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Veja Megstra - RhB Nm layout


MrTea
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3 hours ago, MrTea said:

It's quite difficult to gauge the right size of trees to use when buying online. I thought that one of the packs which was TT/H0 was going to be way too big but in actual fact they look just about right and don't dwarf the trains too much.

It’s technically not a tunnel, just an avalanche gallery ;) They’re all youngish trees because every few years they get swept away. 
I used HO, O & G scale trees in HO to get the height for realism and HO trees are still only medium sized trees in N! ;) 
 

Looking good and I’m recycling the appropriately sized trees off my HOm layout for the Nm too :) 

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Quick update showing a bit more progress this week:

 

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Gallery end showing the loop and siding. I test fitted the first OHLE gantry made from a combination of Sommerfeldt and Kato parts.

 

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Overhead view showing the join between the two boards. This made me realise the disadvantage of working in stages in terms of matching colours! Fortunately I still have quantities of the relevant materials so I've been able to work on mellowing the transition. You can also see how bright grey the Unitrack ballast is before painting.

 

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Sometimes it's the little things that are the most rewarding. I had about 15 mins on Tuesday night so I managed to fit the handrail on the bridge. This is a laser cut card part from Auhagen. I used brown water colour to match it more closely to the rusted effect I've seen on reference photos.

 

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Last night I worked on the station board tidying up the ballast and on the join between the south end of the station and the Toua tunnel section.

 

There are a lot of trees to plant here beyond the tracks but it's coming together. For the first time I've had a stab at painting the backdrop using watercolours. There's more colour to add as the main thing is to try and give the impression of the mountainside rising up behind the tracks with the model trees in the foreground.

 

I also had a an initial go at something I've been looking forward to - a rockslide. It's fine quartz stones from Busch poured onto PVA glue. I think if I was doing it again I'd add a layer of fine chippings underneath first but hopefully I can add some on top and it'll look alright.

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Managed to spend a good 4 hours or so on the layout today.

 

I decided to carry on with the backdrop painting and raided my kids' art supplies for some ready-mixed poster paint. The idea really being to create a dark texture for behind the 3 or 4 rows of trees that will make up the forested mountain side behind the running lines.

 

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Couple of close up shots showing the rockslide and the under bridge.

 

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Definitely need to add more trees on the left hand side. But on the right it's feeling quite forest-y.

 

It's been a really interesting exercise building up the layers of colour and trying to capture the spirit of the real location from photos using the materials I have available. It makes me realise the importance of taking your time over each section and adding layers of cover to build up the texture and colour. There's a real temptation to start sticking trees down early on but you need to consider what's behind them and under them as it'd be really hard to add that after. I can't quite work out how to get the colours as I think they should be as everything seems to dry a different colour to what it starts out as - scatter darker than when it's unfixed and paint lighter!

 

Anyway with different light and different angles you can get some nice effects like this that I took this evening:

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What I love about this one is how the focus is on the loco and the detail in the foreground. Whereas behind which is less that 15cm back its more of an impression of the forest and the mountain sides.

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13 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

I’d try some darker still right between the actual trees to bring them ‘into’ the backscene.

Agree - I would go right into shades of dark brown and add some detritus branches at the backscene join that have fallen and the odd stump. All hides the transition.

 

That however - is being picky! It is looking superb, great job.

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8 minutes ago, JimFin said:

That however - is being picky!

;) enthusiastic as the backscene looks good, keep raising the bar!

 

8 minutes ago, JimFin said:

It is looking superb, great job.

Agreed :) 

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This week has been quite productive in the evenings:

 

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I've installed the OHLE in the station section having cut down the Sommerfeldt girders (that was properly nerve-wracking!) and grafting them on to the Kato 'H' section steel poles. The gantries have been sprayed overall grey but still need the insulators picking out and signs adding.

 

I also spent some time attempting to solder some of the joints as I've been having issues with the voltage dropping and the trains slowing within the insulated section in the loop. Having added a coat of dirty brown to the rail sides and the sleepers at the joints I think the track is looking fairly ok. There are a few more small details such as drain covers and conduits to add. I don't know if any switch indicators are available in N but that might be something that's available as a 3D print at some point?

 

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The colours around the over bridge are coming together too. The stonework was given an undercoat of Railmatch BR later freight stock grey and then dry-brushed with a couple of darker greys. I've also planted a load more trees and added some small shrubs and ground cover between them and the track that leads under the running lines into the yard.

 

Next steps are to finish off the ground cover in the foreground, add a few more grass tufts and potentially add a bit more dark to the backdrop behind the trees.

 

I've also got a Faller Langweis laser cut kit to start. I know it's not an exact match for the building at Muot but it's fairly close and it looks to be an exquisite kit. Just hope I can do it justice!

 

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement on this thread. Hopefully I'm not too far off having this side of the layout complete.

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Made a start on the station building kit:

 

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After evening 1

 

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After evening 2

 

This really is a lovely kit. The pieces fit together very cleanly and the laser cut card parts, in particular, are beautifully made. I was surprised to find that the cladding layer is stained plywood but it can only be 3-4mm thick.

 

I've never built anything in laser cut wood before but based on this experience I would happily do so again. It wasn't cheap mind you!

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agree there not cheap but the quality sticks out a mile in my view, worth every penny. Plus its nice to see some different buildings about on layouts. Some of the plastic stuff is almost 50 years old.

 Look forward to viewing the finished article.

Craig. 

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Nearly finished:
 

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Front view

 

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Rear view

 

Just the barge boards, ridge tiles, chimney and signage to add now.

