Sýnir færslur með efnisorðinu Scenery; Trees. Sýna allar færslur
Sýnir færslur með efnisorðinu Scenery; Trees. Sýna allar færslur
fimmtudagur, 26. mars 2015
Progress Report
They say there's nothing like an open house or a visit from some fellow modelers to really kick things into gear. I hadn't really been all that motivated to do a lot of modeling in January and February. I'd say it was more "puttering" than progress. But when I learned that two of my good friends and great New England modelers were going to venture forth from their winter hideaways to visit several layouts in the DC area, including mine, I figured it was time to get my you-know-what in gear again!
The blog has also suffered from a lack of progress posts except for a couple of "wordless Wednesdays." What do you want from me - to make progress and then have time to actually blog about it????
So what has been going on:
1. These visitor preps always seem to start with cleaning up - the layout had gotten littered with "stuff" again. Actually just getting the surface of the railroad cleared off can be a huge motivator.
2. I engaged the services of Rich Cobb to build a couple more White River Junction structures to go along with the station he completed for me a couple of years ago. This meant getting Rich photos, footprints and other bits and pieces.
3. Bernie came out here and we "swung for the fence" with an attempt to fix the issues with the "black hole of White River. You can see what our plan was here. The result, still very much under construction, can be seen below:
There was the unfinished river scene north of White River Junction that needed a little something. Last weekend was spent patching the sub terrain, adding the "dirt" texture layer and painting the backdrop. I'm still getting my sea legs under me with the painting, but I do enjoy it! A couple of evenings to prep a couple of boxes of Super trees, and another evening spent flocking and "planting" them. A quick coat of fresh black paint will double as the water surface for the time being. Yes, the bank still needs vegetation, and track needs some ballasting. Overall, I think this will be a nice photo spot on the railroad - I know I'd certainly wait for a train here, and would be sure to frame the picture with that "electric maple" on the right:
And the "official" structure awaits signage, weathering, and details:
Read More..
The blog has also suffered from a lack of progress posts except for a couple of "wordless Wednesdays." What do you want from me - to make progress and then have time to actually blog about it????
So what has been going on:
1. These visitor preps always seem to start with cleaning up - the layout had gotten littered with "stuff" again. Actually just getting the surface of the railroad cleared off can be a huge motivator.
2. I engaged the services of Rich Cobb to build a couple more White River Junction structures to go along with the station he completed for me a couple of years ago. This meant getting Rich photos, footprints and other bits and pieces.
3. Bernie came out here and we "swung for the fence" with an attempt to fix the issues with the "black hole of White River. You can see what our plan was here. The result, still very much under construction, can be seen below:
Rich came through in record time with the White River Junction ball signal (Rich delivered the models painted but unweathered - the final finishing is on me):
Yes, I consider myself blessed to have great friends and talented modelers who are willing to help me out with this project, but ultimately it's my railroad � which means I should probably do something�.
I did get the WRJ station platforms completed - by far the largest paved area I've ever in one sitting. I think I'll save the specifics on that for it's own blog post, but you can see the platforms behind the E7 in the photo above.
There was the unfinished river scene north of White River Junction that needed a little something. Last weekend was spent patching the sub terrain, adding the "dirt" texture layer and painting the backdrop. I'm still getting my sea legs under me with the painting, but I do enjoy it! A couple of evenings to prep a couple of boxes of Super trees, and another evening spent flocking and "planting" them. A quick coat of fresh black paint will double as the water surface for the time being. Yes, the bank still needs vegetation, and track needs some ballasting. Overall, I think this will be a nice photo spot on the railroad - I know I'd certainly wait for a train here, and would be sure to frame the picture with that "electric maple" on the right:A few weeks ago I did a post about the Derby & Ball building in Waterbury. Just to show I actually do things other than redo track and make trees, here's the progress shot of the Derby & Ball building (obviously still under construction!) I couldn't determine how the prototype was painted in my era, but I kind of liked the colors it's painted now, so I went with those. Very New England color palette.
One last thing - just tonight (so Jim and Randy just missed it) I got the Twin State Fruit Company building for WRJ from Rich. So out with this stylish mockup -
Sorry for such a long post - I'll try to keep future posts shorter and more frequent!
But there's been a lot going on (some things I'm keeping close to the vest for the time being!) and wanted to catch you up!
mánudagur, 5. janúar 2015
Grassing things up
Added about eight linear feet of static grass to the area north of Williams Creek Bridge. I decided the "almost straw" grass colors looked pretty good, but it needed a little something to give it a bunch in a couple of spots - the answer was some bright red Sumac by the embankment. Next step - fence line and telegraph poles. I might add an old stone fence in the woods, almost overgrown by brush, but that will have to wait until after the Cocoa Beach meet.
Read More..
