Fault Lines - the layout build

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

Thanks John.  Yep - I tried the gluing together of two castings to get a 3-D rock, but like this method MUCH better.  Give it a try.  Quick, easy and no seams. 

Well - I have been busy pushing ahead with any time I can find.  I must say these deadlines make you get things done.  I found myself busily plastering and sculpting and staining and painting and asking myself "why don't I work like this all the time?  Imagine how much I would get done!"

So... the sculptamolding has all been done and some of the plastering between the rock castings where needed.  I tried using hydrocal, and although the working time is very short, I like this the best so far.  I bought myself a little paint applier (can't remember what they are called) to go with my other one.  The new one is like a small brick layers pointer.  I use my first one like a bricklayers hawk to hold the plaster and the new one to scoop it off the hawk and apply it to the crevasses between castings.  The hydrocal needs to be starting to go off to do this successfully.
I sculptamolded the roads in place, and when painted brown they will act as leading lines as intended.  I really have decided that the adding of colour makes a huge difference.
I have finished off another Campbells kit, Slapped together a Magnuson (Walthers) Dons shoe shop, assembled a pre loved (hated???) Woodland Scenics Rockies tavern, and filed (and sworn at) two more (new) Woodland Scenics white metal kits (I really thought the fit on these would have been better!!!)
And finally I have started staining rocks and painting sculptamold.  I decided the vertical rocks along the backdrop wouldn't look right painted green between the rock castings and the backdrop where I had applied sculptamold.  In a perfect world I would rip them out, recast them with my new folded mold technique, and carefully fit them when cured.  But time is of the essence, so I opted to paint the sculptamold in full strength Woodland scenic paint colours (the same as my stains).  They turned out not too bad.

Only 13 more days to go!

And so - some pictures of progress.

More soon, cheers, mark.

[cuse]

Looks great. Fun project! I love the shingled building.


John

[ACL1504]

Fantastic looking layout! Very well done Mark. I've certainly enjoyed the progress of the build.

Tom

[Mark Dalrymple]

Thanks John and Tom!

John - yes - Campbell make some real cuties, and many of these fit right into a small layout like this.  I especially like the use of a stair stringer as decoration on the parapet wall - very clever.

Tom - I've really enjoyed building this one - especially as it has progressed.  I think there is a lot to be said about spending time building a small layout and experimenting with different techniques without worrying too much if something is a disaster.  And then when you use similar techniques on a larger layout your that much further on with your skill set.

Right - off to do the groceries and then its back into the garage to get plastered!

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

Lots of progress on Fault lines.  Its day two of the show today (just typing this over breakfast, Sunday morning) and, cross fingers, so far everything has been going well.  Lots of interest.  The ladies seem to be interested in the artistic side of things and gentlemen seem to be interested in the construction.  I've caught several 70+ gents leaping from one side to the other and pointing to the little shay as it roars out of a tunnel with a huge grin on their faces - and I know I'm taking them back to being 10 or 11 years old again.  Lovely to watch!  The kids also love guessing which bridge the train is going to pop out on next.  At times I've counted ten or more people watching in each side.  The most common comment is about the presentation and lighting - its certainly worth spending the time on.  Having a ball - but getting rather tired - and losing my voice from all the talking!

I'll update with some photos over the coming week.

Cheers, Mark.

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi again.

Well - all over.  Lots of fun and very little damage.  Lots of good feedback.  and I managed to get in the top few for popular vote - which I was pretty chuffed with considering how far from finished it is.  The real highlight though was watching just how many faces I put smiles on - both young and old, male and female! 

My boss got a new van last week and was kind enough to not fit it out with drawers, shelving and so forth so that my layout would fit.  Perfect!  It even had stropping points on the floor which I used to stop the layout bouncing on our earthquake damaged roads.  I transported most of the trees and structures in boxes and then set them up in the hall.  Here are a few pictures.

I will see how I feel over the next few weeks - but I have been thinking I might take a break from Fault Lines and work on my 'Innes Aerated water manufacture' diorama (part of my Tellynott layout) to take up and enter in the competition at our biannual NZ conference.

Cheers, Mark.

[martin.ojaste]

Mark, its a beautiful layout.

[barrymk]

Mark, just the top notch work all [/size]who follow your modelling have come to expect.  No pressure for the next one then.....

[barrymk]

Not sure what happened there it should say:Mark, just the top notch work all who follow your modelling have come to expect.  No pressure for the next one then.....

[Zephyrus52246]

Glad to hear the show went well.  Great looking layout.

Jeff

[GPdemayo]

Outstanding job on the scene Mark. Great work! 

[coors2u]

Awesome work Mark.

[S&S RR]

Mark


Great work! And you made your deadline for the show! Very well done.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Thanks very much for your comments Martin, Barry, Gregory, Jeff, Dustin and John - they are very much appreciated!

I forgot to mention how well the layout worked.  I had only managed to get everything wired up last weekend so the show was in many ways a test run.  I ran my Roundhouse shay all day on Saturday.  At about 11 am a wire came off so I ran it over to the soldering display table and it came back with a tiny extension wire attached five minutes later.  The chap who fixed it also won the public vote for his layout.  From then on it never missed a beat.  On day two I ran my 2-6-0 IHC Camelback which also ran very well (which was good as I had to do a bit of 'extra' rock carving to give clearances on the main line!).  I left the shay on the mine line and every so often (when there were lots of kids watching) I would run it out of the tunnel and over the high bridge to the mine.  That seemed to get a lot of ooos and arrrs.  I'm actually rather pleased with my control panel so far.  Electronics scares me, and this is the first time I have tackled a control panel myself.  Still a lot more wiring to go, but all the same...

There is still a long way to go on the layout - painted back drop, many more trees, the whole forest floor and masses and masses of ferns, flaxes, cabbage trees and mosses.  Then there's two rivers with waterfalls and a wharf area to 'water', all the structures to finish off (as well as a engine facility to scratch-build and my BIS Silverado mine to build).  And lots and lots of detailing.  The plan is to have a 6 month hiatus and then get back to working on Fault Lines after Easter with the 2017 show as a goal.  In that way I will be able to present a layout with very noticeable improvements.  We will see.  With a bit of luck we will have our house repairs finally done by then and perhaps another trip to the USA to the Denver Narrow Gauge convention???!!!  Fingers crossed!

Thanks for following along and for all the comments - they really do mean a lot and help keep me motivated.
More in a little while, cheers, Mark.

[Mike Engler]

Great job Mark. I hope I get to see it some day. Thanks for letting us in on it and hope we get more.