Impressionist Scenery...

Well, it's been about two years since my last post on this blog, so going on my performance over the last ten years or so, it must be time for a new post!

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I was, at the time, about to retire from the editorship of AMRM. Hard to believe that was nearly two years ago... being retired is great!

In that time I have been steadily working away on Lambing Flat and it is now 'complete' (though far from finished), just in time for it to be dismantled and moved to a new location! In early 2021 I purchased a very pleasant 'retirement' home in Cowra, NSW, (yes, Lambing Flat is going (almost) 'home'!) and after many delays, mainly caused by the various Covid lockdowns and the severe shortage of tradies, I am finally ready to move in. The date has been set and by the 1st August, I, Lambing Flat and Leo the Blunderdog should be happily setting up in our new home.

Now, with the preliminaries out of the way, we come for the reason (excuse!) for this post. While I have expanded the layout and completed most of the scenery, there were a couple of areas that had not progressed beyond the track and carved foam stage of scenery construction. With the move rapidly approaching and my realisation that those particular sections would not fit in the new space, there was no point to finishing them, but the bare foam was very jarring and detracted from the 'look' of the rest of the layout. What to do... then came the 'lightbulb' moment... I remembered Marcus Ammann's rather clever use of 'impressionistic' scenery on some parts of his very extensive layout and how effective it was. So I thought, why not just use my acrylic artist's paints (used for the 2D backscenes) to quickly apply some colour to the 3D sections as well! I splashed a bit of paint around one Sunday afternoon and the results can be seen in the accompanying photos (and the header photo). It may not be as detailed as finished scenery, but it doesn't ruin the illusion as much as unfinished scenery does. 

One of the sections that were unfinished, linking the mill scene and the stockyard end of Lambing Flat station, across the short end of the garage. The header photo shows the same scene after painting.

This is the unfinished section between the mill scene and Bulla Creek yard in 2020. I was not happy with the track arrangements and it won't fit in the new space anyway.

The same view, taken about an hour ago. Since the first photo was taken, the hill to the right of the main line has been reduced in height and the section of hill between the main line and the loco depot has been removed. The water tank has also been finished (more on that below). Once more, while not as good looking as finished scenery, it gives an impression of scenery and blends in far better than it did in the earlier view.

Another view of the 'impressionist' section with some 'real' scenery behind along Back Creek.

I've come to the conclusion that this is a very quick and effective method of 'filling in the gaps' of an incomplete layout and will be doing this to unfinished sections in future until I can schedule the time to apply more detailed scenery.

As mentioned above, the NSWGR water tank I was building in the previous post has now been completed. Here are some images of it.

By 16th May 2020, the water tank looked like this. The base colour is an airbrushed coat of Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey. The concrete footings and the drain were hand painted with Top Coat 'Concrete' colour, while the ends of the water crane were picked out with black and the silver section hand-painted Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminium. Weathering consisted of various 'washes' of very dilute in isocol alcohol Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown, XF-52 Flat Earth and black. The plywood base was painted an earth brown and then a light covering of my 'earth' and 'ash' dirt mix, plus a bit of green scatter material, glued on as per my normal scenery making method. Then I had to gradually pour layers of Woodland Scenics Realistic Water to represent the water. What a saga that turned out to be...

Ten months after the previous photo the water pour had finally been completed! I first spent a month carefully pouring layer after layer of Woodlands Scenic Realistic Water, but I wasn't completely happy with the final result. The Realistic Water was easy to pour (just time consuming as one can only pour a couple of millimetres at a time, wait a day for it to dry then pour another couple of mm), but, in this circumstance, it manifested a terrible meniscus that was quite unsightly. By the end of June 2020 I has reached the top of the tank, but the water wasn't level at all, with that unsightly meniscus showing everywhere the 'water' came into contact with anything. I tried painting the 'humps' a greenish hue to disguise it as algae, which did alleviate the problem a little. As mentioned earlier, I wasn't happy with it, but I couldn't think of any way to improve it, so I just placed it on the layout and got on with other things.

After a couple of months of not going out to the layout room for various reasons, I came back to find that the water had shrunk about 7-8mm below the original surface and looked even worse!

At first I experimented with adding layers of Feast Watson Decking Oil obtained from Bunnings (I had used all the Realistic Water I had, plus I wasn't happy with the result from using it anyway). This worked for a couple of layers, giving a nice dirty water effect, but then the surface started to 'wrinkle', long before I reached the needed 'top' of the water.

