Russ Greene released parts for a new kit, which allows you to build a viaduct or stone arch bridge. Each arch is 4", and there are both short and tall piers, plus abutments.
I started working on mine today, after picking up some of the first run castings at Springfield. Russ told me this was coming, so I designed a spot for it, with a 12" straight section and a 6" drop from track to benchwork base.
Today I discovered the tall pier castings are at the exact height, just a bit of shimming needed. The track curves on one abutment, so it will have to be slightly skewed to the angle of the rest of the bridge.
I cut away the splines, fit and shaped the main pieces to fit. Next step is to think about how I'll glue them together, I don't want the end assembly to be fragile.
dave
That's going to be outstanding Dave.
Quote from: PRR Modeler on January 28, 2019, 09:30:04 PM
That's going to be outstanding Dave.
What he said! These look terrific. Can't wait to see how you color/finish them. :D
Wow...very nice! All of Russ' stuff is so good too...I've got a spot for a significant but undetermined bridge scene that I may have to investigate a little further.
I'll be following
John
Dave:
Great looking bridge. Can't wait to see it finished and in place.
Karl
Looking good from here.
Great looking stone bridge Dave..... 8)
One more photo of the slight angle at the abutment.
dave
Dave,
That really looks great. like the others, can't wait to see how you color it.
Tom ;D
What Tom said, I will be watching.
Jim
I too am looking for to how you color and finish them.
Today's project was to get the bridge assembled, as I want it completely assembled (and any gaps filled) before I start to color it.
My first idea was to glue the segments together with strong wood glue, and put a thin plastic strip along the bottom as a 'keeper'. Well, that wasn't strong enough. I got separations between 2 arches, and between another arch and an abutment. (Glue was fine, the plaster behind it gave way, just not strong enough to support the weight.) So I went to Home Depot and got 1/16 x 1" steel to run along the bottom, and glued everything that broke loose back together with 5 min epoxy.
Turns out there was about 3/32" difference in height between the wood blocks and the tall piers, so I had to remove that from the bottom of the piers. So between my 'vixen file' and 60 grit sandpaper, I got the bottoms of the piers reduced. I got a bit enthusiastic about sanding, and some pieces chipped off. Those I glued back together, but the lesson learned is "slow and steady".
Then once the piers fit, including a bit of filing on the bottom of the arches, I glued them in place.
Now to let things dry completely. Tomorrow I'll do the small pilaster pieces between the arches, fill gaps, and touch up any chips.
dave
Looking good Dave.
One more, bridge in position. I added the (white) braces under the splines on either end of the bridge to hold them steady too.
dave
Dave that is one beautiful bridge.
The primer is also the mortar color. I'm using "Bob Ross" grey gesso, thinned a bit. You want this to completely color the mortar lines, so it's important to work it into all the cracks. At the same time you don't want this to fill in any relief, so I go back and forth with the brush to get good but thin coverage.
After this dries, I'll sponge paint the stone colors.
dave
I bet there is a fine line when it comes to thinning enough to still get good coverage, not thin enough and you loose the details.
And that fine line varies a lot with the brand/kind of paint. You can thin oils more than acrylics. You can thin artist acrylics more than craft paint. The thing about gesso is that it has something (I think very fine marble, like gouache) to provide a good base for the subsequent paint layers. So it will go on a bit thicker than other artist acrylics. But it thins well. I use water with Liquitex Flow-Aid mixed in. I keep that in an old contact lens solution dropper bottle, to make it easy to add small amounts of water to the paint.
dave
Dave, with the door there, is this a lift out, swing out or a duck under? The bridge looks great with just the initial color coating.
Jeff
Dave
I really like the look of the viaduct. Very nice work.
That door leads to the electrical panel closet the damn building inspector made me install. The section is designed that it -could be cut out- if absolutely necessary. It's basically "inverted benchwork" in that the joists sit on top of the plywood. But that makes a nice platform for a river, and when Russ Greene told me about his viaduct plan, I knew that's the bridge that would go there. Russ sent me sketches and measurements so I could be sure the track was straight for the appropriate length.
