Wordless Wednesday #272 - My typical railfan shots - no train ....

 

Some New Scenery

After setting a record of not accomplishing anything on the layout for the last two months (holiday visitors, combined with a nasty head cold that I just couldn't shake for weeks...) I took some time between Christmas and New Years to get some additional scenery added to the layout. 

Actually, I started out intending to do some sorting of the scenery material bins - in the end it seemed to make more sense - and sounded a lot more fun - to actually use the stuff on the layout rather than simply sort it and store it. 

On a more pragmatic note, I also needed to get some step by step photos for my planned Autumn Scenery book. 

After making scads of trees, I concentrated my efforts on the open country running section between Berkshire and Stafford Mills. One thing I tried to create was the extreme overgrowth between a pasture or field and the railroad right-of-way. 

This scene still needs some refinement (I think the poles are a little taller than they need to be, and the clumps of Martin Welberg materials could be blended a little better, for example) but the scene is getting there. 

On disadvantage of modeling fall colors is the need for so many different colors, and textures, of materials. So the work area tends to spread out over adjacent areas of the layout, as you can see from this overall view of the layout section I'm working on - 

A couple of upcoming projects

 I've been pulling together a couple of projects that I plan to offer to the model railroad community in the next few months (essentially sometime in the first half of 2024). Thought I'd mention them here in case anyone is interested. 

The first is a long planned project - decals for Central Vermont freight cars. For example, there's been several resin kits offered over the years for CV freight cars - especially the boxcars - and even a number of injection molded plastic cars (such as Accurail) that while certainly completely accurate models of CV cars are decent stand ins. The one thing the resin kits and the plastic cars have in common in that there's something (in some cases a lot of somethings!) wrong with the lettering. And to the best of my knowledge no one has ever done lettering for the "as delivered" boxcars. 

Several years ago I started working on the art work to develop more accurate CV lettering. That project frankly sputtered along for years so a few months ago I asked Bill Brillinger at PDC to pick up the ball and carry this one home. 

Last night I reviewed the final artwork for the boxcar decals. Essentially there will be three variants of this lettering. One will be the as delivered scheme for the 40,000 and 41,000-series boxcars. (the single line lettering will work for the 42,000-series cars as well). 

I also plan on a set for the post-1940 stacked Gothic lettering (with the post-1963 "pregnant tapeworm") for the 41-, 42-, and 43000 series boxcars. 

This first group of decals will be limited to the boxcar lettering for the 1920s built cars. I already have plans for a second series of decals that will include lettering for the flat cars, and MofW equipment. 

While I'm doing these mostly for my own use, I'd be glad to offer them to anyone who is interested. Please let me know in the comment section if you have any interest in these - and if so which set(s) you'd be most interested in. 

The second project are a couple of new books I've been working on. 

As many of you know, I've given my "Modeling the October Scene" clinic a number of times over the years. This book pulls together the content from that clinic, along with a lot of other items I don't have time to cover in a 45 minute clinic, into one volume. 

The second book, tentatively titled "Modeling Steam and Transition Era Rolling Stock" (I know, truly riveting!) is a compilation of modeling tips and tricks. It will address topics such as getting ready to run models truly ready for the layout, adding details to some simple kits, and more advanced projects such as mixed media and resin kits. I may even include something on scratchbuilding cars - but that remains to be seen. Finally, I plan to include chapters on painting, lettering, and weathering cars. 

I'd like to gauge potential interest in any of these projects. If you're at all interested please leave a comment in the comment section - letting me know which decal set(s) you'd be interested in, and/or which of the planned books. 

I should add that I have no idea what the cost of any of these may be at this point - for the decals I'd assume somewhere between $5-$10/set (which should include decals to letter at least a couple of boxcars). If I self-publish the books, which is my current plan (I haven't spoken to any publishers at this point) I trying to keep them around $20. None of these estimated prices include shipping of course! 

Thanks in advance! 

Trees, Glorious Trees....

