I'm a bit late catching up with this diorama, Marty, but this is great work.  There is a gritty realism to your landscaping, and I have to constantly remind myself that this is in N:exclam

Oh, and welcome to the chisel and axe club ;-)

Another fan here, Marty! The bridge is excellent and the variety and random nature of the ground cover really appeals to me.
 Any chance of a slightly wider view of the whole thing when you get the chance?  It'd be good to be able to compare it to the earlier shots.

 Mike

Thanks All,

Frank, I was originally hoping for a lighter stonework for the bridge, more like your welsh stone building you are working on at the moment but in the end, the blue engineering bricks worked for me too.

Tim, maybe we could hire ourselves out? "Layouts modified" that sort of thing

MikeC, an overview of current state of play below…

A first coat of paint has been added to the backscene, some vegetation is now established around the bridge retaining walls and some trees have been moved in just to see what it would look like.



… once done, even though there is still heaps to do and the bridge isn't finished yet,  I just couldn't resist some photos.

A Carmathen based Collett 0-6-0 tender engine with a short cattle train is burbling away up the line towards Pencader.





Gotta get that bridge finished, then onto the Alltycefan Road bridge at the other end.

Still a work in progress and the trees are only temporary, but suggestions welcome as always.

cheers

Looking great Marty - it has been amazing watching this develop and get to this stage!

 

 Looking good Marty, that ground cover is excellent:doublethumb

Thanks for the wide shot, Marty. I think you'll get plenty of mileage out of it as a site for posing locos and stock.
 I especially like the viewpoint of that last photo.

 Mike

Great stuff Marty. What make of loco and wagons is that?
Ken

Marty, I really like that Willow tree, great job on that one! I hope you didn't lose my address (you did say you were sending me one, right?:pathead)
The second picture "A Carmathen based Collett 0-6-0 tender engine with a short cattle train" is simply outstanding!:wow:wow

Wayne

:wowThis is brilliant Marty, i notice the tractor is still in the mud, is it broken down or has the farmer dumped it and forgot about it, love it, the scenery all around is fantastic mate.

Think i ship my layout for you to do and then ship it back again


Phill

Marty,
       This diorama is living up to everything we expected of it,and then some.I'm going to be nominating this for photo of the week too.About time we had an N gauger!!!:thumbs

Cheers mate,John.B.

P.S. Don't forget,we want to see videos when you get trains running through it as well!!!:mrgreen::twisted::twisted::twisted:

Marty

The diorama is really beginning to look really special now you are achieveving a level of realism in 2mm N gauge many would not even achieve in 00 4mm

Im sure you must be really pleased how it is turning out

 

cheers Brian.W

[user=200]Christrerise[/user] wrote:

Looking great Marty - it has been amazing watching this develop and get to this stage!

Chris… I'm amazed that it has got to this stage… did I mention that as well as a sucker for detail, I'm also incredibly stubborn :roll: (At least, that is what T tells me).

No wonder it's taken me so long :shock:

 
Kevr wrote:

Looking good Marty, that ground cover is excellent:doublethumb

Thanks mate, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

some dried moss was found skulking around in the bottom of a cupboard. The moss was bought 15 years ago and put aside for "when".
Experimenting with it at the moment.

A nylon scourer hedge is taking shape too. Photos soon.

MikeC wrote:

Thanks for the wide shot, Marty. I think you'll get plenty of mileage out of it as a site for posing locos and stock.
I especially like the viewpoint of that last photo.

Mike

 Thanks Mike, I'm getting there :roll: The photos certainly show the potential.

I had a go at painting some clouds on the backscene last night… I'll be repainting the sky tonight and I'll give it another go tomorrow… drat you, you make it look so easy ;-)

Ken wrote:

Great stuff Marty. What make of loco and wagons is that?
Ken

Hi Ken,

All PECO RTR offerings except for the brake van which is an old LIMA one I picked up second hand. (It badly needs a paint job).
The cattle wagons have been weathered. You won't get them out of the box in the state they are in :twisted:.
The Collett goods is going to get a weathering too sometime in the future.

Wayne wrote:

Marty, I really like that Willow tree, great job on that one! I hope you didn't lose my address (you did say you were sending me one, right?:pathead)

Cheers Wayne, I'm still looking out for a wood cutting party with Gramps and grandson? When I find them they will be going under the tree.

Phil wrote:

This is brilliant Marty, i notice the tractor is still in the mud, is it broken down or has the farmer dumped it and forgot about it, love it, the scenery all around is fantastic mate.

