Cheers guys! Boxcab you get about 30 minutes of easy working time, depending on the weather. Damp days are best. It can still be worked by re-wetting after that, but that's when you'll need tools like scrapers, although you can probably still smooth out small areas by rubbing it with a wet finger. Once it's completely dry it can be sanded. You can add acrylic paint too, but in my experience of adding acrylic tube paints, and somewhat contrary to the manufacturer's advice, it really hastens the drying. You have to work like crazy to get it shaped.
Wow, Simply awesome scenery Mikelhh! That is very realistic looking work, you cant hardly tell it from real life. What is the straw colored vegetation your using? Thanks for sharing your efforts, I am always learning something new here.
Thanks Tom. The grass is fine fibre cleaning cloth available from the kitchen section. The cloths are always very brightly coloured. I paint them by scrubbing acrylics into them with a stiff old brush. That causes them to mat, so once they're dry I give them a good brushing with a wire pet-grooming brush. Then I just snip out patches and tufts and glue them on. I rub pastels onto them too. Mike
Can you post a photo of the cleaning cloth so I know what to look for? I think I am going to try to do the same thing, but I have doubts if I will achieve the same effect. Sent from my Xperia Z using Tapatalk 2
Here you go Matthew They have glossy acrylic-tpye fibres. Cut the seams and open them out because they are double-sided. There are several brands here that are pretty much identical, and they're all cheap. Mike
Mike, unless it's a trade secret or if you already have in another post, please tell us how you create the barren trees..I've always favored this time of year for a MRR over others as the starkness is so dramatic, plus much less leaves/greenery to have to depict..! Also, would like to see the track plan of your entire RR.. Great creativity Mike
Hi Mark No trade secrets on my layout :funny: Winter is a real challenge to model. I don't mean the snow: I think that's the easy part. Bare trees are another story, and I'm still working at it, trying to get the look I want. At present my bare trees are a real mixture of twisted wire, twigs, roots and sisal rope fibres. Here are some of the roots I have in stock: I paint them which helps preserve them, and I often add painted sisal rope fibres [coconut fibres too] to supplement them and to provide finer 'twigs'. This one is based on a root mass with the sisal fibres added, held in place by fine wire bound around the clump: Clumps like this one can be glued onto bigger 'trunks' to become part of a bigger tree. Dried tea leaves make pretty good dead leaves and leaf litter. Sometimes I've painted the usual Woodland Scenics and Heki foliage mats to suit as well. As for track plans: I don't really do them, but I'll see if I can work something out. Mike
Thanks for the photo, I will try to find something simular over this side of the pond. Sent from my Xperia Z using Tapatalk 2
Thanks for foliage info..and all...Where's that track plan ? Or, are your scenes only dioramas or modular, thus no track plan ?
No, it's an L shaped layout : 14ft one leg and 10 ft the other. I'll be continuing around the corner to make a U shape one day. I'll draw something up sometime. I'm not into the CAD programs. Mike
The scale is pretty wonky :cute: Jusr realised: the righthand leg of the layout is 9ft from INside the corner, not the outside. It's 11ft 6 ins along the outside.
The hinged extension, far left, comprises two lines, as long as the layout is high, which is about 42 ins. It really does improve the operating, including providing another way to do a runaround.
It's been a while since I added to this thread. Not much to report because it has been too hot here. I did make it snow though by sprinkling Woodland Scenics Flake Snow all over the place. An Atlas U23B... One of Guilford's ex Santa Fe SD26s... I've also added LEDs behind another backscene, this time the end scene behind the loco shed and road overpass. Here's a close-up of the tiny holes... and the view at night after it had snowed... I haven't been operating the trains partly because of the heat, but also because of all the loose snow. It won't be long before it gets dull and dirty, and then I plan to push it into heaps alongside road edges etc, all grey and brown and unattractive. I might glue it in place then, and give it some dirty washes of acrylic, with wet patches where it's 'melting'. Mike
Bro, your pics are so incredible they're making me sick to my stomach, like finding out after practicing something for years (decades) that you're pedestrian at the the craft. I'm in awe!
It has been a while! And well worth the wait. Those LED's are a great effect. I've never seen it previously accomplished. Wow. Nice!
Although I'll never be this good it sure helps me get some ideas for expansion of the CBAM&J. Incredible work? Rick H.