One of the tree "panels" ready for spray painting. 

I took advantage of the beautiful fall weather today to prep some Super Trees that are needed for both the "Charlton Branch" (the former Northern SNE section) as well as some background forests between Stafford Mills and Berkshire. 

So I dug out the Super Tree boxes, picked through to find the best armatures (always disappointed at how few useable trees you get from a box of these things!). I also plucked the useable (ie., not totally dried out) trees off the mountain section from northern SNE - I figured I might be able to use those. A fair number of those trees turned to dust when I tried to pluck them off the hills, but I figure about half of them were worth while. 

Hopefully some trees from the northern SNE may be useable. 

I plucked those annoying leaves off a bunch of trees while watching football, and stuck the trees in Styrofoam panels. 

We went out for a nice early evening dinner with some of our neighbors. I returned before it got dark so I was able to get the trees spray painted (primer gray with Krylon Camo Dark Brown and another Krylon color called "Weathered Wood" - my new favorite base color) before it got dark. 

One of my tree panels after the trees were spray painted a base gray color. 

Now I have six Styrofoam "panels" of trees ready for matte medium and flocking. 

Planning some foreground trees

See how the building and track look as if they're "floating" in the photo above? They look as if they've been plopped on top of the world and are not really part of it. What can be done to fix this? 

I've become convinced that one of the best ways to truly "set" a scene is to include some scale (or near scale height) trees. I've also found that by placing scale height trees closer to the foreground you can create the same sensation that forced perspective creates. 

I made up the base armatures out of Crepe Myrtle tips (For more detail on how I build up these armatures see THIS POST, or search the archives for "Crepe Myrtle") but haven't yet put the finer branch structure or foliage in place. But I dug those out yesterday and played around with several of them to get identify the best choice for the area around Kempinski Curve. 

I think even with the "basic armatures" you can see how it "blends" the track, and the building to the left, into the scene instead of having them stick out. I'm hoping the finished trees, properly colored with smaller branches and some leaf texture will really set the scene - late fall in New England. 

Modeling the October Scene Clinic Hindsight version Wrap Up

Creamery Curve is getting close to completion. Still planning to add some weeds to the creamery siding and between it and the main. The Branchline creamery kit (with a scratchbuilt boiler room addition) makes for a nice stand in. It may be replaced with a scratchbuilt model at some point, but there's lots more work to do on the layout first!

Happy to report that my Modeling the October Scene clinic was well received. I wanted to record it but we had some sound issues so that didn't really work. I am doing the clinic again on November 6, this time live and in person, at our combined Potomac/James River Division meet. 

Late last week I got so busy finalizing the clinic that I neglected to add a new update on progress around what I'm calling the "Creamery Curve". In many ways, this is another update to the mainline curve realignment. 

After cutting the Martin Wellberg mats to into strips and gluing them in place (let these dry overnight!) it was time to blend them together and create the look of an overgrown pasture. 

I mostly used static grass to fill in the gaps between the mat sections, but I noticed the edge of the mat was still a little too visible. I found it was easier to use the grass and foliage net material, teased out and cut roughly to size, to fill the larger gaps and blend the mats into the rest of the ground. 

The last step was to add a scattering of electrostatic grass. 

I'd like to add some weed grown track and some scattered weeds to the wide gap between the main and creamery siding, but need to experiment on some track samples first. 

Hindsight 2020 10.0

 The virtual Railroad Prototype Modelers Meet (Hindsight 2020 10.0) has announced the lineup of presentations and presenters. Here's the flyer and the particulars on how to register etc, ... :

There's some great clinicians and clinics on the docket. And of course, me.... 

I'll be offering my "Modeling the October Scene" clinic. I was shocked to find the last time I'd presented this particular clinic was back in 2016 - five years ago - so I've taken this opportunity to update some of the content. I'm also using this clinic deadline as a motivating factor to add the "second layer" of scenery to the "cove scene" (search through the blog to see the scene I'm referring to - it's the only part of the layout that's scenicked!

