Hi Folks, After looking around on this site for days and picking my jaw back up off the floor I think I need to post some stuff just to get the feedback and improve. It's a machine shop for my new On30 layout and I thought I was fairly close to done untill I found this forum. Oh well... I have some photos of work to date and will post more as I go. There is a poor quality video on Youtube that shows what I'll trying to do for animation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuYkQ2bxBv8
Soory I forgot to sign my name. My name is Randy Ditton. Here are some photos of construction. Thanks, Randy
More photos ...The steam engine is a SierraWest reissue of the CHB model. The three large belt driven machines ( planer, lathe, and drill) are all Western Scale Models.
Yet more..... Randy
More interior with details coming along......Randy
The planer....Randy
More detail from the rail side....Randy
Crud for the floors......Randy
I duuno Randy, I'm pretty impressed.
Other than some nit picky stuff I dont see any glaring errors.
Look at some reference pics on line and see what you think.
The Library of congress Historic American buildings site is a treasure trove of inspiration.
-Marty
Thanks Marty, I think I'm more unhappy with the outside finish and the roofs. Plus the tractor and figures in the open sided addition don't look so good anymore after seeing what you guys do. .....Randy
Closer shot of problem...Layout visitors are looking thru here to the lathe spinning in the shop. It looked okay in person but photos showed crude figures and sloppy work on the tractor....Randy
Way too cool. Love the animation. You are going to fit in just fine here.
John
Thanks John, Have always loved belt driven machinary and have been attempting to model it for years. Will try to get better video posted . Randy
Hello,
all this very pretty, much of details is well placed, creating a beautiful atmosphere!
Nice work!
Sincerely!
Lloyd
Thank you Lloyd for your kind remarks....A couple of more shots, wanted to shoot outdoors but we got some fresh snow so I'll go with these..The first shows piping details (should steam supply lines always be wrapped?) for the twin cylinder engine.....Randy
This is a closer shot of the siding...The idea was that this building was clad in western red cedar and wasn't to old. I tried for planks that would look like they used the heart wood along with everything else and were not painted, hence the different shades and light colors. My prototype was a building my father and I built on our ranch while growing up...just not real happy now. The technique was artist art markers applied over stripwood that was "grained" with the file card then sanded to defuzz. I then applied more grain and nail holes with a drafting pen. India ink with rubbing alcohol was used along the bottom. Could use some help here.....Randy
Hi Randy (and welcome),
Looks pretty damn good if you ask me. Sort of nice to see one of these in a more "operational" state. The animation has been done well, especially to get the line shafts working freely, as with the likes of the lathe. I'm having the assumption there is some more figures still to be added, otherwise that is probably the only other thing I would suggest. For example, the lathe running is cool, but needs an operator. Some of the board colouring also makes a nice change, with some subtle graining. I once saw a fellow modeller who nearly exclusively did all his timber "staining" with marker pens (except whites generally), and his structures always stood out with a character finish. Good stuff and I look forward to further images and updates.
Cheers,
Dan
Thank you Dan, As it happens I was enjoying pictures of your shop ! I'm new to this scale and sorting out the manufactures, I saw that you were using Phoniex? figures. Are they 1:48 or something else? Thanks, Randy
That´s amazing!! Saw your video and think is a great piece of master art you did!! Very helpful.
Thanks for sharing.
Lucas
Randy,
Most of those figures I used were by Phoenix, and I think they are 1:43. Slightly larger, but there are bigger people in society. I find they are a cleaner, more detailed casting than some others on the market. They also have a fairly extensive range, plenty of poses to choose from. I think they even had some of the same figures in 3-4 slightly different poses, but the majority of them also have separate arms and heads to move around.
Dan
Dan, I will check them out, the ones I've tried are 'Arttista' and the poses are great but hands /face are crude castings. Thinking of preforming surgery on them using body parts from military guys.
Lucas, Glad you liked the video. Please could you post some closeups of your sidewalk work on your store ,looking for ideas for weathering my concrete pads. Thanks, Randy
Dan..I do like the coloring with the markers but I think my issue now is lack of texture? maybe and the need to show more aging...The building as its stands now is the same way I finished alot of my HO stuff and I don't think it works so good on the O scale layout. After looking at more prototype stuff the biggest problem may be that my siding is not cupping like the real thing!
This photo shows the On30 layout on the left and the Hon3 layout on the right. The machine shop goes in the spot on the right side of photo. Randy
Okay so I meant the HOn3 was on the left and the On30 was on the right ! This is where the shop goes. Randy
Looking good, Randy. Overall, a very nice job.
When it comes to prototype reference, I find Flickr is a great resource. there are a lot of groups to explore.
Weathered wood:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/90429795@N00/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/rusty_and_crusty/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/barns/
Randy
Nice job. Both scales have very nice screnery.
