sun is setting on a full day... sculptamold is dry in most places, so I started to experiment with carving....I found my Dremel engraving tool very helpful; makes the process fast and easy... Tomorrow, I'll finish carving, then start tinting the rock and slopes with various tints and washes... Thanks for looking, ~Bruce
got up early this morning to get some texture and glue on so I can color the purple foam 'rocks' this week...ballast, talus, and final vertical rock painting (I'm going to represent the sedimentary layers with airbrushing and masking)... that gives me the last week for details and nit-picking...I'll add a bit more green, especially in the foreground to mark this area.... Thanks for looking, ~Bruce
Hello all...last update for the weekend...done as much as I'm going to get done until middle of the week...put a few bushes in, and drybrushed the foam 'rocks'... still a lot more to do, especially with the talus and vertical rock face (many painted sedimentary layers with predominant red colors)... but, as you can tell, the last 7 hours of work has produced an amazing amount of change... still to do... paint the skyboard with lighter shades of blue, then background scenery talus field Red rock faces and sedimentary layers ballast then, a little tweaking and we're on our way to Round Rock/Austin! Thanks for looking! ~Bruce
Very nice.........I love rock work like that! Here's one I built to start our club down the road of non-square layouts. http://www.mtntrak.org/Module08.html
thank goodness for another beautiful weekend in coastal Alabama...heading into the last few laps on this one.... a quick airbrush coloring of the slope and vertical rock face over a cup of coffee...then some posing and final positioning of the 'mechanicals'... and then... quickly before we run out to do a few errands, the part that has the most effect apart from the ballast; the talus field....this is AZ Rock and Mineral Apache stone and Cajon Sandstone Rip Rap... Alcohol to wet, and scenic cement to fix... after a cookout of charbroiled oysters and lime-chili charbroiled Royal Reds....I'll tackle the ballast! ~Bruce
here are three modules i did 15 yrs ago. and gray one the stock yard was done by harry smith. iam glad you got to see his work he pass away last yr.
Joined Omni rail, the NMRA, and here's the plan . and photos of progress, hopefully by the time this modules done I can take it to a show and have all of my SP&S equipment running on it.
Day half done and progress is going much quicker than expected.... talus slope is dry-my nature is to 'fiddle' with it a bit, but, truly, it looks better than I had all right to expect.... Sooooooo...... ballasting has proceeded....this is also going much quicker than expected (I guess it's like the 'bicycle' theory....you 'remember'...) I use the "Kim Saign" method of ballasting....has NEVER failed to give me the best results.... the cork is trimmed to the width of the ties, or, just lay track on one HALF of the split roadbed...use a gravy seperator to apply the ballast-a few minutes and you get 'the hang of it' real quick...pretty soon, you're not even having to go back with a flat brush to 'manicure' the slope...because you're using only half the cork-the ballast forms its own slope...you end up using a tiny fraction more ballast than if using on a beveled piec of cork, but you don't have the 'Arrggghh' experience of ballast 'rolling down' the inclined bevel...also, especially if you're modelling transition period and/or secondary lines...the ballast is more prototypical than the width when using the whole 'split cork' thing...(I tend to believe that the whole split cork thing was meant to be able to model a roadbed by just painting the cork a 'ballast' color and laying track to it...) now, for the double track main....I debated using basalt or the more 'modern' mauve....since I won't 'own' this module, and transition AND modern equipment will see time on it, Mauve it is... Thanks for looking, ~Bruce
There are some stand out modules here. I especially like Bruce, Brad, and ia's results. I have a couple freemoN modules that are favorites from my efforts. Piru. Faceplate 24"x48" Long wood frame with pink foam scenery base. Super lightweight. El Gato. This was one of the early modules of our group and was given to me. It had an Arizona red and orange color base that I did not appreciate. I repainted it to better go with the Socal theme we are attempting to represent. I added fresh vegetation, base color, track, and ballast. I did not change the rock formations. It makes a little less than a 45 degree turn with a 22" radius. Come see us at The Big Train Show http://bigtrainshow.com/
done for the day...perhaps the weekend...progress went much more quickly and smoother that anticipated...perhaps old 'habits' die hard.... added some more scenic 'thingys' before alcohol misting and scenic cement misting...I'm really going to be hard pressed to find something that needs 'fiddling' now...(generally , when I 'fiddle' i end up making things 'less-than-desired') going to check this in the morning, and see if any ballast needs re-visiting, but, apart from painting the skyboard with scenic landforms, and drilling the legs for t-nuts and adjustable bolts, and painting the fascia....I may end up calling this module 'done'.... Thanks for looking, ~Bruce
Looks great Bruce. There should be quite a crowd especially when traffic increases and the crossovers are needed.
