SierraWest O'Neills Fabrication

[SteveCuster]

Thanks Jan, Thanks John.

I tried to use the rags and tarps to cover the chunkiness of the casting and tie it better into the scene.

[SteveCuster]

Thanks John. I'll think about some ideas for some videos and put something up.

[GPdemayo]

Wonderful scene Steve.....

[SteveCuster]

Thanks Gregory

[Erieman]

Steve,
Beautiful job. Are the structures going to be lighted? What scale is the rail? Love all the texture and use of color on the build. Looking forward to your build of the steam crane. Keep up the great work.


Frank / Erieman

[SteveCuster]

Thanks Frank. I have full interiors and lights installed in both the barn and the welding shop. I also added a light under the white building addition. The rail is code 83. I really like code 70 or 55 for branchline stuff like this but the rest of my railroad is 83.

While you were posting this I was just looking over the instructions of the steam crane. I may build a few Jordans before I tackle it. It's a very complex kit and I have to get the courage to start it.

Here's a couple pictures of the lighting setup.






-Steve

[rpdylan]

Beautiful work, I'm so impressed with this diorama! What did you use for the dirt? I read thru the thread , maybe I missed it.....

[SteveCuster]

Thanks Bob!

The dirt is just regular Pennsylvania dirt. I got a couple yards of dirt delivered over the summer for some areas of my yard and I took two 5 gallon buckets and set them aside for my modeling. I baked it and sifted it through a couple screens. For the finer areas I used a cheap mortar and pestle I got off amazon to grind the dirt to a very fine powder. I mainly used that for the pathways. The rest of the ground cover is darker colored WS ground foam, my favorite is the "Earth" color. I used Silfor for the weeds from SceneryExpress.

I always had a problem getting my dirt fine enough, Brett Gallant gave me the mortar and pestle idea and it works great.

-Steve

[rpdylan]

Holy Crap, mortar and pestle! Duh, Why didn't I think of that! I got some dirt from Scenery Express, which is such a nice color.....i do like that Pennsy dirt!

[cuse]

The thing that, I guess, is so striking to me, is the muted consistent base colors throughout. Dave Frary talked about it in his books-from an artist's perspective. The color range is so limited, it's almost like a black & white or Sepia photo. Unless it's the dustbowl...it's really not as bright as the world. But it's just amazing to me. The colors from grass to dirt to roof to tractor (even to "red" rags) are so controlled/limited/consistent/contained...I wish I had artist words to nail it down.


Just great. I'll go with GREAT


John

[SteveCuster]

Thanks for the nice comments John. I try to make a real effort to make everything sort of blend together. When I look at the pictures I take I try to make sure nothing pops out too much. If anything does I use either chalk or A&I to tone it down. The red rags are one of my favorite little details, super easy to do and they help pull all the details together into the scene. They are made with pieces of Kleenex. I separate the sheet to 1 ply, cut a square out and crumple it up. I put a small spot of glue down, then I touch the tissue with paint thinner with enough that it saturates the tissue but not anything around it. After it's wet with thinner I use a drop of paint, in this case it was Floquil Boxcar Red. I believe alcohol will replace thinner for water based paints. Same technique for the tarps on the tractor only I used Floquil Pullman Green. This is the only part of the whole diorama I used solvent based Floquil paints.

-Steve

[S&S RR]

Steve


Thanks for the great tip on using the mortar & pestle to grind sand finer.  I tested it out today and it worked great - see the full report on my experiment on my S&S Railroad Build thread (Volume 2).

[postalkarl]

Hi Steve:

Very nicely done. You did a great job on that structure. Great colors and weathering.

Karl

[SteveCuster]

Thanks Karl

[SteveCuster]

Hello Everyone,

Small update for this week. I finished a Jordan Model T Stake Truck kit for the diorama. I started with this kit because it's one of my favorites and it's a pretty simple one to build. I haven't built many of these kits, I find they can be pretty frustrating at times. I think I broke the front wheels off 10 times while trying to weather it.


I painted the truck using rattle can black for the undercarriage and Reaper Jungle Camo from the SW paint set for the green. I made the sign the same way I did the signs for the main buildings. Just paper glued to a piece of stripwood and weathered with chalks.




The pipes are styrene tubes, the drums are from SierraWest and the metal plates are from a Central Valley bridge kit.


I moved it around a bit to get a feel for where it should sit. I like it down here by the shed I think.



Thanks for checking in. I have a few more vehicles to build. Next up is either the Vintage Vehicles Erie B-2 Steam Crane I got from Erieman or one of the 2 Wiseman tow trucks I bought.

-Steve