Thats ok then, looking more forward to it now :doublethumb

Phill

I’ve now started the new part of this construction. The first boring job was to fix some supporting framework battens to the base. I hadn’t originally made any framing for the board, as it was only ever going to be a photographic diorama, now my thoughts are different and I’ve developed a plan that could be used in the future involving add-on boards to make a small, portable, terminus to fiddle yard branch line layout.
First lesson learned – Always build a supporting frame of 2 x 1 softwood before you start to put anything on the board – it’s much harder to fix framework now than it would have been at the beginning (and very little extra work if you have a chop-saw).

I then turned my attention to a backscene. Some of you will know that I am a confirmed non-artist and even devised a way to make an acceptable backscene using plain blue sky and stencils to spray on clouds. I published this method several years ago and it can be found here: - http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=162&forum_id=58

 

This time I decided to be adventurous and for the first time in 48 years actually try my hand at “being an artist”.
I started by cutting an oddment of 5mm MDF to the size I required and smoothing the edges with some fine sandpaper. Next I brushed on an all over coat of light blue emulsion, in this case the make was “Johnstone’s” and the colour “Blue Horizon”.
I then took some “Winsor & Newton Galeria” acrylic “Mixing White” and using the edge of a 2” brush dabbed in some indistinct cloud shapes.
Next I streaked on a tiny amount of “Mars Black” (Rowney Acrylic) at the base of the clouds and finally used a very soft ¾” sable brush to “feather” it all in, using very soft horizontal strokes. The final effect is acceptable to my untrained eye (especially as a first effort in 48 years), but no doubt there are some excellent artists on here that can point out where I went wrong / could improve and what differing techniques I could have used!!
Here, for your amusement, is a photo of the result:-

That's pretty darned good, Jeff.  :thumbs

The sky looks very convincing from where I'm sitting, Jeff.

Perhaps you should have done this in a boxfile and taken part in Alan's winter project at the same time:mrgreen:

That's a terrific job, Jeff. Those clouds are suitably vague and vaporous   and with the darker one off-centre your photos won't look staged.
:thumbs :thumbs

Mike

Agreed - I'll buy some any day!  And that's from another confirmed "non-artist" also doing clouds and painting for the first time in 40+ years. :thumbs

I agree Jeff, excellent.

Phill

I agree aswell :thumbs

[user=8]MikeC[/user] wrote:

That's a terrific job, Jeff. Those clouds are suitably vague and vaporous and with the darker one off-centre your photos won't look staged.
:thumbs :thumbs

Mike

Fair is fair here, I was pleased with my first effort, but as always there will be ways I can improve.

I must stress how hopeless I've always regarded myself with a paint brush in my hand, but watching Mike's inspirational work and tutorials has inspired me to try. All credit to him, because it's the one thing that I would never have dreamed of trying.

2nd lesson learned - don't say "I can't do it", look, listen and apply, the result may not be perfect, but you will be surprised how much you learn.

I await further suggestions from the master brushist exclam: thumbs

[user=3]Gwent Rail[/user] wrote:

I await further suggestions from the master brushist exclam: thumbs

Sorry thought you said bull……..ist then 

Nice Jeff, do you want some practice as I will have nearly 50 foot of backboard to paint soon :roll:

That's an excellent job Jeff, keep it coming Sir :thumbs

Going back to my basic principles of building the scenery up from base (earth) level, it was now time to introduce the first representation of the soil covering. I always start each scenic section off with an overall covering of the “base level” using a mixture which Marty has christened as “Gloop”.
For me, this was going to represent an earth base, so I mixed up some filler, added a squirt of PVA glue (to make the final skin more “elastic” and less prone to cracking). To this was added a large squirt of Burnt Sienna acrylic, slightly less Raw Umber and a tiny amount of Ivory Black. Mixed up thoroughly with a spot of water, this produced a sloppy mix that could be painted on with a size 12 brush (i.e. Gloop).


NB - This mixture is not restricted to areas where the basic level is soil, but can (by using different paint colours) be applied to any virgin surface. As an example, I used this mix, but coloured grey, to lay the first coat of the yard in my Brewery Project, whilst building the original Western valley railway. 

Anyway, as I painted this "earth gloop" on thickly, I tried to work the mix into the uneven parts of the carved, painted polystyrene to start to form a smooth, but uneven, surface.
Here a certain well known lady non-modeler decides to have a go:-



When this first coat is dry, I’ll have a good look at the piece and decide if any further sculpting / building up is necessary. A second (final) coat will then give a solid “earth” layer, without carved polstyrene marks, on which to build up the full scenic effect.

I’ve done a bit more today, having given the “gloop” time to dry. As I said above, it is at this stage I take some time to look at the area to be worked and decide if the topography is correct or not.

In this case I decided that I’d like the top slope to be less severe and the “Barn” level to be a little wider on both sides of the stream.

I started by shaving off some of the material that formed the top slope, until I was satisfied with the effect. (I used a kitchen bread knife to do this)
Next I laid a piece of scrap track along the prepared track bed to see exactly how much room I needed at that level. I then used some shaped pieces of cork to build up the excess ground to roughly the level I wanted. This only needed to be approximate, as there would be more “gloop” painted on top to finish the effect. The pieces of cork were stuck down using PVA glue and lightly pinned through with track pins to hold them in place whilst the glue dried.

Here’s the result:-






You can see that the top banking is now less severe and that when I coat the cork with my mixture, I’ll end up with more space at the second level. This may seem a little long-winded, but over the years I’ve had so many instances where I was not quite satisfied and had to undo a lot of work, that I’ve learned that it’s a case of “more haste, less speed” at this stage.

I have an idea about how to treat the cork and make a neat effect and I’m going to experiment in a few stages time and see what I can achieve. I’ve seen something similar done before, but never tried it myself. More of that later.

"Gloop"

Is that a Welsh term for thick brown paint ;-)

Nice :thumbs

[user=285]Alan[/user] wrote:

"Gloop"

Is that a Welsh term for thick brown paint ;-)

Nice :thumbs

Pay attention in the back :roll::roll::roll: 

As previously stated, it's an Aussie term, first coined by Marty, for "all sorts of shite"

[user=3]Gwent Rail[/user] wrote:

[user=285]Alan[/user] wrote:

"Gloop"

Is that a Welsh term for thick brown paint ;-)

Nice :thumbs

Pay attention in the back :roll::roll::roll: 

As previously stated, it's an Aussie term, first coined by Marty, for "all sorts of shite"

hmm:hmm

If that's the case, then I know a lot of " Gloopy " people

I heard that.  exclam:   :Red Card

I didn't mean you Max :roll:

Some of you will know that things have been a bit hectic this week, with my sister being rushed into hospital on Friday night / Saturday morning with what turned out to be swine flu (H1N1 virus). I've not had much chance to move things on with the module.
However, when I was re-shaping the module, as described above, I forgot to mention a little trick with the scenery that I was shown many years ago.

Most people build up a hill / elevated area at the back of their layout and never quite manage to get the join between the 3-D scenery and the backscene to look smoothly disguised without resorting to placing something tight to the backscene. In many cases this can be improved by simply chamfering the back edge down and backwards like this:-



When the scenery and back-scene is completed, this will give the impression of the hill dipping over the horizon and continuing into the distance.

Somehow I've got to remember this! :shock:

Thanks Jeff!

Wayne