Fault Lines - the layout build

[S&S RR]

Mark

Love the layout - and I'm also very glad you moved your thread here. I will be watching your progress. I hope we get a chance to meet when you visit.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Thanks Tom and John - very much appreciated!

I should get a chance to get further up to date with the posting next weekend.

Cheers, Mark.

[bparrish]

Very cool

Thanx
Bob

[clevermod01]

A lot of very awesome work. love this thread

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

Thanks for your nice comments clevermod and Bob!

(A bit more catch up posting.)

At this stage there are lots of little (although quite time consuming) jobs that need to be done in some sort of coherent order. As well as the tunnels there are 9 bridges to be built and installed, feeder wires to the track soldered in place, the interior of the tunnels to be painted black and the tunnel track to be ballasted. The point motors also need to be checked into the track bed. I'm itching to roll my sleeves up and get into some scenery, but these other jobs just have to get done first. Still - motivation is high and progress is steady. I certainly never suffer from boredom or lack of things to do!

(a bit later)

The point motors have all been fitted, and the feeder wires are all done. Time has been scarce for modelling, but I have finished the stonework on the viaduct and done a slight kit-bash on a Railway Design Associates kit. I held a modelling weekend here just this last weekend, and made a bit more progress. I think all had a fun and productive time.

Image 1-3 - Here is the viaduct. I cut slithers of pink foam, ran my thumb nail across it vertically, horizontally and diagonally both ways, and then lightly tapped it with a wire brush. The slithers were then cut into strips, and then into stone size pieces. These were glued to the white poly former using a tooth pick to install.

Image 4-5 - And here is the RDA kit. I mitred the corners on the brick structure as there were no brick details on the edges. Of course this meant the roof wouldn't fit (and there was the shape of the peaked walkover roof moulded into the brick structure roof), so I cut a new one from the third structure (which I wont be using). The walkover has been moved to suit (and the peaked roof swapped for a flat one), and so I had to cut, splice, file, fill etc. to make things work. The stone structure has also been lifted by about 1/4 inch to give track clearances without the walkover roof being above the stone structure roof (the reason for the flat roof) and causing unnecessary headaches! There will be several platforms.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

(Part 2)

Another structure I have been working on for my 'Fault Lines' layout is a scratch-built freight house based on Sierra West's Scotia Supply. I own the kit and intend to build and place it on the Shadowlands extension of my home layout. I felt like doing some stone carving one day, and so tried my hand at a mirror image of the building with the intention of putting it on my Fault lines. Here it is as it now looks. The bottom story is glued to the base. The base is spackle over a plywood base with building platforms built to the correct height with sheet styrene and MDF. The second story is just sitting in position as is the matt board roof.

Image 1 - Here is an overall pic. There will be a gable roofed one story structure to the left of the two story structure, and maybe a second story porch as with the original.

Image 2 - And here is my stone carving. Once the plaster is dried I file it square and true, draw the stonework on with a fine clutch pencil, and then scribe in the lines with a dental pick. I slowly work away in this fashion, whittling down individual stones to get variations in height, and carving in texture when I am happy.

Image 3 - fast forward a bit and here it is at present.  I re made the roof former and have some of the Campbells corrugated iron attached.  I also have part of the second story porch made.

I've been plodding away at my Fault Lines layout making steady progress. I have been super elevating the track as I fix it down, carving tunnels, adding additional fixing for the facia and control box, and making sure there is access to the hidden trackwork. As I get to the bridges I'm trying to get them done, but several of them will take considerable time to build. I've been working lately on the city viaduct type one which will cross the passing siding track below. A while back I bought a Micro Engineering viaduct off trade me (NZ's version of ebay) for about half price. I liked the look of the viaduct, but wanted to see how it would work for bashing and just use it as a box of bits.

Image 4 - Here is the box showing the viaduct.

Image 5 - Here are three intermediate span girders modified to suit the curved track. The instructions of the kit say only the centre girder assembly needs to be modified to make a curved bridge, but my radius is too sharp, and I needed to modify all three to make things work.

Image 6 - And here is one of the two central supports almost finished. They will be placed off centre (but still at 90 degrees to the bridge) as required to straddle the tracks below.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

Well - holidays are here - officially day three - and finally I have got back to this thread!  I must admit, planning a five week holiday to the USA has taken some considerable time!  But we are nearly finalised on all our plans.  I hope to meet many of you at the Expo in Scranton in March!

I will try to get back to filling in the gaps in this thread over the next two and a half weeks, but thought I would leap ahead to what I am working on at present.  I've tried various methods for my rockwork, and have settled on casting hydrocal rock castings, cutting them up, jig-sawing them back together, and filling in the gaps with carving plaster and sculptamould.  (I love that Sculptamould!)  The secret drawer layer has had all the track laid, wired, painted and ballasted, and all the tunnels in this area have been carved out of polystyrene and the interiors coated in sculptamould and painted a Smokey grey.  The plywood base for the mine area has been screwed and glued permanently in position.  I've been working on the mine side of the layout and last night and today I formed up the river George.  I have borrowed some Bragdon rock moulds off a friend, and plan on getting some more.  I made up some bridge abutments using my air dry Das stone method, although the through truss bridge is still removable.  I still need to complete the wooden viaduct which is the front bridge of the three.  I started by inspecting the rock castings to find the best contender for a waterfall.  I found a wonderful casting where I could clearly see the path the water would take in two to three falls to the river below.  The fall is approximately 65-70 scale feet high - so quite significant.  I used polystyrene and expanding foam to fill in behind the castings, and glued and foamed them in place.  There was a lot of time spent moving the various casting pieces around until I was happy.

