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+--- Thread: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge (/showthread.php?tid=9623)
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 10-11-2023
On to the dump truck ramp - made a depression back behind the conveyor for a place to dump coal for the conveyor and then routed down the slope to the base. Next comes the standard layers of scenery (plaster cloth, Sculptamold, brown paint, plaster rocks, paint, paint, paint, gravel, brush, trees, etc.). More pictures to follow.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 10-17-2023
While watching the NLCS (Go Phils (thank you Canada for Rob Thompson!)) I've been tinkering with the layout. Sculptamold layer last night over the dump truck ramp, tonight I'm weathering the surface of the coal breaker. Simply got my PanPastel's out (black, brown and rust) and the makeup brushes I bought years ago, dabbed and brushed until the surfaces were dingified. The photo below shows the "virgin" surfaces on the left half of the photo, and the finished weathered surface on the front face of the breaker. By the end of the night (hopefully another win, I'll have it all complete.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Charlie B - 10-18-2023
Todd
I can't say much other than "ya done good" I really like this very impressive structure.
Charlie
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Amalynn - 10-30-2023
This scene is coming together really well. I like seeing you blending different scenery structure techniques to build different features up.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 11-07-2023
Thank you both!
Slight setback here in the Morris household. On October 5th my dog hopped to the back door on three legs after running around the property inside my invisible fence. Blew out a knee ligament and damaged his meniscus somehow. Our vet referred us to a list of specialists with the news that we'd be lucky to get him in for TPLO surgery for 6 to 8 weeks. And it's expensive too! My wife got him in on October 17th. He's been confined to our kitchen with only leash walks outside. He's a people dog, so the confined space and the collar of shame (which he just got off this weekend) are putting a dent on his morale and has forced me to cut down on a lot of other activities - including model railroading. He won't be free to roam the whole house until mid December, and he won't be free of a leash outside until early February.
However, I have been nickle and diming some time while the bride's upstairs with the hound in the past few weeks. Some progress continues to made. I covered my mine entry for the conveyor with plaster cloth, Sculptamold and paint. I'll be getting the brushes out soon and I've purchased some cinders that'll be applied to a good bit of this area along with some ground up coal.
I've had plans to install a steam plant just outside the breaker with a couple of steam lines running into the breaker. Settled on Clever's "Turbine House" for the basic building with an addition of their "70-ft Chimney". Put these kits together in the last month or so.
My steam lines are sections of sprues from a plastic model glued together and eventually painted silver and supported with some "steel" girders.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Charlie B - 11-08-2023
Todd, that is coming long nicely. I admire your attention to the details. I rushed to get trains running and hope to get back to the fine details as time goes by.
I am also so very sorry to read about the fur baby. They are family members as only pet people can understand. I hope a complete recovery can be made. Keeping them down is the hard part. How about some pictures of the furkid?
Keep up the great work.
Charlie
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 11-10-2023
Sure, Charlie! This is Cadbury - our second dog and second Mutt. Imported from Kentucky (via rescue) in 2016...
Added another tailings pile between the conveyor entry and the breaker to break up the sight lines. I also pulled down some images taken around Hazleton of some tailing piles in the same area I'm modeling. Printed them out on cardstock and added a cardboard backer to place in front of the backdrop to give the illusion of background depth. Just wedged them in temporarily to get the feel. Almost time for detail scenery work in this area.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Charlie B - 11-11-2023
Nice looking fur kid Todd. We found out ours came from Kentucky originally too. We got her from the local shelter in September. She is 10 months old and a pretty good mix but most Lab and Husky. We had her DNA tested.
Charlie
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 11-19-2023
Thanks for the idea, Charlie, I'm gonna get a DNA test for my wife for Christmas to find out what breeds are responsible for Cadbury.
Did a harvest for shrub armatures from my gray dogwoods on my property. Just pulled off the ends that are near ground level - didn't have to resort to a stepladder and still easily filled up a gallon freezer bag which should last me a couple of years.
Bought some cinders to make my tailings pile more presentable and got out the paints to slap on some base gray over the brown. I figure most of the area around this coal breakers is going to be dominated by coal, cinders, tailings and generally depression.
I'll be working the scenery (as usual) from back to front with "puffball" trees first along with some painted polyfill as time permits. My wife's up in the kitchen with our recovering dog. He's usually using all four legs to get around now which leads me to think that the surgery was successful and the soft tissue healing has progressed. Three more weeks until he gets full house priveleges.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 11-27-2023
A little more progress, but it's already looking a lot better from a depth perspective with some simple puff-ball trees and some strategically placed Polyfil. Brown stuff ground cover is coming soon! As always, I'll be working from back to front with the scenic details. I bought a Euclid dump truck that I'll have to seriously weather to "fit" in the scene....
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Amalynn - 11-28-2023
How do you make the “puff ball” trees?
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 11-29-2023
Amanda,
There are a variety of methods, but it's all based on the concept that if you look at a wooded hillside, beyond the first group of trees closest to you on the bottom of the hill to the top, all you see is the tops of the trees (a bunch of puff balls).
Also, if you look carefully, there's a variety to the colors, usually based on the tree type or the time of year. I model August/September, so the color pallette is pretty varied.
The classic puff-ball tree (I got the term from Dave Frary out of his excellent "How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery") is a clump of green polyfil with a coating of either course turf (ground foam) or leaf flock embedded on the top surface.
The polyfil is torn off and shaped into a ball by compressing it in the palm of your hand. It's then dipped in matte medium solution and again compressed in your hand to squeeze out the extra matte medium. You then plop the ball into a plastic bag with your ground foam or leaf flock and you shake the bag to get the ground foam particles to coat the puff ball.
Another excellent alternative is to apply clumps of moss - I buy bags of at least 4 colors of moss (which you can get at most craft stores).
I apply by dipping in full strength glue and applying to my painted Sculptamold base and secure with a straight pin.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Amalynn - 11-29-2023
Thanks! You know, come to think of it I feel confident I have a copy of that book from years and years ago put away somewhere. I will have to look and try to find it.
That technique does sound pretty simple. I always love how lush and filled out your forest backgrounds look.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 12-01-2023
Yep! It's a great way to give depth to any scene, even if there's very little room between backdrop and track. It's another way to trick the eye - textures between backdrops and the viewer get my thumbs up.
While I'm waiting for some scenic details to dry, I thought I'd weather my Euclid dump truck that I picked up on ebay for about $10. Walthers has a Terex off-road dump truck out there, but I was having a hard time pulling the trigger on that small an item going for almost $30 with shipping. Still holding hope that'll I'll find one cheap, but this metal truck made in Hong Kong is going to suffice for now. However, the gleaming factory yellow paint wouldn't be realistic working out of a strip mine operation.
I got the brushes and acrylic paints out and dirty-ed it up...
I then hit it with a good coat of Testor's dullcote before getting the PanPastels out to further abuse it, followed by another spray of Dullcote to seal the thing up. Sufficiently dirty!
Next I wanted to add some windows - at least the windshield. Opened up some finished plastic kits and found some unused clear plastic, cut to size and carefully glued each piece in.
Then I decided I needed an operator - found a seated plastic guy and painted him up.
Here's the finished product on the descent after ridding himself of a load of coal.
A guy at work had given me some anthracite which I started crushing up to scatter around the breaker premises, and I thought it would also make an excellent load for this Euclid.... A good short project, and I can get back to scenery...
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - tompm - 12-02-2023
Great job!