Mini layout in the works


Not sure about the spray paint. I suspect that the sand would clump up unless you were very patient with the paint, and it would take a lot of shaking and spraying to avoid bare spots. And then you'd drizzle it with glue and the paint would soften and run off!

A while back I opened up a used fridge water filter (for the ice maker) just to see what was inside. It had a bunch of what looked like N scale coal (charcoal probably) and a bunch of little clear spheres. I never found a satisfactory way to sift out the balls, so I ended up throwing most of it away. (The doorknob on the operator's shed for the transfer table is actually one of the little spheres that I had hanging around.) If you could separate out the black stuff, that might work.

Or do what I did to try and make coal: run some black plastic sprues through a meat grinder, wipe out your arms, and get little flecks of black plastic everywhere!

Overhead shots (and yes, my workspace is an unmitigated disaster):

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The backdrop is a remnant from the around-the-walls layout my dad and I were planning to build. I figure I'll leave the back of this one open so I can get good natural light sorts of shots with it.
 
Wow! Thanks for the great photos. Very effective diorama modeling! So many nice features packed into there. The gravel driveways and a bit of green grass by the house. The mountain and highway with the auto's. And the working transfer table and pier. Amazing what you can pull off with stone tools and your budget approach. Inspirational! :eek::)



Mike
 
Thanks! I think having zero budget and a whole lot of junk brings out a bit of creativity. :)
 
I tried using Woodland Scenics 'Realistic Water' the other night. Most of the times I've seen this used were as a very thin layer on a flat surface that's painted to give the illusion of depth. I tried to use it to fill an actual deep spot. But I knew it didn't like being poured too deep (it got funny blue spots on my last layout where it was too deep), so I brushed on the first few coats, filling the deeper spots and sealing the gaps. (I put a piece of duct tape around the exposed front and side as a dam, which worked surprisingly well.) Then I poured a layer over that, and then everything went screwy.

I got bubbles all through it. The stuff's so thick, I'm not sure how to avoid them! I tried heat (which didn't help), I tried stabbing the bubbles with a knife (sort of but not really worked), and then I thought, maybe I can thin this stuff so it'll fill the voids better. So I added water.

You can guess how that went down.

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It all lifted up in a nasty rubbery mess, most of which I managed to scrape off. I also realized that even the realistic water that sets up properly looks nothing like water: it's cloudy, it's sort of dull, sometimes it turns elmer's-glue-white... it just generally looks wrong. I might check Walmart next time I'm there and see if they have any of this 'Magic Water' stuff I've heard about. The WS stuff seems to be a step up from the horrible E-Z water I used once (and never again!) but only a small step.

Anyway, a pain, and a mess to clean up. I'll probably end up repainting the water area here. Worst case I'll fill it with something and get a flat surface I can paint, but with the pier fixed in place already, I would really rather not go there.
 
I'm trying to figure out the water thing now. Thanks for posting I'll try not to do that.
 
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I repainted the lake (?) floor, which IMO looks a lot better now. I'm experimenting with the WS water off-layout to see if I can figure out how to use it properly. Apparently you're not supposed to use a brush to apply it, which might explain some of the air entrapment issues I was having. Hopefully I'll figure out how to use it, because I still have a full bottle of it and I haven't bought anything else for this project so far. ;)

And thanks Railfan. :) I got a bunch of cheap cars with Bachmann buildups years back. That one was already a little smashed, part of the 'Dick's Body Shop' building. Of all the cars I smashed up I think it turned out the best. :)
 
Once bitten, still dumb enough to give it another shot. :D I watched a few vids on using the realistic water, and saw that they used a toothpick instead of a brush to spread the stuff. Thinking that this explained my air-entrapment problems, I used a screwdriver this time. Two layers in, and... nope, still bubbles. Nowhere near as bad as before, but, bubbles. Turns out I didn't properly seal the base of the water area, so air bubbles up through the stuff as it tries to cure. I figure I'll do a couple more coats until I have a flat surface, then paint over that, then do another thin coat over that. Maybe then it'll work!

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I thought the rocks looked a little bare, so I added some 'class of' graffiti. It's fairly common around here, and I think it helps distract the eye from the less-than-perfect transitions between the rocks and the hillside.

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Keep trying and you will get it. You are getting way more done. I'm going for a relatively large N layout.....and it's taking me a long time to build the benches......but I'm a bit slow at everything anyway. I'm happy with how it's going though.



Mike
 
That's the nice thing with a small layout, no benchwork. :)

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I added more coats of water, figuring I'd just paint over it again due to the bubbles etc in it. But then I decided to hit it with the water effects stuff just to see. It's made the surface opaque enough that the bubbles barely show up. I'm not entirely satisfied with the surface, but a little white accent foam should help.

Also, for the record, duct tape makes a lousy fake water dam. Mostly because it sticks to the water, and then you have to cut it off with a knife so it doesn't tear the water layer from the base.
 
I wish I had 10% of your skill, and motivation. I like that you explore new ideas. Keep the updates coming.
 
Well, I thought I liked the water okay, but then the water effects stuff dried properly and showed off the huge bubbles under the surface. So I painted over the surface and tried another coat.

There must be some way of laying down Realistic Water without introducing bubbles, but I'm not sure what that method is. I decided to try thinning it just a bit with water (much less than I used for my previous 'flood everything' attempt) to lower the surface tension. This made the stuff a little easier to spread, but didn't seem to help much otherwise. When I left it to dry, it was mirror-smooth, except of course for a bunch of tiny bubbles I couldn't figure out how to get rid of and therefore resolved to ignore.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it was the thinning, or if the paint wasn't dry yet, or if the room was too cold, but something weird happened to the surface.

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My first reaction wasn't something the moderators would be cool with me posting here :rolleyes: but the more I look at it, the less it offends me. It needs a little effects work around the shore, and maybe some foam up against the rocks, but it actually looks pretty good from the right angle.

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I probably couldn't replicate this if I tried, but it looks better than any of my previous attempts.

I wish I had 10% of your skill, and motivation. I like that you explore new ideas. Keep the updates coming.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I honestly have no idea what I'm doing, I just try stuff until something works. :D
 
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