how I prepare my telephone poles I started with Atlas N telephone poles # 2801. First I cutted of the "feet", drilled 0.04" holes in the poles and cemented 1" long pieces of piano wire in the holes. Next step was pointing them with a Dremel and a grinding stone. One of the benefits of using styrofoam for the landscape is the easy but sturdy positioning of telephone poles, trees and fence posts etc. After that I washed the poles with dishwashing detergent, rinsed them thoroughly and "planted" them on a piece of styrofaom for drying and painting. First I applied Tamiya XF63 German Grey with the airbrush. The insulators got a coat of Tamiya XF-5 Flat Green with a small paintbrush. The last step was drybrushing the whole poles with Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey. For comparison the pole in the middle is not drybrushed!
Big difference with the drybrushing. In fact I am going to go back and dry brush the poles I have already planted on my layout. Jamie
Picures with provisional trees and this days progress I made some nice shots yesterday in my sunny livingroom (the trees are not fixed yet): Today we added more ground foam and built some albino longhorn cattle.
Two photos from toady Here are two pics made under artificial lighting this evening. Some fence posts are in place now. A lot more to come. The telephonepoles and trees are only provisional. Some more texture in the right of way will be added the next days.
I can't wait to try out your bridge pier technique on my layout. They look so good (as does the entire bridge & scene). Jamie
Thanks for your compliments... ..and thanks to my lovely Christine:rose:, who transformed those albino cows into really great looking longhorn cattle: And don´t overlook those tiny Type 3 Object Markers in front of the bridge piers, which were printed on copy paper with my color laser printer and bonded to short pieces of 0.022" piano wire with a little bit CA. Once again for comparison the prototype image at RailPictures.net
Just one picture for today I finished the fencing of the grassland, pasture and field today. In the foreground you see the undercutted wheat field, prepared for the coming seed. For the field and the grassland I used thin posts (about scale 2 1/2 "), for the pasture in the background I used scale 8" posts. The same diameter is used on all corner posts and the braceposts. A neat detail, which helps to make the "fence" look right.
My daughter is pleased with dad´s work... ...and took a testride today. Now only about 100 trees and bushes need to be planted before I showcase the module at the US model railroad convention next weekend.
Trees and bushes are planted... I added some tufts of grass yesterday. Today was "planting day" for the trees, but first I added the stumps of the old trestle piles just in front of the actual piles. Those stumps can be seen in the streetview images of the prototype bridge. Maybe the old structure collapsed or burned down.
The trees look beautiful. If possible, I will bug you on Saturday about details :tb-cool: I even got a better camera today to take some decent pictures in Rodgau. Picture of the 2009 convention are here.
This is shaping up to be such a great scene! The placement of the trees is especially effective. The bridge & road are really nice too. Could you say a bit about how you covered the gravel road? The texture is really fine. Wish I could get to the show to see this in person. -Gary
