster, and push the plug down; line it with sand; et voilà! Bunker. Cheers Scott