Southern New England Railway

[CVSNE]

As I was positioning the mill building on the layout I found it really didn't fit terribly well and the bend in the river didn't look right. I also needed to increase one end of the river to create the mill pond and falls.


So I decided to widen the river somewhat (the pencil marks show the scenery I cut away - it won't all be river but I also need to add some terrain sloping down towards the river.


Once I got the basic locations of the mill, the river, and the falls locked in I built the terrain (made by stacking 1" thick foam pieces) around the plaster foundation of the mill.


Here's the structure placed on the foundation for reference. Next step is to blend in the riverbanks and add some rock outcroppings to the river bank and the "woods" areas. And obviously to paint everything.

[CVSNE]

In the last couple of days I've had trouble finding time to get into the basement - lots of work-related stuff going on.
But I did manage to get some rock outcroppings and "exposed rocks" in place - a combination of plaster rocks (from Sterling Scale Models molds) and Cripplebush rocks.
I then blended all these, and the foam landforms, together with Scultamold - trying to minimize the amount of Styrofoam I covered with the stuff.
To get an idea of what the rocks looked like I hit the plaster rocks with a combination of Hunterline Blue-Gray, Light Brown, and Sepia - in the end I think they look decent for a first pass.



I no longer bother painting the green florist foam if I know it's going to be covered with sifted dirt/leaf fall and then planted with a solid mass of trees - but a quick coat of tan paint on the "ground" and black paint on the "water" and the result is this:


I'll admit the whole thing looks like a hot mess at this stage, but the next couple of steps will begin to bring everything together... at least that's the plan!

Marty

[Erieman]

Marty,

Great looking. I also have been using Cripplebush cast rubber rocks. They are quick and easy to install and after you paint it, you are done. I also use it along the edge of the layout to prevent edge wear from leaner's and larger's. The only problem I have has was forgetting not to use cotton gloves. Burnt my finger. My immediate response was to put it in my mouth to cool it down. Very Bad decision. Keep post those wonder pictures. Thanks.

Frank / Erieman

[CVSNE]

Update -
I'm awaiting some additional material to finish the dam for the mill stream so instead of working on the mill stream itself I've been spending some time with the static grass applicator over the last few days. In some areas like this section just north of Randolph, the static grass had gotten pretty beaten up during the course of building, and rebuilding the layout.

A quick squirt of hairspray, a misting with water to create some relative humidity, and a few minutes with the static grass applicator and the refreshed grass (left) looks much better than the old, dusty faded stuff (right):



I had several visitors from Richmond last Saturday - two of them hadn't tried using static grass so we had an impromptu hands-on clinic. They did some grass around the highway underpass just north of Waterbury and in the Derby & Ball wood yard - they did a great job. I hope they picked up a useful tip or two!



I also realized that I'd never shown the outbuildings I added to Griffith's Farm. In addition to the hay barn, "Ol' Man Griffith" now has a corn crib and a small tractor shed. Looks like there's some activity in the barn yard.



The last stretch of static grass I've done is along the mill stream - which I'll show in a future post - and in the area behind the curve between the mill stream scene and Randolph. Since this was in the background I was careful to use the shorter (2mm and 4mm) grass instead of the long stuff I tend to use in the foreground scenes.



Marty

[ak-milw]

Marty, it is really looking good. I like the fall colors, they really catch your eye.

[CVSNE]

Putting the finishing touches on the Demeritt Cannery building for Waterbury. I wanted a fairly large structure that looked like it needed rail service - but I also didn't want something that would completely block the sight lines across the open space on the peninsula.
Entire structure is styrene.
Painted with a base coat of Vallejo Blue Grey, with individual boards "streaked" with other shades of gray to break up the completely even look of the painted surface.
Weathered with a combination of light gray, Payne's Gray, and black Pan Pastels. Some rust color Pan Pastel on the door hardware.

[GPdemayo]

Great progress Marty.....good looking grass. 

[Zephyrus52246]

That's one impressive structure.

Jeff

[deemery]

It's great to see styrene finished as wood done so well!

Suggest darkening the bottom board or two a bit, even with a 1' tall foundation, there's still some water and dirt that collects there. 

dave


p.s. why does this forum add extra line feeds in my posts?

[bparrish]

Marty ....

Where ya been ?

Cool building.

Thanx
Bob

[CVSNE]

Marty ....

Where ya been ?

Cool building.

Thanx
Bob

I've been around Bob.
I just point post much on here since it often feels like I'm barking at the moon. 
Some small subset of an "in crowd" seem to get all the feedback and replies. The rest of us, um, don't.
Kinda weird energy if you know what I mean.
I do post on my blog regularly - and I do look at this forum and enjoy it - but oftentimes it doesn't seem worth the time to post anything.

Marty

[CVSNE]

It's great to see styrene finished as wood done so well!

Suggest darkening the bottom board or two a bit, even with a 1' tall foundation, there's still some water and dirt that collects there. 

dave


p.s. why does this forum add extra line feeds in my posts?

Thanks Dave.

Good point about the heavier weathering on the bottom - I plan to do a final weathering blending when I get this thing planted on the layout.

I can review how I treat the styrene walls if there is any interest - have to admit I picked up a lot of it from talking to  (and watching) Paul Dolkos.

Although you do have to add some "tooth" (I hesitate to call it "grain") the effect depends much more on "paint/coloration/shading" and than on "staining and texturing" like with wood.

Marty

[Janbouli]

Great building Marty , goes to show Craftsman doesn't mean wood perse.

[deemery]

...
I can review how I treat the styrene walls if there is any interest - have to admit I picked up a lot of it from talking to  (and watching) Paul Dolkos.

Although you do have to add some "tooth" (I hesitate to call it "grain") the effect depends much more on "paint/coloration/shading" and than on "staining and texturing" like with wood.

Marty

Please do so! 

dave

[jrmueller]

As always you do a great job with your layouts.  Jim who used to live in Herndon(Occupied Virginia) and now near Charlottesville.