Here is YouTube Video of my FREMO America-N Module "Sabiasville Curve". It is build in 8 segments, 6 curved and 2 straights. Radius is about 6 feet so the curve can swing around a standard FREMO staging yard and still leave enough room for the crews to follow their trains. [video=youtube;edPnp-W3BOU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edPnp-W3BOU&sns=em[/video] Bernd Schneider shot the video a year ago at the 2013 spring FREMO meeting in Braunlage, Germany. Cheers Dirk
I had been thinking I didn't have any module pictures to show. Then I remembered I did this corner module of the Aransas pass, Texas shrimpboat harbor as part of a club modular project in HO I built 25 years ago. (My own stuff is N.) I built an HO superstructure to go on the hull of a Lindberg "tuna seiner" kit for the little bay shrimping boat, and scratchbuilt the pier, the bulkhead on the edge of the water, and the retaining wall on the levee. Cardboard mockups of actual buildings form the scene. The real rail line at Aransas Pass is single track about a block behind the levee, originally San Antonio & Aransas Pass, then Southern Pacific, now Union Pacific. The prototype scene still exists, with pretty much everything that is in the scene. I don't know about the module. I never finished it, left the club over club politics. The club didn't want anyone allowed even to see the modules unless they joined the club, and I couldn't see putting more time into the project if I could never show it off.
last installment for the weekend...fascia painted, telephone booth painted and installed, switch motors from NZT glued down...the nice little manual switch stands from Osborn models are posed here but won't be permanently installed (I can see them being 'taken out' by a ham-fisted track cleaning crew...) over the week, a little track weathering, backdrop scenery added (photos, more than likely), a little rock face weathering, and bus wire terminal blocks added... Thanks for looking, ~Bruce
Well Gang, last installment on this one until the setup at the regional convention on Wednesday.... It's been a pretty fun 'ride'...if I had had two more weekends, I would have done just a little bit more....no time to weather the track to my satisfaction (that will have to be done by the club if they so choose) The weather here is a little 'iffy' today, but I was able to finish it up...legs now have the adjustable T-bolts mounted, wiring harness is complete and color-coded to the hilt!...and I was able to give the vertical rock surfaces a nice black wash, and consequent drybrush....really adds depth to an otherwise monochromatic, flat surface, and blends the color of the vertical outcroppings... (the only thing that I'm not completely satisfied with is the vertical rock face-entirely too 'two dimensional'...even with the constraints of the trackplan, I could have given it more depth and varied the height along its face-it would have been quite easy to do this, and I'll definitely incorporate it into the Kingman Canyon layout and any other mesas and buttes I'll build) Thanks for looking, ~Bruce
Anyone complains about your work they ought to be taken out and shot (with a camera). Pictures posted as in Wanted Posters so everyone knows who mouthed off. Turned out better then anything I would hope to do. Beyond Awesome!
I recently was given a little three stall roundhouse structure, and I am trying to figure out how it could be worked into a module. I am actually wondering if it possible to fit a small roundhouse complex onto a corner module, because I think that would be kind of a unique arrangement. Has anyone ever seen an Ntrak corner with a roundhouse on it?
