Weekend Update 7/8/12

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Ed i like the texture, but it isn't brown enough for dirt up here in New England.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

They make darker grout, but you might be surprised if you look at photos.

[C855B]

Ed:  That looks like parts of Utah I've seen...  Maybe not so good for the East, but change the roadnames and it could be used as "finished" scenery!

+1. I am taking note of the techniques for the SW desert in my near future.

[wm3798]

Definitely not dark enough.  I think the old color on the Kidney was perfect.  Get back to work.
L

[VonRyan]

I'm kinda late to the party, as usual, but here's the latest progress on my NCR Line shelf layout. The dirt is all down and brushed and ready for real ground cover.

However, the next step is ballasting, and before that I want to make sure it runs well, so the real next step is leveling it up, joining it up, running the bus wires and running some trains.

In the meantime, pics from the two ends.















And you can see how the unsanded grout technique works here. Here's a "before" picture taken after I painted glue on and sifted on a thick layer of the stuff. Tonight I went over it all with a paint brush and brushed off all the loose stuff.

So your dirt is in fact not dirt but grout? whos grout, and what color, do you use?
-Cody F.

[Philip H]

A bunch of us have been experimenting with both sanded and unsanded colored tile grout by Polyblend.  You can get it in small boxes and large bags at Home Depot and Lowe's.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That's correct. It's unsanded grout from Lowes.

Like this: http://www.lowes.com/pd_45017-73069-1622-0408-2_4294862834__?productId=3033648&Ntt=LATICRETE&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3DLATICRETE&facetInfo=LATICRETE

I don't remember what color that is, but I think I need to go find something darker:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_185276-1295-80710_0__?productId=3498624&Ntt=unsanded+grout&pl=1&currentURL=&facetInfo=

The more I look at pics though, the color isn't as far off as you'd think, especially once it gets some glue on it (from the next layer):

[VonRyan]

I'd say the color is good. Certainly it'll look better once it gets the obligatory coverings of WS product. Who's ballast do you plan on using?

-Cody F.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Dude you have tons of photos of dead grass, but not dirt. Go diggin man!

[sizemore]

Looks good Ed. The color reminds me of an old dusty farm road. I think you're right, once you start gluing other materials down, it will darken the color a bit.

The S.

[Bob Bufkin]

Looking good Ed.  You do got to get some grass and a ton of trees done.  Right now it look like Conrail is running in a desert somewhere in the Southwest.

[Ian MacMillan]

I am a big fan of the grout, and I have been using it for years. I use Polyblend sanded and unsanded. Available in a crap load o' colors.

[Hiroe]

Mark,
That looks incredible. You must be almost as crazy as I am. Did any of the security theater people ask to look inside and see it?

David,
At first glance, this picture looked like a proto photo, shot from inside the car. I agree that these trees look great as-is.

Cherub,
Correct me if I'm wrong; but isn't one supposed to *clean* the track before putting trains on it (instead of dirtying it)?


Here's what I've been up to the last week or so, myself:









Only thing remaining to do now is add in that last crossover; then it will be finished (and ready for paint).

Reminder that we'll be open for the Merchantville Car Show this Saturday, http://www.merchantvillecarshow.net/.

--Drew

[pwnj]

I just tried grout for the first time on my square foot microlayout.  The previous owner of this house had left a small bag of it and the color was pretty close to what I was looking for so I figured why not give it a go.  Based on photos of how it looked around here when the W&OD was still running, I think the color came out pretty close.  I mixed grout with two different colors of WS ballast and a bit of real dirt.  Here's the results:





Speaking of that, I got a lot more done on my square footer this past weekend, including adding a tree, signs, stop lines on the roads, a quick-n-dirty scratchbuilt switch throw and target (nonfunctioning), more detail on the depot, telephone poles, installed the scratchbuilt fire hydrant, etc.



I also finished up my part on this static 0-6-0t for a friend's railroad museum module (another guy is going to put on the rods, etc.):



And I did a little more work on my pulse throttle kit.

Oh, and I took a whole bunch of photos of model trains, too!

[packers#1]

Some great work this weekend all! 
Figured I'd sneak these in...finished some of the scenery on the diorama (just waiting to get my butt in gear to build the overpass bridge). I took it outside just now and snapped some pics; overall, I like the colors.


I really wish I had the bridge finished for this pic!