 

I'm debating the best way to obscure the 'Langweis' text on the front and side of the building. Muot station is a smaller overall structure and in most of the images I can find it's weathered to quite a dark overall shade e.g.

2004-Muot-Richard-Jackson-Collection-C-6

However, this means being brave with the weathering powders or washes, and I don't fancy ruining such a beautiful kit.

 

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Over the past 2 weeks I've also completed the forest behind the running lines and started to add some bushes and small trees in front of the fir trees. I'll take some pictures later and post another update.

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You could have plants trailing out of the window box obscure it so it’s unreadable or make up the blue name boards and put them over the top as it’s not an exact location ;) 

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An alternative solution might be to cover the words with modern station boards. I know there is normally only one centrally positioned on the building but they might have made 2 for this one? Could try with a couple of dummy ones and blu tac to see how it looked.

 

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As promised here's a quick update from Veja Megstra:

 

It's been a busy few weeks on the station board with over 50 trees planted. Ground cover continues, working in a small section at a time.

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Looking south towards the station. On this image you can see the hot glue I used to fix the trees down, which has since been covered up with ground cover and foliage. The trees are a mix of Noch standard firs and Gaugemaster 'value' spruce and fir trees (also made by Noch). The green on the spruce trees is quite lurid and will probably need toning down at some point but they do break up the uniformity of the forest a bit. The track ballasting and weathering is looking pretty effective and cohesive even if it's not a perfect match for photos of the real location. 

 

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A view towards the west as Ge 4/4 III #644 hauls the northbound Glacier Express.

 

The area in front of the locomotive is likely to have some trees planted on it in the future. The mountain side is densely wooded at the real location. 

 

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The Glacier Express again, this time southbound passing the station building.

 

I've temporarily installed the station building in place to allow for the landscaping either side of it. On the OHLE the insulators have been picked out in brown but need some of the details highlighting.

 

Next steps on this board are to add more small details such as drain covers and signs, as well as additional ground texture. On the Gallerie module I need to extend the painted backscene to match the station scene and show the mountains to the north. Hopefully I'll get chance to set the layout up in the next few weeks for a running session.

 

Guten Abend aus Graubunden.

 

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Had time to get the layout set up and the track cleaned for a running session this weekend.

 

 

The video shows a variety of services passing through the station at Veja Megstra including the Glacier Express en route to San Moritz.

 

Hope you like it.

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Looks good :) are your gantry masts a little high? The cross span wire I’ve done in red would be at the contact wire height and it looks like it’s at the carrier wire height.


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;) Also on a very pedantic note using the front pantograph is rare unless the rear one is faulty. The reasoning is if it brings down the wire it would probably also catch the rear one as it falls and destroy both, if only the rear is damaged then generally you can coast clear and use the front one to move the train out of trouble. They will use the front one on the leading loco when double heading to maximise the distance between them to reduce deflection in the catenary. 
 

As you can tell I spend far too much time wondering why! ;) 

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Quick update from the north end of the layout. This section depicts the rock gallery directly down the line towards Bergun.

 

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The main job was to paint a representation of the distant mountains on the backscene. Previously I'd kept it fairly simple with a mountain horizon and dark 'splodges' to represent trees. Looking at reference photos the treeline on the hills was a distinct feature and on the northern skyline you can also see more mountainous peaks in the far distance.

 

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I'm thinking I might add some more trees to the roof as it does look a bit sparse when viewed from the side.

 

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The image above shows the different techniques I've used on the colouring so far. The overall effect is pretty good but I think it needs a few more sessions to add a bit more depth.

 

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Here's a close up of the portal. I'm planning to dry brush the arch and add signage. I like the way the light comes in from the side arches but the main thing I'm pleased with is that the structure disguises the sharp curve in the track to complete the oval.

 

There's more to follow in the coming weeks. I'm planning to do some more work on the Toua tunnel board to blend in the colours and add more trees and foliage. There's also the shed to build in the yard along with the rail stack...

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Hi everyone,

 

Apologies for the lack of updates for the last few weeks - life kind of gets in the way sometimes doesn't it?! We're back in the office now 3 days a week and our kids are back in school so there hasn't been as much time to work on the layout as I'd have liked.

 

I also had a bit of a varnish disaster with the gallery board. Previously I've had some good results with using Artist's matt acrylic varnish to seal printed items e.g. Scalescenes kits, so I thought it would be a good idea to spray the gallery and the back scene to try and protect the colours while the layout is stored out of use. The old tin had run out so I sprayed on the varnish happily and then had a horrible moment while I thought, 'this isn't drying matt!' and the colours had been made suddenly much darker. It's turns out that what we'd bought in Hobbycraft wasn't the same thing as I'd previously used...

 

Anyway I hid the layout under a sheet in the garage for a couple of weeks and couldn't face going back to it. However, this weekend I plucked up the courage to have a look and actually it doesn't look too bad. So now, I face the dilemma of whether to try and pick up some of the right varnish and put that on top. Or make everything consistent by spraying the backscene on the other two boards? I definitely need to do something as the layout boards get very dusty when stored in our garage. And I think the principle of protecting the paint and print is a good one.

 

Yesterday I got the station board out to start planning the next jobs. I'm impatient so I stuck the station building down even though I probably need to add a few signs and a little light weathering. It looks pretty good but there was a big gap where parts of the walls weren't sitting flush on the ground so I've filled the gap with Deluxe Materials Tacky Wax.

 

Next projects I'm looking at are:

  1. Installing the signals at the exit to the loop on the station board
  2. Building the maintenance shed in the yard
  3. Picking up the scenery and trees on the Toua tunnel board
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