Water pour

 It's been a layout blitz today. I just made my first ever "water" pour at the ICG/Southern crossing. I used Magic Water and really like it so far. I had to mix it in two batches because of the size of the pouring cup I had. My plan was to make the first pour a darker color and make the second pour clear to give depth. I mixed up the first pour to what I I thought was dark enough. However, once poured, it was not dark enough an the whole bottom could be seen.

So, I did my second mix and made it much darker but then realized that I'd have to find a way to mix it with the clearer first pour. I then poured and swirled the second pour as I poured it. Then I took a long piece of styrene and SLOWLY stirred the swamp. I actually got a good mix. There are a few places where you can see some swirls but as soon as I saw them, I through "that looks just like the algae we get in late summer." so it worked out fine!!!

I did get a LOT of creeping especially in the vegitation next to the water. The Magic Water creeped all the way up the ground foam along the rip rap. Guess I'll have to reapply when the water dries.

I've got to order some more Magic Water to finish the pour. Still got the other side of the ICG tracks in the foreground of the photo.

Now, my scenery blitz comes to an end for the day. It's time for some FOOTBALL!!!!!  Mississippi State faces Wake Forest in the Music City Bowl today at 5:40 on ESPN. GO BULLDOGS!!!!!!!

Crawford turn around

 I've done some more work on the Crawford Grain parking area. Here's a pic of what I have so far. Basically, I sanded the turn around area and lightly sanded the rest of the graveled area. Then sprinkled on two different tones of fine turf and a different tone of fine clumps and then glued down all the ground cover. Of course, the area that I had sanded and lightened, darkened back up with the glue.

Here are two pics of the prototype so you can see the area I'm modeling.  The telephone pole in this picture is in the middle of the turn around area.

Adding depth to the backdrop....

When I first started the layout, I decided that the backdrop would simply be a solid sky blue backdrop. I decided this for two reasons. First, I wanted people to focus on the trains and second I had enough work on the rest of the layout that I wanted to avoid having to do much with the backdrop.

I've stuck with that plan until now. I've found some scenes needing some depth to them so I've been looking for ways to add that depth.

While discussing modeling trees, I had a friend email me a photo of some trees that he said would make a great backdrop. So, I printed out the picture to do a test on the layout.

I printed the trees on an 8 1/2 X 11 piece of plain copy paper. The photo was composed well in that the bottom half of the photo was trees and the top, sky. I cut most of the sky portion off. Then, I just scotch taped the paper to my backdrop and feathered my backdrop sky blue paint over the sky in the photo. You can see where I dribbled a little paint on one tree. This is just a test photo to see if the technique would work. I'm happy with it. For this scene, I think I need to scale the trees up a bit so that they are at lease as high as the hole in the wall. I'll try another test like that and see how it looks before proceeding.

Baking dirt.....

As I worked on Crawford Grain, I knew that I was going to have to model the gravel parking lots but I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. I finally figured that the best way to do it would be to use the real thing.

So, I went out along the gravel road that I live on and scooped up some dirt that had washed off the road. I took it home and baked it in the oven for an hour or so to dry it then sifted it. What I ended up with were some very fine particles of crushed gravel about the size of mason sand. It looks perfect.

I then spread a thin layer over the parking lot, wet it and glued it down. When I wet it, it darkened up a bit but I figured it would lighten back up after drying. It didn't. However, it does look EXACTLY like a parking lot with a fresh coat of wet washed gravel that we see in my area. I need to tone it down a bit and make it look like dry, used gravel. I guess that's where weathering comes in!!

I'm now trying to figure out the best technique to tone it down. I'm thinking maybe one or a combination of three ways: 1: Go find some lighter toned dirt, sift it to a power and brush it on,  2: Use some weathering power that's a lighter tone and brush it on, or 3: Some paint either airbrushed on or washed on.

Suggestions?

more scenery base

 While I get my nerve up to pour the water in the swamp scene, I decided to move on around the layout with scenery base. This first shot shows the base of Crawford grain. I used a 1/8" thick sheet of styrene as the base and am painting it a concrete color to represent the concrete slab of the grain elevator. The brown terrain around it is a thinned mixture of Fugate's Ground Goop. I love this stuff. It gives the scenery base a good color and it dries hard as concrete. This is good in my house with young kids.

I also extended my plaster cloth base. Plaster now goes from the box car on the left around to the ICG/Southern crossing on the right side of the photo. Pretty decent evening working on the layout.

Hole in the wall

 I had someone ask about how I was going to hide the hole in the backdrop from the back of my swamp scene below. The answer is, "I don't know and am not sure that I'm going to but I would like to."

This photo is of the scene from a normal operating viewing angle. Since the hole is in the back corner on the lower deck, it's hidden from sight by the upper deck. So, the hole is not an issue in this situation.

However, this second photo shows how the hole looks if you back away from the layout towards the sitting area of the room. From this angle, it's pretty visible. I had planned on it being masked by trees in the swamp area but they trees didn't turn out thick enough.

This third view is of the hole from a stooped viewing angle. This is what my 6 year old sees. Again, I had planned on the trees masking the hole but I don't have enough.

I may add a few more foreground trees to help hide it but in doing so, I will also hide my cypress swamp that is just in front of the hole. So, I might instead should add some more tall cypress trees in the swamp to help hide it.

Any other suggestions?

