IronBeltKen
Lazy Daydreamer
Grab a tall glass of your favorite beverage, this post is somewhat long-winded.
You're all familiar with the cliche "two-steps-forward-one-step-backward", right? Well try this one on for size: fourteen (14) steps backward. That's right, two weeks' worth of scenery work had to be totally razed and done over. The lesson I learned here is that static grass, once planted, is totally unforgiving of mistakes. Hopefully some of you can learn from it - without the pain.
* * *
I'm trying to simulate a spur with a long lead-in track thru an undeveloped field that is overgrown with grass - a situation where track that was laid decades earlier has been almost completely buried by wind-swept dirt, with just enough exposed rail surface for a train to be pushed and/or pulled over it maybe once every few weeks. The right-of-way [ties & ballast] is completely hidden and is supposed to blend in with the adjoining earth. Well, after I'd planted the static grass on the field and around the rails, I could see that the ground under the rails just didn't look right. The grass fibers had failed to hide the latex "sheen" of the dirt-colored paint surrounding the rails, and when viewed from above [at the angle which my guest operators would see it], it just didn't look natural.
I tried several minor patches to try and make the latex "dirt" surface blend in with the adjacent earth, but each attampt only made it look worse - here you can see where I tried to apply a water-down darker color paint between the rails, the grass fibers didn't stay standing straight-up. Instead, they soaked-up the paint and formed ugly brown clumps:
At this point where I decided to scrape away all the static grass on the latex surface, paint it a more appropriate color, and re-plant new grass over it. I was using a small chisel to do the scraping when it hit some kind of hidden obstacle. When it suddenly broke free - with the full force of my arm pushing behind it - the blade veered off to the right and ripped thru the middle of the adjoining hill area, heaving up chunks of grass-covered plaster....OOOOPs!
There was no way I could possibly cover up that damage and apply new grass that would blend-in with the original grass; so I chiseled-up and swept away the entire area that I had started on two weeks earlier.
This time, I also cleared away the ballast from under what was to become the "overgrown" track. With a generous soaking of 91% iso alcohol and a surplus jeweler's screwdriver, it came up quite easily. If I had taken this extra step the first time, none of this problem with mis-matched surfaces would have happened. Gotta love that 20-20 hindsight...
I had a bag of aquarium sand on hand, perfect for filling-in the voids where the gray ballast had been. WS makes their ballast out of crushed walnut shells - great for maintaining their original color after applying a fixative, but terrible if you want to cover it with anything it later on. It swells when it gets wet, similar to rice - I learned that lesson the hard way when I did static grass on my cement plant spur this past Christmas.
While the glue was still wet, I figured I'd sprinkle on some "earth" turf.
I had to apply a second layer of earth turf after the first one dried, in order to hide the shadows of the ties underneath. This ground beneath the track will need to match the adjoining hilly terrain. As soon as it driied, I roll-tested it with a surplus Atlas truck, mashing it down beside the rails' inner sides until it rolled smoothly.
Sidebar: When I placed a replenishment order with Scenic Express, I got a set of Silflor "pathway" strips - marketed for placement in the middle of 1:87 scale dirt roads. I discovered they were also sized to fit perfectly between the rails - hot dang!
...but unfortunately, a locomotive truck gearbox won't clear them - you can see how high their dense webbing protrudes in this end profile shot:
I've reached the limit on the number of photos for one post - have to do another one.
You're all familiar with the cliche "two-steps-forward-one-step-backward", right? Well try this one on for size: fourteen (14) steps backward. That's right, two weeks' worth of scenery work had to be totally razed and done over. The lesson I learned here is that static grass, once planted, is totally unforgiving of mistakes. Hopefully some of you can learn from it - without the pain.
* * *
I'm trying to simulate a spur with a long lead-in track thru an undeveloped field that is overgrown with grass - a situation where track that was laid decades earlier has been almost completely buried by wind-swept dirt, with just enough exposed rail surface for a train to be pushed and/or pulled over it maybe once every few weeks. The right-of-way [ties & ballast] is completely hidden and is supposed to blend in with the adjoining earth. Well, after I'd planted the static grass on the field and around the rails, I could see that the ground under the rails just didn't look right. The grass fibers had failed to hide the latex "sheen" of the dirt-colored paint surrounding the rails, and when viewed from above [at the angle which my guest operators would see it], it just didn't look natural.
I tried several minor patches to try and make the latex "dirt" surface blend in with the adjacent earth, but each attampt only made it look worse - here you can see where I tried to apply a water-down darker color paint between the rails, the grass fibers didn't stay standing straight-up. Instead, they soaked-up the paint and formed ugly brown clumps:
At this point where I decided to scrape away all the static grass on the latex surface, paint it a more appropriate color, and re-plant new grass over it. I was using a small chisel to do the scraping when it hit some kind of hidden obstacle. When it suddenly broke free - with the full force of my arm pushing behind it - the blade veered off to the right and ripped thru the middle of the adjoining hill area, heaving up chunks of grass-covered plaster....OOOOPs!
There was no way I could possibly cover up that damage and apply new grass that would blend-in with the original grass; so I chiseled-up and swept away the entire area that I had started on two weeks earlier.
This time, I also cleared away the ballast from under what was to become the "overgrown" track. With a generous soaking of 91% iso alcohol and a surplus jeweler's screwdriver, it came up quite easily. If I had taken this extra step the first time, none of this problem with mis-matched surfaces would have happened. Gotta love that 20-20 hindsight...
I had a bag of aquarium sand on hand, perfect for filling-in the voids where the gray ballast had been. WS makes their ballast out of crushed walnut shells - great for maintaining their original color after applying a fixative, but terrible if you want to cover it with anything it later on. It swells when it gets wet, similar to rice - I learned that lesson the hard way when I did static grass on my cement plant spur this past Christmas.
While the glue was still wet, I figured I'd sprinkle on some "earth" turf.
I had to apply a second layer of earth turf after the first one dried, in order to hide the shadows of the ties underneath. This ground beneath the track will need to match the adjoining hilly terrain. As soon as it driied, I roll-tested it with a surplus Atlas truck, mashing it down beside the rails' inner sides until it rolled smoothly.
Sidebar: When I placed a replenishment order with Scenic Express, I got a set of Silflor "pathway" strips - marketed for placement in the middle of 1:87 scale dirt roads. I discovered they were also sized to fit perfectly between the rails - hot dang!
...but unfortunately, a locomotive truck gearbox won't clear them - you can see how high their dense webbing protrudes in this end profile shot:
I've reached the limit on the number of photos for one post - have to do another one.