This is actually the second time I've presented for Ted, Ryan, and Hunter - the gang of three who put on these virtual RPMs. 

Last fall I did my Modeling Prototype Structures clinic for Hindsight 2020 2.0. I did that same clinic for the local NMRA division a few weeks later - so you can see the recording of that version of the structures clinic on the NMRA Potomac Division You Tube Channel by clicking HERE. 

Backdrop scenery for the staging "yard"

 I'm updating my "Modeling the October Scene" clinic for the upcoming MARPM in September. One thing I want to include in the clinic are some shots of the new layout. At the same time I'd really like to be able to stage some trains in my staging yard - so it makes sense to finish up the scenery along the staging yard "scene." 

The primary scenic element here is the backdrop. Most of the staging yard tracks (all two of them!) will be screened from view by a line of trees, bushes etc... a modified version of "Screened Staging" I used on a prior layout. 

Yesterday I dug out the backdrop paints and got a start on the backdrop behind the staging yard. 

At first I didn't like how "flat" the mid ground (tan) hill looked. So I experimented with adding some additional texture - you can see it if you look closely at the center of the hill in the photo below. Now I have to add that texturing to the rest of the hillside.  

Crepe Myrtle Foreground Tree 2: Building up the armature

I should start this by saying that although I'm using Crepe Myrtle "tips" as the basis for these foreground trees, those of you north of southern New Jersey are going to have a hard time finding Crepe Myrtles. These plants truly do not like extended cold weather. 

But don't despair. Next time you're down south you'll find these things everywhere from Virginia south to Florida. I understand they're also quite common in southern California. 

Of course you don't have to use Crepe Myrtles - the key is to find something that has a fairly tight branching structure. I've used hydrangeas, and while they don't work quite as well for the process I'm sharing, they're not bad. Another option is to create your own armature from florists wire. That can produce truly stunning results, but can be extremely time consuming. 

But this post will focus on starting with natural armatures. No matter what plant you find, you want an armature that looks something like this: 

These are from one of the Crepe Myrtles in our yard. I let the Crepe Myrtle flowers go to seed and leave them on the plant until mid-winter before cutting them from the plant. This way they'll be completely dried out. 

After cutting them from the plant, and removing the seed pods, you'll be left with something like the ones shown in the photo. These are extremely bent - the flowers kind of droop a lot on that particular plant, and the result is a bent seed head. 

When I encounter this problem I usually combine the individual branches together to create the basic armature of the tree. By placing two or three of these with the branches arching away from one another you can quickly create the look of a tree. 

I often need to trim away bits and pieces of the main "stems" to get something that looks like a tree and not a handful of branches!

If the bend is very severe I'll glue the branches together at some point other than the base of each - and then trim the remainder away once the glued has dried completely. 

I also have found it useful to trim an angle into the bottom of some of the larger separate branches so the join looks more natural. 

Once the basic armature is together, it's time to flesh out the trunk. I used to use florists green tape for this, but the resulting trunks always seem to have a spot, right where the secondary branches spread out from the main trunk, where the trunk was too fat, and then suddenly got too thin and slender. 

I tried plaster, wood putty, and several other materials. I never went as far as to try lead paste, as one of my model railroad inspirations, Les Jordan, recommended back in his October 1979 RMC article. 

Somewhere along the line, somebody recommended using gel medium. I ended up using Molding Paste - which is actually thicker than the gel medium. This is the same basic stuff as gloss (or matte) medium - the only difference is gel medium is really, really thick. 

I apply it directly to the tree trunk, blending the individual armatures into one cohesive trunk. 

I suppose it could be done in one thick coat, but I find it easier to apply it in two or three coats. 

You can, if you're careful, even create the look of the roots sticking up from the ground around the base of the trunk. 

Next Step: Finer branches and a fancy new glue pot!

Wordless Wednesday #192

I got nothing else ... so here's a truck filled with pumpkins...