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Comments
Make sure to take note of the detail on the little blower casting which will go inside the hoist house. Yep, you can actually read the lettering "American Blower USA". THIS is the Sierra West Difference:
Also, When it comes to working with the tiny wheels and hubs that go on the mine cars, I used an old Xacto blade box to keep track of them. It's the perfect size and the lid seals closed so they don't spill all over the place. 16 wheels go directly on the mine cars; the others get added to the scenery later. Don't lose them!
Picking up on page 75, you're instructed to add the rafter nailer (note the pencil marks for positioning the rafters) and detail the left exterior wall with various castings.
The rear and left walls are glued together followed by the front and right walls.
Finally, the two are joined together and complete the 4 walls of the hoist house. Once dry, the walls are test fit onto the floor. I had to sand two sides of my floor in order to get the walls to fit without forcing them onto the floor. You want a snug fit. Remember: don't glue the floor to the walls yet.
Now comes the test positioning of all the completed structures! The dimensions are spelled out on the template (N). Make sure the headframe is centered over the mine shaft hole in the diorama base. Also, you'll want to pay close attention to how the hoist house and the big metal wheel line up. Use the large brass rod to insure correct alignment. Check so that the rod doesn't make contact with the little window in the peak of the hoist house.
Next, the floor of the hoist house is epoxied onto the base. I used 2 blobs of epoxy about the size of a dime to secure it. Once the epoxy dries, the house walls are placed back over the floor (but do NOT glue the walls yet).
Other "horizontal" elements are positioned next: the boiler pad (that's an acrylic piece which was painted tan earlier), a wooden walkway next to the boiler pad, service door planking and man door planks as well as the ore car rails and work area planks. I used spackling compound on my diorama surface to fill in damaged areas on my styrofoam. To hide the white spackling, you'll see that I gave the entire surface a quick coat of black craft paint.
I'll get into the ground cover and scenicing in the next update. I've got a couple ideas to share that I've been experimenting with that I think are pretty effective.
Bill
Thanks for checking in on the build and for the nice words.
I'm just about done with construction…editing pictures and posting is where I need to catch up. I'll have an update again in the next day or two.
Your right your never going to beat Brett's detail parts.
Jerry
But in about 24 hours, it will dry and look more like this:
After cleaning stray grains of dirt from the ties, floor and the other wooden pieces, the headframe and tipple are sunk into the still moist dirt. If the dirt has dried, re-wet with alcohol. Next, the rail is added. I spray painted mine with Krylon "Earth Brown". I removed the paint from the top of the rails, transferred them to the ties, and added some tan colored grout for "ballast".
Now the Hoist House and steam boiler are epoxied into position. Make sure to construct the steam delivery pipe and mark its location on the hoist house wall at this time too.
For the boiler house wall, use template J. Make sure to mark the rafter locations onto the header (which sits flat on top of the posts).
Install the wall fairly close to the boiler pad. Then add the rafters and the pipe to the boiler.
For the blower duct, a length of styrene is cut using the dimension on template N. I painted mine flat black and, when dry, simply dusted with a little burnt sienna(411.3). It gives the pipe a nice "industrial" look without looking corroded. The support blocks are cut from 1/8" stock. I made the the straps from plain paper colored with some thinned Floquil roof brown and cut into really TINY strips. Thinner looks better, in my opinion.
But compare the picture of the example in the manual with the hoist mechanism:
to the layout I came up with, the mistake is obvious:
I built it as a mirror image and the duct is too close to the hoist. Probably not really a big deal or even a problem, but I would bother me down the road. We all make mistakes! The solution was to pop off the blower and aim it the opposite direction and re-epoxy it. Then, I connected the tiny brass rod to the opposite side of the blower and into the little engine. I hid the glossy spots from the epoxy by dusting the with a little tan chalk while the epoxy was still wet.
Ahhh! Better.
To get the correct size for the short styrene piece, I placed the brass piece into position so it would line up with the center of the mine shaft. Then, I butted the styrene against the hoist house and noted the measurement.
I painted the tubes flat black, let them dry and dusted with burnt Sienna 411.3
I didn't want to spoil the finish on the tubes, so I assembled them with the support blocks and straps on my work bench. Once the epoxy was completely dry, I positioned and secured the assembly onto the model. Note that I left the tooth pick (which was used as a holder while painting) in one end to use as a handle while locating the tubing onto the diorama.
Once the assembly was secure in the scene, I carefully attached the pipe that aims "down" the mine shaft. My thinking was if I had to touch any piece, the downward piece would be least visible.
Alan
Here's how it looks in the scene:
Even though I will probably never build this one I enjoy following your builds because your pictures and explanations are so good. I agree with Brett on that last picture, the vegetation and dirt look so real. The variations in colors are subtle and believable. As usual, with your work, the details make the difference.
