Sandy Lake & Northern misc builds, etc.

[friscomike]

Howdy Dave,

The orchard looks fantastic.  The dog adds a lot to the realism.

The layout is progressing nicely!

Have fun,
mike

[elwoodblues]

The scenery is looking great Dave.

[deemery]

Back wall is vegetated.

Next step is to work on the removable piece that covers the hidden trackage.  You can see that as the lighter (wood) colored piece on the far left.  I need to work out the terrain on the removable section and how it will blend into the rest of the forest.  That needs to be removable for cleaning and derailment.  

Then I need to work out the closer-in vegetation, both here and on the other side of the gorge near the farmhouse.

dave

[Philip]

  Fantastic!

[Jerry]

Looks great Dave!!

Jerry

[deemery]

I'm working on the removable scenery section.  I want a pretty good fit (doesn't have to be perfect, since this entire area will be forested.)  

I shaped the styrofoam subterrain.  After a test fit, I removed it and covered the hole with wax paper, taped into position.  

I replaced the 'plug', then applied several layers of plaster wrap.  Then I laid down a layer of wallboard nylon mesh tape.  (Photo adjusted to make that tape stand out.)


And another couple layers over top of the wallboard mesh. 

I'll let this dry thoroughly, inspect, and add at least one more plaster wrap layer.  Then the plan is to mark where the boundary will be, trim the plaster wrap, and -back fill- underneath where the plaster wrap is not well supported.

dave

[deemery]

A question for those of you who grew up/around farms...   Consider this terrain:

There's a steep drop-off to the front and to the left.  I'm presuming the farmer who owns that property would install fencing to keep cattle, etc, from wandering off the cliffs.  But what about that space directly in front of the house?  Should I run the fence along the road in front of the house, writing off the relatively usable land in front of the house?  Or should I run the fencing towards the cliff?  If the latter, what should the farmer do with that terrain?  Just some pasture?  Maybe a vegetable plot?

Thanks in advance!

dave

[jbvb]

In your era, fence was expensive enough that it was only used around specific parcels or fields that needed it. In the Northeast, stone walls would surround any cultivated field because each year's plowing brought up more.  Cattle pastures got fenced to keep the herd from wandering, but pasture land was often steep and/or rocky areas difficult to cultivate. Pigs were (and are) hard enough to fence in that they were sometimes let run free to eat nuts in the forest and whatever in the bog. Farmers relied on feeding food waste in a pen to eventually capture them just as cold weather brought slaughtering season.

Your house dates the farmstead to before maybe 1820, but the barn looks later, maybe after the Civil War.  The arrangement suggests the road coming in from the right and passing close to the house is owned by the farm, rather than a public way.  I suggest fencing the area R of the barn and behind the road using barb wire (I strip strands out of lamp cord for this).  The area across the road from the house could include a kitchen garden. A dug well is era- and area-appropriate, but it would likely have been behind the house or barn. Dug wells above cliffs are pretty scarce.

[deemery]

In your era, fence was expensive enough that it was only used around specific parcels or fields that needed it. In the Northeast, stone walls would surround any cultivated field because each year's plowing brought up more.  Cattle pastures got fenced to keep the herd from wandering, but pasture land was often steep and/or rocky areas difficult to cultivate. Pigs were (and are) hard enough to fence in that they were sometimes let run free to eat nuts in the forest and whatever in the bog. Farmers relied on feeding food waste in a pen to eventually capture them just as cold weather brought slaughtering season.

Your house dates the farmstead to before maybe 1820, but the barn looks later, maybe after the Civil War.  The arrangement suggests the road coming in from the right and passing close to the house is owned by the farm, rather than a public way.  I suggest fencing the area R of the barn and behind the road using barb wire (I strip strands out of lamp cord for this).  The area across the road from the house could include a kitchen garden. A dug well is era- and area-appropriate, but it would likely have been behind the house or barn. Dug wells above cliffs are pretty scarce.

Thanks!

Geographically/geologically, that whole area of the layout makes -no sense-.        The cow pasture to the right of the barn on the far side of the road has barbed wire already.  Fencing off and making a vegetable garden on the near side of the road in front of the house would probably work.  I do have more of the Woodland Scenics rail fencing to use for this.  The problem with doing stone fences would be getting them to run along the topography; stacking small stones would be as much work as for the prototype (the difference in weight would be made up by the problem of having to bend over underneath the dropped ceilings, either would end up with significant back pain.    )

dave

[jbvb]

I've collected pebbles included in winter salt/sand mix from the shoulder of my street, then stacked them using white glue.  Maybe 20-30 minutes a foot for a 2-layer wall.

[Philip]

Ignore the dog Dave    It looks great!

[deemery]

I've collected pebbles included in winter salt/sand mix from the shoulder of my street, then stacked them using white glue.  Maybe 20-30 minutes a foot for a 2-layer wall.

Twenty minutes of pain bending over, unfortunately.  But I wonder if there's a way to construct these on a flexible substrate on the bench, that could then be relocated to the layout.

dave

[jbvb]

I've collected pebbles included in winter salt/sand mix from the shoulder of my street, then stacked them using white glue.  Maybe 20-30 minutes a foot for a 2-layer wall.

Twenty minutes of pain bending over, unfortunately.  But I wonder if there's a way to construct these on a flexible substrate on the bench, that could then be relocated to the layout.

With an adhesive that stays flexible as it dries, yes.  Maybe clear silicone bathtub caulk on top of a paper strip?  But I haven't tried that...

[deemery]

I've been experimenting with forestry  .  I will need a lot of 'mid-ground' trees, as well as background forests.  For the mid-ground trees, I want a way to fairly quickly and efficiently take Woodland Scenic armatures and add appropriate foliage. 

The WS packaging says "cover with Hob-e-Tack, let that dry, then roll and press Scenic Clusters in place."  So I wanted to see if there was a cheaper alternative to Hob-E-Tack.  The short answer is "No."  

I tried several different forms of PVA glue (and I suspect Hob-E-Tack is a form of PVA).  The big advantages of Hob-E-Tack is how it remains VERY tacky.  Most PVAs didn't remain that tacky, or didn't have enough tack to let the Scenic Clusters stick.  The exception was some solvent-based glues like B-7000.  The tube I got has a nice fine nozzle, its primary purpose is gluing rhinestones, etc to cloth.  This has strong tack and good working time, but applying this glue to the armature was a lot more time-consuming than the Hob-E-Tack built-in brush.  I also tried Rubber Cement, which didn't have enough tack AND working time to work as expected.  

Where the B-7000 did well, though, was for foreground trees.  Here I want to attach small bits of seafoam to the WS armature.  The B-7000 had enough tack to hold the seafoam, and enough working time to let me coat the entire armature and then attach the seafoam bits.  

One other note on the mid-ground trees:  I sprayed the tree after the Scenic Clumps were attached with a matte sealer.  This helps hold the clumps into position.  I immediately sprinkled on some fine ground foam in a slightly lighter color, over the top of the tree.  That adds some highlights/light effects.  

dave

[jbvb]

Are you working on steep slopes?  Most of the bushes on my layout are clumps of spongy "foliage" placed on a dot or smear of yellow carpenter's glue.  I make taller weeds by drilling a hole, putting a drop of yellow glue on it, then inserting fibers, usually the light yellow/brown color. I poke some down low, leave others vertical and trim after the glue has dried.