Wordless Wednesday #282

Modeling Monday: Rt. 15 Overpass - Final Placement and Basic Scenery

Here's where I am compared to where we were last time. As you can see (especially if you went back to check), I've now put the abutments in place and have the backdrop temporarily tacked up with some painter's tape.

In order to really figure out the optimal height of the backdrop, I had to re-set the bridge itself in place (of course, risking another part snapping off). The shot above is taken from "normal eye view" (how I see it) and confirms that the bottom of the backdrop is obscured - if not outright hidden from view - by the bridge itself.

I also wanted to be sure that the bottom of the backdrop would not be all that visible to other folks who are different heights than I am. So I figured I'd disguise it with some "trees."

Not only would the transition from foreground scenery to backdrop be disguised by actual trees, I also wanted the suggestion of a treeline around the holes in the backdrop and along the bottom edge of the backdrop (which would be just above said holes).  So I cut up some stove scouring pads, shot them with hairspray, and poured on some flocking/leaves in the same colors that I used for the trees.

You can see the result in the photo above. The "treeline" goes right around the holes in the backdrop, and I've wedged some 3D trees right up against the backdrop to go between it and the abutments/bridge. I also took advantage of the bridge being out of the way to add scenery.

Quick note about adhesives: I used glue stick applied to the back of the backdrop photo printouts to glue them to the vinyl/masonite backdrop and used hot glue to attach the stove pads. The bridge abutments, and the overpass itself, will just always be placed in place for easy removal for track cleaning/access, etc.

And another lesson learned, when I went to remove the tape from the track. Be careful you don't stick it to your ties - especially if you went to the trouble to paint them. Even painter's tape - which isn't supposed to be as sticky as regular masking tape - took up some of the nice paint & drybrushing I did on the ties. I'm glad I discovered this here, toward the back of the scene. I'll know better for my foreground track.

I put the bridge back in place, again, to see how everything was looking - and from my view here, it's looking pretty good.

Next step was to continue to rough in the base scenery in the area. I applied ground goop and sprinkled some Woodland Scenics Green Blend Fine Turf, as well as Burnt Grass Fine Turf ground foam over the wet goop. . .

. . . wet it down with a spray of 70% isopropyl alcohol and then dribbled on a 50/50 white glue/water mix.

I saturated everything with glue - per what all I've read in my many scenery books - but was dismayed to see it running down to the low areas and pooling...

Over all though, the scene is starting to take shape.

To make things look a bit better until I mix more goop, I painted some more of the white plaster cloth.

And replaced the overpass . . .

After all of the vacillating and obsessing about how the Hartford skyline & backdrop in this area would look, I think it ended up looking pretty great. I know it's not perfect but it's a more-than-acceptable compromise for me to convey the sense of where the Valley Local comes from in the morning and goes back to in the evening. And that's an important part of the story - told all the more effectively by a little bit of colorized postcard and some rudimentary scenery.

I do have to admit though - I'm a little disappointed that the overall "tone" of the scenery appears too dark to my eye. I model September/October and think that overall it should be much lighter. I think the ground foam may be soaking up some of the brown paint in the goop - and it doesn't help that the brown paint itself is probably too dark. Finally, it seems that every time I wet any of the scenery materials, they darken - and keep that darkened look even when everything is dry.

Any help/tips/guidance on this - especially if you do anything differently - would be much appreciated, as always.

"DandHColonieMain" shouldn't have to squint too much here...

Nevertheless, after having "Finish the Wethersfield section of the layout" on my annual Goals lists since I started those lists way back at the end of 2015(?!), it is SOOOOO nice to see Wethersfield really starting to fill in and take shape. And an unexpected benefit of this progress is that it's the best motivator I've discovered so far for making even more progress! The more I get done here, the more I want to do - even if it is scenery %^)

Friday Fun? - Another Lesson Learned & Using a Postcard as a Backdrop

After leveling up the Fernwood Street area with some masonite, I figured I'd be able to dive right into doing the street and sidewalks once all the goop dried. Unfortunately, instead I ended up with this:

Yup - my nice flat street base is all bowed in both directions(!) I thought the thick, finished masonite would have held its shape. But, apparently, the high water content of the goop soaked into the masonite, warping it substantially.

LESSON:
Either seal the masonite first by painting it, or don't use masonite at all and use styrene instead.

The problem I have now is that the terrain and road base is just about even with the track level - I don't have much more room to add another layer (e.g. styrene) on top of things to level everything out.

So, I decided to put that to the back of my brain and mull it later. One of the nice things about having such a large layout is that there's always something else you can work on. In my case, I decided to go back to the Route 15 overpass.

When we last left this area, I'd just finished the overpass and was trying to figure out how to proceed in the scene - what to do about the backdrop, terrain, etc.