Best regards,
Mitch
Brett--glad you picked up on the "belt repair" scene. I figured I'd use those pulley castings to tell a little story about why they're out there. It looks a little shiny in the picture but it might be the lights.
I'll go over the vegetation in detail this week.
Brett--glad you picked up on the "belt repair" scene. I figured I'd use those pulley castings to tell a little story about why they're out there. It looks a little shiny in the picture but it might be the lights.
I'll go over the vegetation in detail this week.
Here's a look at how I put together the scenery--specifically the vegetation. I use pretty much the same things as everyone else: ground foam from Woodland Scenics, static grass from Woodland Scenics and Heki, and grass tufts from Silflor. When choosing the colors, I tend to favor the more brownish tones. In the catalogs, they're usually described as “late summer”, “early fall”, or “burnt”. I almost always avoid colors called "Spring" or "new growth" because they are too bright--especially the greens.
Some specifics that I used and really like...
Silflor Buffalo Grass (Late Summer and Autumn Tone):
Mini Natur Ivy, Maple foliage, Birch foliage, and short weed tufts-summer:
My absolute favorite are the Autumn short blossom tufts. Each package comes in a range of colors from dark brown to purple to white. It's a perfect tool for transitioning for one type of vegetation to the next and color to color. It's the best!
The manual has a great suggestion: floral moss. I found some at the craft store sold as "sheet moss" and picked up colors that range from green to brown. I ground up some pieces until they were REALLY fine using some kinda vegetable chopper from the kitchen (which my wife doesn't need to know about):
I also use some natural materials. On the left, are "root hairs" that grow in the landscaping in my front yard and on the right; sedum that I pick at different times of the year from my neighbor's yard. It's pretty neat that the colors will remain the same forever depending on when they are picked (the brown i get in the fall, the gray I get in the winter or spring--after it's all the way dead).
Here's something new that I tried with this build. I can't take full credit for the idea because I saw guy on youtube a few years ago do a form of this. I wish I knew who it was because it's really clever, but I've never been able to find that video since watching it. What he did was took an old light colored Halloween wig and cut it up into tiny pieces. Then, he mixed the pieces in with some static grass and rolled it all together. Then, the "roll" of fibers was pulled apart and dabbed into spray glue. It was kind of a way to apply static grass without having to buy a static grass applicator.
What I didn't like was that the pieces from the Halloween wig were really shiny and unnatural looking. Also, the spray glue is hard to control and could never be applied directly to a diorama. Here's what I did different...
I bought a few different colors of stuff called "crepe hair". It's used for theatrical purposes--beards, mustaches, wigs etc. It is made from wool so it's very fine and does not shine like nylon fibers. The stuff I used is a brand called "All Cooped Up". It comes in a braid and I wanted the fibers to be straight instead of kinky and curly:
The solution is to unbraid several inches of the fake hair and dip it into a pot of boiling water to instantly straighten the fibers:
Once dry (takes a day or two and they need to be completely dry), you cut off tiny pieces.
I tried to cut them about 1/4", which is about knee high to an HO scale person.
Then, I added regular commercial static grass in different tones and lengths. Mix the fibers all together thoroughly and roll them between your hands into tube (or cigar). The wool fibers and the static grass fibers are different materials so they'll roll into that tube shape. After that, you pull the "cigar" apart into two pieces.
(that's two ends from a "cigar" of fibers that I set on top of another "cigar")
Next, I took and sprayed Super 77 Spray glue into a cup (use a paper cup because it'll eat through a plastic one). Then, I used a toothpick and laid out some long lines of spray glue onto a piece of wax paper.
After the spray glue gets tacky (takes a couple minutes or so), you dab the blunt end of the "cigar" into the glue and pull straight up. Dab and lift all along the lines of glue.
Let the spray glue dry a little longer and use a small tweezers to pull up a row of grass:
That isn't the best picture, but what you get is a long skinny line of weeds instead of the round "hair plug" grass tufts. This allows you to get grass fibers into much tighter areas (like along the bottom of a building). You can also use the toothpick to dab the glue directly onto the model--provided it's in an area where you can dab the fiber "cigar".
I didn't take step-by-step pictures where I applied these. But, the two rows running left and right in this picture are made from them (by the pipe and behind the tub).
I'll get into the specifics of how I combine all of these things in the next update.
Thank you for the details on how you created such convincing scenery. I have a new shopping list of items to try in the future.
Best regards,
Mitch
Thanks very much for the positive comments! A lot of what I do with scenery is based on solid SierraWest philosophy. I start there and build on it keeping a careful eye open for color, texture, shadows & highlights.
Here's a view of the the Tipple (the side opposite the ore bins):
The tiny splashes of color (purple and white) come from those "Short Blossom Tufts". There's also a small thin clump all the way to the left of the picture, but I used a more brownish color. The dark brown "flowers" by the second bent from the left are pieces of sedum. They're a bit out of scale for HO, but I think it works well in the scene because I applied them sparingly.
