Cypress Creek Railroad

[SteveCuster]

Thanks everyone!

Tommy- I used some drylock and latex paint directly on the walls. I didn't stud and drywall the block walls. I added 1x2 strips only to support the background which I made from cheap Home Depot wood paneling. I used the smooth back as the front and painted it all a sky blue color.

Loren- Thanks for the compliment. George is a huge inspiration to me and the F&SM book is what got me into the hobby. I refer to his work often for ideas.

I completed the cardboard frame for my mountain today.


This mountain and the one in the back that's mostly complete are the only ones I will be constructing this way. I needed a hollow shell so I can get inside to fix derailments and clean the track. The rest of the layout will be stacked pieces of foam carved and covered with plaster.


The cardboard strips are held together with construction adhesive and clothes pins. Once everything dries I will start making the plaster shell using plaster gauze, probably tomorrow night.


I need to make a bunch of thin background structures for the rear of the layout near Fox Run. Last week I drew up a simple sketch and made this building. I bought a bunch of clapboard from George at the open house during the last expo. I used Tichy doors and windows, the billboard is Bar Mills.




This is about the area it will sit. I will probably adjust the elevation a bit and make it sit up higher than the track. I have a few other buildings in mind for this area, none can be more than 4" deep.



Thanks for checking in.

-Steve

[GPdemayo]

Roaring start Steve.....I'll be looking in also. 

[jrmueller]

Looking great. The mountains and the tunnel are very effective.  Jim

[Erieman]

Steve,


Beautiful work. Everything is looking wonderful. Building your modules and incorporating them into the layout really makes the layout come alive quickly. You do beautiful work. I'll be watching your progress. Thanks for posting the pics. More please.


Frank / Erieman

[bparrish]

Great stuff........

Let's see how old this crowd really is..........

Regarding the sign on the building for Buster Brown shoes...........

"I'm Buster Brown, I live in a shoe.......... This is my dog Tag, he lives there too.............."

Great modeling
Thanx
Bob

[GPdemayo]

Great stuff........

Let's see how old this crowd really is..........

Regarding the sign on the building for Buster Brown shoes...........

"I'm Buster Brown, I live in a shoe.......... This is my dog Tag, he lives there too.............."

Great modeling
Thanx
Bob

When my parents could get me out of my cowboy boots, it was always into a pair of Buster Browns. 

[PRR Modeler]

Great work Steve.

[SteveCuster]

Thanks for the great comments everyone.

I finished another building for the rear town area over the weekend. It's my first brick structure I've built in a very long time. The kit was from ITLA, it's the D.V Ross building. I picked up 2 kits from the expo last time and I decided to combine them. It was a very easy kit to assemble, all laser cut wood. I colored it using only Krylon orange/red auto primer, Krylon gray primer for the trim, Apple Barrel Khaki for the mortar, a couple washes of A&I followed by some chalk weathering. The whole kit only took me a few hours to assemble. I'll be checking out some more of their kits in the future.


I named the building after Frank Baker - Erieman on the forum. Thanks for the steam crane Frank.






It may sit behind the tracks in the rear section next to the last building I built. It's very shallow so it works well back there.


I need to finish a few more buildings for the back wall then I can start tying everything together and building forward.

I picked up a few RDA plastic kits I plan on kit bashing for this area as well.

Thanks for checking in.

-Steve

[Erieman]

Good Morning Steve,


I was browsing your thread, not reading the captions. Then I noticed what appeared to be my name on the building, then I read the text.Thank you for naming the building after me. NICE.


You are doing a beautiful job on your layout. Keep up the great work.


Frank / Erieman

[LongHornCaddy]

Nice looking latout coming together.  Fine looking structures!

[SteveCuster]

Thanks guys.

I chipped away a bit at some of the background items in the rear of the layout over the last couple days. I was waiting for some rock molds to come from Bragdon so I can start making the mountain on the right front of the layout. The molds came in on Wednesday, they are really big with great detail.


In the last post I showed my cardboard strip frame for the mountain. I covered in in woodland scenic plaster gauze, I thought I took a photo of that stage but I must not have. The technique is nothing new but I prefer the gauze over paper towels dipped in plaster. I think it's a bit cleaner though nothing to do with plaster is very clean.


I cast all my rocks on a flat surface then I usually break a few and tie them together like a jigsaw puzzle. I use a heavy coating of plaster to "glue" them to the mountain frame. I'm using Hydrocal for all the rock castings. I bought 100 lbs of Hydrocal and 50 lbs of Ultracal. I found the Ultracal doesn't take coloring very well, it tends to get blotchy so I will add some brown paint to it and cover the whole mountain with it. The plaster gauze alone doesn't have much strength.


I installed this bridge on the right rear area of the layout. It's a Campbell's Howe Truss Bridge. I built it a few months ago, they are great kits that can be bought for pretty cheap, I think I paid $20.00 for it. While I was mocking it in place I dropped it on the concrete floor and it broke in about 50 pieces. This photo is after I repaired the damage.


This is a better photo of it's placement on the layout.


I assembled this kit from Railway Design Associates. It's called Freeman Manufacturing Co. These are nice kits especially for the price. The stonework is very good and they assemble easily. I think this whole kit took me a few hours. I'm not a fan of pre-molded roofing but this kit will sit pretty far back from the front of the layout and it will have a whole town of craftsman kits in front of it so it won't be noticeable. I'm trying to make a conscious effort to shortcut some of the details if they won't be seen. I can really get bogged down with the small stuff and I'd like to get this layout done in my lifetime.






I colored the kit using some pretty basic methods. I spray all the walls with gray automotive primer. After that dried overnight I added a wash of a dark slate gray craft paint thinned with water. I painted all the windows and doors with olive camouflage spray paint. The walls were drybrushed with off-white. The roof was painted with dark gray spray paint and dusted with chalks.


This little shed came with the kit. I still need to add some details to the roof.


This will sit in the very back corner of the layout. I'm excited to work my way forward and build this town.

Thanks for checking in. I have some more rock castings setting right now. I'll add those over the weekend and start coloring the mountain.

-Steve

[ACL1504]

Steve,

Great job on the rock face and the RDA kit. RDA makes a nice looking structure and you've made it look "not plastic" if that makes sense. Weathering changes it all. Well done.

Tom

[Zephyrus52246]

The RDA kit looks great.  Especially the roof.  Doesn't look like plastic at all.

Jeff

[fsmcollector67]

Steve,
Great rock work.......coming along nicely...
Loren...

[Lynnb]

Hi Steve, I just happened to come across your layout by clicking on a photo googling something and basicly gave me a link on the forum showing all your builds, I consider that a bonus to me as all your work is simply amazing and quite enjoyable to read through. I tried to view your trackplan as I always enjoy following a modeler in direct relation to the plan , kinda hard to read it. I really like your style of benchwork, it is similar to mine with the deep benchwork. I look forward to all your updates.