Glen Ogle

[gtmspyder]

A little more work on the Lochearnhead station today, the start of a retaining wall using DAS modelling clay.

I made a backing for the wall of 3mm plywood, cut a tunnel aperture, and a balsa wood face for the tunnel, and glued it to the backing with an adjacent retaining wall, and started to cover the face with DAS.



The backing was given a good coat of PVA glue, and the pre-squashed DAS was laid in place, and flattened more.



Then more PVA and the next piece of DAS was prepared by pre-squashing on an adjacent hard surface to give the initial spread, before peeling it off and placing on the model.



The covered wall put in place to check the result.



A closer look at the still drying DAS, the mortar lines have been drawn in with a straight edge ready for the final carving when dry.



Still a lot of work needed on the tunnel mouth before it can be considered finished.



So that's about it for now.

Regards,

Brian.T

[gtmspyder]

Looking at the finished work so far above, it does not look right.   I think I should have put some buttresses on the front face of the wall,  and the wall continuing above the tunnel mouth I am not sure about???


I think I should cut the wall maybe two courses above the tunnel, slightly step it back, and give it a 15 deg. slope back to the top and model a rock face perhaps, rather than the completely vertical wall.


The angled retaining wall to the left of the tunnel mouth looks wrong as well.  Now obviously, the ground will be filled in upto the retaining wall later, but would this feature look like this in real life??

Your collective thoughts on this, or any other aspect of my modelling of Lochearnhead station environs would be much appreciated gentlemen?


Regards,


BrianT.

[theelliotts]

I agree that you should cut thee wall horizontally about two courses above the tunnel detail. If the lower wall is presently vertical then I think that buttresses are required. Cut them from suitably sized strip wood and cover with Daz would do it. What is the curve radios there?

David E

[gtmspyder]

Good morning David, thank you for your input.

The curve radii is 9" (225mm) give or take a mm or two.

I bought some No1 (9") radius Peco setrack to make the circle, as it is easier to lay without the kinks that can be produced by Flexi track at any joints mid radii on a tight radii, but I could not get the two ends of the radii to meet the existing fixed rail positions at the front and rear of the scenic section, so I used some Setrack and some Flexi, hence my give or take get out, plus the Flexi was mainline 009, which looks the part as it passes through the station.

Going back to the retaining wall question, is your judgment based like mine on the looks of the thing, or do you have some knowledge of civil engineering?

A further question if I may.   While trawling through my "It may come in useful sometime so I will save it." box, I found a large amount of Cork bark, and I am undecided whether to use it on the inner side of the radii at the station?

All my other scenic rocks have been carved plaster, but as I said earlier, this Lochearnhead section is a separate entity to the main layout, and I was going to give a blow by blow account of how I achieved the results to help others who are dangling a toe in the water so to speak, how certain results can be achieved.

Now Cork bark is a very effective medium for creating cliff type verticals, although it seems to have fallen out of fashion for the realistic scenery camp of modellers, but I have the pieces, and I could use it to produce a very lightweight rock cutting, but I don't want this to spoil the overall effect of the layout.

Again gentlemen, your thoughts would be appreciated?

Kind regards,

BrianT.

[B.Meldon]

I never managed to get the Liliput four wheel coaches to negotiate 9 inch curves. I found that the couplings would pull either them, or the next vehicle off the track.
I have seen others remove the centralising plastic spring from the Liliput couplings to enable them to work with tighter curves, but then they do not self-centralise for coupling up (obviously!) and kink to one side when propelling, again often causing derailments.
Pitztalbahn has 11 inch curves and the Liliput coaches work ok with them but I find that each coupling has to be adjusted to be exactly central or they then cause problems.

Brian Meldon

[gtmspyder]

Hello Brian, thank you for your comments, I must admit that I have not pulled more than one Lilliput coach around the 9" radii yet on this layout, but I have on the Rabbit layout I built my Grandson, and I don't recall having any difficulties with them, so I will have to see what happens when I start the trains doing anything other than acting as scenery furniture for the pictures I have posted.

When I saw your post signature before I read the post, I thought you were going to comment on the Cork Bark, because I know you have used that medium yourself on some of the layout pictures you have posted in the past??

Regards,

BrianT.

[Hugh Norwood]

Most arched tunnels (and indeed arches) have a line of shaped stones or bricks at the perimeter of the hole - I think they are called voussoirs...

