Cypress Creek Railroad

[SteveCuster]

Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone!

Last week I built a quick little structure for the area between the casket company and town hall.


Here is the structure I ended up with for this area. The rear section is a piece of Bar Mills Gritty Mcduffs that won't fit in the area I need it to so I repurposed it here.




The loading dock is Bar Mills. Its all one piece casting with the barrels and crates molded in. I think it was a free giveaway from the Altoona Expo.
The window awnings are copies I made when I was building FSM Emporium Seafood.


The structure is just placed here for now. I have to make sure the pop-out clears the left side and the track clears the right.


Here is how it will fit sandwiched between the 2 buildings.

My goal is to finish the area between the casket company, the concrete culvert and the back of the diner in the next day or so. After that I can move to the left of the town hall. I have all the structures built for that area I just need to work everything out.

Thanks for checking in.

[jbvb]

Looking back a couple of pages, I see lots of progress.  What kind of 'water' was it that had the bubble trouble?

[SteveCuster]

James I used envirotex for the water but the bubbles came from gloss medium I applied to the surface. I ended up being unhappy with the water texture and I added a few more coats of envirotex. Somewhere in there I trapped some bubbles under the surface.

-Steve

[ACL1504]

Steve,

Looking back through the thread I don't see anything I don't like, all of it is just very well done.

Tom

[PRR Modeler]

All of your modeling looks excellent.

[GPdemayo]

You've been busy.....looks great Steve.....

[postalkarl]

Hey
Steve:

Just went through your RR pics again. Your buildings are all just beautiful. Would love to come see your RR sometime.

Karl

[SteveCuster]

Thanks everyone!

Absolutely Karl. Give me a call and we can set something up.

[postalkarl]

Hey Steve:

Will do.

Karl

[SteveCuster]

Over the last few days I started to really tie to little gray building in and detail around it. I also began the installation of the buildings on the other side of the town hall.


I still have some small details to add around the area. I want to make some simple crossbucks for the RR crossing and I'll probably be adding some trees behind the structure.


Because this area is far enough back and will be blocked by some of the structures in front I didn't spend a ton of time going crazy with the detailing. I really just tried to add enough details to make the area visually noisy. I'll be working on the road transition between the removable area and this area to make it a little more seamless.



I added this stone wall. The molds I had were about 5 inches long so I was left with many seams. I covered the seams with vines and it really looks unnatural at this point but I'll fix it once the area in front is added. Most of the stone will be covered with the structures that sit in front of it.

Here is the area once the structures are placed. I condensed Bar Mills Gritty Mcduffs down for this area. Bar Mills Gravely Building is also part of it. I haven't added any of the scenery to The Gravely Building yet. It's going to be a little be tricking because I plan on having a bit of a hill going up in front of it so I can tie into the next level. You can see where I cut out some of the foam at the far left next to the cobble stone so it can be tied in.

This is how everything ties together right now. I tried to break everything up with some elevation changes. I feel like it looks more interesting and natural and it helps to keep all the rear structures from being completed blocked by the foreground taller buildings.

Thanks for following along.

[sdrees]

You have some very impressive buildings Steve.  The layout of the area with the buildings looks just great

[bparrish]

Steve...

What are you using for your basic dirt medium or color.

It is very cool.

thanx
Bob

[Bruce Oberleitner]

Steve...

What are you using for your basic dirt medium or color.

It is very cool.

thanx
Bob

Steve,
Your layout is amazing.  Like Bob I would like to know how you do your basic ground cover for your layout.  It looks very realistic.

[SteveCuster]

Thanks guys.

I apologize Bob I didn't see your question until just now.

My ground cover is really simple. The dirt I use is just regular Pennsylvania dirt baked and sifted as fine as I can get it. I've experimented with a few different ways to get the dirt as fine as possible especially for the roads and paths. I was using a mortar and pestle before but more recently I bought a cheap coffee grinder and that really speeds things up and gets everything super fine.

For the foliage I use mostly Woodland Scenics coarse turf in Earth color as my starting point. I also use some Silfor for the weeds and some of the Supertree material for bushes and trees.

I'm glad you guys like the way it looks.

Things have slowed a bit on the layout while I build a few kits to add in. Should be some updates coming soon.

[Oldguy]

All I can say is WOW!