Weekend Update 9/1/13

[robert3985]

Thanks Max!
I'm wondering how gluing it down will effect the finer slate powder that has resulted from the pulverizing, which I did with the handle of a very large screwdriver.

Once it is all ballasted, it'll get some other scenic treatments for the moss and the grasses that somehow manage to grow out of the slate waste.



-Cody F.

Cody, you might want to use this technique which I picked up years ago when I was deep into IPMS military figures.  I use it for much of my "grass" on my layout and it works well.

You get some tan felt...or grass green (I prefer tan) and glue it down securely to your scenery base.  If you want to, you can use your airbrush to tint parts of it various shades of green or brown at this point, then tease it up using a dental pick (for bunch grass) or a file card (for more evenly distributed grasses).  At this point, I usually cut it down to about 10 to 12 scale feet high, then sprinkle on my "dirt", which is real dirt I've graded.  I pull up sections of my fuzzed up felt base to make sure it's showing through the layered-on dirt, then I tamp it down with my finger, making the dirt denser.  Fiddle around with this until you get a grass-to-dirt ratio that complies with what you're attempting to do.

Don't worry about the length of the "grass" at this point, as you'll be cutting it shorter after you've glued the dirt down.

I spray mine with a fine atomized mist of water with a drop of liquid Dawn soap in it, then I take a pipette that's got my white glue-water mixture it in, get below the top of the grass and "flow" the glue out, making sure the dirt is well-wetted with it.

The trick is to not get the felt fibers all matted up with your watery glue mixture, although it's inevitable some of that will happen, which is okay.

After the glue has dried, pick the fibers up with your file card and trim them to the height you thinks looks right.

You can easily represent thick, wild grasses or sparse grasses doing this and the results are exceptionally realistic.

Here's a close up of this technique beside the Park City Branch at Echo on my layout:

[VonRyan]

I'll probably just be going with Woodland Scenics fine turf in one or two colors since the base layer of the scenery will be the slate waste.

In slate mines, there were very few areas where the tracks were on actual ground, rather it was on a mix of layers of slate waste and whatever else.

The grasses that would sprout up to noticeable heights when modeled in 2mm Finescale would be very sparse, the most vegetation being restricted to mosses and fine grass that has been trampled by animals used to haul slab wagons or waste tips as well as the troves of miners who work on the many levels inside the mines.

This little diorama is mostly for me to get a feel for handlaying tack and for making scale slate waste.



-Cody F.

[Nilmadic]

You might want to lower those woodchip loads. With woodchips, the loads don't usually peak over the top of the hopper much because the wind from the train being in motion would blow off the exposed woodchips.


-Cody F.

Maybe these loads are covered or they aren't moving far?

[wazzou]

They all have a net covering the load.  You can make it out in that last photo.  The load does settle some in transit and, yes a few pieces do blow out.

[mmagliaro]

Whoaaaaa..... nice dead grass, Bob!   

Cody, you might want to use this technique which I picked up years ago when I was deep into IPMS military figures.  I use it for much of my "grass" on my layout and it works well.

You get some tan felt...or grass green (I prefer tan) and glue it down securely to your scenery base.  If you want to, you can use your airbrush to tint parts of it various shades of green or brown at this point, then tease it up using a dental pick (for bunch grass) or a file card (for more evenly distributed grasses).  At this point, I usually cut it down to about 10 to 12 scale feet high, then sprinkle on my "dirt", which is real dirt I've graded.  I pull up sections of my fuzzed up felt base to make sure it's showing through the layered-on dirt, then I tamp it down with my finger, making the dirt denser.  Fiddle around with this until you get a grass-to-dirt ratio that complies with what you're attempting to do.

Don't worry about the length of the "grass" at this point, as you'll be cutting it shorter after you've glued the dirt down.

I spray mine with a fine atomized mist of water with a drop of liquid Dawn soap in it, then I take a pipette that's got my white glue-water mixture it in, get below the top of the grass and "flow" the glue out, making sure the dirt is well-wetted with it.

The trick is to not get the felt fibers all matted up with your watery glue mixture, although it's inevitable some of that will happen, which is okay.

After the glue has dried, pick the fibers up with your file card and trim them to the height you thinks looks right.

You can easily represent thick, wild grasses or sparse grasses doing this and the results are exceptionally realistic.

Here's a close up of this technique beside the Park City Branch at Echo on my layout: