I envy you being able to superdetail the small scenes, Caleb. Hopefully in a couple months I'll be able to do some of that...
Caleb, I have to remeber the simplicity of your scenery as I start mine. You definitely have "the touch" with this stuff. Glad you post these update pics--maybe some of your talent will rub off on me. Jamie
Thanks again guys! This shot was made by running a small flashlight across the track to simulate a trains streaking headlight. I'm not sure what kind of engine would make a streak like this, but its a start. I may need to get a smaller flashlight. It looks cool though.
That is a pretty cool effect. By setting your camera's shutter speed to manual and turning it way up, into the whole seconds area, you could get a similar effect with the actual train's LED light I bet. Course if you aren't rewired yet that won't work, lol.
I tried that actually and it was not near strong enough. All you could see was a faint yellow line that did not light up the scenery at all.... I might try combining both, headlights from the model, and the scenery lit up by the flashlight...
Thats kind of disappointing though not surprising now that you mention your results. Flashlights use a reflector to concentrate the beam pattern, while our loco's LEDs do not have such a reflector as their real life counterparts do.
Thanks Mopman! No progress on the layout today. My GP38 did take an unexpected tumble off the layout onto the concrete floor though, but it incredibly suffered no damage except some chipped paint on the handrails. But I can think of very few sounds more painful than the soft "crack" as a model hit the ground.
Heres best I can do for now. As I was walking in the woods I found a clay bank, so filled up a jar of the clay, let it dry and sifted out the large bits. On the layout... And dude, I hear you about modeling modern day, I've always had an interest in modern NS, maybe someday.... I'll have some more updates in a few days. Thanks! I'm glad people seem to enjoy this thread.
Well, its snowing heavily outside and and being completely snowed in, it seems a good time to work on the layout. Today I started on my latest project, Little rock tunnel. The real Little rock tunnel is a small bare rock 100 foot bore, up on Afton mountain, west of Charlottesville VA. The real tunnel: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=307375 On to construction! I ordinarily stay away from using foam board for environmental reasons, but I got some sheets of the stuff in a package(the foam was being used as padding) so I decided to use it on the layout. This was the "beadboard" stuff, so it was extremely messy, but if I had the vacuum handy I could keep the mess to a minimum. First, I carved the foam to create the walls of the tunnel. Then, I spread plaster of paris along the tunnel wall with a putty knife. After the plaster had dried about halfway, I pressed crumpled tin foil into the plaster... I let the plaster dry completely before pulling off the foil. The foil makes some pretty good blasted rock texture!
Next, I started on the portal itself. I glued a length of foam between the tunnel walls, glopped some plaster on it and pressed on some more tin foil.
Plaster dry and the foil off! Note, the piece of foam on top of the tunnel is only temporary, I won't add the tunnel roof until I ballast the track inside the bore.
