Weekend Update - April 27, 2008

[Chris333]

Chris, truly masterful! That engine isn't going to wind up too heavy for the bearings, now, is it...?

I sure hope not  :

The front 3/8" is full of cerrobend The center will get the above solid tungsten slug, then more cerrobend in the rear.
 ;D

[Sokramiketes]

Dear God...

[tom mann]

That will weigh 2lbs when done..2.5lbs if the rivets were 'outies' ;D

[Sokramiketes]

That will weigh 2lbs when done..2.5lbs if the rivets were 'outies' ;D

Actually, it would weigh less if most of that brass sheet was etched away to make outies.   

[shark_jj]

After working on mechanical things all winter, I decided it was time to tackle some scenery.  Began work on covering the 80 sq. feet of hillside around the Horseshoe Curve.  I also mocked up some buildings in Altoona.  Since I will have to scratchbuild the structure from photos, I needed to scale the size.  The 7th Street bridge mock up was done by a friend.  The reservoir is still ghastly plaster white.

[chuck geiger]

John, the foliage clusters look great for the trees. They are so PA.

[shark_jj]

thanks, I had boxes of lichen left over from the last layout, so I re-covered it in Woodlands Scenic ground foam.  They came out not too bad.  I will make trees for the area in front of the Curve to give a sense of height and depth to the foreground.

[chuck geiger]

I processed several pounds of my own lichen in 94 and packed it away, I used it on my layout in PA
by doing the same thing, with the ground foam, it looks like the more expensive foliage clusters. The
Lehigh and Keystone Valley Model Railroad Club makes all of it's background trees the same way and from a distance looks like a PA mountainside in Spring and Summer.

Where some modelers make a mistake, they dont make the foreground trees look like the background and it's doesn't blend, which means those lichen clumps with ground foam with armatures become the foreground trees.

[shark_jj]

thats a great photo Chuck.  Can you expand on your last comment about the foreground trees.  It picqued my curiosity but I didn't fully understand the point you were making.

[SquirrelHollow]

thats a great photo Chuck.  Can you expand on your last comment about the foreground trees.  It picqued my curiosity but I didn't fully understand the point you were making.

I think he was trying to say you need a gentle transition between foreground and background trees.

If the foreground is too different from the background, it becomes its own entity.  Then you have 2 separate visual effects to deal with, instead of a nice, flowing scene.

[wm3798]

Like this?




Lee

[shark_jj]

Lee..layout looks great.  Those are the types of trees I built for the last layout...over 2000 of them...took months.  I needed something more quickly this time so went the lichen route.  I did pick off all the Sedum from my wifes garden just before she cut them down this spring so will be using it to make foreground trees.  You did a great job on yours.

[John]

I visited the Hawaiian Railway Society on Oahu, rode on a 3 foot narrow guage behind a 44 ton Whitcomb ..

Pix when I get back .. Aloha ..

[Greyryder]

Chris, truly masterful! That engine isn't going to wind up too heavy for the bearings, now, is it...?

I sure hope not  :

The front 3/8" is full of cerrobend The center will get the above solid tungsten slug, then more cerrobend in the rear.
 ;D

That thing's going to have enough mass to cause time dialation. Ought to make running at scale speeds, easier.