Best Of UP's N Scale Canyon Division Layout Build....

[Sumner]

Yard Scenery – Part 3...

First section moving back from west to ease.

 

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continuing on …...

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Sumner]

Yard Scenery – Part 4....

The area that is being worked on here and on the three previous pages is the scenery behind the main yard area and the engine maintenance scene.

 

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Continuing on …...

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Sumner]

Yard Scenery – Part 5....

Continuing on with the foam work…..

 

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Hopefully 1 ½ to 2 weeks and I’ll be done roughing in the foam work. Then onto painting it and the backdrops.

Continuing on …...

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Sumner]

Yard Scenery – Part 5....

Continuing on with the foam work…..

 

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Hopefully 1 ½ to 2 weeks and I’ll be done roughing in the foam work. Then onto painting it and the backdrops.

Continuing on …...

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Sumner]

Yard Scenery – Part 6 ...

Continuing on with the foam work, almost finished to finished…..



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  Continuing on …...

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Sumner]

Approaching the end of roughing in the foam board scenery. Work stopped on the railroad at the end of the previous page for 6 days as we were out of town. One day back got the work in the first two images below done. Probably one more day needed after this to finish the sculpting the cap rock shown below and to fill in the gap on the upper level.

   

In this section above where the main yard will be I’m trying to make it look like the track is on a roadbed that was blasted into the side of the rock face resulting in the tracks very close to the edge of the rock face down to the yard. In real life this would only be about 130 scale feet above the yard (10+ inches on the layout). Rock faces here in SE Utah can easily be 500 to 1000 ft high.

 


Another couple hours and foam work will be done…...well roughing it in will be done.

   


I’ve improved my techniques and I can cut and shape the foam board a lot quicker than 4 months ago or so, but I’ve cut over a thousand pieces so things should go faster. I think I’m actually going to miss this part of the build.


 

Any of the pieces that are removable are wedge shaped looking down on them from the top to make it easier to pull them out and put them back in.

   


More to come in a day or so as this area is finished up …… then probably on to the backdrop painting or one of the turnout control options I’m working on to use on this upper level where I want to get to them and mount them from the side, not below.

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Sumner]

The 'Golden Spike' or in my case the 'Grey Foam' moment.....

.... when the last major foam board piece was put into place on the layout.
 
 

What a feeling to put the last piece in place. Kind of felt like the ‘Golden Spike’ moment for UP’s N Scale Canyon Division.

 

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Two videos that show all of the foam board scenery that has been shaped and put in place on the layout.

Seeing all of the main foam board in place brings mixed emotions. At one point earlier this year it seemed like I might never get done. Now that it is roughed in I’ll miss building with it. Still long ways to go before a train laps the upper and lower levels.

Backdrops will be next in order to get the work done there before Spackling and painting the rock-work. Then more roadbed and track laying. Also have some other train related off-layout projects that have to be completed.

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Sumner]

Sawmill Backdrop – Part 1....

On to painting backdrops….. I’ll start with the hardest and get it out of the way and probably end up with someone else painting it. Actually I did paint some clouds on another back drop ( HERE ) but will probably redo those and the mountains by them.


 
I want to use our mountains that are just north of town for the sawmill scene. I hope to end up with it looking like the base of the mountains start not far from the mill, closer that what the mountains look like above. To do that I wanted them to be fairly high on the back drop. I took the picture above about 3 miles south of our house, we are on the south end of town and the town is only 2 miles long (4000 people). To get the height I wanted and restricted by the width of the backdrop two sections of the photo were cut out and…....

 

….. the photo pieced back together. So already the mountains on the layout won’t be exactly like what we have.

 

Measurements were taken off the print and multiplied by 3, as it is 1/3 the width of the backdrop, and the tops of 6 peaks were plotted on the backdrop.

 

Then the outline of the peaks were sketched in as best I could. At this point I was pretty happy with how things were going.

 

I started watching some videos of painting mountains but didn’t really find one where the end result was what I was hoping for. Lots of different painting styles. I’m not trying to have it to look just like the photo. I want a touch of snow on the tops of the peaks only. Looking for it to look like one of the first snows of the fall with some dark moody clouds also.

 

I’m having a hard time getting the look and colors I would like but will keep plugging away and maybe have someone repaint it in the future if I can find that someone. More to come shortly.

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Sumner]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. 

Continued on with the painting and went back and added to what I painted and will continue to do that as I learn more.
 
 

The backdrop has a fairly large curve to it and I noticed that if I take pictures of it the image looks different on the opposite sides of the curve. Look at the right and left mountains above and compare their shapes and how they appear above and …...

   

….. this image above. Above the right mountain appears narrower and the left mountain wider. I don’t notice this when actually viewing the backdrop. Some is probably due to the camera in a slightly wide angle mode also.

More to come shortly.

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Scottl]

This is coming together nicely.  Nice backdrop!

[Sumner]

Getting close .....

 

with about 2 feet to go. The backdrop is about 6 feet wide.

 

I’m going to change the lighter mountain areas on the right that I did at the beginning to look more like what I’m doing in the center and to the left side of the backdrop. Probably 2 more days to finish this and then need to work on clouds.

More to come shortly.

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[chessie system fan]

Sumner, that backdrop painting is really good!  Can you post some of the instructional videos you found? Painting isn't my strong suit either.

[Sumner]

Sumner, that backdrop painting is really good!  Can you post some of the instructional videos you found? Painting isn't my strong suit either.

Thanks.  I looked at a couple videos in the past and then last week and felt the following one helped me the most...

I took a semester of art in High School 65 years ago and painted a half dozen watercolors in the 70's (my avatar picture) and that has been it until now.  His tips on creating depth helped me the most.  I changed things up as I progressed from right ....



.... to left and experimented more.  Still need to go back to the background mountains on the right.  I'm 80% happy where I'm at now but can always go back later and make changes.  Wanted to get it done before laying track and working on the sawmill scene itself. 

Next up will be clouds and then painting the foam rock-work and maybe ground at the edge of it.

Sumner

[Sumner]

Finished the scene on the lower part of the backdrop...

 

Put some of the sawmill scene together above to get a feel for how it might look.

 

Made some changes to Abajo Peak to the right above.

   

You can find more info about the different aspects of the saw mill down the page a bit ( HERE ) and the print files are all up on my account on Thingiverse ( HERE ).

 

Clouds next then Spackle and paint the rock-work behind the mill. A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Sumner]

Backdrops need clouds so started on that.....

 

I had been taking pictures of local clouds for some months to this point to possibly use as inspiration. I liked the one above in the lower right corner of the mountains but felt it was too ambitious for my skill level. I settled on the one above it that I had taken out in front of the house of a cloud formation to the east.

I’ve used IrfanView (free) for years to view my photos but never to print them. I edit the images you see on the website with paint.net (free but I donate here and there) and it does everything I need in an image editor but printing options aren’t so great. I found out that it is very easy to use IrfanView to ‘tile’ (cut an image into multiple images), print them and tape them into a larger image. What I did above.


 
I spent some time blocking in the basic shape above. I’ll be making some changes to how the image I’m working off of looks. Long ways to go needing to add highlights hoping to create some depth. One option is to always repaint the blue if I end up not liking things or maybe some time in the future to change the clouds all together.

Check back for updates on this. A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner