Scenery at last

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that the New Year will be a great one.

 

There hasn't been a lot happening on the Bogong & Geehi for the last 6 weeks as we have been busy harvesting on the farm. It was a successful harvest and we finished on the Friday before Christmas. It is always good to be finished before the festive season and after a few days catching up on some sleep I decided to venture out into the shed and do some modelling.

I have been busting to do some scenic work to try and remove the snowstorm look that most of the layout has. The first thing I do is cover the foam with several layers of chux wipes soaked in white glue diluted with water.

 

 

Once that has dried I have been using "mud" which is something that American modeller Mike Confalone uses on his layout showcased in model-railroad-hobbyist magazine. He has a multi part article about building his layout starting in the April 2012 issue which can be downloaded from the website.

 

 

Mike makes his mud mixing Celluclay ( a dried paper mache product) mixed with acrylic house paint and a little water. Mud is a very appropriate name as that is what it looks like. It is very good for filling holes and generally looking like soil. It is surprising how far a small mix will cover and it dries to a very hard and strong surface. While it's still wet I sift on a light coat of dry grout to make the surface look even more like soil.

 



 

 

After all that had dried I just had to get out my Noch grass master and apply some static grass. I use fibres from both Heki and Silhouette. I only did a small area as I wanted to check that my technique still worked. I used white glue which has left a shiny sheen when it dried, so I will be trying matte medium next time. On my first patch I put down the static grass first and then tried adding silhouette flowers to represent Paterson's curse and grass tufts. With the static grass already down the tufts had trouble touching the ground so I tried putting the tufts and flowers on first and then adding the static grass which I think is more successful. Looking at the photos I think I need to add something like a little ground foam to represent broadleaved plants

Building Hills

I have been building some scenery and trialing different methods to build the land form on the Bogong & Geehi. I had planned to use wire netting as it is cheap, and easy to shape. It has the advantage that you can quickly see the finished contours with out making much of a mess. I then cover the mesh with no brand dish clothes soaked in white glue. The disadvantage is when one wants to cover the hills with trees to simulate a forest. The mesh hill doesn't really provide much support  so I have tried wiring sheets of Styrofoam to the underside to give me something to poke the trees in with mixed success.

 

 

I have seen layouts that have used white Styrofoam for their landforms and I have used it in the past but finding it our here in the country at a reasonable price  has been a challenge. A recent visit to Bunnings found that I could buy sheets of Styrofoam sold in packs for insulation. I brought a pack home and have been experimenting. It is certainly messier and slower to build, but....it does make a more stable and more versatile land form. The train shed has its own vacuum cleaner which makes dealing with the mess as I shape the foam a lot easier. I have also covered the foam with the dish cloths soaked in glue.

 

I think the foam option will be the way I will go. Even though the cost is higher, for me the positives outweigh the negatives.

 

 

It is nice to finally see trains running through some scenery even if the hills are bare and lacking vegetation. I need to put a layer of soil to cover the blue. I tried just painting with a brown paint and sifting my usual brown grout but I can still see the edges of the cloth so I will need to add something to hide them.

 

Cheers

 

Murray

 

Backdrops

 

Since my last post the main activity on the layout has been painting. I have given the fascia a coat of black, which really help to define the edge of the layout and frames the scenery nicely. I have also decided it was time to make a decision about which way to go with backdrops. I gave serious consideration to a photo backdrop. I think a very well done photo looks great, but if it hasn't been done well it can draw attention away from the modelling and not look so good. I discovered getting a good photo isn't as quick and simple as taking a few quick snaps with the digital camera. You also need good software to merge them all together, and what I had would only let me make a panorama 3 metres long.

 

So I decided to get some brushes and paint and have a go at painting my backdrops. My reasoning was that if it didn't work out I could still cover them up with a photo.



 

 

You can see my efforts in the photo above. My aim is to have a simple scene that doesn't have a lot of detail, but still leaves no doubt that you are in the hills of southern NSW. I have used artists acrylics in previous attempts at a backdrop with mixed results. I found it hard to mix colours accurately especially if I wanted to come back and touch up previous work.

The Modelling the Railways of NSW convention this year had a presentation by Ray Pilgrim about how he paints his backdrops on his layout Bylong. I was unable to attend but I was able to buy a copy of the notes. Ray recommends using Jo Sonja background colours. They are designed to cover large areas and I can recommend them as well. I have found them easy to work with and they give excellent results. They can be a bit hard to find (especially here in the country) so I mail ordered mine from Art Materials who also sell useful stuff like Celluclay, sculptamold and Copic markers. I used some of the artist acrylics I had to add highlights and shadows and I am pleased with the results. I won't win any art prizes but I am happy with how much depth they add to the scene.

 

 

This vista shows that scenery should soon be happening and I am currently trialing different techniques for the hardshell. I look forward to reporting the results in a future blog post.

 

Cheers, Murray



Pass the Dettol

No there hasn't been any medical procedures happening on the Bogong and Geehi. Nor has there been any need to kill any germs. I have been stripping paint and using Dettol antiseptic disinfectant to do it.

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to buy an Alco Models On30 brass Victorian Railways Na locomotive. It is a beautiful model, but it came painted in an orange paint scheme that Puffing Billy used in the 1990's. It wasn't really suitable for a late 1940's era layout.

I decided that it was time to paint it a nice basic black. The issue was, how do I remove the paint. After seeking advice from modellers more knowledgeable than I, we decided that soaking in enamel paint thinners was the way to go. I don't know what the orange paint was but after three days of soaking no amount of scrubbing would remove any paint.

So it was on to plan "B". A google search of " removing enamel paint from models " came up with this link to wikihow which suggests using Dettol. I had read on a forum sometime ago that modelers had used Dettol with success so looking for a non toxic approach I thought I would try it.

I followed the instructions on wikihow which recommends mixing one part Dettol with one part water. I don't know if it was because the loco had been in enamel thinners or it happens normally but when I put it in the liquid it started to bubble. It continued to bubble for hours. The kids thought it was great. Wikihow suggests soaking for 24 hours but the bubbling was making me nervous so I pulled it out after 12 hours. I still had an unharmed loco but the paint was literally falling off. Some of the details had thicker paint that wouldn't budge so I put it back in for another 12 hours.

Virtually all paint was gone. It did take a bit of scrubbing with a toothbrush and tooth pick to get the last of it off . A wash under running water has now gotten me a model ready for the paint shop

Cheers

Murray

Welcome to Buckland

Last weekend I had a visit by a couple of friends and so I had a bit of pressure on to get a few tasks completed and make the layout look more presentable. The first task on the list was to get the track laid in the village of Buckland.

Buckland is the highest point on the mainline and will be a small place with maybe a shop or two, a pub and a church. Industries served by the railway will be a goods shed, the wool merchants and maybe a mine. As it is the high point helpers will probably be used from Geehi to here on the ore trains if operations ever happen.

I decided to use Micro Engineering code 83 flex track and points. While I am happy with the appearance of the Custom trax that I have been using, once I started running trains I am less so. I have had a lot of issues with the flex track being out of gauge and it isn't easy to adjust. I have also have had issues with the Custom trax turnouts being out of gauge and having intermittent electrical shorts. While the Micro Engineering track doesn't look as good the quality is much higher and that makes for more happier train running.

 

The next task I wanted to get completed is the fascia. A busy Saturday saw the bottom fascia installed the entire length of the layout that has track laid. In my eyes it has dramatically improved the appearance of the layout and given it a more finished look. Once the fascia was in, I couldn't help myself and I have started installing the landform.

 

My preference is to use wire netting that is used for fencing. As I live on a farm I have an almost unlimited supply and it is easy to work with. I attach it to the fascia by sandwiching the wire between scraps of wood and the fascia. Once I am happy with the shape I install risers under the hills to keep it in place. I then cover it with multiple layers of chux wipes soaked in white glue thinned with water. In the photo above the section of roadbed in front of the loco will be cut out and a bridge installed but it could be some time before I get to it.

 

The next task that I am about to tackle is painting the backdrop. I did consider using a photo backdrop but putting good photos together proved to be more difficult than I thought it would. Joining the different panoramas together was also an issue. The cost of the many metres of photos I would need was enough to get me motivated to start painting.  

 

Cheers Murray

 

Weathering

The bright green paint of my modified loco has gotten the better of me. It was looking to pristine and dare I say it, a little too toy like. It badly needed to be weathered. It has been a while since I have weathered an engine, so I was a bit apprehensive at taking to a perfectly good paint job.

 I am a fan of the Wild Swan book The art of weathering by Martyn Welch and have used the techniques as described with some success. Having said that modelling techniques are always evolving and I have been watching with interest at what the military modellers have been developing.

In the past 12 months I have bought a DVD & a book from the European firm AK interactive. They can at times feel a little like adds for their products but there is no denying that the results are spectacular. I recently bought some AK interactive products from BNAmodelworld who are great to deal with. They also sell the book & DVD as well as paints like Vallejo at prices very competitive with overseas retailers( no connection - just a happy customer).

The first thing I did to my engine was give it a coat of satin clear acrylic which protects the paint and lets me remove the weathering if something goes wrong! Once that was dry I gave it a thin coat of MIG deep green wash. This really made the details like the rivets stand out.

Once that was dry I gave the whole loco a dusting of Floquil weathered black. I made sure that I only air brushed from the top to simulate the grime and cinders that would settle over a working engine. I then gave the running gear and underframe a dusting of Floquil grimy black. After the paint had dried for a few days I added some streaks of AK interactive streaking grime. With this technique you paint on in vertical lines, the streaking grime with a thin brush and let it dry for 5-10 minutes. You then come back with a flat brush that has been dipped in white spirits and work the lines down the side of the tender thinning them as you go.

It is harder to explain than do, which is what makes the DVD and the many photos in the book so useful. As you can see from the photo of the tender, it makes the model look like that while it is well looked after, it is still a hard working loco hauling trains over the Buckland Gap on the Bogong & Geehi. I am planning to add a little of the track brown and some earth pigments to the tender trucks and counter weights on the engine.

I could have weathered the engine even more with rust streaks and more grime but I wanted something that looked well cared for. If you have another look at the first photo of this post I hope you will agree with me that I have achieved my aim.

Cheers, Murray



Bashed Bachmann completed!

A couple of post's ago I wrote about my efforts to turn a Bachmann On30 2-8-0 into something more Australian. Well a few weeks back I put a cold weekend to good use and spent my time completing my project and here are the results. With the very cold winter we are having it has been a bit of a challenge to get it painted. I extended the tender sides with some brass strip and added rivet details to the cab and tender with Archer transfers resin rivet transfers.

I am very pleased with how it looks. The green is a NSW government railway colour from Railey paints. It is a bit bright at the moment but some weathering should tone it down nicely. It has also had a Tsunami sound decoder fitted.

As you can see I am enjoying watching and listening to her trundling back and forth on the track that has been laid so far. You can also see in the photo that I have started work on some scenery. I have started work on the river and some basic land forms. I hope to do a post soon with more details soon but with the weather the way it has been I am not spending much time in the shed so progress has been slow.

Cheers Murray