More Views: The road continues to a highway overpass. The brick wall, which runs along the outer track, has windows which are vents. Since this is a major thoroughfare, I kitbashed the Rix overpass kits, to be two lanes each direction. I plan to put more of the Rix guardrails along the inclined roadway The overpass actually has a "T" in it (more kitbashing), leading to a smaller road along the back (window). The street continues off into the "distance" (through the wall) The two long stretches of roadway will lift out, for access to the subway tracks, in the unlikely event of a derailment or other problem. The road along the window continues to the first corner, to the newly built tunnel entrance for the subway area. It crosses the outer main near the edge of the window, and then (in the backdrop) continues up to the raised area behind the placed retaining wallAdd a caption The road continues to a highway overpass. The brick wall, which runs along the outer track, has windows which are vents Nothing is glued in place
Here's an overview of the corner coming out of the roundhouse area. The new raised area behind the retaining wall is seen, where there will be "The Depot", a happening nightspot. The road will cross in front of the club, just behind the retaining wall, coming out of the backdrop on the left, and going into it on the right. You can also see the beginnings of the retaining wall for the "trench", where the double main tracks descend below. I still need to put a couple more weathering coats on that. All the track in the subway, and on the outer main from the lift out bridge up to the edge of the window have now had feeders dropped and the rails weathered. Ballasting is up next for them. I'm thinking about getting some flats to go in the window, mounted on some foam board, so that the outer main has building behind it.
Thanks all. Been making my first Hyrdocal rock faces - first batch didn't come out too well, we'll see how last night's did. I think I got too much air into the mixture by stirring too much.
OK! Last night's hydrocal batch was much better. I think I was trying to mix the plaster too much like a batter, so it got a bit "fluffy". I just let it get wet, and sit, stirring slowly, and the rocks came out much more like the pre-made rocks which came in the scenery kit. (now I need to color/weather them, and see which ones will work well along that ramp).
New Progress Photos Lots of progress over the past 10 days (including a full cleaning of the train shed floor, too many empty boxes, stubs of wires, plastic bags, etc. were everywhere). I've done a lot of work around the turntable, finishing the ballasting there, and on the roadway around the roundhouse, getting all the terrain in place, starting the coloring, and ballasting the main line from the lift-out bridge up to the new highway overpass. I also had one really bad day, where I managed to: Spill half a bag of AR&M fine ballast onto my yard tracks, including a double crossover (everything cleaned nicely and is fully operational) Tip over a bottle of the thin plastic cement onto the roadway overpass, after airbrushing the surface to the coloring I wanted Spend an hour tracking down a "short", which ended up being caused by a set of feeders which I had neglected to hook up to the bus. Instead, they were still nicely twisted together for pushing down through the hole drilled in the foam and bench, with their stripped ends together. Hit my head at least half a dozen times on the bench Break off two truck-kingpins, on the same car, while trying to exchange the trucks/couplers. This was after having those same ones out, earlier in the day! OK - picture time Here's an overview of the progress around the turntable. You can also see my newly acquired SP GP38-2 in the lower right You can also see the new backdrop, along the open side of the bench, behind the roundhouse. Here's a better view These are King Mills Radical Flats
Views of the Roadway I got all the terrain for the roadway completed, and built a hill for the "other" side of the overpass to come up for Still have a lot of paint/pigment / finishing work to do Here we see the full ballasting and right-of-way grading that was done
More views of the main line running along the brick retaining wall on right, and stucco wall on left Santa Fe #84 coming under the overpass
And here's UP 929 A&B coming down that mainline I attempted to draw some added buildings in, with chalk pastels, for depth. The background board is not permanently attached, so I can undo, and try again. My daughter says it looks more like a "street art mural"
Thanks guys! This was the first part of the layout where I started real "scenery landscaping" and I am quite pleased with how it came out. I still have to get the unitrack ballasting technique down pat, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I wish the AR&M ballast didn't darken quite so much - I was using the UP/Silverton/WP light gray along this stretch, and it got quite darker. The water gets into the pores of the rock, and then the glue "traps" it there. For the ties, I came up with a custom mix of PollyScale paint. Took about 5 ml of UP Light Gray, 5 ml of Rail Tie Brown, and 2.5 ml of Mineral Red. This creates a nice sun-baked grayish-brown, as so many ties in California look.
