Modeling a Model Railroad - More Color

I think I have settled on the final version of the track plan and I need a break from building so I traded the knife for a brush. This work was primarily focused on the benchwork although there have been a few upgrades to the buildings along the way.

I should have taken this at a lower angle

The helicopter view, at this point you can't see the track. The reddish brown on the streets represents the brick paving and the grey is the asphalt laid down right over it.

A low level shot of the bridges. I'm leaning towards making this a creek scene rather than an underpass with vehicles.

The viaduct at the other end.

The team track in the right front corner.

And a few freight cars on the scene.

Modeling a Model Railroad - A Bridge or Two

I had already come to the conclusion that I wouldn't have another viaduct, just the one on the right side. Something was definitely lacking on the left though. A suggestion to add an underpass or a creek on the left was made and I have been messing around with that concept. It does require shifting track around to make it fit so there is likely to be some track revisions if I push forward with that idea. At least this came up before I started the new model of the benchwork.

I started off with the original benchwork model and cut a slice from it parallel to the viaduct and the same width (about 80'). Cutting this "canyon" also showed where I was going to need to make changes to the benchwork to support it.

Photos are always better:

Cutting up the original benchwork model

Making some tiny truss bridges. I started with a solid piece of PVC sheet. Then laid out the cross members and cut away the excess. Pain in the butt.

First bridge in place

A lower level view. Cutting out away the excess material was worth it.

Second double track bridge in place

And with a few freight cars. And the whoops moment, where I discovered I had lined up the double track bridge with the wrong line.

 Now its in the right place.

A few buildings in place. The only building set in stone at this point is the one in the right back corner and the right front corner will be a team track or something like that.

A look down the line. I think I like this. Will have to let it simmer for a few days.

Cartoon Wednesday

 

Modeling a Model Railroad - Adding Some Color

I probably doubled the number of buildings for the model. That involves cutting out a lot of little tiny slips of paper and then gluing them to the PVC sheets, its a bit tedious. Everything was starting to look pretty black and white so I figured it was time for some color.

I pulled out the Golden acrylics and went to work. It didn't take long using mixtures of three colors to get some variation between the buildings and that simple task was finished.

This is how it starts. Lots of little slips of paper.

Three Golden Acrylic paints and a filbert brush and this is what I ended up with.

Modeling a Model Railroad - Double Diagonals

I realize that we are constantly fighting parallel lines on these narrow shelf layouts. Since I'm going to use cassettes on either end of the layout I need the mainline, at the very least, to exit off the end at 90 degrees. That requirement pretty much keeps the tracks parallel to the edge.

The other day when I was messing around with the diagonal road or viaduct on the right side it occurred to me that maybe two parallel diagonals would be better. This thought, of course, changed the direction of what I wanted to do next but since the whole purpose of this exercise is to try new things I opted to try a double diagonals. Of course this entailed suddenly building a whole lot of buildings with angled walls.

Here is the result (I'm using the other buildings to build up a background):

Elevated view of the tracks

A slightly lower view

From the left end looking towards the viaduct

Looking down towards the open end

Adding a view freight cars, today we are using the CF7 as motive power today