I also added some more trees to the ridge behind the Waterbury freight house and feed mill. We arrived in town to catch the sugar maples at their peak - truly "electric maples" - they are the brightest on the layout. (And yes, I know the freight house needs a roof before the winter�!)
laugardagur, 3. janúar 2015
Trees, trees, and more trees�.
The lead photo shows the trees in the transition area between the "peak" colors and the "past peak" colors.
Next step is some static grass in the foreground.
sunnudagur, 28. desember 2014
Crepe Myrtle foreground trees
Some folks have asked how I use the Crepe Myrtle tips as armatures for foreground trees. I think this (new) photo shows the process pretty well:Step 1: The raw Crepe Myrtle tip with the open seed pods still in place
Step 2: Remove the seed pods and discard. Trim the branches to a "tree" shape as needed.
Step 3: I use hot glue to attach the leftover "bits" from Supertrees to create the basic tree armature.
Step 4: The tree painted with some type of "gray" color - this is Krylon "Camouflage." If you're modeling the leafless season I wouldn't use such a dark color. Of course, if you're modeling leafless trees the tree is ready to plant!
Step 5: The finished tree has been flocked with two or three shades of Noch leaves and fine ground foam.
laugardagur, 20. desember 2014
�. and even more Gap Filling
At last approaching the end of the "gap filling" project, at least in the "front aisle."
The area behind the freight house/coal dealer and in the location where Eldredge Woodworking will go in Waterbury had some gaps between the 3D scenery and backdrop, so I got those filled in (the green florist foam is the easiest way to fill these gaps I've found as it "compresses" into the gaps.
A quick coat of earth tone latex paint and it's ready for some scenic textures.
Sitting in front of the television last night I got some more foreground trees prepped and ready for installation in the scene. (The tree on the right shows what these look like when the leaf flocking is added). I just purchased some of the new Scenic Express open cell flocking that I'm looking forward to trying.
Read More..
A quick coat of earth tone latex paint and it's ready for some scenic textures.
Sitting in front of the television last night I got some more foreground trees prepped and ready for installation in the scene. (The tree on the right shows what these look like when the leaf flocking is added). I just purchased some of the new Scenic Express open cell flocking that I'm looking forward to trying.
mánudagur, 1. desember 2014
A time for every purpose....
There is a time for every purpose under heaven, and on the model railroad. In this case late fall in Virginia means it's time to harvest tree armatures from the Crepe Myrtle plants.
Making foreground trees is great fun while watching football on a late autumn/early winter Sunday afternoon!
föstudagur, 9. maí 2014
Relocating Williams Creek: 8
There was nothing worth watching on TV so I spent another hour in the basement planting the background trees.
Read More..
fimmtudagur, 29. ágúst 2013
Build Me a River 5: Test fitting foreground trees
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| Test fitting some Crepe Myrtle tree armatures. Still could use some more foreground trees! |
I think two large trees work well in the positions shown. I do want to add a couple more "medium" trees.
These trees will be painted and flocked once I'm satisfied with how they look and their placement in the scene.
Build Me a River - 4: What do 220 Supertrees look like?
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Work continues on the White River scene. Will our hero finish in time for the MER Convention tours? Stayed tuned to find out..... |
After looking at the photos I think I'm going to carve a sharper angle into the base of the foam panels (luckily the panels aren't glued in place!) to get the hillsides to lean back toward the wall. Their current vertical position give the trees a pronounced forward "lean" and the top of the treeline looks like a crew cut - I'd rather have more variation in height.
?
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The "leaning trees" effect, not really a problem when you're looking at the layout in person, is all too apparent in this photo. Adjusting the angle of the hillside "panels" will address the problem. |
But the changes I need to make are relatively straightforward "tweaks." Once they're done I can add some additional texture (static grass, weeds, and the like) between the track and the treeline.
?
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The open areas create a nice visual relief from the solid mass of trees. This will get a static grass treatment to add some additional textures and colors. |
fimmtudagur, 8. ágúst 2013
Foreground Trees - Update
I've gotten some questions on my Crepe Myrtle trees lately, including questions on what a Crepe Myrtle plant looks like "in the wild." Rather than create another post I added a photo of a Crepe Myrtle tree in bloom to the original August 2011 post on making trees using Crepe Myrtle tips and Supertree foliage material. See it here:
http://centralvermontrailway.blogspot.com/2011/08/foreground-trees.html
Since that post appeared I've done some experimenting adding leaves to the Crepe Myrtle foreground trees - a post on that will follow shortly.
Read More..
http://centralvermontrailway.blogspot.com/2011/08/foreground-trees.html
Since that post appeared I've done some experimenting adding leaves to the Crepe Myrtle foreground trees - a post on that will follow shortly.
miðvikudagur, 20. mars 2013
fimmtudagur, 4. október 2012
Peninsula Progress - Things Coming Together
Or at least it's starting to look finished. It's amazing what that last 1/16th of an inch can do to convert the scene from a construction site it was a few weeks ago into something resembling a slice of the real world.
