The Backscene Continues

 The day to day non railway stuff can really mess up our progress sometimes. I find that my plan of ‘well I’ll have a good block of time tomorrow, so I’ll leave it till then,’ never seems to come together. This last week or so I’ve been doing an hour here and there, and seem to be making some real progress. Looking back over these last weeks and I must be honest, the ‘block of time’ technique is for procrastinators. Then I think the ‘hour here and there’ is for building your enthusiasm, after a slow down in motivation.

I looked back at the last post about backscene painting and realised that it was posted in September 2020! So it is definitely time to get this part of the project completed. Let’s have a look at where I’m up to.

The right hand panel has the horizon at its closest, with the trees right behind the Station building. At this stage I’m calling this panel done. Let’s see how long that will last! I may do a little more with the foreground behind the Station area. I won’t know for sure till I add it to the module.

The centre panel that is behind the goods area has the horizon much further in the distance, hopefully giving a greater feeling of depth. This one I’m currently working on, but you can see the general idea. The clouds are a work in progress, and they are what I’m currently working on. I have been using acrylics with a jo Sonja paint extender to create a thinned wash like paint, but I have discovered a paint thinner that behaves like the paint it doesn’t thin it, and this can have its uses. Thinning the paint into a wash is good for blending, but using the thicker extender allows you to have greater control with the amount of pigment you apply. The ‘less is more principle’ applies here. 

The left hand module has the horizon at its furthest, with a fairly flat landform that changes in the foreground to show a creek and its surroundings. It is very obvious that this one needs a lot of work, however I am happy with the volumes and colours I’ve done already. I’m looking forward to seeing how I get the creek added into the foreground. 

I’ll add photos of the area I’m hoping to mimic. These three photos show a different aspect of the scene I hope to add. The openness of the scene, and the muted tones of the landscape are what I will have to try to put in, we shall see.

The colours in this one are fairly pale, with a fair amount of blue added so that they appear to recede. There will be a few clouds, however they will be centred over the distant hills, hopefully making it seem deeper

So three very different scenes, that hopefully work together. The sky and specifically the clouds aid in the transition from one to the next. There have been many reference photos taken, and referred to over the course of this project. In the end there were three or four I used, to try to keep it fairly simple. One of the biggest challenges has been the sheer size of the backscene panels. They are so much taller that my last effort, and indeed, longer as well. All this really means is that I’ve needed to plan each panel, and how it flows into the next. The paint colours I’ve been using allows me to keep to fairly similar shades and that helps make the scenes work together.

I have still a lot to do, but I thought it worth an update as it’s been awhile since my last post. I hope you are all staying safe, keep on modelling, have a great week!

Oorroo!

Geoff. 

Scenic base work begins

 It has seemed like ages since I’ve done any scenery work, and the opportunity to do some was quickly taken up. I’m working on the right hand module to start with. There’s really nothing new in how I’m doing this, but a quick recap might help refresh my memory. 

I begin with the plan that I originally came up with. The scenery finishes with the layout edge, so the most important part is the contour of the boards that I’ve already completed. They determine the steepness of the land as it falls away from the track, or indeed the height of the hill that the track may cut through. Along the way I have adjusted them to better work with the backscene that I’ve done the basic landforms on already.

On my previous layout the process was as follows:

1. Stick plastic bags to the underside of the ply base to the scenic board. Then support this with screwed up newspaper taped to the baseboard to support the plastic, this part needs to be manipulated to the shape landform you are wanting.

2. Cover this with tissues in strips, then soak them with watered down pva, dappling with a one inch brush to keep things looking flat.

3. Wait for the above step to dry, up to a few days, 😩. Then mix up the sculptamold, and layer this directly over the tissue/pva shell, contouring as necessary.

I did this religiously for the majority of Splitters, then when completing the new base around the Loco shed, it all changed. I simply completed step 1, then covered the plastic with the sculptamold. This is so much faster, and the sculptamold bonds with the bare timber beautifully. It has really sped things up.

Above, you can see how easy this process is. First tape in the plastic, then tape in the paper to provide the landform you want.

Here you can see the surface of the sculptamold. On the left hand side of the roadbed you can see a slightly flat area beside the track, that will be road access to the Station, and then to the left of that, the landform as it falls away to the front of the layout.

All of this process took just on two hours, and you can see that I’ve nearly completed the first module.

From here it is all about waiting. The sculptamold takes ages in the Qld humidity to dry. Just be patient with it, and if you like you can keep working the surface, smoothing off any rough spots fairly easily with a damp finger.

I’m really happy with the profile I’ve created. It seems to work with the contour boards well, and even better with the backscene boards attached.

Next will be a scenic base on all of the white that I’m now faced with, but that will be the next post.

Have a great week,

Ooroo!

Geoff.

Model Tree Construction, A happy distraction from the jobs at hand

 I’ve always been a modeller with many projects on the go at once. I guess progress is being made if you take into account all the partially completed projects scattered about the workspace? Maybe it’s just me. There has been a stack of paper coated florist wire just begging me to have a crack at a tree, so I did.

The wire was purchased from the florist department of a craft store, I think it was Lincraft. A hefty amount were twisted together to form the trunk, and then more added to increase the number of branches. There have been endless articles on this part of the construction, so I won’t bore you yet again. Suffice to say that I’m on about the fourth coat of modelling paste, to build up the girth of the trunk.

