I've been engraving for all the big boys for thirty years with lots of exhibition work magazine articles and features in books etc and many well known customers so I guess people know who I am

 

The commissions come usually from the customer and also from the gunmakers.

Here's another area i've just worked on, the literaly twenty year trees needed a makeover as the middle one especially was looking a bit tired and thin, pic 1.

Pic 2, some stiff wire was pushed through to make a larger framework.

 

Pic 3, Woodlans Scenic's light green foliage was added with PVA glue to fill the areas out.

 

Pic 4, air laquer was sprayed on then medium green turf and then burnt turf was added, and sprayed lightly to hold. 

 

Pic 5, dark green turf was added to the left tree and light green the the right one.

 

Phil

 

What a transformation Phil. :shock:

It's an amazing change from those ugly heavy wires to the finished article.

It looks as if you did it all in situ ………:roll::roll:  How do you clean up the mess and do you re-use the surplus ?  If so, what do you use as a vacuum so you can retrieve the stuff ?  Mine usually ends up in a big bag with 7 tons of carpet fluff, dog and cat hairs, crumbs and other "waste products" from the domestic department ……………

Peter, as you can see from pic 4 I place paper sheets everywhere, to catch the surplus and to stop the spray from going onto the rails etc.

 

 

I saw that Phil but assumed you used a vac afterwards to clean up the strays that miss the sheeting. :roll:

If so, do you just discard that ?

There's so little of the strays that I disgard them, however when there's not I just use a piece of fine cloth in the end of the tube, I guess thats standard practice.

 

Phil

Not in my house Phil !!! :oops::oops::oops::oops:

It might start to be from now on …………………..:roll::thumbs

Tights are also good,,,,as long as they're not her best ones :shock::shock::shock:

This layout is truly inspiring.  Some incredible detail and realism.
Tom

Lovely work on the trees Ben and a useful "how I do it."
I couple of question if I may?
When you say that you just "push through" copper wire, is that all you do? Just push it through the existing tree and rely on the trees existing structure and foliage to hold the wire in place?
Did you paint the wire or just rely on the foliage to disguise the "shine".
cheers
Marty

Thanks Tom.

 

Marty, the tree was too narrow, it needed some width. The wires were just pushed through, with the same amount showing either side, the existing hydrangea stalks were enough to hold them, but glue could have been added along the wires if needed. In this case they were not painted because I needed thick leaf cover and that would conceal the shine, but normaly painting is a good idea.

There are quite a few grassy areas to the layout, these were done twenty years back using the lint pull-off method, the have now faded, they still look good but i'm thinking of adding static grass, you can see some of the areas in the last few pictures and the rest previously in this thread, any opinions on this? 

 

Phil

Phil,

Thank you for your reply, it answers my questions perfectly.

While I've seen static grass used to good effect on quite a few layouts I've never used it myself.
I'd like to give it a go and probably will one day.

For OO I feel that it makes a significant improvement to the vegetation on a layout.From what I've seen, mixing the fibre colours, e.g. 60% Green 20% Yellow 20% Tan prior to application produces a better representation of nature than using the solid colour straight from the pack.

My personal feeling is that at 2mm to the foot in N scale (approx) the fibre has application for specific vegetation only.
That being long grass, cropped fields and other taller grasses. A well chewed over stock field or well tended lawn can be better represented with scatter.

Just my thoughts.
Marty

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

…………My personal feeling is that at 2mm to the foot in N scale (approx) the fibre has application for specific vegetation only.
That being long grass, cropped fields and other taller grasses. A well chewed over stock field or well tended lawn can be better represented with scatter.

Just my thoughts.
Marty

I couldn't agree more Marty.   I think the use of too long static grass in some N layouts looks very unrealistic, furthermore some layouts I've seen in various scales seem to me to have too much of this type of foliage and often too bright colouring too!   Keep it looking natural should be the watchword! ;-)

Ken.

G'day Phil,

Regarding your Hydrangea trees, do you thicken up the trunk at the base or just use the stalks straight (dried ofcourse), with the finer stalks (branches) trimmed down to shape ? Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the tree looks fantastic !

Cheers, Gary.

Gary, the trunks as they are are too thin for the overall size, I thickened mine out, as far as I remember, by binding and then with Polyfilla. The knobs at the ends of the stalks have to be cut off too.

 

I seem to remember that when I did the binding, probably with string etc, I added a rod for ground fixing.

 

I think it's also possible to add extra (trimmed) hydrangea stalks to the main one to thicken it out even more.

 

Phil

Tea Break!


Not sure what he's going to catch in that water! Twenty years of darkening varnish…it needs re-doing :roll:

 

Phil
 

Fantastic shots Phil. :thumbs

What are the figures and how did you alter them for the poses ?  The guy leaning on the shed with legs crossed and a mug of tea in his hand is superb, as is the guy with the newspaper on his knee. Wow !!!

They look so real, not only as individuals but also the way you've made up the groups. :pathead

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Fantastic shots Phil. :thumbs

Exactly what I was going to say!

Ken

Luckily they did'nt need modifying! they are from Dart Castings, the trick is to arrange in good group poses.

 

Phil

Phil: Mightily impressed by both your modelling and your 'proper' job.

While I might aspire to some good modelling, I could never in a million years emulate your beautiful work illustrated on the link.
Fabulous.
I hope there are folk in training to take up the craft for the next generation.