The impetus was some out-of-town visitors coming by tomorrow. So I planted some trees and positioned an old store leftover from the last SNE. Not sure if I'll use it in location shown.
This is the side of the peninsula opposite the Waterbury scene. Plan calls for a simple grade crossing for the as yet unfinished road (currently a rough gray streak!). Of course we'll have pole lines, ballast, cinders, and maybe a section house. To the right of the track between the road and the bridge will be a pasture scene surrounded by an old stone fence.... But before getting to all the pretty stuff need to get the mechanical issues like track and wiring. To that end I'm going to put away the scenery stuff for a while and focus on getting the entire layout up and running. So stand by for more track and wiring shots. . .
But I couldn't resist trying one "pretty picture" test - Obviously, the water isn't finished yet and there's more tweaking needed to the rocks - but the scene is finally starting to look like something.
Read More..
The impetus was some out-of-town visitors coming by tomorrow. So I planted some trees and positioned an old store leftover from the last SNE. Not sure if I'll use it in location shown.
This is the side of the peninsula opposite the Waterbury scene. Plan calls for a simple grade crossing for the as yet unfinished road (currently a rough gray streak!). Of course we'll have pole lines, ballast, cinders, and maybe a section house. To the right of the track between the road and the bridge will be a pasture scene surrounded by an old stone fence.... But before getting to all the pretty stuff need to get the mechanical issues like track and wiring. To that end I'm going to put away the scenery stuff for a while and focus on getting the entire layout up and running. So stand by for more track and wiring shots. . .
But I couldn't resist trying one "pretty picture" test - Obviously, the water isn't finished yet and there's more tweaking needed to the rocks - but the scene is finally starting to look like something.
mánudagur, 1. október 2012
Progress on the Peninsula
Making good progress on the bridge scene and the peninsula "blob." Over the weekend I made a bunch of Supertrees - these are prepositioned on Styrofoam panels and are ready for planting.
Here's a view of about 1/4 of the trees I made yesterday.
More to follow.
Read More..
Here's a view of about 1/4 of the trees I made yesterday.
sunnudagur, 9. september 2012
Moving a Mountain
One thing that was bugging me about the developing "Waterbury" scene was the way the hill that ran down the center of the peninsula, and served as a backdrop for Waterbury, was very, very close to the rear wall of the feedmill. Meanwhile, there was a lot of "open space" on the far side of the hill caused to some extent by the fish hook shape of the ridge. Late Friday night it occurred to me I could rotate the mountain and have the curve in the hillside follow the track curvature around the lobe of the peninsula. The ongoing bridge project seemed to tie into this naturally, so I decided to move the mountain before I buttoned up the bridge project.
Read More..
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| Here's where the hill started |
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The roof of the feedmill is just visible in the left side of this image - and it shows how the "fishhook" hill is encroaching on the station/feedmill scene. |
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A drywall saw along the base of the hill made quick work of cutting the hardshell hill loose. |
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Work in progress: (as an aside, the need for better lighting should be obvious in these photos - that's the next project!) |
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| The rock outcropping on the hill ended up across the tracks from the foreground hill on the right of the overall photo above - making it look like a cut |
þriðjudagur, 3. apríl 2012
Downshifting - A simpler scene = Bigger impact?
My original plan for this section of the layout was a large mill scene - a river feeding several water-powered mill complexes. I even hogged the riverbed out of the pink foam layout surface - which believe me wasn't difficult but was hardly what I'd call fun.
Then it dawned on me - I have a big layout to build, with a lot of true signature structures - I didn't want to get bogged down building a bunch of mill buildings when I was trying to get the layout operational. Also, I was having trouble blending the freelanced mill river scene with the prototype based Waterbury scene on the other of the peninsula. I wanted to include the Demeritt Cannery in Watebury - but in order to place a hill as a view block between Waterbury proper and the river I didn't have enough room for the Cannery buildings.
The mill river obviously wasn't working for a bunch of reasons. So I stuffed a bunch of plastic bags with newspaper and used them to fill the riverbed. Then I applied a layer of plaster cloth - entombing the riverbed inside my new terrain.
In place of the river side mill complex will be a much simpler scene of pastureland - perhaps with a farm building or two up on the hill. A single industry - likely a creamery, will also be featured. The original culvert has been replaced with a road underpass. All that's there is the basic landforms and the rough outline of the roads, but I already like the scene more than the planned mill complex. The fact that it's an easy way out has been overshadowed by the fact that I think it looks more like rural Vermont than the developing scene it replaced. I guess I agree with Mike Confalone and George Dutka - as George wrote in his recent blog post, "From my point of view a barn built with little else around makes a great layout scene."