Ah well, looks like I'd have to get some more Realistic Water and just put up with the substandard result... However, a trip to MRRC at Blacktown revealed that they had sold out of Realistic Water and weren't going to be able to get any more any time soon (the supply chain had been completely disrupted by the COVID epidemic). They did have some Woodlands Scenic Deep Pour Water however, so I decided to give it a go.

I wish I had used this stuff to start with! It is very easy to use, can pour much thicker layers and has a much smaller and less obtrusive meniscus. I'm now very happy with the look of the 'water' and the tank has been on the layout ever since. Now, my only frustration is that all that intricate interior detail I spent so much time putting in the tank is all but invisible under the water!

Another shot of the completed tank.

That's it for this post; see you in two years!

 

Some more activity!

Every now and then I get the yen to actually do something on the layout and, sometimes, I actually get to do it!

The first project to get underway laterly was to superdetail and fit a Tsunami chip to one of the Austrains 'roundtop' 36 class I have had lying around idle since I went DCC in the mid-2000s.

The work went well and by 9 November 2014 the detailing work was complete.

 The two photos show above show 'before and after' shots of each side of the loco.

This is a close up of the left hand side of the loco, showing the added Nathan lubricator, plus various pipes and handrails. 

 The right hand side of the loco with the various added 'bits'.

 The right hand side of the tender with fire irons, plus added lamp brackets and handrails and a fall plate between engine and tender.

By 13 November she had been undercoated.

On 14 November a start had been made on weathering.

 The inspiration for the weathering. John Stormont took this photo of 3607 at Cootamundra in 1954 and the photo was originally printed in the January 1990 edition of the RTM's 'Round House' magazine. I am aiming for a scruffy, but reasonably well-kept appearance.

While the weathering is nowhere near complete (plus the loco still has some details to be added, after painting) by 23 November she was 'under trials' on the layout. Unsuccessfully, it turned out, as there appears to be a bind in the mechanism! I'll sort that out before I do any more painting.

Meanwhile, some work has also occurred on the layout. I have finally got around to more work on the backscene behind 'New Yard' and made a start on the foundations of the scenery.

 On 16 November I had painted the section of backscene between the existing Haskell backscene behind 'New Yard' proper and the painted backscene behind the old part of the layout a nice sky blue and started gluing slabs of foam down to form the scenery.

 By the next day the glue had dried and I had carved the foam to the rough shape of the landscape.

 On Saturday 22 November I had attached a modified Haskell backscene between the existing one and the painted section and glued slabs of foam on the yard section of baseboard. The backscenes don't quite match yet, but a little painting at a later date and some judicious tree planting in the foreground will take care of that eventually.

 A shot taken from approximately opposite the station building, showing how the new section will eventually blend in. The road bridge and embankment already makes a good 'view block' between the two scenes (the station and the new yard).

Another shot along the length of 'New Yard' showing a bit more of how it all fits together. I'm looking forward to getting the scenery down as I am heartily sick of running trains on a 'Plywood Central'.

Back Creek Junction and the line to Cowra, developments at Lambing Flat, 2012.

Once Lambing Flat was re-erected in its current home in 2003, other than maintenance and the addition of the occasional minor detail, nothing much changed, other than the addition of DCC and more rolling stock. The track plan was as shown below, very little changed from its Burwood manifestation, other the deletion of the 'south curve' due to its excessively tight (approx. 600mm radius) curve and substitution of a much shorter fiddle yard at that end. 



With this short fiddle yard (no more room in the garage that end) LF could no longer be operated as it was in Burwood, an intermediate through station, plus I wanted to have more happen in the station than just trains crossing and occasionally shunting the yard. I had always liked the operations carried out at Binnaway in NSW's north west where the main traffic on the Dubbo - Werris Creek line came in and exited the yard from the same end, while the branch traffic to and from Gwabegar passed through. I resolved that the main destinations for traffic on the line, 'Cowra' and 'Demondrille' would be the same fiddle yard, meaning that all trains moving between those points would have to reverse in the yard, while the small fiddle yard at the bottom would become the branchline terminus of 'Murringo'. This resulted in most traffic originating the large fiddle yard (at the top), running into the yard, reversing the brakevan and changing engines, then returning to the same fiddle yard (the junction was assumed to be 'beyond the layout'). Occasionally a 'pick-up' would run with traffic for Lambing Flat itself and would spend time shunting the yard and a (usually mixed) train would run 'through' to 'Murringo', connecting with a passenger train running on the 'cross-country' line. This operating pattern worked well for many years, but as more rolling stock was acquired the fiddle yard became very crowded, so I resolved to build a new fiddle yard and move the junction 'on stage', allowing a new scenic section to be constructed, some 20 years after the last extension of the layout (LF is a rural railway, things move slowly!)

 

The basic fiddle yard and baseboard was constructed and made operational in early 2011, but it took till the beginning of 2012 before any progress was made on the scenery. (With playing soccer during the winter and a certain magazine taking up most of my time and energy, progress on the layout can take some time...)

 

By 5 January 2012, this was the scene on the extension.

 

 

The shelf over the extension had been erected, profile boards fitted and a start made on constructing the scenery. The track plan now looked like this:

 

 

This photo shows a 'panoramic' view of the layout, showing how the new section fits in.

 

 

 

Scenery construction is quite conventional with carved styrofoam on a baseboard of particle board.

 

 

 

The concept of the new section is that the line has been cut alongside a creek, crosses the creek and then disappears into a rock cutting, which hides the entrance to the fiddle yard. The bridge is a Hawksmoor 'Large Railway Culvert' kit, obtained from Casula Hobbies (I reviewed it in AMRM Issue 285, December 2010).

 

This is the junction of the new line to the old layout, conveniently situated in the small extension I was able to make between the level crossing and the turnout to the mill when the layout was first re-erected in 2003.

 

 

I'm getting too old and impatient to scratchbuild track these days, so the track is standard Peco code 75 'finescale'. The signal box is a temporary one, while the ash buffer stop is a Uneek whitemetal item.

 

By the next day (6 January) the 'ground' had been added by the conventional method of spreading plaster, tinted with powder colour, and the rock faces cast in plaster using the very traditional method of crumpling up aluminium foil and using it as a mould.

 

The four equally spaced and shaped rock faces along the cutting looked a little 'artificial' (I forgot the 'rule of evens') so after this photo was taken the cutting was altered.

 

By 9 February some progress had been made on painting the scenery, with the rock faces painted using artist's acrylics in an attempt to reproduce the 'look' of the rock outcrops visible just to the south of Cootamundra, a scene that had always fascinated me.

 

 

The rock faces, painted with a combination of artist's acrylic colours and various techniques of application in an attempt to evoke the prototype scene below.

  

 

Two photos of the rock outcrops just south of Cootamundra, 6 November 2011.

 

 

I haven't quite got the colour of the lichen right, but it is getting there! The level crossing detail is starting to appear with a Uneek stock guard and the level crossing signs (SJM kits) installed.

 

P class 3324 rolls towards the junction with a goods train, mainly consisting of RU wheat hoppers, on 9 February 2012.

 

A couple of days later (11 February) and the first layer of ground cover had been added (dyed sawdust), a start made on the vegetation in the creek and the first trees starting to appear.

  

By 16 February the colours of the rocks had been 'adjusted', the fences were in and the detail such as trees, bushes, weeds etc. were starting to appear. The second stock guard (also Uneek) has been added and the beginnings of the home signal temporarily in place.

 

Another view of the scene with an ancient (visiting) Berg's 30 class tank passing on the school train.

  

By 6 March a lot of extra scenery detail had been added, courtesy of Woodland Scenics and miniNatur!

 

The home signal had also been completed and temporarily added to the scene.

 

The grass tufts and other material available from miniNatur allow a lot of fine scenic detail to be added quickly.

 

More scenery, including some nice 'Patterson's Curse' using miniNatur material. The home signal is a slightly modified Uneek casting that has been made to work.

 

Not much was done between March and September (soccer season!), but during October a few more items were completed, some of which are shown below and some of which will be detailed in future posts.

 

More scenic detail, this time a Uneek horse cart that has lost a wheel and been abandoned near the creek.

  

A 'panoramic' view of the junction taken on 9 November 2012. The junction has been named 'Back Creek Junction', a very typical Australian name for a creek and also the name of a real creek in my home town, Young NSW, which is where Lambing Flat is supposedly set. 

 

A closer view of the junction as it is on 9 November 2012. The junction bracket and the new signal box have been installed and final detailling of the scenery is proceeding.

 

However, the focus of new construction has now moved to the other end of the layout...

 

 

More to come...