The first photo shows the view from below.  It will look much better with the wooden viaduct in place.
The second photo shows the George with the highest bridge removed.
The third photo shows it with the highest bridge back in place.

I have already run trains for three children over the holiday period, and they all love to watch them transverse a bridge then disappear into a tunnel before arriving a short time later on a different bridge.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

I moved back to the town side of the layout today in order to attempt to get one of my buildings finished before the year is up.  I have enough half done projects hanging around!  The weather is hot here in Christchurch, so I cleaned off the downstairs studio desk, and moved this project (Campbell's Grist Mill) down there into the cool.

This first picture shows the handrails added.  As I had added an extra step to lessen the first riser and to level the treads, I had to custom fit my railings.  The instructions ask you to trim the treads to fit the posts once assembled.  This was extremely difficult to do without damaging the assembly, and definitely something I would have thought of and done at an earlier stage if scratch-building.  I did manage to not break things!

This picture shows the Campbell shingles.  Its the first time I've tried these.  I went to use a wet brush to apply (as the instructions said) but found that after several decades the 'sticky' was no more.  For the briefest of moments I thought about glue, and then reached for my trusty double sided tape.  Application was easy and quick.

I found a couple of DVD's on painting shingles and used Troels Kirk's method.  Again - easy and quick and I'm pleased with the results.

The only thing I would change for next time is the ridge capping.  I used a piece of brown paper bag, but although I folded it in half before application to the ridge, it kept its memory and flattened out slightly again, lifting the top row of shingles on each side a bit as well.  I think I will try a timber V-cap next time (as I noted Carl B. used in his Braden Cove build - supplemented with prototype photos - thanks Carl!)

Next up are the rafter tails and fly rafters.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[GPdemayo]

The Grist Mill looks great Mark.....I'm enjoying the progress you're making.


I'll miss you at the Expo, can't make it this year, but Tom and Bob will be there, hope y'all get to meet.

[bparrish]

Mark...

Great building.

Coupla things................

Regarding Campbell shingles............ I don't even try and make their glue work.  I put a thin pull of yellow glue on the card stock, a few rows at a time,  I think roofers call each row a course, sooooo,  a few courses wide and then put down the strips a few at a time. 

Often when the shingles come off of the spool they want to pull into a curve.  That is because the shingles are not relieved at the cut during production.  I take a small screwdriver or pick and pop up one edge of about every third shingle and that allows the strip to come back straight.  I press the raised shingle back down and the glue seems to grab it.

For color I dry brush assorted acrylics on the roof to create a variation.

Below is a photo that shows only a part of the roof of one of Jimmy's structures.  I used the acrylic dry brush stuff on this one.

see ya
Bob

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

Thanks for you comments Gregory and Bob.

Gregory - I am really looking forward to the Expo, and hope to meet many of my 'on line' friends there!  I'll keep an eye out for Bob and Tom.

Bob - thanks for your tips.  I'll consider your glue technique, but the double sided tape was so easy.  I just used my thumb nail to press the strips of shingles on every half inch or so, and got the curve out like that.  I then pressed each strip on firmly using the edge of a metal rule.

Your painting technique sounds pretty much the same as Troels Kirks method (which I used).  Troels technique is to paint the shingle roof a dark brownish black, and when dry do a serious of dry brushes - tans, light browns, paynes grey and white mixes, and a little black soot to reverse if needed.  Finally add bird droppings and enhance the edges with flesh or light tans.

Photo one shows the fly rafters and rafter tails added.  I need to touch up the ends of these along with the decking and railings.

Photo two shows the water wheel coming together.  This was quite fiddly.  It should get a coat of paint today.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[Mike Engler]

Mark, some really good stuff here. The scenery will be spectacular after coloration, etc. And the grist mill looks great- I remember building this one about forty years ago, and the water wheel was fussy.  The shingles on the mill and their weathering is spot on, for my tastes. And there is nothing better than using the transfer adhesive for Campbells shingles or any kind of roofing material. It's quicker, easier, completely non-warping, and neater in my opinion. Looking forward to seeing you in Scranton (Peabody?) in a few months. Happy New Year!

[Mark Dalrymple]

Thanks Mike - getting quite excited!

Peabody on the 18th April.

Happy new year to you (and to all on the Modelers forum!!!)

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

A little progress over the last couple of weeks.

Photo 1 & 2 - Campbell Barber shop

Photo 3 - Campbell cigar store

Photo 4 & 5 - Campbell drug store

Photo 6 - view down on the Campbell grist mill

Seems I've gone Campbell mad!

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[Mike Engler]

Nice work on the structures- you are flying along on this railroad. You'll be able to finish it in time to bring it to the Expo!