I have obviously fell off the blog wagon as the weather here in Denver has gotten nicer.  Here are some updated photographs of the section I have been working on.

My goal has to been to build a nice green forested look with multiple layers of foliage.  I have used mostly Woodland Scenics turf and polyfiber as well as experimenting with some Sweetwater Scenery products.  Many of the trees were transported from Michigan and my previous layout.  They are bottle brush type that I made from wire, sisal twine, ground foam, and spray paint.

Another closer view.

The final view is from the other side.  I have much more work to do but wanted to share how things are going.

Coloring the plaster castings is one of those things that actual evokes a certain amount of fear and loathing. I can never seem to attain what I consider to be authentic colors or at least colors that look reasonable to my eye. After some initial missteps and a few practice runs I have identified a procedure that works for me and results in colors and an effect that I can live with if not even be a little happy about.

I have two big sources of inspiration for this project: How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery by Dave Frary and a DVD by Darryl Huffman called Easy Rock Casting and Coloring.

Before I started I made sure to blend my castings into the surrounding scenery using Sculptamold. It will not come out right if you color the rocks first then try to blend. This way the immediately adjacent scenery is color blended into the rocks and there is little chance of white showing through.

The first thing I do is paint the casting with a thinned black acrylic paint. The purpose here is to cover the casting 100 percent with the wash. Although it is wash, the wash should result in a fairly opaque black. I work in small sections approximately one foot square because I immediately follow the black wash with my thinned basic earth color. The point is blend the black with the earth color to provide a more subtle base then stark black alone. I usually follow the earth color with another pass of the black while still wet to keep the base dark.

The following pictures shows the cliff face further along. Once the entire face was complete, I let it dry completely.

The next step is actually more of the terrifying step as it seems to require a bit of artistic ability of which I have almost none.

My color palette came from recommendations from Darryl Huffman. He suggested using colors that are pleasing to my own eye but I trust his more so I used his suggestions.

Here are the colors I used:

• CeramCoat Flesh
• Apple Barrel Sandstone
• Folk Art Teddy Bear Tan
• Titanium White
• Black

I did experiment with other colors but these seem to produce the results I was looking for.

My general technique is to blend the colors together and dry brush the castings using a fairly stiff brush. The blending is intended to duplicate natural variations. The picture belows shows the final result of this step.

This was allowed to dry thoroughly before the final step.

The final step was to apply a thin black wash to highlight the details. The picture below shows the face while the wash was still wet.

The final result is below.

Here is a close up view.

I am fairly happy with the result and I am looking forward to completing more scenery projects.

Almost had a disaster this morning as I tried to order some more Sculptamold from Amazon. The product was handled through one of their marketplace merchants. Good thing I did a double take right before I pushed the final confirmation button!

Things have been a little quiet on the railroading front as I have just returned from vacation in the Florida Keys. I will have some progress updates soon.

UPDATE: Joann.com has it for $3.91 a bag and their shipping is only $7.95. I went to their site as I noticed they actually filled my initial order. My six bags of Sculptamold are now happily on their way but not via private limo apparently.

Now that the apparent shortage of Micro Engineering Switches is over, I have been able to mostly complete the track laying in the town area of the layout. I haven’t shown much of this side lately as I have been focused on scenery on the other side of the peninsula. One of the great things about building a model railroad layout is that there are always several things that can be worked on. When I get burned out on casting rocks I can switch to structures or track work.

Today was one of those days where I was ready for a change of scenery and started laying track. As I have been running the trains quite a bit also, it is exciting to have some more track to explore.

The above picture is an overview of the yard area. The building outline in foam board to the right is where the Car Maintenance Shed will be located.

One new trick I learned during this iteration was to use a 3/8″ Forstner Drill Bit to start the hole for the Tortoise switch throw bar. This results in a much cleaner edge in the Homasote that I don’t have to trim in order to avoid interfering with the throw bar.

Since there has apparently been a nationwide shortage of Micro-Engineering On30 switches since Christmas according to Micro-Mark and Caboose Hobbies and every place I have tried to buy them from, I picked up a LITco code 83 #5 switch and decided to give a try. For my last layout, I built switches from scratch so I have a pretty good understanding of what it takes to build a PC board type switch from scratch. It was not what I would call a fun experience but they did work for the most part.

After actually installing the LITco switch this evening, all I can say is “Wow”. What a great product at an economical price. They roughly cost the same as the MicroEngineering switches and take a little longer to install but combined with handlaid track they would be impressive. Some of the effect is lost as I have combined them with Micro-Engineering flex but I bet with hand laid track they would really be beautiful.

The above picture is after I spiked down the turnout. I made sure to adequately spike the switch around the points as the stiff .047 lever I use with the Tortoise apply quite a bit of pressure.

Wiring was fairly straightforward but it is necessary to power route the frog. I do this using the auxiliary contacts on the Tortoise machine. I also used MicroEngineering code 83 insulated rail joiners to isolate the frog. Essentially the frog runs from the points all the way through to the end of the switch.

Once I attached the track to the divergent route and finished the wiring, it was time for test run. It took approximately an hour to install the switch.

The LITco On30 switches are very nicely made and a great value. When I build the next section of layout beyond Camp Two (shhh… don’t tell the wife), expect to see me combine these switches with hand laid track. I love the look of hand laid but could not stomach trying to build enough turnouts for the current iteration. The LITco switches very effectively solve that problem.

Update: I just received notification that Micro-Mark has finally shipped my back ordered switches.

I have been focused on completing some of the basic scenery lately. Minus coloring rock castings, it has been coming along nicely. The rock coloring has been a struggle. At last week’s Great Train Expo show in Denver I picked up Darryl Huffman’s DVD titled “Easy Rock Casting and Coloring”. I had previously bought a back drop painting DVD that he produced and I was very pleased with how he can make something that seems overwhelming achievable by a completely non-artistic type person like me. I also have Dave Frary’s book called “How To Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery”

There seems to be a trend towards starting with a black base and dry brushing color on top of the rock face versus the more traditional staining techniques. Staining rock castings can be challenging due to different batches of plaster accepting stain differently and it can be difficult to create a stain with the right amount of pigment. I was anxious to try the new dark base technique but had mixed results. I think the pure black base from Darryl’s technique is too stark. Dave recommends immediately dry brushing an earth color over the wet black to tone the black down and I prefer this approach.

You can see the progress in the two pictures above. There are still many layers of scenery to go but it is nice to start to get a sense of how things are going to look. The rock faces in the left picture were created using the stark black base and the ones on the right were done using the more muted dark earth base.

Another thing I have been very pleased with was the decomposed granite material I grabbed up near Estes Park a couple of weekends ago. When it was wet is seemed too organic but once I dried and sifted it, it was perfect with a great texture.

Things are starting to take shape and I have learned a lot in the last couple of weeks. I look forward to creating more detailed postings about some of my techniques.

A week or so ago I designed a cart in an article called “Clearing the Clutter” to provide a home for all of the model building supplies that always seem to end up on top of my layout.

This weekend I finished the project and I am happy to report it worked out well. I purchased the Castor wheels from Harbor Freight for approximately $4 each. Two swivel and two are straight. I attached the wheels by pre-drilling the plywood and using 3/4″ long lag bolts.

I cut each shelf to 18″ X 36″ inches and added a 3″ edge on all four sides. The plywood pieces were attached together using my brad nailer and 1 1/4″ brads with glue. The three shelves were then attached together using 1″ X 4″ X 36″ board and gold screws.

In hindsight I wish I had made the cart about 6″ lower as it barely fits under the layout and only if nothing on the top shelf sticks above the three inch edge. Currently it is stationed on the end of the layout and has become the catch-all as planned. It also can be wheeled over to the workshop occasionally to offload and restock as necessary. All in all I am very happy with how it turned it. Total construction time including cutting the material was less than two hours.

There are often times where one is left with gaps or odd elevation changes where trying to use cardboard strip and plaster cloth scenery would not work and it is too large of a gap to cover with Sculptamold. Here is an example:

A solution that I have found is to use foam in a can. Great Stuff is one particular brand that is available at home centers. It costs around $5 a can and try to find the most expansive stuff you can find. I get the red can of Great Stuff for ‘Gaps and Cracks’.

Once, I built an entire 4 x 8 layout worth of scenery using aluminum screen and spray foam. It was expensive, the scenery was not rigid enough for me, and it can be difficult to shape.

Some things I have learned from using the material:

• It is EXTREMELY sticky. If you drop it on some track or the floor, do not try to ‘wipe’ it up. It will be fruitless without a serious amount of industrial strength solvent. Just let it set and cut it out.
• It keeps expanding for 30-60 minutes after you apply it, so leave some room for expansion.
• Try to use the entire can. It is difficult but not impossible to use the same can for several applications.
• A serrated steak knife works great for the first shaping followed by a Sur-Form tool.

When faced with some odd gaps in either plaster cloth based or foam scenery, spray foam can be a great tool!