Waton

[Will Vale]

Thanks Dave! I've done a quick experiment with the brush on my test piece and it was a bit erratic, but from what you've said I suspect I just had too much paint in there. Will have another go when I get a bit further.

 

The point heater book you linked to is very useful - yet more bits of wire and pipes and things are starting to make some kind of sense

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

 

 

[eldavo]

Lunch break today saw the terrain forming pretty much completed for board3. When this mass of PVA and kitchen roll dries out it will need a coat of neat PVA to ensure it is sealed and to strengthen it. Then it will be time for grass etc.



Not sure what I'm going to do in the corner nearest the camera. It's turned out as a bit of a lunar landscape which doesn't really match any features at Water Orton!

Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[eldavo]

Before I can smother the fourth baseboard in PVA and kitchen towel I needed to do a bit of rough surgery to the trackbed and rough out some structures. There isn't much room for features to hide the holes in the sky at this end so I'm looking to draw the viewers eye away from them somehow.



A riverbed has been inserted and a rough outline of one of the two bridges I need has been assembled from bits of plasticard, 5mm ply and cardboard. This is supposed to represent a concrete bridge when complete and is only roughly dry assembled here to get an idea of what more is needed. The bits have subsequently been blasted with a coat of sueded effect paint to act as a base concrete(ish) colour.



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[St. Simon]

Hi Dave,

 

It's looking brillant so far and it's a good representation of the Modern Railway

 

I'm just amazed at how fast you work!

 

Simon

[eldavo]

Yesterday saw a trip up to Oxford to visit the 2mm Scale Association Golden Jubilee Expo. Some excellent modelling on show from micro layouts to truly huge efforts. On return I was of course inspired to get on so out came more bits of cardboard and plasticard to rough out the second river bridge. This was duly sprayed in suede effect paint and installed then it was time for more kitchen roll and PVA glue.



With boards 3 and 4 connected you can see the basic shape of the countryside emerging. Board 3 has also had its "chocolate pudding" coating of a layer of neat PVA and a coat of raw umber acrylic.



With all the PVA and kitchen roll in place, albeit still a mushy wet mess in places, the line of the river can be seen. Unfortunately this currently looks more like an alpine stream than a lazy winding Warwickshire river due to the excessive depth of the riverbed and the severe lack of space! It remains to be seen whether I can disguise this to make it look more appropriate.



The view under the bridges is a bit difficult to get but luckily the crudeness of the construction of the smaller second bridge is obscured by the first bridge, also rather crude. Must fix that pillar that is out of true and attach it to the bridge rather than having it hanging in mid air!



Onwards and downwards. Might waft a bit of grass at board 3 next.

Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[Worsdell forever]

Great Keep forgetting this is 2mm

[mr miles 73129]

looks very nice cant wait to see it finished

[mr miles 73129]

wow just read the comment above didint realise it was 2mm

credit to you

[eldavo]

Got a ton of other stuff to do that should be taking priority but for some reason I can't stop working on this layout. Although the hayfever season is coming to an end I'm still sneezing but that is due to the static grass! Quite a lot has been applied to boards 3 and 4.



It's just a general green base to work on made up of a mixture of different fibres applied fairly randomly. Some of the colours are a little bright in places and may need toning down but hedges and trees will be added in due course which will change it. I've also started laying out the roads, pavements and a car park using Scalescenes stuff. Not sure whether it will work yet.



The platform has been glued down and bedded in but this has highlighted a potential issue in that it is really too short for what I envisaged. It will take a 2 car unit, just but I may have to invest in a couple of 153s for stopping services and relegate everything else to through trains. The problem stems from the fact that I pinched a bit of extra length in laying out the Eastern end to make it look better and now I have had to compress the Western end further. Oh well, all layouts are a series of compromises.



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[Will Vale]

The grass colour looks very good, particularly in the second picture - nice believable range of tones, getting darker at the bottom of the bank where it would probably be wetter. Are you applying it to the bare "mud", or is there a layer underneath? On Igelfeld I had a base of Woodland scenics ground foam since I didn't really believe the grass would work on its own, but the combination of the two was never quite right.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[eldavo]

The grass colour in the second picture looks very good - nice believable range of tones, getting darker at the bottom of the bank where it would probably be wetter. Are you applying it to the bare "mud", or is there a layer underneath? On Igelfeld I had a base of Woodland scenics ground foam since I didn't really believe the grass would work on its own, but the combination of the two was never quite right.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

The grass has been blasted straight onto the dark brown base coat of acrylic. I have a couple of areas where I need to fill in as the base coat is showing through but generally it seems to cover well. On this area I have also experimented with using some finely ground up garden soil to flatten the gloss effect of the PVA glue. I sprinkled a tiny amount on after applying the grass. There are also some areas where I have used the garden soil on its own to try and represent muddy mess. Not sure whether this has worked yet.

 

Cheers

Dave

[eldavo]

While my nose recovers from too much inhaled static grass fibres, which I seem to be rapidly running out of, I decided to play around some more with Scalescenes textures for the roads. Here boards 2 and 3 have been coupled to check out the alignment of some of the scenic elements. There's a lot of green and still plenty of bare patches!



On board 3 I have mapped out a car park. It's much smaller than the car park at Water Orton due to the lack of baseboard width but hopefully it will eventually have enough features to give a flavour. This is made up of a patchwork quilt of Scalescenes bits which have been glued down with PVA or Pritt stick and then given a squirt of Testors dull coat to seal the printing. I've started to mess around with weathering powders to blend things together. I think it can be made to work.