You can find the previous plan for this scene in an earlier blog post. The picture above shows the scene ready for the initial coat of scenic texture.
laugardagur, 25. febrúar 2012
Reworking Waterbury
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| The original track arrangement in Waterbury relied on commercial turnouts. |
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| The revised arrangement. |
Then I positioned the end of the hill in its new location and patched the gap with plaster cloth. I added some rock outcroppings and applied earth colored paint and basic ground texture. Once that had dried, I stained the rock castings, added some additional grasses and ground cover, and replaced the trees.
I like how these efforts opened up the area behind the tracks in Waterbury. And the longer siding means there�s room to add the coal sheds. All the structures in Waterbury are obviously unfinished, but the templates for the freight house and the attached two-story warehouse show there's room for them, along with the coal sheds, represented here with a small white box.
föstudagur, 24. febrúar 2012
More backdrops
He also painted about 8 additional feet of backdrop before calling it quits. The new section of backdrop shows more fall colors than the previous section since the foreground scenery will include trees with some foliage remaining. Think of it as past peak colors, but before all the leaves are down, and representing a slightly lower elevation down in the valley where the wind hasn't knocked all the leaves off the trees. The tree in the foreground is one of my finished trees he was using to match colors. I think it came out pretty well.
þriðjudagur, 27. desember 2011
Tree-covered hillside
I suppose it comes as no surprise that many of my November scenery techniques lean on my friend Paul Dolkos� pioneering efforts. However, since Paul�s former Boston & Maine New Hampshire Division didn�t include any really deep scenes depicting tree-covered mountains, I was on my own when it came to figuring out how to model a leafless tree-covered hillside. Or so I thought. After seeing Ted Pamprin�s C&O layout on our recent foray into New Jersey, I decided plain ole� Supertrees were the way to go to quickly and effectively duplicate the look of barren trees on a hillside.
I created a small hillside starting at the end of the backdrop and running about 3-4 feet. At a couple of places on the hillside I placed rock castings to create the look of exposed granite outcroppings � a common sight to anyone who has hiked through New England forests. Although the rock castings looked a little jarring just sitting on the bare hillside, the addition of the bare Supertrees, a few Supertrees flocked with green to resemble distant pines, and some flocked with brown to look like oaks blended the rock outcroppings into the scenery and created a pleasing appearance (at least I think so!). Overall, I�m happy with how this scenery is shaping up. After the roads and buildings are placed I�ll add some foreground trees, built up from Crepe Myrtle tips and other weeds with finer branch material, in front of the hill. This will further blend the tree-covered hillside into the background.
This is a "background hill" - to give you an idea of how it will look in the finished layout setting, I positioned the Waterbury station and feed mill in place.
þriðjudagur, 20. desember 2011
Trees, Trees everywhere
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Background trees added to the long neck of the peninsula. This helps break up the joint between the modeled railroad and painted backdrop. |
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| Next step is to add the texture (static grass and the like) between the track and fascia. |
þriðjudagur, 30. ágúst 2011
First Scenery - Williams Creek
The inspiration for this scene is the prototype photo I bought from Bob's Photos a few years ago.
Russ Greene at New England Brownstone used the photo to create his plaster abutment kits. The bridges are Micro-Engineering 50-foot deck girders. I wanted to have the river look more like a clear New England stream than a Midwestern or Appalachian muddy river (although this week I know plenty of rivers in Vermont look plenty muddy and murky . . .).
The sub-base of the river is 1/4" Masonite painted black and covered with a combination of sifted sand, gravel, and Scenic Express "River Bed" gravel. I left some of the black-painted Masonite showing between the rocks to represent deeper areas. I applied a coat of Envirotex, let it set up completely, then painted some tan riverbanks and some green/black areas on top of the Envirotex - again, not covering the surface completely. Once that dried I added a second layer of Envirotex. Since the Envirotex leaves a perfectly flat surface, I've been adding several coats of Min Wax Polycrylic Polyurethene. I think at this point I'm at six coats, and it's just starting to "bubble" a little - which is a bad thing on furniture (MinWax warns against too many coats) since the resulting surface looks rippled and a little like waves.
I still need to finish this up obviously (the blue tape on the track should be a hint). Still to come:
1. A few more coats of MinWax
2. There are one or two of the background Supertrees that look a little too wavy from the side - they will be replaced with some with straighter trunks.
3. Foliage, undergrowth etc . . . around the base of the piers
4. Adding some electrostatic grass to the embankments
5. The harvested field with the corn shocks (the field is not visible in these model shots)
6. And, obviously, a coat of paint on the fascia.
.... Oh, and a few more coats of MinWax!
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