I also have four other holes to hide. One leads to a hidden staging yard behind the Meridian yard. It will be hidden with an industry building and roll up door. The second leads from West Point through the backdrop to cross the lift bridge. This one will be concealed by trees and an closed industry. The other two will be more difficult to hide. The are on each end of the Artesia yard and both lead to hidden staging tracks behind Artesia. I posted a photo of one in an earlier post here: http://aberdeensub.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-plaster-and-some-rail.html

Not sure how I'll conceal them.

Christmas came a couple days early at my house today. The UPS guy showed up with my package of scenery materials. I tore in and went right to work adding some cypress trees in the distance, some smaller trees, bushes, cat tails, and my first attempt with static grass. I'm going to let the glue dry overnight and plan to pour the water tomorrow.

I sure wish I had a hobby shop close by. Scenery items don't always look the same in person as they did online or in the catalog. I need to make a road trip to a well stocked hobby shop soon!!!!

Track plans

When I first started the blog, I posted my track plans for the layout. Those plans got lost with my blog photos got deleted. I'm posting them  again so that you can see the areas I'm working in. The pics are small on the blog but if you download them you should be able to zoom way in to see the track plan better.


This first one is the lower deck where the two main yards are. It models the ex-GM&O line from West Point to Meridian.

Next is the Port of Greenville which is on the West end of the Columbus and Greenville line. This is a middle deck that is above the stairwell and along the wall to the left of the stairs.

The upper deck models the original IC line that ran from West Point and on through Ackerman then the ex-GM&O line that crossed at Ackerman and ran to Louisville.

Life comes to the Aberdeen Sub

I jumped head first into scenery today and have the first layers applied to my Southern/ICG crossing area. I'm still waiting on some more materials to come in the mail. Hopefully they will make it tomorrow. I really want to add some more trees to the backdrop area but it's very shallow. Where the lead loco is only has about 4" to the backdrop. As you go further to the left, the tracks get closer to the backdrop until they go through. So, not sure how I'm going to add in more trees to form a dense vegetative wall as you see along the rural right-of-ways down South.

Overview of crawford

Here's an overall view of the corner of the layout where Crawford Grain is located. When you step back from it, the complex looks small and compact.

Crawford Grain

Work continues in Crawford. I've got most of the major structures in place. Time to add the details!

Here's a look at the prototype. I'm going to get close but it won't be exact.

As I work around the layout with my scenery base, I come to Crawford Grain. Since I can't do the scenery without the structures in place, I decided that it was time to get to building on a grain elevator. I've gotten a good start on the complex at the workbench. The large grain bin is scratch built, the rest of the bins are Walthers kits. Also, the car loading platform is scratch built. I've also got to scratch build some more loading platforms, and some grain chutes for loading cars.

Second attempt at ballast

My second attempt at laying ballast went much better. This time I used Arizona Rock & Mineral's ballast. It went down much easier and held it's color. I've applied some Bragdon Weathering power to give a weathered look. Still got work to do but it's getting there. I will say that I'm not a fan of laying ballast yet.

Get updates and see old photos!!!

First off, I added a new email update feature to the blog.  If you look to the right just under my main logo, you'll see "Follow by email". If you enter your email address, you'll get an email notice each time I update the blog.

Also, I started trying to rebuild some of my old posts where the photos were lost. This is proving to be VERY time consuming and difficult. It seems that a lot of the photos aren't even on my computer anymore. Not sure where they went. Anyway, if there's an older post that specifically interests you and you want to see the photos, let me know and I'll try to find them.

 Well, my first attempt at ballasting track didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I used Woodland Scenics Light Gray ballast. However, when I added the "wet water" then the glue mix, it turned a dark gray. 24 hours later, it's still the same dark color. It also isn't as clean and neat as I'd hoped. I tried to brush the ballast gently off the ties but each time I brushed some off, more jumped back on. Frustrating!

I also decided to experiment with roads. This is my first attempt at a road so it's going to be a learning experience. The prototype is a chip sealed road where they pour hot tar down then spread gray gravel over the tar. I started with a base of "Smooth It". After it dried, I painted on a thin coat of white glue then sprinkled on some light gray fine ballast and rolled it smooth with a roller. I'm leaving it to dry tonight.

 I'm continuing on with scenery in area of the ICG/Southern crossing. In these two photos, I've added the Rip Rap along the ROW and I've poured a "Mud" mixture in the foreground ditch to level out the bottom of the ditch in preparation for the "Water" pour.

More scenery

 Ok, so today I applied some plaster cloth and filled in the hole in the creek at the backdrop. I then mixed up a batch of Joe Fugate's "Ground Goop" of plaster, vermiculite and cement. I love this stuff!!! I mixed it kid of thin and coated the bottom of my stream and the fill of the roadbed and banks of the stream. I then sprayed it with a heavy mist of water to get it to "lay down" and give it a more natural look. I let it dry for a bit then mixed up a VERY WATERY batch of "Ground Goop" so I could get it to "level". In this photo, the watery mixture is still standing.

About an hour later, this is what was left. It looks to be a nice level base on which I can pour my magic water. I'm going to let this dry over night then vacuum off the loose vermiculite flakes.

Getting back to work on the layout. I'm going to continue my scenery work in this area. I plan to have the low ditch ares be full of standing water with some cypress trees in the background to help hide the hole in the wall on the Southern double track main in the background.

The standing water in this photo is the look that I'm going for in the scene above. I want water to be standing under both bridges and in the low area in the upper left of the photo above.

Updates to come. Pictures to return

I've been away from the layout for a while but will be getting back to work on it over the holidays. More updates to come. Also, I updated my Google account. In doing so, I lost all the photos I had posted on the blog. I'm working to get them back up and may just re-post them.