[gtmspyder]

Thank you Hugh.

Regards,

BrianT.

[gtmspyder]

A little more modelling done to Lochearnhead station.



The retaining wall has been cut at the tunnel top, and the section above has been angled back to be modelled as a rock face,  the wall has had a wash of black, and the rock face a wash of brown to get a feel for the scene



The strong sunlight into my garage this morning is certainly throwing the modelled section into relief, but this view gives a better understanding of the angles now.




Still a lot to do, but I'm getting there slowly.

Regards,

BrianT.

[B.Meldon]

.....

When I saw your post signature before I read the post, I thought you were going to comment on the Cork Bark, because I know you have used that medium yourself on some of the layout pictures you have posted in the past??

Regards,

BrianT.

Yes indeed, and I am still using Cork Bark on Westdorf as a base for rock faces. It is a bit retro when it comes to railway modelling, but it is quick and easy to use and I think it looks ok.
I get my supply from a local aquatic center where they sell it by weight so it works out quite reasonably priced as well.

Brian Meldon

[gtmspyder]

I agree Brian, and seeing that I have three large pieces in stock from over 30 years ago, it should be mature enough by now to use. ;D

I am going to try cutting it at an angle to get the vertical lines running more of an angle rather than squaring the bottoms off and planting them vertically, don't know if it will work scenically, but you will all see and make your own judgments.   ;)

Thank you for your reply.

Regards,

BrianT.

[gtmspyder]

A little more progress on tonight's posting.



The tunnel mouth has received some whitewashed quoins, the tunnel top and retaining wall have received capping stones, again at the moment looking whitewashed, and finally, the rock face atop the retaining wall has sprouted some large protruding rocks.



A baseboard level view for a change.



meanwhile, over the hill in the Glen, the track from the tunnel has acquired some post and wire fencing upto the start of the viaduct.



And the viaduct itself has received stantian post fencing bolted to the capping stones.



And that's it for today folks.

BrianT.

[gtmspyder]

Well not quite all for today, I wanted to plant the Cork bark rocks at the Lochearnhead station.



I cut the pieces of Cork bark to size for height, and at a slight angle back at the base, and bedded them onto a neat bed of PVA.



I filled in any large gaps between adjacent pieces with a tinted plaster mix, and the heights gradually reduced as they contoured the circle heading towards another tunnel mouth to exit off scene.



A rear view of the just set in place pieces.



The hill top will be modelled on this scrap pice of foam board which I have cut roughly to shape and just rested on top of the Cork bark, the peak of the hill will probably be several thicknesses of polystyrene and shaped into a peak I think.



And finally for tonight, a closer look at the station area.



BrianT.

[gtmspyder]

Hello again, I've had another thought, I do occasionally, sometimes inspirational, agh no, I'm in the middle of one of those at the moment aren't I?
Anyway summat new to me in modelling, you remember I'm in the middle of creating the Lochearnhead station scene?, yes you do, stop mucking me about.  Any way, I needed a hill in the middle of the run around, and I was going to do summat technical with lots of polystyrene offcuts, piled on top of a flat base, resting on the Cork Bark cliffs, well now I'm not.

I decided to fill the area with spray foam and see what it looked like, so I stuffed the rock tunnel mouth with paper to cover the rails, wedged a piece of board at the point I did not want the foam, covered the area at the back right of the Cork Rock where it abuts the main base-board, and sprayed the foam onto the flat top of the base board.



The foam came from Screw fix at

[gtmspyder]

The above prediction was true, the last scene lasted less than 24 hour.

Today I attacked it with a hand saw and a hack saw blade.  I squared off the back where the expanding foam had pushed the plywood shuttering over at an angle, and cut it more vertically with a handsaw.



I then sliced off the rounded top to make more of a plateau.



I continued taking slices out of the foam following the contours formed by the Cork Bark below to get awau from the Christmas pudding effect.



The colouring I used was this Crawford Black's Acrylic in the handy sachet's from "The Works" a cheap chain of shops that sells books, stationary and artist materials etc. they cost a fiver for two.



Having sliced all the chunks out of the foam I thought necessary, I started covering the raw foam with a paste of Polyfiller mixed with some of the Acrylic colouring.



That's about as far as I've got today.

BrianT.