Superior & Seattle Railroad Build

[S&S RR]

Thanks Andy! I'm putting together a few pictures of the process I used to paint the plaster.

[clevermod01]

Holy Shmokes !!!!!!

[S&S RR]

On the subject of the rock coloring and painting I want to give credit to Darryl Huffman  for getting me started with his excellent DVD's on the subject. I highly recommend starting with painting everything black as you will see from the following pictures. I then painted a coat of Burnt Umber. The key is to get rid of all the white spots with these two coats of paint. When you think you have covered all the white spots take a picture and you will find out you have more work to do. I let both of these coats dry before the third and final step. In the final step, I had a palate of paints that consisted of the following colors; Burnt Sienna, Sand, Yellow Ochre, Golden Brown, Neutral Gray, Raw Sienna, and Tan. The Golden Brown and Neutral Gray were applied first then the rest of the colors were applied randomly. Finally, working in small areas so the paints would not dry I applied a wash of Raw Umber. This allowed all the colors to blend. The first time I tried this all at once technique, it looked real bad when it was wet, so I gave up for the day. When I came back a few days later for another try, it looked great after it dried. Over the next few months I learned to change the coloring from dark to light and gray to brown as I wanted with changing the relative amounts of each color of paint (I did get lots of practice). I was always comparing my results to the prototype pictures that I have from my trips. You will see the photographs hanging from the light valance in some of the construction pictures to follow.  As far as I'm concerned,  the key to making mountain scenery realistic is to change the colors.  Nothing makes the rocks look fake like painting them all the same color - it just doesn't happen that way in nature.
Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

[S&S RR]

Here is a sequence of pictures from start to finish in the area underneath the stairs.  There were many design challenges in this area with the stairs and the poles to hide.

[S&S RR]

Putting this together as made me realize that I don't have a full set of pictures of the layout as it exists today.  I have added that to the to-do list for a future post.

[S&S RR]

 This next set of pictures are from the yard area of the layout - I will start with the installation of the back drops. These first few photographs show the room with the 1/4 inch masonite boards I used to hold the backdrops. I also included a few pictures with the remains of the old layout which are all hidden now. Please remember that this is the construction thread - lots of mess!

The unfinished wood light valance were added as the first step in the construction of the new layout. I also made sure that the soldiering work was completed on the hidden tracks before I started with the scenery. All of the track is accessible and can be maintained from underneath when the layout is complete.
First a few pictures of the installation of the masonite boards. The same procedure was used for the photo backdrops all around the layout room.

In the first picture you can see just a little bit of the old layout in the corner that will be covered up.

[S&S RR]

And then the photo backdrops were unrolled and attached with rubber cement. This is not a one person job and I want to express a special thanks to Wayne Olson who started helping me on the layout with this project and has been working with me as much as possible ever sense.  I think it has been about 4 years now.

[S&S RR]

It was amazing what the backdrops did for the layout room.  I'm extremely happy with the photo backdrops.  About a month after we had installed the backdrops we covered them with plastic to protect them and it was about 2 years before we saw them again while we did all the plaster and painting work. Again a few pictures of what this area looked like during that period of time.  In the last picture of this post you can see the sand we applied over the plaster in the areas that we were going to use ground foam.  The sand really helps give the surface a bite to hold the ground foam in place on the vertical surfaces while the glue dries.

[ak-milw]

Just awesome work John, like the way you hid the posts.

[S&S RR]

Thanks Andy - I'm glad you are enjoying the thread.

[S&S RR]

The process we are using for making the aspen trees on the layout can be seen in the next set of pictures. I made a drying rack on the back of my workbench to help speed up the process. We are using super trees for the armatures of the aspen trees. Here is a list of lessons learned in making the aspen trees; 1) acrylic paints work well for painting the off-white bark and the knot holes black, 2) soak the super trees in matte medium and use soldiering clamps to hold them straight, 3) Use the flocking material sparingly. On the first batch of trees I made, I used way to much flocking and Wayne the "Artistic Director on the S&S RR" told me the looked like S**T.  We did some experimenting with less and less flocking and found that the trees with very little flocking looked much better. Take a look at the pictures and see if you agree. Let me know if you have any questions on the procedure.

[S&S RR]

Trees made with different densities of flocking and a few growing on the layout.

[bparrish]

John

The problem with trees is after you put up the first one it screams for another thousand or two.  I have 700+ trees on my RR and it's not that big of a room.

Looks great.

Thanx
Bob

[Janbouli]

John , did you get real Super Trees, i mean the brand or did you look for a Floral supplier. I bought a box from a floral supplier , cost me 45 dollars and it's good for about 800- 900 trees.

[S&S RR]

John

The problem with trees is after you put up the first one it screams for another thousand or two.  I have 700+ trees on my RR and it's not that big of a room.

Looks great.

Thanx
Bob

Bob - you are so right.  I'm on my second case of super trees.  I have know idea how many will be needed.  I like to build the trees in my gazebo in the summer.  Can't wait to see the gazebo again it covered in snow right now. I have hundreds of pine trees to make this summer - they take more time per tree.