Grain, Bridges and Passenger Platforms

I've made some more progress on Crawford Grain. Piping on the grain legs are in along with the safety wire along the loading tracks. Also a little more scenery.

I've also started some work in the Meridian yard. Today, I poured one of the passenger platforms Meridian Union Station.I'm modeling Meridian from the North looking South so the passenger station will be off the layout to the left. In other words, when looking at the layout, you would be looking from the station out across the yard.
I've also begun work on the 18th Ave bridge over the North end of the yard at Meridian.

I was able to get some more work done on Crawford Grain today. First, I got a photo mosaic backdrop printed off and pasted up. I then blended the backdrop sky color onto the photo sky color. At first, I tried to do this with an airbrush but I got too much over-spray on the photo and on some scenery so I went to a brush and feathered it in. I like how it turned out.

Next, I started adding the structures that I'd been building on for a while. I've gotten most of the main structures in place. Next comes the details.

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.