Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

Well folks,
I`ve been doing the detail stuff.
I`m letting the grass on the new hill dry for a while yet, due to the amount of moisture in the air of late.
However the grass down near the tunnel area has been given the toning treatment, whereby I add a couple more colours to the grass to try and blend it in with previous efforts.
It`s fairly subtle, so doesn`t show up very well in pics, but I`ve added Burnt Umber and some Beige to the tips of the grass. It breaks up that Matt Green look even though I blended three to four different shades of grass together.




The track has been weathered too.





I think the track work blends pretty well with the previous work that ended near the ends of the platforms








Of course there is much more that can be added such as undergrowth and bushes, but I`ll take my time with that. It definitely needs bushes along the fence etc.
A bit more fun in the video below, which also shows some of the scenes from above.



Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Today I`ve airbrushed the platform fencing and fitted same into place on the platform.
Some pics below to show it in position from various angles.






















And a very short video with a couple of trains coming and going



Gormo

 

Thanks Phil,
Yes for the moment, I`m on a roll and hopefully that will continue for a while.
This evening I`ve been assessing the Metcalfe GWR signal box kit, and it`s actually very good, by virtue of the fact that is seems to need very little modification to bring it up to speed.
I think all it will need is slates on the roof and maybe some Quoins for the lower corners of the building, plus it will be lit and detailed inside.
So it won`t be a full on modification this time around. I will probably build it over a number of evenings, leaving the days free for other duties.
The signal box is going into the gap at the end of the platform at GCJ.
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
A bit more done today.
I have focused on the hill behind the station and the planting of some trees in the area.
Speaking of trees, I have used this method before, but I thought I would explain the pure simplicity of it.
This is not the Bottle Brush method but rather, using natural twigs to form the armature of the trees. I wanted to have some parts of the trunk and branches showing, so this method is better suited.
My next door neighbor has a Hakea tree which actually hangs over my shed. I figure whatever hangs over my space is mine, so I trim off bits every now and then for my scenery.
You don`t have to just use Hakea twigs, anything you can find that is suitable, wherever you live in the World, will do.
So I choose that part of the twig / branch that I feel has a good shape and plenty of little branches. This one below is a good example and I`ve trimmed it to about
150 mm ( 6 inches ) in height and shaped it to what looks about right.
Note the " Y " fork on the lower part of the tree. This is where I feel I need some more branches poking out at horizontal or slightly angled upwards.





The simple solution is to trim some more twig of a suitable size and fix it in place with Hot Glue. You can see in the pic below that I`ve put one each side of the tree.





Then a visual assessment determined that a third branch was required so that was glued to the front part of the trunk.
You could take this further and add as much as you want, but I felt that this amount was adequate for the tree I was trying to produce.





Then polyfibre was draped over the branches to create a supportive network for the flocking. Then the lot was carefully sprayed with Mission Brown from a rattle can.
The paint sticks the polyfibre to the armature and when dry, the polyfibre goes stiff.




Well you know how the rest is done with flocking and hairspray, so I will show some results.
Seven trees made today of various sizes and shades of Green.





The contrast between model scenery and printed background is gradually reducing to give a more realistic effect.





Still more trees required on the hill behind the station, but some thought required in terms of quantity and size before charging in there.
It always pays to just walk away from it for a while and then come back and look it over with a critical eye before committing tree to ground.









And finally, as close as I can get to an overall view.




More as it happens
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Not much to report from this last week.
I have been occupied on other projects and consequently the railway project has slowed until today.
Bamford is now under way scenically, and today it has had it`s preliminary layers of polystyrene added in a rough form.
I am using up my store of polystyrene accumulated from various sources over quite a few years and ultimately, I hope to use it all up.
The three separate sections I created as bases for the lift off scenery, have now been reduced to two, because it will be less of a drama to remove and replace them.
So this section below is actually two parts joined to form one.
There is still a small section to receive the polystyrene base, but we`ll get this one trimmed and shaped first before moving forward.




And speaking of Bamford, here is a short video of a Driver`s Eye View run from GCJ up the inclines of the work shop and through Little Bardfield and the no man`s land area of the back shed to Bamford, and then back again.



Gormo

 

I never said it was perfect Sol.....
Gormo

 

Well I`ve shaped the polystyrene form work for the first lift out section and I think I`m happy with the flow of it.
It took several attempts, with shaving a bit off each time until I got to this point.
You probably can`t see it very well at the moment, but I`ve left a reasonable sized flat area up the top left hand side backing into the corner.
The plan for this area is a ruined castle, which will have to be scratch built. I have some air drying modelling clay which I will use for this task. I also have to do a lot more research on the subject and find a suitable prototype to use as my Blueprint, or possibly a combination of various ruins to achieve the same goal.





An view from the far end of Bamford





The cut out for the signal box is just about the right height now. The original height of the polystyrene almost overwhelmed the box and it just did not look right until the height was brought down to where it is now.
There is going to be a gravel path following the line of the top of the hill towards the ruined castle......it will be a popular tourist spot.





And finally, lift out section number two with glue and weights applied being prepared for sculpting tomorrow.





More as it happens
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
A little more done today......I`ve let my second section of lift off scenery sit under weights for a further day, just to make sure it`s a rock solid bond.
The PVA ( el cheapo ) I`m using at the moment seems to need that extra time to go off properly, so we`ll let it sit for the moment.
I turned my attention to the ruined castle today and tried to devise a simple method to build it. I experimented last evening with some air drying clay fixed to a piece of polystyrene, and that went rock solid by this morning, and I think it`s a possible starter for future projects, but it needs to be worked with a degree of skill, so I need to gain a certain level of expertise before I have a go at it on a model.
Anyhow, using the old thinking outside the box philosophy, I thought I`d have a go at sculpting some polystyrene sheet with a soldering iron. Again this requires a certain level of finesse and a light touch with the iron. I used my old ( el cheapo again ) 60 Watt iron, in preference to my good temperature controlled version, however I think, after completing the task, the temperature control iron would allow much more control over the process.
We live and learn.....hopefully....
So folks, this process below is literally making it up on the go.
I cut myself some sheets of polystyrene 16mm thick ( 4 scale feet ) with the intention of joining the two back to back to give us an eight foot thick wall.
Each 16mm piece was sculpted separately before joining with hot glue. This method makes it possible to have the wall look as though layers, or laminations of rock or rubble have been eroding away for years ( centuries )
The two sheets are joined here below and I`ve started airbrushing a Black acrylic as a base coat. You can`t always get into all the little nooks and cranny`s with a brush, so the spraying helps enormously to get the job done.





The archway was cut out with a sharp blade and then a recessed edge was set into it with the soldering iron.





This is how it appears with just the base coat





I continued on and made two other free standing sections, a wall and the remains of a tower.
They were all made in the same way and afterwards, I applied Grey, Brown, Green and Black Chalk Pastel over my base colour and attempted to get a weathered stone look to the model.





















And finally, an overall view




It needs some weeds and bushes growing out of the walls and maybe a cobbled courtyard and path leading up to the entrance.
It`s tempting to add more walls, but I think in this case, less is more.......but I will sleep on that as usual.
By the way, the ruin is not based on any particular ruin, but rather comprises of elements borrowed from various pics of ruins in the UK.
More as it happens
Gormo

 

Thanks Phil......
Gormo

 

Thanks Gary,
Yes the soldering iron works well, but you need a very light touch.
I tried my good iron with temperature control, but you can`t set it any lower than 200 degrees, so it makes no difference.
Gormo
Edit.....PS.....My iron has a needle point tip which is good for fine lines. A broad tip would be overkill for this process.

 

Thanks Chris,
Yes I think total cost, if I`m being pessimistic, would be about 10 cents. That`s covering paint, pastels, glue, electricity and the polystyrene was free, so that`s not included......
I`m still considering doing some more wall for the sake of completeness.........we`ll see...
Gormo

 

G`day Richard,
Not quite but there are elements of it that I may use
Gormo

 

I have finally worked out tonight how this castle is going to work.
I made an extra section of wall this afternoon and I`ve been re-arranging the wall elements to determine what looks best and makes sense at the same time.
The answer is to have the eroded ends of walls tapering away to the horizon, which means I need to make a low mostly destroyed wall along the front of the scene so the viewer can look over and into the courtyard. This means keeping the taller walls towards the back
This really needs pictures to explain it properly so maybe tomorrow.
I`ve sanded smooth the courtyard area so that I can imprint cobbles into the polystyrene. I`ve found if I slide some brass tube over my soldering iron tip and crimp the end of the tube slightly to form and oval rather than a perfectly round shape, that I can do a reasonable facsimile of cobbles.
I was watching an archaeology program this afternoon and realized that I should show foundation remains and cobbles etc.....which starts to make more sense of the whole thing.
I`ll get there eventually.......
Gormo