Emrys Jones, the farmer, is checking up on the bridge building crew and has just rolled the tractor, with it's engine off, under the bridge in the hope of catching them fishing for trout in his part of the river.

The crew is nowhere in sight so he's stomped back through the bridge to see what progress they've made. Lucky he's got wellies.

Georgejacksongenius wrote:

This diorama is living up to everything we expected of it,and then some.I'm going to be nominating this for photo of the week too.About time we had an N gauger!!!:thumbs

Cheers mate,John.B.

P.S. Don't forget,we want to see videos when you get trains running through it as well!!!:mrgreen::twisted::twisted::twisted:

:oops::oops: Thanks Mate, what's that the FC says… slowly catchee monkey.
Eee but you're a hard task master… but don't worry, I've worked out how to run the wires to the track.

Henryparrot wrote:

The diorama is really beginning to look really special now you are achieveving a level of realism in 2mm N gauge many would not even achieve in 00 4mm

Im sure you must be really pleased how it is turning out

HP, I am over the moon, I've still got a long way to go but with the hints and tips I've picked up from the forum and magazines I've read and the encouragement you guys give me I reckon I might get something half decent in the end.

Once I work out how to paint those blasted clouds that is :sad: 
More practice coming up… Yay ;-)

… anything BUT the bridge :shock:

Working on the "other" bits, adding vegetation and creating the spring/beck/creek/drain.



Second pass at painting the clouds… using acrylics, not too bad when the camera focus is on the foreground items and the clouds are blurred.



… but not so good when focused or view with the naked eye. sigh,
Any ideas?
I've got crappy cheap brushes whose bristles clump, and a fair bit of the blending was done with my thumb.



This is the third go at the clouds, :roll: I think that I am going to have to repaint the blue and start again.



But I like this one.



 

 Marty the scenery in those looks wonderful I just LOVE the variety you've packed into the vegetation

 Re the clouds: a very good effort although you were right to lose the second version [the first one you showed] - too heavy and the brush strokes were too short and too noticeable, which is why, as you pointed out, the out of focus shot looks better.
 Make the brushstrokes as long as you can. That doesn't mean saturating the brush with paint, though. That would lead to problems.  Use about the lower half of the bristles - less than that if you can, and experiment with just a little paint on the brush to begin with, stepping up the amount if you can still handle it.  Don't overload the brush though.
 The white of the clouds would look a bit better if you intermingled sky blue with it. This can be done while it's all wet, but can also be done once it's all dry by giving it a fine misting of water and gently brushing sky blue back over the edges of the clouds as well as brushing blue into the clouds themselves, then feathering away the edges of the new blue.

 When blending adjacent areas of WET paint, it helps if you hold the brush perpendicular to the surface and use the extreme end of the brush, working TO the paint surface rather than THROUGH it.
 I'll upload a close-up of my clouds if that helps.

 Mike

 

 Yes you could have more clearly defined clouds than these, but my personal prefence [ and I stress it's just my preference] is for vagueness. You don't need a lot of paint to do them, and you need a light touch and you need to pay close attention to getting the edges soft as you go along.
 I reckon getting clouds to settle down into a sky is no different from making a road look like it belongs in the landscape: if they share the same colours they look better together. I think if your white clouds have more blue in them they'll work better.
 If you think I can help in any way feel free to PM me.

 Mike

Thanks for the tips Mike,

I'll go back to blue and start again after having another read of your cloud painting "how I dun it".
If you don't have a close up of the clouds in that thread I'd appreciate a close up photo. EDIT, already posted it… thanks mate.

I agree about having a "lightness" about the clouds and I've obviously loaded my brush up with too much wet paint and been heavy handed. Cool, I can fix that.

Fence posts and small trees next… maybe after finishing the bridge

Marty,
       Tell you what,mate,those latest pictures are brilliant.Are you sure Mike C hasn't been nipping round and doing bits???
       The vegetation looks amazing,and it augers well for when you do your scenics on the actual layout.Don't worry too much about the sky,I'm sure you'll get it right soon.The rest is just perfection….you can feel really pleased with it all,all the work you've put in is showing.Great job my friend!:thumbs

Cheers,John.B.

The thing is John…. at the rate I'm doing the detail on this diorama, I'm going to be battling to finish the layout before my eyes give out :roll:

Still , I guess it will keep me out of trouble :twisted: 

:cheers 

good stuff Marty,looks fine i would happily let you loose on mine !

seems you have now realised why no layout is ever finished?lol::cool:

Yes Owen, I'd often wondered what was meant by a layout never being "finished". Now I know :hmm 

Just mail me the airline ticket and I'll be over shortly :cheers