Weekend Update 11/12/23

[up1950s]

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1733/3724/1600/runaway_track_RZ.jpg

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/luxomni/2914182351

https://chandrashekharasandprints.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/the-runaway-train/

https://twitter.com/Central_Railway/status/1207504620689317888

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maurice_W._Graham.jpg

[mu26aeh]

HO Mack Vision off the printer and out of the paint shop this week.  Freightliner to the right with a Walthers mix mixer in the back

[nkalanaga]

How many hobos were vets?  Probably quite a few in the 1930s. 

[basementcalling]

Update on my GP-15-1 weathering. Progress so far.








I like how the yellow faded areas turned out, but the faded gray spots need more work.

[Bendtracker1]

Update on my GP-15-1 weathering. Progress so far.

I like how the yellow faded areas turned out, but the faded gray spots need more work.

I think you're on the track with the faded spots.  Yes, the yellow looks good!
If you make the gray spots a little darker (less contrast) and overall larger instead of so many smaller spots, I think that would help?

[Jesse6669]

I worked on the transition area to the backdrop for the 1:300 WP&Y Fraser BC section.  I think the "trees" will need a little spray of thinned grey or perhaps chalks to lighten them a bit.  It still has some gaps of course.  After the transition is done, I'll pour Fraser lake in the area in front of the backdrop.




Also finished up the T-scale Reading Train Master test model.  It needs weathering but otherwise I think I can call it done, posed with an old WM 50' combination boxcar done on Shapeways.


Jesse

[ednadolski]

I like how the yellow faded areas turned out, but the faded gray spots need more work.

One approach to refine and flatten those might be to lightly dab at the grey spots with a torn makeup sponge before the paint completely dries.  You want to remove some of the paint but not all.  Also, wipe the sponge clean every couple of dabs if it gets too much paint on it, otherwise it will just spread the paint around which you probably will not want.

Same can be done with a brush to refine vertical grime and rust streaks.

The yellow spots look pretty good. Sometime the lettering on these units can also become splotchy looking.


Ed

[garethashenden]

I worked on the transition area to the backdrop for the 1:300 WP&Y Fraser BC section.  I think the "trees" will need a little spray of thinned grey or perhaps chalks to lighten them a bit.  It still has some gaps of course.  After the transition is done, I'll pour Fraser lake in the area in front of the backdrop.

I haven't done it myself yet, but the technique I've seen is to have multiple transition layers between the layout and the backdrop. With each one reducing scale and detail, they can be stacked in close proximity to blend the modeled scene into the brackdrop. I have been reading this book recently and I highly recommend it. If you can find it for a reasonable price anyway. https://www.crecy.co.uk/creating-a-backscene
Here is one of the illustrations from the book

[johnb]

[ednadolski]

I haven't done it myself yet, but the technique I've seen is to have multiple transition layers between the layout and the backdrop. With each one reducing scale and detail, they can be stacked in close proximity to blend the modeled scene into the brackdrop. I have been reading this book recently and I highly recommend it. If you can find it for a reasonable price anyway. https://www.crecy.co.uk/creating-a-backscene
Here is one of the illustrations from the book

Oh that looks really awesome -- perfect approach for the hills of the Tehachapis (if you have the space to fit in in).  I once tried something sort of akin, with flat/layered profile boards, but it looked more like something a 5-year old might make it out of construction paper    .    Does the book cover things like atmospheric/aerial perspective?

For my old layout, I used photo flats, which always looked, well, flat.



Ed

[dem34]

Not sure why your being hard on yourself, atleast with that photo I'm getting the effect. Only spoil I would say is it being a bit glossy.

[garethashenden]

Oh that looks really awesome -- perfect approach for the hills of the Tehachapis (if you have the space to fit in in).  I once tried something sort of akin, with flat/layered profile boards, but it looked more like something a 5-year old might make it out of construction paper    .    Does the book cover things like atmospheric/aerial perspective?

For my old layout, I used photo flats, which always looked, well, flat.



Ed

Not even if you have the space, it can be done in a couple of inches. There's a good section on how to convert topographical maps and satellite images into the correct perspective along curving guide lines. Details are given on how to set the horizon and elevation. While there are sections on photobackdrops, the emphasis is on painted ones. The instructions are good enough that I feel I can do it, even though I'm not an artist.

[garethashenden]

Not sure why your being hard on yourself, atleast with that photo I'm getting the effect. Only spoil I would say is it being a bit glossy.

If we compare these two images, the thing I notice immediately is that the closer hill on the model is too blue. Things get bluer and hazier as they get further away, but that wasn't corrected for when the image was used as the backdrop. I assume that the backdrop image was taken across the loop. The contrast between the modeled grass and the grass on the backdrop is jarring. If the near hill and the far hill had been treated separately it might have come out differently.

[EJN]

I needed a small depot for my HO switching layout. I had this Walthers kit but it was unsuitable for 2 reasons: The footprint is too big, and I am modeling Podunkville in the 1950s, and it would be inappropriate for a very small town.





On MRH, I saw a photo of a small depot I really liked, I realized I could probably kitbash something similar from the Walthers kit.
So out came the Zona razor saw, Exacto knife, & sanding blocks, and after a lot of slicing & dicing I ended up with this:






The roof sections were cut from a styrene "no parking" sign.
I am undecided at this point whether to finish the roof with tarpaper or Bollinger Edgerly shingles.

[robert3985]

If we compare these two images, the thing I notice immediately is that the closer hill on the model is too blue. Things get bluer and hazier as they get further away, but that wasn't corrected for when the image was used as the backdrop. I assume that the backdrop image was taken across the loop. The contrast between the modeled grass and the grass on the backdrop is jarring. If the near hill and the far hill had been treated separately it might have come out differently.

First off, Ed's modeling is top-notch, and I know Ed's biggest critic is himself.  The problem with comparing two different photos taken at different times, different locations, different subjects, different color temperatures and different film/camera settings is that it is futile to compare their relative colors. 

Even the differences in the way they're reproduced on individually set computer monitors will make for very large color difference many times.

Keeping this in mind, and just for the Hell of it, it looked to me as if Ed's photo of his layout wasn't color corrected and the exposure was off.  Even the background has the same too-bluish tone to it, which indicates to me that the difference between the photo of the real loop vs Ed's photo of his layout might just be a matter of filtration and exposure settings.

So, I downloaded both photos, opened them up in Photoshop at the same time, enlarged the canvas, cloned the actual photo into the same photo as Ed's layout pic, and went to work adjusting...overall...not picking out any aspect of Ed's photo to change...but just adjusting color temp and fiddling with photo filters and exposure settings...using the "closest" hill as what I wanted to match...and this is the result.....

Photo (1) - "Real" Tehachapi Loop photo on top, Ed's color corrected photo in the middle, and Ed's uncorrected photo on the bottom:


I'm pretty sure that Ed's critical eye, when creating his layouts and models, would not allow him to be anywhere near happy with the "results" in his uncorrected photo, and if viewed in real life, rather than looking at a photo reproduction, the actual results are much closer to the corrected middle photo than the bottom uncorrected one.

My only bit of constructive criticism about Ed's layout presentation is his sky...which is a problem with most model railroaders (myself included) who don't usually take the time to progressively go from light/hazy at the bottom to darker as the "sky" goes up.

Note, that in the prototype photo that the hazy sky is always brighter than any earth beneath it, which ideally could be done on our layouts by leaving a gap between our painted or photographed background hills/mountains and the skyboard, and shining a light up from the bottom, illuminating the sky separately from the rest of the layout lighting.

When I was taking photos of my Ntrak modules years ago, I had a 4X8 sheet of 1/8" Masonite that I painted up and lit separately from the module I was photographing.  This added greatly to the "sky" effect and its luminosity.  But, my "layout" lighting when my modules were put together at home, was not physically compatible with lighting the sky separately...which is the challenge.

Anyway, I thought this was interesting and my compliments to Ed and his rendition of Tehachapi Loop...just excellent in many ways.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore