Building a Diorama - Part #10 - Surgery

SURGERY:
I hope you are over your fear of change.  As I said in my fit of rage (Part #2) I took the scissors and hacked the middle section of the 'finished' diorama from top to bottom, leaving the track section and a small section at the top to hold the two halves together.  Here are the before and after pictures.

A nice, simple, finished diorama.

A chopped up diorama.

I am going to follow this up with a series of pictures showing step by step how I CHANGED / EVOLVED this simple diorama into a more dynamic and photogenic railroad setting.

My first action was to strengthen the top connecting section by wrapping with plaster cloth.  I then covered the rough edges with plaster cloth to connect them to the profile boards.  To allow shaping the ravine i added 1" extruded foam to the sides and bottom using acrylic caulk adhesive.  Note the pill bottle wedges and the carved out front edge for the little, almost dry, creek bed.  A sharp eye will notice I was still experimenting with  ground coloring.

 

This picture shows more detail of the use of plaster cloth, extruded foam and pill bottles.  Not seen is the ledge I cut into the blue foam under the track roadbed to provide a base for the 1" high end bents for the pile trestle bridge I will be adding later.  Also note the high level of expertise used in cutting the foam and expensive tooling involved.  As they say on TV, "Don't try this at home, I am a professional."  The exam to attain this 'professional' level is to JUST DO IT!

Here is another view of the high level of expertise required to achieve this finely crafted diorama.  I simply used what was available at the time, newspaper, pill bottle and scrap blue foam, stuffed into place to hold the conture required.  As stated before, a clean and neat work area is a necessity to achieve professional results.

Now you see the ravine shaped by adding a back wall of blue foam and plaster cloth, supported in the rear with newspaper and scrap foam pieces.  The sides and bottom were shaped with a rasp and painted with several thin coats of lightweight spackling thinned with water.  The plaster cloth areas were painted in a similar manner to blend into the existing scenery.

 

This low angel view gives a better perspective of the finished ravine and the area to be bridged.  The two ledges are also visible on either side below the roadbed.  The white color will accept color in the next series.

This shot is to show you the type of jig I used to build the bents for the trestle.  It consists of a piece of foam core board with a center line drawing of the pile and cross brace locations taped in place.  I covered the whole thing with a cutoff sandwich bag and used straight pins for locators.  I will have a better diagram in the later part about Driven Pile Bents for Trestles.

The evolving ground coloring proved too close to the rock outcrops and will be changed.  The pile bents are laid out to show their detail, most of which will be hidden once they are installed.  The wet trickle of water maintains a little growth of questionable quality and was created by dribbling several layers of grey, blue, green and yellow down the back wall and let run to the front.  Several coats of gloss poly helped give it the wet look.

The bents are now installed and support the roadbed.  All that remains is to install a few braces and touch up the ground coloring to be more in contrast to the rock carvings.

 

Finally we see the mostly completed diorama, backed by the mountain and sky boards, used as a setting for a little engine and caboose.  Still need to add some scrubby plant life and better contrast between the rocks and ground.  Yes, it is still evolving.

Building a Diorama - Part #9 - CHANGE

CHANGE:  "The more things change, the more they stay the same."  anonymous

Building a model railroad is almost like being a god.  We get to create it anyway we wish; big or small, old time or modern, steam or diesel, city or rural.  But, unlike God, it is not perfect, we see defects and ways to make it better.  We see the need to CHANGE!  BUT, look at all the Effort I put into this!  All the Money!  All the Time!  To CHANGE a CREATION is sacrilege!  So, maybe we aren't ready to be gods!  Maybe WE should consider EVOLUTION!  We start out small and simple, add a little here and there, get more room, find more money, learn new skills.  All this prepares us for the dreaded CHANGE!  But wait, from the beginning this layout has been evolving, and evolution is change.  See, now change is not so big and threatening, it's just a little thing.  Now change is something we can cope with and someday even embrace.

Here is a little about the changes I made, or better, how my diorama evolved over time.

Just starting out with Foam-Core Board and string.

The shape take form with Plaster Cloth.

Some paint makes it start to come alive.

Rocks take shape with Lightweight Spackling.
 

Building a Diorama - Part #8 - An Interlude

An Interlude:
For those of you who have been following this Blog it may be time to press the pause button and look back a bit to Part #2 - Finding Your Setting.  For newbes, that little tirade about change will expose you to an insight into how I approach things, consistently procrastinate until you explode with 'whatever.'  Another insight might come with my blog of June 16, 2011, Who Am I?

I guess a better title would have been "The Lull Before The Storm."  I might be described as an enigma, not exactly what I seem to be.  The cool, confidant, intelligent individual is not exactly who I am.  I grew up with change, 12 addresses by high school graduation.  I have lived my adult life with change, 50 more addresses and 35 jobs of several descriptions.  I have never been settled long enough to have a permanent layout, never learned to get "really" organized, never really learned to make close friends.  At best you could say I live in the present and the past, my future is unknown, sort of a "Doctor Who" type of person.

So back to modeling.  I like to experiment by doing things a different way, yet one of my favorite sayings is "Don't reinvent the wheel!"  That is why this Blog was started, using foam-core board, because the model railroad community consensus was that the material was unsuitable for model railroad construction.  What a challenge!  If you have sauntered off to other model railroad sites you may notice that I am not a "really, really" good modeler.  I believe in caricature, point out the obvious - if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.  Therefore, if it has engines and cars like a railroad, and moves around scenes like a railroad, it is a railroad!  The funny thing is, most people agree with me, maybe not most 'real' model railroaders, most people.  What I am trying to achieve is a step up from a bare plywood board and helping a modeler who may feel all alone in the wilderness.  I want the modeler to gain the confidence to build a little layout, add some track and scenery, run some trains and impress your friends (and yourself) who thought you could never do all that.  So with this in mind let us go into the holy of holy's, the layout, and rent the scenery in two and change the scene.  On to Part #9 - CHANGE!