Here is a quick photo of the tree I’ve been working on, along with the paste. I use a bit of colour to darken the paste, that way there is less painting afterwards, before you are completed. The dark colour is the base, all the rest will be lighter.

This week I’ve pulled out a couple of photos for inspiration, of  a tree I spotted whilst walking through the local park. The bark colour is fairly pale. The photo looks great, but when what you are building a scale version of the same, it’s a little difficult to have the same level of detail. I’m still getting used to this, and I think it will take quite a few more till I develop a technique that I’m happy with.

Today I had some time to spend on the trunk. A few colours on the trunk, trying to keep them to a theme. I’m not sure how well it worked, I think I maybe over thinking it really. The old ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’ should be my mantra. So I’ve gone over the trunk and reduced the number of colours I’ve used. To achieve the blackish marking on the trunk, I was thinking of using some ‘soot’ coloured weathering powder. Fairly quickly I realised that that level of colouring was too strong, so I brushed it off. 

After that it it was out with the spray and some brown artificial hair. A few minutes later and here we were. A fair amount of trimming is required once I’ve allowed the Matt spray to dry, as it was looking a wee bit heavy in the branches.

There have been a few trees built at my workbench, and the variation between them is what I’m working on at the moment. To that end I did try using a different foliage flock compared to the last few I’ve built. It was a little larger, so that when applied it stayed more on the top of the branches, rather than sifting itself all through the brown. I will be using this sized scatter in future, as I prefer the look it gives. I’d appreciate your feedback on this also!

A bit of a change from the previous photo. You can still see a fair amount of hair, so some additional trimming is required. I’m fairly happy with this one now, so I will put it aside with others, ready to plant on the layout.

It has been a while between posts, so I’ll leave it there for now,

Enjoy your week!

Oorroo!

Geoff.

Track layout progress

  There’s been a fair bit going on at the modelling desk of late. I think like most modellers, I do tend to go from one unfinished project to another. In my defence, I think it keeps us engaged and fresh, all the better to move forward enjoying our hobby.

 I’ve been working away on the station building, and I’m fairly happy with my progress so far. Even though this isn’t the subject of the title, I think I like to use each post as a ‘where am I at right now’ with my current projects, and the Station building and Post Office certainly have been a focus of late. The roof of the Station has been added, without any detail yet. So there’s a lot more to do, but the worst of it is done already. The two following photos give you a pretty good idea of where I’m up to. Hopefully I’ll have an update soon with the finished models, we shall see.

On to the subject in the title, the track layout. I’ve never used any track planning tools when designing layouts, although I’ve only designed three really, well four if you count the chicken scratchings that were my first home layout plan. There have been three home layout designs now I think about it properly. The first was a tourist railway set in the border ranges near Woodenbong, completely made up, HO scale running on N scale track as a narrow gauge model. The second was based on country NSW and was focused on a fairly common theme, that being grain. This second one made it to grid paper, so a good step forward. The third is based on the Eugowra line and will be built one day. I really like the plan that it has evolved into, with a lot of help from a good friend, Darren. There’s always talk of moving in our household it seems, and if that day does arrive, then Eugowra in a purpose built space is a definite gower!

There have been two show layout plans, the first being ‘Splitters Swamp Creek’, and the second ‘Hoskins Hollow’. Both have kind of had scale drawings, fairly loosely based on scale, more a concept or idea. 

This has meant a bit of playing around with the design of the yard, the placement of sidings, and indeed the Station building also. I’ve mirrored the layout front to back from the original plan, and that has moved the buildings of the Station to right under the viewers nose at the front of the layout. This in turn has flipped the Goods area to the rear of the layout. The changes seem to work, and I do prefer the buildings at the front. 

The other week I had a few people over for our bi weekly get together, and it was great to get some feedback on where I was at with the track plan. The layout has a distinctive shape that does change your view depending on where in front you are standing, and that was my original thought when I began sketching some ideas. It has ended up shaping the modules, that has been a real pain (opportunity) in deciding the final track plan. The view of the track has meant that for it to work visually and to enable it to flow, that I’ve introduced some curved points into the design.

The top photo shows the middle module with the station, and above it a rail motor siding that finishes at the platform. You can clearly see how the points help with the flow of the track work. The bottom photo is of the right hand end module if you were standing in front of the layout. The post office closest to the bottom, with the main Station building above it. This works for me, and thanks must go to the Toosdy Niters that helped work through the ideas, and evolve the track work, within the constraints of the modules.

The change of plan has enabled a slight alteration in the lay of the land, and this is the part that I’ve most enjoyed. It all works. There were issues with the previous ideas, in that the flow of the layout seemed to just not be working. Now the backscene works as there is a little more room for a transition from the foreground to the backscene in how the scenery will eventually be placed.

One of the discussion points with the fellas was the steep area in front of the sidings near the goods area. It really was too steep to b able to work a scene of a small part of the township, which was one of the prime objectives I’d set myself at the planning stage. With the change in points I’m able to alter the geometry of the area, and bring the roads closer together. This in turn has enabled me to give greater space to the town at the front of the layout. It simply means the grade of the land is greatly reduced, so I will be able to construct a more believable scene.

So that’s about it for now, I’d be keen to here your feedback you have on the track arrangements.

Have a great week,

Hug those close to you, whenever you can,

Oorroo!

Geoff.