"Shoo-Fly" Free-moN Module (2'x6')

[DKS]

Very much enjoying the vicarious experience following along with your progress. I like the fact that you give even purely functional elements, such as the detachable extensions, the eye-appeal of realistic colors and textures.

Your remark about making scenic choices got me thinking: one of the photos you posted is a trove of ideas for colors and textures, as well as ground contours.



I especially like the way the one vineyard is set into--and wraps across--the hillside in the background. But most of all I like the colors. The southwest is one of my least favorite regions with respect to vegetation (or lack thereof), whereas this view provides plenty of the brilliant greens I crave.

[wm3798]

Didn't James May visit that vineyard on his cross country wine drinking binge with Oz Clarke?

Lee

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Lee: They did travel through Napa & Sonoma, though I'm not sure it was that one.
I think it was the other one.  The one with the grape vines. 

David: Thanks for following along with my rambling and adding your DKS 2-cents (which, converted to model railroading currency, comes out to about 20 kabillion dollars).

Thought I'd add a little scenery to the extension mainly to keep the cars from falling off, though having more surface to practice some new scenery techniques and materials doesn't hurt either (until you see the result  )

I really dig the textures in that photo too, and the little details like the tractor-paths every other row.
And the effect of the horizontal curves of the vine wires around the hill in contrast to the vertical curves of the hills themselves.

I'm very tempted to have a full, lush vineyard in the space I labeled "orchard" (in addition to the dead one in the corner by the old barn), I'm just momentarily at a loss on how to get those great leaves and bunches.
Not sure I have the grapes.
And a vineyard is one of those things that turns out either really wow or looking like the pipe-cleaner animals we made in pre-school.

Alright: I'll stop this wine-ing and just get it built!
It'll be a good challenge, and the benchwork took moocho less time than I anticipated, so here we go (just like Sideways!)
On the other hand, I just found out I'm bringing the module to the Pacific Coast Division Meet in two weeks to see how it fits with some others (crosses fingers), so I'd like to have more than a pinkfoam prairie soon.

Thanks again for the thoughts (& keep 'em coming).
Cheers!

[videobruce]

Good thing I just made "The Banananator":
 


Haven't done farmland yet, so this will be fun!

Ok, exactly what is this???? 

[conrail98]

Ok, exactly what is this???? 

Looks like a static grass applicator,

Phil

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Looks like a static grass applicator

Painted to look like a banana.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

I must have used the wrong type of plastic container for the flocking jar, because every time I use The Banananator a ton of grass just stays stuck on the inside of the Trader Joe's Mango Salsa container.

So today I shot the inside of the container the same yellow enamel as the outside.
We'll see if there's any improvement with the discharge. 

Well, today the foam was a-flying!

Well, it's a pinkfoam prairie no more.
 Now it's pinkfoam puffball puddle.
 
Started by carving out the stream, place for the abutments, and old barn/abandoned vineyard on the right:
 


You can see the garbage bag I kept open under the edge to try to catch as many foam flakes as I could (not that many, it turns out, as wrangling foam bits is about as easy as hearding cats). Guess I could have put a large dropcloth under it, but actually it wasn't as messy as previous pinkfoam perferation parties I've thrown.
 
After the stream I worked left and got the gentle slope of the cow pasture:
 


Then the real fun began.
 In the photo above, notice that it's still light out.
 After about an hour of rasping, I carved out the downstream side of the waterway as well as the large Lush Vineyard that will extend along almost the whole side and will definitely be a challenge to model:
 


Yup, it's dark.
 I used a steak knife that's been "missing" from the kitchen for a couple years for some work, but mainly that was all forming tool.
 No reason to go to the gym now: probably put on five pounds of muscle in my right arm and back with all the exercise.
 
I'll get better pictures tomorrow after I carve & rasp some more.
 Today I just started blocking out the shapes to get a feel of the composition and flow of it all.
 Part of the fun is to see what landforms appear as you form away.
 
Don't worry: that big hill will get eroded down quite a bit by the time I'm through.
 Had to stop on the hill because, even after 3 days, the caulk isn't totally cured between those small sections.
 
But it's fun to see things take shape

Thanks for looking.

[Chris333]

Painted to look like a banana.

Or a Post-t-vac   

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Or a Post-t-vac   

Never heard of a Post-t-vac until today.
Some disturbing pictures in Google Images.
Thanks, Chris. 

Someone made the fabulous suggestion of having some olive trees as part of the Sonoma scenery, and that got me thinking again (D'oh!)

Earlier I was seriously considering olive trees for the orchard area until I thought about twisting all of the wire for 40 trunks.
 For some reason I think twisting all of the wire for 10 rows of grape vines will be easier.

But now I've got olives in my head (it's the pits!), and I'd love to have them on the module, but right now I"m envisioning the trains rolling slow past a large expanse of lush grapevines.

I could swap the old vines near the old barn with some olives.
 Or, since many vineyards have groves of olive trees, too (it's the off-season crop):


 
I could stick a couple olive trees next to the vineyard between it and the river or on the other side towards the endplate:



 That depressed area at the "front" is for the vineyard.  The olives could go either left of it at the bend or on the right before or after the drop-off.

That way I'd need only a couple of olive trees to suggest something larger, and it would be cool to stage a picking scene:


 
Or a more realistic, prototypical picking scene:


 
Or a planting scene:



 Usually I think "less is more" and so I was thinking "either / or" with the grapes and olives and would have to give up one, but in this case I think "olive" it could work out very well.

Time to press on!

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Not much done today.
 Did get the bumpkin bumpers put in on the detachable extension to prevent the 666-scale-foot drop to the concrete:





The crew is waiting for Hank to get off the ties so they can start working.
 Problem is that Hank's as slow as molassas or gopher fannies stuck in gorillaglue, so looks like no one's going anywhere anytime soon.
 
But I did get a rather large package from Scenic Express today with my "weed" and "grass" shipment, so hopefully this is the last time you see the extension as bare as this:
 


Hope everyone has a groovy weekend!

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Well, today I was ec-static: fired up The Banananator and used an old piece of scenery as a "grass palate" trying different combinations of long & short grasses of various colors.
 Gotta say: It's going to take a while to get the static grass technique down, somewhere between too little and too much or too even.
 
Also tried some small "super trees", though not too ecstatic about the results. But will get better with practice, I guess.
 
That didn't stop me from starting to scenic the detachable extension with grasses, bushes, some trees and a wire fence:
 








'Twas not a great day for photos.
 The lighting gods were not on my side today (I really need to get some good spots: the CFLs from the hardware store just don't cut it).
 
Got the grass a bit too uniform, even though I did "squish" some of it with the tweezers to break it up.
 Actually looks better in person, though a little "chia-pet" in places.
 Going to try some different mixes tomorrow.
 
But it's nice to be back in scenery after the benchwork.
 Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

[DKS]

'Twas not a great day for photos.
 The lighting gods were not on my side today (I really need to get some good spots: the CFLs from the hardware store just don't cut it).

Consider getting a few LED floods. They have about the same temp as tungsten, but throw virtually no heat, so you can place them right up close to the models with no fear of melting anything. And they won't blow a breaker when you gang up 3-4 of them.

At any rate, even with the gods not being on your side, the images convey the desired information, and those removable sections are a sight unto themselves. Nice work!

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Consider getting a few LED floods. They have about the same temp as tungsten, but throw virtually no heat, so you can place them right up close to the models with no fear of melting anything. And they won't blow a breaker when you gang up 3-4 of them.

Thanks for the tip.  Any suggestions as to a specific color / tone or K number?

[DKS]

Thanks for the tip.  Any suggestions as to a specific color / tone or K number?

Not really. Most of them fall into "warm" and "cool" categories. I have a bunch of the warm, and they behave like tungstens, from the camera's perspective.

[C855B]

Most "warm" LEDs are around 2800-3200K, specifically designed to match tungsten. Just avoid the "daylight" spec, which are 5000K and will be way too blue to the camera.

M.C., since you have IKEA nearby, get a handful of the Jansjö clip lights. They're 2700K and at 3W are darned bright... only $15, too!