Making a New Start

Looking really great - the backdrops add a new perspective (no pun intended!).

Mick

trammayo
  the backdrops add a new perspective (no pun intended!). Mick

 
Thanks, Mick.  The buildings look a bit wonky in the photos, but better in the flesh; still got to figure out the best way to use the images planned to back the yard at Cattewater.
 
Apart from that, all I've got to do now is get the foreground sorted out!  I've got some dental plaster which sets in about 6 minutes which I want to try out with my rubber rock moulds, to add a bit of drama to the cutting and the area where the trestle crosses Feline Gap (think that's what it will be called, unless I can come up with a better name), and having added a retaining fillet along the front of the baseboard I must order some ballast. 
 
Fingers crossed I can get some more work done after Thursday.
 
Peter - glad the track got to you safely. Having changed my layout design, I was amazed how many spare rails I had, particularly after I'd converted several surplus R1 curves to straights for use in sidings.

Have managed to get a little work done so far this week, the best of which is that the wiring's done and working OK.  Next job is to finish tacking the facia rail round the front edge of the baseboard.  Then the fun bit can start. The backscene at Cattewater is sorted out,  but before I can fix it in place I need to print out some more distant hills or tree-tops to go behind the buildings; only trouble is the printer's dying and picture quality is rubbish at present.
 
I'll try and take some more pictures tomorrow.

Those backscenes are the mutt's nuts, they look very good

I see you are thinking of using dental plaster for the scenery, I have always found this and plaster of paris type materials set far too fast to allow them to be worked into shape.
     I prefer to use a finishing plaster from the local DIY store as this has a longer setting time which allows you to blend the various mixes together with a wet brush, fingers etc. For larger areas mix sawdust in with the plaster, this bulks it up, saves weight and gives a nice texture to the finished job. Choose the right grade of plaster and they are also a nice tan colour which prevents all those white spots showing in the months to come!

Many thanks, Bram.  Today I got some work done on the background fill-in behind the general store (seen in post #18), re-modelling some of the images with scissors and glue in the old-fashioned way. I'm almost tempted (but not quite enough) to let them be seen in full rather than glimpsed over the fully modelled structures. Also got as far as working out the townscape at Cattewater when I was called away to go out this evening. Think I've got everything I need to finish off this area, so will try again tomorrow!
 
Re: dental plaster, a quick trial recently showed just how fast this stuff sets - not too good for large areas of scenery, though I think adding vinegar to the mixture might slow it down. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the book that included this tip, so cannot confirm if it's vinegar that is the retardant.  I just thought when mixing small amounts to use in a set of moulds quick setting might be an advantage, as previously it took a long time for each casting to "go off" so a large area to be filled with rocks meant a long period of preparatory work.

At last the backscene is finished, and the other end of the layout can be photographed.
 
Here are some shots of down-town of Cattewater. The white polystyrene tiles form the landscape and bring the ground up to sleeper level, or provide the road surface for the grade crossing where the road enters the station yard. 
 

 
There will be a low relief sand-house to go in the gap in the fence, and the card engine house will be replaced later. 

This is the group of houses where the loco crews live, just behind the engine house on the edge of town.  Some instant landscaping was provided by re-using some of the rocks and rough ground bits from the old layout; just needs a bit of filler and a repaint.  You can also see one of the line's bumper posts, made up from some scrap strip-wood, and based on a design from a friend's 0n30 layout; better than the Peco version that I never thought looked American enough. 

........and this is the view behind the trestle bridge on the outskirts of Hogwood. 

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I've just realised that I've not posted a track plan on this thread. For speed I'll put up one that was drawn some time ago - the present reality is much the same, but there is now a turnout opposite the depot at Cattewater leading to a curved siding running onto a small peninsula baseboard opposite the Ice House. This serves a warehouse and a riverside wharf, though there is no longer space for the model ferry that formed part of the earlier layout plan.
 