Well, after many goings back and forth between setting the overpass in place, eyeing the backdrop, adjusting the overpass position, eyeing the backdrop some more, and etcetera, I decided that I had to finally pull the trigger, make up my mind about the backdrop, and finish this area. But the main motivation for my decision was this:

It literally seemed that every time I moved the overpass something else on it would break! Thankfully, the repairs were always easy to make, but I finally decided that I have to put the overpass in place once and for all just to protect it.

And that meant that I'd have to do the backdrop and the surrounding scenery.

First step was to raise the height of the abutments and piers. I knew I'd be using ground goop in the area and the "concrete" footings below the piers weren't tall/thick enough to not get buried. So I added a course of N-scale roadbed strips under where the piers would go and added some scrap wood of similar thickness (in this case, pieces of paint stirrer stick) underneath the abutments.

Once in place, I fussed around with the backdrop quite a bit to determine final height and placement. How to actually do the backdrop has been the single largest roadblock to completing this scene. Since the Valley Line heads north from Wethersfield into Hartford, I wanted to include the Hartford skyline as it looked during the era I'm modeling. Unfortunately, one of the problems with prototype modeling is knowing a bit too much about your prototype - only the "right" image would do. And, unfortunately, there aren't many such images.

In fact, this postcard is the only one I found which was suitable. So I enlarged the postcard, and a friend of a friend colorized it for me. It's not ideal and it sufficed as a stand-in for the past few years. But ultimately, I decided not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good and decided to use a postcard for my backdrop(!)

I used an x-acto to cut around the skyline and used some tree photos I'd taken to start trying to blend things together.

In a sheer bit of dumb luck, it turned out that the postcard image had a bit of tree in front of the water tank on the left. That provided a particularly nice transition between the one-dimensional backdrop and the 3-D scenery in front. Here I'm using tape to place things temporarily while I determine final positions.

Notice I also added a small foamboard ground contour in front of the left abutment & hot glued the cardboard strips to it. This way I'll be able to easily lift out the abutments to access the track - and to easily salvage them should I ever dismantle this layout (whether the overpass itself will survive another move remains to be seen).

More fussing with position and placement of the other parts of the backdrop (i.e. treeline).

Once I marked where all the backdrop pieces would go, I installed some foam blocks to provide bases for the trees I'd use between the backdrop and the bridge.

Next, I covered the track with some tape and an old pillowcase and painted the area my ground color (which, incidentally, I think is way too dark). I took the ground color right up the bottom part of the backdrop base (blue-painted vinyl) to prevent any blue from showing below any backdrop photos.

I then added dirt and ground foam in the area behind and underneath the overpass - dirt directly below, and ground foam everywhere else. Once in place, I sprayed the materials with 70% isopropyl alcohol and dripped on diluted white glue.

Finally, I (re)applied plastercloth over the cardboard strips to fill in the area just south of the west abutment.

Next time, I'll show how I disguised the bottom edge of the backdrop & "tunnel entrances" & will start on trees and basic scenery. Oh yeah - and I'll share yet another lesson learned....

Throwback Thursday: Rt. 15 Overpass DONE!

So, this happened a while ago, but with everything going on I'm just now posting about it. . .

Yes, I finally finished the Rt 15 Overpass which will anchor the "north" (right) end of the Wethersfield scene on my layout. After doing some more weathering, including adding soot to the portion of the bridge that's over the tracks, I put everything in place - and discovered a problem.

The "oil" marks that I'd made down the center of the lanes on the abutments and bridge didn't match up! That's what I get for doing each piece separately (left abutment, bridge, right abutment). Actually, the left abutment and bridge matched ok, but the right abutment was WAY off. No problem. Since I used powders, and hadn't set anything with a fixative (and, since this will never be handled, I may not bother with a fixative), I just used a cloth dipped in alcohol to gently wipe off the marks from the right abutment and redid them - this time with the bridge and abutment right next to each other.  Probably didn't matter too much anyway - you never even see the roadway from normal viewing angles.

So, here are some pics of the finished project!

Before weathering

After weathering

Overview - now the "lane stains" match up

In the end, I have to admit this project took way longer than it probably should have. But with everything going on, it was nice to take my time and work on it during any tiny blocks of time I could. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out though - the goal was to make it look like it was about 5 years old, during an era characterized by steam-powered trains and high-emission vehicles.

I'd be really happy to hear what you think and whether you'd do anything differently with it, have any suggestions, etc (especially whether to bother overspraying it with Dullcote or some other fixative, at the risk of causing the weathering to disappear).

"All" I need to do now is get some scenery in under and around the overpass. Oh, and figure out what to do about the backdrop here. I'm afraid that'll be a whole other challenge....

Weathering the Abutments

I woke up pretty early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I figured I'd see what I could accomplish down in the basement.

When I last left the Route 15 Overpass, I'd finished the building & painting and even added little concrete footpads under the piers. Then I put it in place on the layout . . .

Looks pretty awesome, if I don't say so myself. But it looks way too new.

So, what better thing to do in the basement during the pre-dawn hours on less than 4hrs sleep and hopped up on 3/4 of a pot of coffee? How about trying my hand at weathering and potentially screwing up months of work?

Why not

Since my brain wasn't totally foggy, I at least knew enough to start by practicing on the back side of the large abutment - a side which will never be seen. My first attempts were - predictably - pretty awful. But knowing that I had the freedom to experiment helped me get comfortable with a technique that ended up passable, I think:

I used a combination of gray & black chalks & pan pastels, with a bit of rusty colors mixed in, and India Ink wash. Kept applying, and wiping it off, and reapplying until I came up with what you see here. I haven't done the actual bridge, girders, and piers yet, so any feedback/suggestions/guidance on what I've done so far is MOST welcome, as always.

And that's where things stand currently. Knowing that our days and evenings are already packed with work/life stuff, it's nice to be able to steal a little time in the morning - even if I have to pay for it later with more pots of coffee.

Monday Motivation and Modeling: MRH Ratings & Rt. 15 Overpass Progress

First off, I want to say a quick but HUGE THANK YOU for all of you that took the time to rate my latest article in Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine!

With your help, it was the top-rated article in last month's issue - and the You-Tube video has over 4,900 views (and those aren't all from me clicking). Talk about about a HUGE shot of motivation - so thank you so much! This is all still very new to me, but I'm glad if I've been able to convince even a few folks to try something new in the hobby and make some more progress. Certainly makes it much more fun!

Speaking of progress, when we last left the Rt. 15 Overpass Project, I'd just extended the right abutment a bit to fit better against the wall. After that dried, I finished up the details and started painting! Here are some photos of the progress . . .

Next step was to figure out the exact shape/size of the roadway, using cheap cardstock.

Also needed to add supports for said roadway. I used hot glue to attach the 1/4" square styrene to the Strathmore.

After lots of cutting/fitting, I had my template for cutting the styrene roadway.

Roadway in place, awaiting final details (parapet & sidewalk).

The State of Affairs at this point - just starting to sand the concrete pier bases.

Cutting up said bases from .060" styrene scrap to squares that "look right" under the pier shoes.

A few quick passes on the sanding block angles off the top edge to make it look like a support pad.

All the bases done and attached to tape for painting.

To raise the abutments to match the height of the bridge on its supporting bases, I cut out some more .060" styrene as a base.

 

Bases done.

I attached the bases with hot glue, but wouldn't recommend it. Considering the long runs of glue, some of the glue had started to cool & harden before I could attach the base (even though I used my extra hot gun). Consequently, I wasn't able to get the base as tight to the bottom of the abutment as I wanted. I'd try Walther's Goo or WeldBond next time.

Everything mocked up all ready for painting.

Based on a post from Kathy Millatt, I tried some Rustoleum "Desert Bisque" texture paint. She recommends it for concrete roads, so I thought it'd work for the abutments. It actually seems to have some fine grade sand in it so, while it might be great for roads (and I'll certainly try it for that), I thought it was a bit too textured for the abutments.

Another view - note the texture on the left.

I also considered a non-descript light gray for the base color, but it looked too blue to my eye. I finally settled on - wait for it! - "Concrete" color from Floquil. Fortunately, my friend Pete had a small spray can of it left that he let me use.

So with the concrete color choice out of the way, it was time to mask off the girders to paint the concrete bridge and abutments.

I used a combination of tape and paper to cover all the girders & supports, and here's everything painted and drying.

Unfortunately, as I was removing the paper, I ended up breaking off three of the delicate vertical supports - despite my being careful and having added some bracing, I guess they're still pretty delicate.

Fortunately, they all broke at the brittle ACC glue joints, so fixing them was just a matter of sanding off the old glue and regluing.

So that's where things stand - literally - for now while I get some other non-modeling stuff done and choose a color for the girders. I was just going to use a rattle can of flat black, but I think that might just make them disappear. I do plan to highlight them with some weathering so all wouldn't be lost. But I'm now - based on a suggestion from Bill - considering Model Masters "Aircraft Interior Black." Apparently, it's a little lighter - though not as light as "Grimy Black." I'll see if the local shop has any. If not, I have some Grimy Black on-hand and may just end up using that.

As always, I hope that you'll chime in if you have any suggestions or recommendations on anything I'm doing here. With the layout done up through benchwork, trackwork, and wiring (and a bunch of successful ops sessions under my belt), I'm blazing new-for-me ground with structures & scenery. So stay tuned for my mishaps and - hopefully - some successes.