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AVRR-PA
Fireman
USA
4598 Posts |
 Posted - 02/23/2012 : 10:03:43 AM
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Yesterday was fun. [:-bouncy] With John's help we were able to get all but one of the supports screwed to the benchwork, including some fussy corner pieces that I was able to pre-fab.
The one remaining support can be installed once Vagel trims 1" off the end of siding that pokes out a mite too far. He's complaining that this will mean he can get one less car on the siding. Hey, ees not my problem. 
Next up - making a cut list for all the Masonite pieces and cutting them out at my shop on the table saw. Maybe we can do that next Wednesday. Once the Masonite is in place, Vagel will cut the curves to match the "CAD-board" with a saber saw, and then we quickly install the outdoor carpeting.
Don |
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
USA
720 Posts |
Posted - 02/29/2012 : 5:19:06 PM
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Well, we're moving right along. Don cut up most of the hardboard facia pieces using the cut list he made last week and we got most of those mounted today.
Here's Don busily drilling and screwing at the end of the alcove down by the blast furnace site ...
... and overview of the hardboard and yet-to-be replaced CADboard cut patterns for the end of the peninsula, where the B&SGE main will curve out of Richmond Furnace yard through a cut on the end of a ridge/sight barrier and over a short hillside fill into Springtown:
In the last post (I think) I covered my ballasting and scenicing escapades on the lower end of the Buchanan Branch, and I continued that over the course of the past week. I gained some "experience" with what happens when one oversprays 91% denatured alcohol as a wetting agent for gluing newly sprinkled ground foam alongside already dried ballast: one unglues the ballast and impregnates said ballast with stray sprinkles of said ground foam.[:-dunce]
Time to go back to the tried and true drop of detergent in the atomizer bottle of water for such work, or I could just be more surgical in how I apply the alcohol-wetted water, like with an eyedropper (but that takes way too much time when you're dealing with 2 or 3 feet of ground cover along the grade at a time).
So, I lost 24 hours while the glue re-dried and went back to it today, while Don was finishing up the facia mounting. Here's an overview of the area after I brushed an oil-based stain of dark gray over the ballast and slag fill to blend everything to gether:
That dark area on the extreme right is the result of applying the dark gray stain directly over Ground Goop that I carved while wet to try for the effect of a rubbly, rocky hillside emerging from underneath the slag fill. I still have to get out the acrylics and play around with dry-brushing different shades over the dark stained base to get a brown/gray/green kind of Juniata valley color mottle. Below is the "before" shot:
A couple of closer detail shots to show how the rough texturizing with an undercoat of Ground Goop and an overcoat of Glidden flat "olivewood" mixed with Scenic Express "caribbean sand" looks from a couple feet away:
Another lesson I learned while applying this stain is that the pigment in oil-based stains tends to settle over a short period of time, with the result that the shallower you dip your brush, the lighter the shade that you apply. But if you shake it up, you get a darker shade right at the surface. That's how I, er, achieved that short dark stretch in the ballast, which I'll have to fix with a light sprinkling of ballast and light stain. [:-banghead]
Hope you enjoy following these adventures in recreating a blighted late-1930s landscape. Someday soon, I'll be polluting the HO version of the West Branch Conocogeague Creek in a way that just might get me run out of the American Society for Environmental History.[:-eyebrows] |
Edited by - Vagel Keller on 02/29/2012 5:21:21 PM |
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Orionvp17
Fireman
USA
2806 Posts |
Posted - 02/29/2012 : 5:34:31 PM
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Vagel,
Non-PC person that I am, I think you should go for it. [:-eyebrows]
History may not be pretty, but it's history, and in your case, it's part of why we are where we are, and it's part of what made us who we are. Game on!
Pete
in Michigan |
Edited by - Orionvp17 on 03/01/2012 10:10:58 AM |
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George D
Moderator
USA
9906 Posts |
Posted - 02/29/2012 : 7:53:30 PM
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Vagel, is that stratus rock behind the track hand carved? It sure looks like a western PA cut.
George |
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
USA
720 Posts |
Posted - 02/29/2012 : 11:17:34 PM
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Thanks, Pete. It's funny how one's avocation can become a vocation ... and you well know from our interaction at narrow gauge meets how my academic perambulations have fed (and been fed by) my model railroading interests.
George, glad it reminds you of the region it's intended to ... although, I will admit that the B&SGE is on the eastern fringes of Western PA. But iron oxide shale is iron oxide shale, whether it's outside Connellsville or in the Juniata Valley. And, more to the point, a shale cut is a shale cut. Yes, that stratus rock is hand carved, but in a way that almost amounts to cheating. It's a really fast method that involves dragging a steel file cleaning brush (the small kind one uses to clean modeling files) across the blue or pink insulating foam base of that 3D backdrop ridge. If you go with the grain of the foam, you get a nice clean shale outcropping effect. If you go against the grain, you get the same effect, but with lots of "crumbles" and "whiskers" that are, nevertheless, easily done away with by rubbing your fingers along the lines of the "shale" repeatedly until they go away or are pressed back into the surface, where static cling holds them until you seal everything with washes of various colors. Took about 5 minutes to "carve" the strata, maybe 20 minutes to apply the various shades of acrylic paints, a mixture of Burnt Sienna and Burnt and Raw Umber, heavily diluted at first and sponged on to fill the cracks and crevices, then brushed on at various mixtures of color and thickness from a pallet. |
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George D
Moderator
USA
9906 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 08:04:34 AM
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Vagel, I have to give that a try. I like the results.
George |
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Dutchman
Administrator
USA
23230 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 09:17:39 AM
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Vagel & Don, I once again got caught up on the thread while searching through it for pics to post in last month's Photo Gallery.
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=35733&whichpage=14
You guys (1) work well together and (2) produce great results. |
Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
USA
4598 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 09:50:59 AM
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Hi, Bruce --
Thanks for reminding me about the photo gallery - I had a nice time looking at it and will take another, more liesurely, look later today.
I'll buy some more tempered hardboard Friday (no rain in the forecast!) and get out the remaining fascia pieces. I think Vagel plans for us to buy more indoor/outdoor carpet soon, so we can finish the Phase II fascia.
He should have a pretty impressive layout to show off at the NMRA Regional Convention Open House on April 29th.
Don |
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Tabooma County Rwy
Fireman
USA
4193 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 11:32:17 AM
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Great progress, Vagel and Don - as Bruce said, you two guys really work well together.
Vagel, FWIW, when I ballast, I use discarded saline solution (for contact lens users) bottles to apply both my wetting agent (alcohol) and gluing agent (usually diluted white glue). These containers have small orfices and are easy to control where the alcohol and glue goes. Getting the tops off is a little bit of a challenge - they aren't threaded, so one has to use the right type of pliers (or Channel Lock type adjustable pliers) to pry the tops off, but I've used the same containers for several years. Easier than an eye dropper, at least, for me....
Somewhere in years past I read about using the indoor/outdoor carpeting as fascia material - tell me (us) again, the reason to do that?
Al Carter |
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
USA
720 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 12:01:07 PM
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Bruce, thanks for including us in the photogallery; it's a honor.
Al, your suggestion is something I should already have thought of ... as I write this two of Don's eye glass cleaner spritzers he uses for wetting agent are sitting on the layout just the other side of the backdrop from the alcove.[:-boggled]
Vagel |
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
USA
720 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 12:04:40 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by George D
Vagel, I have to give that a try. I like the results.
George, I have a foam rock cut on my FreeMO module, and I got so many questions about it that I made up a little demonstration piece of blue foam rock cut in progress that I used to put at the corner of the module. It really is a neat trick, one that I picked up somewhere a long time ago and can't remember now from whom or where. |
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
USA
4598 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 2:39:38 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Tabooma County Rwy
Somewhere in years past I read about using the indoor/outdoor carpeting as fascia material - tell me (us) again, the reason to do that?
Al Carter
Hi, Al -- I'll leave it to Vagel to give you all the real reasons for liking indoor/outdoor carpet for fascia. I'll just give you the Lazy Carpenter's reason: it permits such sloppy work on the Masonite that it makes me (almost) feel guilty. Nothing has to fit perfectly because the carpet hides everything. Gaps at the corners - no problem. Bottom edge a bit uneven- no problem. It really speeds things up.
Don
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Dutchman
Administrator
USA
23230 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 3:20:54 PM
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| Guys, I saw the write-up of the April Convention in the NMRA Magazine. I'm checking our calendar to see if we can make a trip to Pittsburgh for the show. |
Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
USA
720 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 4:49:42 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Tabooma County Rwy
Somewhere in years past I read about using the indoor/outdoor carpeting as fascia material - tell me (us) again, the reason to do that?
Sorry I missed this question earlier, Al. In addition to hiding flaws in the hardboard, which is a perfectly legitimate reason, the carpet helps to deaden the sound in a room like ours, with lots of big glass windows, plaster walls and ceiling, and hardwood floor. Plus, it acts just like the female half of a Velcro fastener; you can stick throttles anywhere you want without having to bend down to search for the little square you'd have to find on traditional hardboard facia. We attach all of the car card holders and sorting rails to the carpet that way, and when I get around to making up track diagrams for the yards, we'll attach them with Velcro, too.
I don't know where you might have seen it first, but I first saw it in an article in MR about Allen McClelland's last version of the V&O a few years ago. Our posts about installing it on the Phase I part of the layout start way back on p. 27 of this thread (Holy Cow!).
Vagel |
Edited by - Vagel Keller on 03/01/2012 4:58:03 PM |
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
USA
4598 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2012 : 6:27:18 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Dutchman
Guys, I saw the write-up of the April Convention in the NMRA Magazine. I'm checking our calendar to see if we can make a trip to Pittsburgh for the show.
That would be great! |
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New Home for the Blacklog & Shade Gap Eastern