For now, it's only a duck-under when I need to reset a breaker.
dave
My approach for doing stone is to drybrush various colors of (craft) paint using make-up wedge sponges. This allows me to get paint on the top of the stones without the paint getting into the mortar cracks.
This set of photos shows a progression, I'm about 1/2 through. I tend to alternate light and dark colors. I need at least one more lighter base coat color, then a top-down drybrush with a very light/off-white color to add highlights. The bridge right now lacks contrast and "pop." (Then I start with chalks/Pan Pastels.) But since I've run out of make-up sponges, that's enough for tonight.
dave
Dave,
I'll add to all of those in agreement above. I like what you're doing with the bridge and actually having access to the breakers.
Also, I just love NE Brownstone castings. They make great walls and this bridge is also an eye opener for sure. Great work and
thanks for the expert instruction.
Rich
To finish up the coloring. I thought the overall effect was too flat grey, so I did a rather heavy coat of a light buff color. Then I mixed some light grey, white and water, to get a transparent light grey to tone down the buff. I used an off-white to dry-brush highlights using a bristle fan brush (hard to find, but worth it for these kinds of applications.)
Then I moved to chalks/pastels. These give me good control to color individual stones, as well as some random splotching. I turn pastels into chalk with a small piece of wallboard sanding screen. I picked up some color on a brush, applied to an individual stone and spread it out over the stone. I also rubbed a pastel on a stone and used a "Colour Shaper" (a rubber tipped paintbrush) to spread the pastel over the stone. This gives great control. See https://www.rexart.com/colour_shapers.html (https://www.rexart.com/colour_shapers.html) Finally, I stippled random colors of chalk over the stone.
The bridge looks a lot better on location, the stones have more depth to them. That's it for now.
dave
Beautiful Job, Keep it up.........
Great work Dave..... 8)
Great coloring so far.
Did I sufficiently answer the "how do you color the rocks?" question?
dave
Dave,
You're doing a fantastic job. I'm about to sign off and go do some measuring of my own. I'm surprised there were such difficulties with "gaps" even after gluing it and using clamps...could there be a better choice of glue for the castings.
you mentioned that there is a slight curve in the track (and, therefore, the bridge)...did you simply file away the meeting points between bridge castings until you had the necessary "curve"?
Looks great. Thanks!
John
Quote from: cuse on February 09, 2019, 09:45:45 AM
...you mentioned that there is a slight curve in the track (and, therefore, the bridge)...did you simply file away the meeting points between bridge castings until you had the necessary "curve"?
...
That's exactly what I did! I have a full sheet of sandpaper glued to a 1' square marble tile (so it's guaranteed flat.) I sanded the arch (which has the "plug") until I got the right angle. Then I used a regular file to sand down the pilasters on the abutment so the arch fit tightly. Definitely "sand a little, test a little."
One advantage I had was the inside joint (where you'd see a bad fit) is on the non-visible side.
And on gluing: It wasn't a problem with my glue. The glues I used (good quality PVA and then epoxy) held tightly. The problem is with the plaster itself. It doesn't have sufficient internal bonding strength. So what happened was that the glue held but the plaster behind the glue gave way. I've talked to Russ a bit about ways to make that joint stronger, but there's no easy solution. Russ said, "It's not a problem if you color the castings before assembly and then glue it in place." He's right about that! (But that's not how I wanted to do it.)
dave
Thanks for the info...I'm emailing NEB right now...I think with some minimal mods, it would be a perfect addition for my spot.
Regarding the gluing...are you saying I could spray paint (or brush paint) the gluing surfaces beforehand to give myself a better shot at a solid joint?
Great work. I'm enjoying your work.
John
Quote from: cuse on February 09, 2019, 10:34:42 AM
...Regarding the gluing...are you saying I could spray paint (or brush paint) the gluing surfaces beforehand to give myself a better shot at a solid joint?
...
No. What I'm saying is that 'no glue would be sufficiently strong'. It's not the glue-to-plaster that is breaking. It's the plaster-to-plaster behind the glue.
dave