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[Pete Harvey]

Looking great Dave just needs a bit of toning down to match the other board.

 

How are the station building plans going?

 

Pete

[eldavo]

... How are the station building plans going?

 

Not started on the station buildings except in my head mainly 'cos it's going to be tricky to get right. In other words I'm putting it off.

 

First up I aim to try converting some of my pictures into textures/custom brick papers that I can clad the thing in. If I can get that far I will have figured out the basic size and shape. Don't expect results any time soon!

 

Cheers

Dave

[Pete Harvey]

Well I'm sure it will be up to the same standard as the rest of the layout so it will be worth waiting for?

 

Pete

[eldavo]

I've spent a bit of time fiddling with the roads and pretty much everything is now laid. It looks like a bit of a switchback at the moment as there is nothing to blend it into the landscape.



The junction of the road running along the boards with the road overbridge by the station was a bit of a nightmare to build and required rather too many cuts and joins. It's going to be tricky to disguise all the joints but there must be a way to do it. So far I've filled some of the pavement gaps with Tetrion filler mixed with black acrylic paint then I've attacked all of it with black weathering powder. It improves the colour of the road and takes away any shine but it hasn't completely hidden the joins.



The car park has had a bit more work and the joins are starting to go but as this close-up shows I still have a fair bit of work to do on the pavements!



Hey ho.

Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[MichaelW]

The junction of the road running along the boards with the road overbridge by the station was a bit of a nightmare to build and required rather too many cuts and joins. It's going to be tricky to disguise all the joints but there must be a way to do it. So far I've filled some of the pavement gaps with Tetrion filler mixed with black acrylic paint then I've attacked all of it with black weathering powder. It improves the colour of the road and takes away any shine but it hasn't completely hidden the joins.

 

Rather than disguising the joints, make a feature of them - most roads have been patched at various times, and are made of separate areas of asphalt - you could try painting a matt (or gloss for recent patches) black line at the joins to represent the tar used to join the patches. It'll be something a bit different.

[eldavo]

Rather than disguising the joints, make a feature of them - most roads have been patched at various times, and are made of separate areas of asphalt - you could try painting a matt (or gloss for recent patches) black line at the joins to represent the tar used to join the patches. It'll be something a bit different.

 

I think that might well be a workable plan.

 

Cheers

Dave

[pirouets]

Dave

 

I have been following this thread watching this develop and am happy to say I pinched the PVA and kitchen towel method from here, and will shortly be using a bit of "burnt umber" to cover the base of my scenic areas as well.

 

The question this all leads to is back on page 2 you mentioned you used a variety of puffer bottles when applying the static grass, and I am interested in the variety. I have a noch puffer bottle which seems to work OK. Before I attack Alvescott I am planning to build a little area off the layout as a test bed so any tips I you can provide greatly received.

 

Also, whilst I am asking, what did you use for your platform surface? Apologies if I missed this.

[eldavo]

Dave

 

I have been following this thread watching this develop and am happy to say I pinched the PVA and kitchen towel method from here, and will shortly be using a bit of "burnt umber" to cover the base of my scenic areas as well.

 

The question this all leads to is back on page 2 you mentioned you used a variety of puffer bottles when applying the static grass, and I am interested in the variety. I have a noch puffer bottle which seems to work OK. Before I attack Alvescott I am planning to build a little area off the layout as a test bed so any tips I you can provide greatly received.

 

Also, whilst I am asking, what did you use for your platform surface? Apologies if I missed this.

I have use the Noch puffer bottle and it certainly does the job. I've also used an old sauce bottle which works OK but not as well as the Noch beastie. I also just sprinkle the stuff using my fingers.

 

 

The platform surface is just plain plasticard that has been sprayed with Plastikote Suede effect paint to give it a very slight texture. This has then had a couple of washes of blacky/grey acrylic applied. The edges are a custom texture I made up from a photograph of my own printed onto normal PC printer paper, cut out and glued to the platform surface.

 

Cheers

Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[Pete Harvey]

Have you any close up pictures of your platform Dave?

 

Pete

[eldavo]

This is about as close as I can get with my camera Pete. Anything in particular you wanted to see?



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[Pete Harvey]

I just wanted to see the finish and weathering that you had achieved Dave thanks.

 

It looks really good.

 

Pete

[pirouets]

Thanks for that. I'll let you know how I get on. Just debating whether to start on the wiring. I may also have a go at your platform technique so I feel a google search for Plastikote Suede coming on later rather than card with a scalescenes paper covering.

[eldavo]

I seem to be working on several things at once at the moment and not altogether surprisingly some aren't turning out quite how I want them! One thing I'm playing with is the river at the far Western end of the layout. As usual this is not something I know a lot about but I thought I would just go for it using techniques I've seen elsewhere.

The riverbed has been given a blast of raw umber brown colour as a base. It has then had some odd bits of texture fixed with PVA. These are a mixture of Chinchilla grit and finely crushed garden soil. I want a sort of muddy effect near the edges with odd bits of stony/gravel bits around the bridge piers and other places based on what I can make out from Google Earth shots of the river to the West of Water Orton. Areas of this have then been given a wash of browny/green colour.



This has now had it's first coat of PVA glue to hopefully give a representation of water. We shall see if this white mess turns into anything useful!



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo