I have cut out a space on my board for a river scene as shown in the photos attached. I would plan to do a dry stone wall or a 'retaining' wall of some type next to the track. It would probably be about 10-15mm deep before the river bank would start.
Would any forum members have tips on how best to achieve this look?
Thanks! Peter
There are so many different ways to choose from! I think it depends on personal choice and how particular you are in recreating the style of walling associated with the location.
Perhaps the most direct way is commercial dry walling strips and Jarvis Models springs to mind and there are probably others. Some is cast in resin or plaster like material and some is flexible like draft excluder. There are different styles of walling too that represent different locations or building styles.
Some people scribe walling in plaster or imprint joins between stones in the semi-rigid foam plastic that used commonly to be used for food packaging such as pizza bases.
Some people with a lot of patience even build walls stone by stone. Probably good for some Irish walls though I remember one example of Welsh slate walling from slivers of Plasticard.
There is stone effect Plasticard that might be good for large areas and some people make their own moulds for plaster (possibly commercial moulds too). Those who can have 3D printed walling.
Here's a song about stone walling. Unfortunately I cannot find a complete version by its composer Dave Goulder online. Dave Goulder is a Derbyshire ex-railway man turned stone waller living in the North of Scotland. His folk songs, like those of Eric Bogle, have been recorded by many more famous people. For some he is pretty much the last word on walling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bb3nuRAy6s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bb3nuRAy6s)
https://davegoulder.co.uk/ (https://davegoulder.co.uk/)
Many thanks Graeme!
Although it would be nice to get the look first time, it will be easy enough to remove anything that doesn't look quite right and start again if required.
I'll check these ideas out and start experimenting.....
How you approach this is also going to depend on what style of wall you are going for.
Looking at the scene (and the stock) are you planning on something like the embankment found on the FR - can't recall where but it's on the section bypassed by the Dduallt spiral - that is built from unmortared cut slate blocks rather than a drystone wall in the sense of something found around the edge of a field.
The latter would be random shaped & sized and I doubt whoever was inspecting the full size line to pass it fit for use under the Board / Ministry of Transport would be happy with the thought of what the river might do when it starts washing stones out of the wall. Cute slate blocks might be more resilient to the river's action, but even then after a good winters rain may not stand up. In either case from a civil engineering perspective a mortared wall is more likely as this will better resist the force of the water flowing along the bottom - not that it makes much difference to the visuals other than how you paint it to show the mortar lines.
Given the long length I'd be tempted to try the Slaters embossed plasticard, or something from the Will's range of injection moulded sheets if the budget will run to it. The key will be how you link the sheets together to cover the length, and when I've done this I've cut away stones on both sides of the join to 'key' the sections into one another thereby avoiding a vertical joint, maybe with the addition of some filler (milliput , squadron green or whatever you prefer) to make blocks that bridge / fill in any gaps.
As Greame suggests covering the length in something then carving or scribing the stones may give a more realistic and unique result that will not look like a sheet of Salters, Will's or whatever. The same goes for applying individual stones cut from card or plastic sheet. But either of those will be a long (and tedious?) job and can be quite difficult to get looking 'right' (not too regular, but not so irregular as not to be able to support itself, let alone the railway above).
Hope that helps...
Don't forget it should lean inwards a tad. (I think there's a proper word to describe it...)
Quote from: hughn on November 22, 2022, 10:36
I think there's a proper word to describe it...
batter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batter_(walls))...
Quote from: JulienW on November 22, 2022, 10:54
Quote from: hughn on November 22, 2022, 10:36
I think there's a proper word to describe it...
batter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batter_(walls))...
I like the description "two walls that lean together" from Dave Goulder's song.
There are some good ideas here:
https://www.conservationhandbooks.com/dry-stone-walling/walls-in-the-landscape/characteristic-regional-walls/ (https://www.conservationhandbooks.com/dry-stone-walling/walls-in-the-landscape/characteristic-regional-walls/)
(https://www.conservationhandbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/walling-text-2013_Page_005_Image_0004-300x173.jpg)
The simple and quite quick way I would do this is to use Salters (there are other makes) embossed plasticard sheets of the walling type you need. (There are veraious types.)
At the joints and at regular intervals I would build buttresses, again using plasticard, to hide the joints and I would extend the wall a little above the track bed add coping stones all the way along the top using thick plasticard. The key to making this look good will be in the painting and weathering. But the end result should look very good indeed. The Salters 0.5mm thick sheets are 300mm x 174mm, I would have pre-planned the height and length of the wall to ensure I did noit have much wastage.
Many thanks for advice, I went for Wills Plasticard for the wall. Used various acrylics to try and get the right look. I've made a start made on river bank wall below, the next challenge!