Street running 2: Paving

I'm making some progress on the street running scene. Here, the main street is painted and mostly weathered as is the side street with the rail down the middle. The styrene streets were painted with several layers of a Ralph Lauren textured paint then lightly sanded. The stripping was added with some white and yellow paint pens. Next followed another light sanding then an over spray and lane spraying with a alcohol-india ink wash through the air brush. More to come!

Street running.....

While waiting on some parts for the Georgia Pacific plant, I decided to start working on the downtown area of Ackerman. I strayed from the prototype slightly here as I wanted to have some street running somewhere on the layout. There wasn't any along the line I'm modeling but there was along one of the branches off of it. So, I used the scene on the branch as inspiration for the street running part of downtown Ackerman.

The scene I'm modeling is an interchange between the ICG and the Frisco where the interchange track diverges between two buildings along Main Street to where it connects with the other railroad that runs down a side street. Unfortunately, it won't be a functioning track as the benchwork was too shallow to create a working interchange. So, I've got the interchange track modeled running between the buildings as in this photo.

The second photo shows the Frisco line running down the side street.  The interchange track would connect in just beyond the tan building on the left.

This was one of those scenes where the scenery intimidated me. I wasn't sure how I was going to actually build the roads. I wanted to use styrene because I liked how it looked once painted. However, I wasn't sure how I was going to cut the styrene to match the curve of the rails. I put off and put off attempting this scene until today when I just decided to give it a try with the plan to start over when I messed it up.

To make the cuts on the styrene, I first put some paint on the rails then pressed the styrene to it. That left the mark of the rails on the styrene. I think just used a sharp X-Acto knife and hand cut the styrene. I normally can't draw a straight line but I got lucky and the cuts turned out well. So, I'm happy with what I have so far. The foam base beneath the styrene is just a hair too tall. So next comes a light sanding then some paint on the roads!

More backdrop work....

Lessons learned on my first couple of photo backdrops. First off, I wasn't happy with the look of the backdrop behind the Southern main because of the dull coat I'd sprayed on it as you can see from my previous post. So, I had the photo reprinted and I re-hung it without any dull coat. I also was more careful with the airbrush in feathering in my backdrop sky color. I like how it turned out!

Next, I made a change in direction. I'd been working hard on the scenery and structures for the lower deck between Meridian and South Artesia such as old town Meridian, Crawford Grain and TXI Cement. I then realized that I'd be doing some messy scenery base work on the upper deck above. So, I figured I better stop on the lower deck and get to working on the messy part of the upper deck. One part I've really started working on is the Georgia Pacific Particle Board plant in Louisville. I started with a photo backdrop of the plant then added a 3D warehouse, some tank car loading platforms and some stand in tanks. So far, I like how the scene is coming together. However, it is hard to photograph because of the contrast in colors. I think once I get the white foam covered with dirt and ground cover then it'll be easier to shoot.