Below, I've circled the pieces of floral moss. I used brown pieces so it looks like dead or dying material, while the vertical pieces still have a greenish/yellow color. To the left of the wooden crate are a couple clumps of buffalo grass.
When all the materials are combined in a logical manner (color and height) it forms a nice transition to the front area--which is where there would be foot traffic and nothing growing. But it also helps hide any hard edges from the other items in the scene where they might not be fully sunk into the dirt (the barrel, the box or the edges of the bents).
Here's the same area from a couple different angles:
Again, the same scene but under artificial lighting so it might be easier to pick out the things I'm talking about :
By the hoist house, there are two tanks positioned close to the wall: a small oil tank and a larger water tank. I did the vegetation a little differently under both of them. Around the oil tank on the left, I figured there'd be spills from the fuel (gas, oil, or whatever petrol is in it) which would kill a lot of the grass and weeds. The opposite would be true under the water tank. That thing will leak water and make pretty fertile ground for weeds.
See how the vegetation is very sparse with just some dead or dying grass clumps closest to the fuel tank?
Then under the water tank, the vegetation shows a lot more life. It's fuller and greener:
Notice that underneath the water tank, there's a tangle of dead vines (made from pieces of root hairs). My thinking was that there would be a lack of sunlight and, most likely, the leaked fuel from the other tank would kill the vine's root system. (Can you tell why it takes me so long to finish a model?!?) But, I've seen this exact phenomenon on my grandparents' farm and that's been my explanation for what was happening.
Here's a closer look at the ground under the water tank:
In addition to the root hair under the tower, there's a clump of buffalo grass on the left. I also used some ground foam and leaf flakes. The specific brands and colors are (left to right):
Woodland Scenics coarse turf burnt grass (T1362); Scenic Express Burnt Green coarse (EX813B); SuperLeaf Moss Green (SE6142); Noch Leaf Flake Olive Green.
The colors may seem rather dull--even ugly. But, I think that's what makes them work. They're close to what's found in the real world. Also, when I arrange them from light to dark, you can see that it looks like a paint chip sample. They all get a step darker as you move to the right and none of the colors jump out at you:
The resin casting is painted flat black with cheap rattle can spray paint and allowed to cure. I dry brushed the raised ribs of the tank with a gray acrylic craft paint working horizontally. Next, I applied a thin wash of AK Dark Brown Wash and Track Wash enamel.
THIN is the key...plenty of mineral spirits or white spirits. Let the enamel color/spirits flow in between the ribs and collect at the seams.
The enamel and the acrylic paints don't like each other and the end result is the "galvanized steel" look.
For the vertical rust streaks:
I placed a small speck of orange or brown chalk at the top. Then, with a brush loaded with spirits, I pulled the small speck of chalk down from top to bottom. I repeated this over and over with spirits until the rusty fade looked correct. I also made a wash of spirits and pure white chalk in a slurry on my glass. Again really thin--hardly any chalk and lots of spirits, and pulled down in a couple areas to make water marks (like calcium build up).
There's something interesting about using white spirits (or mineral spirits) with chalk. It has a unique and slightly different end result compared to alcohol and chalk.
Thanks for sharing your techniques on the Water Tank. If you have a quick minute, could you let us know if you did anything special on the oil / gas tank sitting next to the Water Tank to get that great looking effect? The rust on that guy looks so good I can almost taste it...if that's even possible...
Thanks!
Alan
Alan-
Thanks for the compliment! The oil tank was done in a similar way:
-spray paint the casting flat black and let it dry completely. Then, I used thinned rust colored enamel paint ( i believe I used track wash, rust streaks and light rust wash). I made sure it was more thinner than paint. LOTS more. Just apply it without scrubbing too much with the brush--even light brushing can remove the black primer coat.
-With the cast still wet with thinner, dust on chalk. I sort of made it "snow" chalk powder onto the casting. It will lightly fall onto the casting and absorb the thinner. Work from dark to light chalk. I used mostly burnt sienna 411.3 and gold ochre 231.3 for those highlights. All the other color comes from the enamel washes.
That's really about it: thinner tinted with rust colored paint followed by a dusting of chalk that absorbs/dries out the thinner. Like I mentioned earlier, it seems to white spirits or mineral spirits react differently and leave a different final result compared to using chalk and alcohol. No idea why.
The build and tutorials are awesome. I have been following along and really have learned a lot from your tutorials. Are you going to do one of your special shingle roofs?
Congratulations on the magazine article as well!
One important question though is how did the competition skiing go?
Jim
The attention to the tanks is something that changes great to incredible, subtle differences, altered effects. Minor details and differenciation it may seem, but with huge impact in the overall realism.
Karl.A