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While I was out this morning the ballast arrived. My wife wasn't expecting this and was even more surprised when the driver told her "I've got the grit for your chickens" as we live in inner London.
 
Still, it provided an excuse for a couple of hours work on the track when I got home, the first job being to weather the sleepers of the new track sections and then to paint the brass sides of their rails.  With the ballast put down the areas where the basic scenic shape is finished is really beginning to look the part.  Not sure of free time tomorrow, but I should be able to take a picture on Friday. Then the next task will be to make some experimental rock castings.

Spent the day making a rocky cliff from plaster rock casts. Using dental plaster allowed me to make enough shapes for the job in about an hour; waiting for normal filler to go off would have taken a lot longer. 
    
 
The finished cliff does not show up well in its unpainted form, so here's a shot showing the cliff being tested for clearance before the castings were fixed in place.  You can also see some of the new ballast.

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Big day coming next Sunday when some of the operating team come round for the first time. Consequently I've been working hard any spare time that occurs.  First coat on the rocks - needs more work, plus the grade crossings and wharf timbers have had some attention. More pictures coming, probably next Monday.

Nice rocks!!

Spent Friday covering the last of the bare plywood areas with landscape and grass. Most of Saturday was clearing up and making everything neat and tidy for tomorrow's operating day. Finally unpacked the rolling stock and found that one large card box seems to have vanished - so that's one boxcar and all the mine hoppers missing. I was sure I'd seen it not that long ago, too.

Really sweet work. Really like the way you have used photos as the backdrop. and how you have successfully woven in the perspective.
I am in the process of investigating the making of a couple of backdrops made for me outside layout 'Beaver Creek'. One will be an 8ft by 6ft view of the Rockies to hang behind part of the township Arrowhead that will obscure the fence directly behind, the other will be of rocks and cliff face and go under an arbour behind the tracks at 'Arbour Summit'. They will be printed onto vinyl with anti fade inks and use very high resolution photographs.
Looking froward to seeing your layout complete...you have given me a thought or two about the attic...........

quote=beavercreek] Looking froward to seeing your layout complete...
 
Hi Mike.
 
Still not complete, but here are some shots taken today at the first operating session, which we got through with only a little confusion - the cabooses kept turning up in the wrong places, while the lack of power on the wharf spur turned out to be due to an unsoldered connection in the control panel.  But all in all, quite a successful first run through the timetable. Still missing a boxcar and the mining hoppers, though, which is a real puzzle.  
 
First up is a shot of Hogwood where it must have been raining overnight judging by the grass that's grown everywhere recently - the stockman seems somewhat puzzled by it all. 
   
 
 Next is a view of Cattewater; the conductor seems anxious to depart, but the locomotive is still switching the yard. 
 

 
As there's no loop at the depot the crew have to use a chain to tow cars into the facing spurs, if no other loco is available
 
  
Finally ready to leave 

 
Number 7 switching at Hogwood. That cardboard building will shortly (I hope) be the local grist mill. 
 
 
 
Number 7 crosses the trestle, bound for Cattewater.

 
Wharfside activity at Cattewater. 
  
 

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 "Next is a view of Cattewater; the Conductor seems anxious to depart, but the locomotive is still switching the yard"/ "Finally ready to leave".
 
Just had another look at these pictures and saw the Conductor had got aboard the combine in the second one, while he was on the platform in the picture before. Only thing is, I don't remember putting him there myself; also he's got a peg under his foot, so shouldn't be able to stand anywhere without a corresponding hole to slot into.
 
Is something spooky going on......................????

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Looking very, very good. So much interest - good on the eye!

Mick

Sounds like your having fun
 
scenery is an area I enjoy too
 
Cattewater, is there one in US?
 
reading this brought back memories of Cattedown Wharves on cattewater, Plymouth, Coop coal wharfe, 
 
 wait in cab, windows closed till the dust settled, before trimming load & over weighbridge
 
& then deliver all over Devon & Cornwall
 
 

Nice work, that is looking very good, what moulds are you using for the rocks please?