And I must say the machinery is done just as well I really like the job you did on the planer. That's not the easiest piece to do, I'm doing one now.
Jerry
Randy,
I have a few of the arrista figures as well, which I only like to use as background fillers. Like you said, nice poses, but kind of poor castings, with very little in the way of facial details, and generally a bit "pitted" all over. The few I have a particularly skinny folk too.
Nice looking modelling environment as well. Looks a bit like my desk...6' long but I can only ever work in a 6" square clean spot right in the middle! I would certainly be interested to see any other scenery taking shape around the room as well, the hint of it in those pics looks nice.
Dan
Chuck, Thank you for the sites. Alot of stuff I can use...
Jerry, Thank you and good luck and please post some pictures for me.
Dan, Here are a few photos from the On30 .......Randy
More......
One more...
After looking at 100's of great photos (Thanks again Chuck) the eyes needed a break so back to modeling..
The area to the left side of the open sided addition had always looked kinda lame with just some leaning wood and barrels and crates lying there so .....Randy
Just about ready tp plant....Randy
First customer......Randy
Another shot....Randy
In its place......Randy
Fuel stand looks cool Randy. The timber has come up really well, and I like the fine details like the drip can hanging under the tap. Whole thing seems to sit nicely in the scene too. The sag and shape on the hose has also landed well. Often see a few of these done where they still look a little stiff, Nice work.
Dan
Oh, and thanks for the other pics of the layout, looks like it will make for some enjoyable running and viewing when its done.
That's a really nice scene!
The fuel drum installed by the door.
-Marty
Dan, Thanks as always for your kind words....
Marty, You also .... Have not done this before where you show your stuff online and want to say thanks for the encouragement!!.....Randy
Have been trying out some tips for metal finishing gleaned from Marc Reusser's past postings and then visting the mig forum(those folks know how to paint and finish!!!). The boiler is from Weiseman and is what you would expect from the V&T Shops kits. I went this route thinking the short boiler fit in better. After having to redo most of the castings or replace with CHB stuff I gotta rethink this. Putting it back in the scene after finishing I realized I forgot to fill the seams on the steam dome/stack and the boiler( just love this taking pictures when it shows me up!) Oh well ,more to fix later.
One other fix will be to change to wood for the fuel source, after all it is a logging line.
Photo #2
Last photo.......Randy
Randy, your modeling and layout are of publication quality. Please let me know when you are ready to appear in a book. -- Russ
Looks very nice Randy!! I bought some little stuffs from Keith Wiseman, great things! I like yout rust bareel, how do you do this? With powders?
Hi Guys, Thank you Russ, I would be honored.....(Its going kinda slow!)
Lucas, Yes it is powder for final coat. As I said earlier I'm learning from others here. I base coat with black enamel then wash and sponge paint with acryics. I use "Citadel Colors" because they have a good range in the browns, greys and yellows. Most important my hobby shop stocks them!! .....Randy
One more.....Randy
Thanks Randy, tonight will do some test with my powders and your tips.
Thanks again!
Lucas (still mude after seeing your H0n3 project)
Hi Folks, After some time on other stuff I decided to get back to the machine shop. I needed a busted down donkey engine for the scene and found a SWest resin boiler in the scrap box to start with.
I wanted to try out some things I found on the mig forum site dealing with rust and paint and thought this boiler would be a good place to try them out.
The casting gets a light coat of "Rust-o-leum primer" found at any hardware store......Randy
The casting gets soaked with water and sprinkled with a mixture of table salt and baking soda......randy
more pics...
the idea is that the salt mix will form a mask that will let the primer color show thru after the top coat is applied and the salt is removed....
The top coat I'm using is an enamel, Model Masters Camouflage Grey, sprayed on out the can.....Randy
After drying under lamps for a couple of hours went and washed everything with diluted black acrylics.
Once the washes were dry I used a wornout toothbrush and fingernails to remove the salt mix.
It was easy to flake off on the flat surfaces but almost impossible around any detail. The problem was the baking soda. Next time I will leave that out or greatly reduce it and go with just salt.
Next I added some different shades to the rust spots with sponged on acrylics.
It is time to leave it alone for awhile.
It turned out okay thanks to all the people willing to share their techniques on the various forums.
It is so different from my old method of black paint and rust powders......Randy
The next time I will airbrush so I could use much thinner coats of paint and maybe go with all acrylics. Really lost some detail. Next time will show progress on frame and gears. Randy
Nice to see you experimenting with the technique.
Not as a knock towards what you have achieved, but just a suggestion, since you seem not completely happy with it...why not just wash of the paint with thinner, and start over. The resin should not be affected.
You are correct in your two assumptions of wherre the problems are, baking soda, and spray can enamel. When I first saw yuor mention of baking soda I thought wow..interesting (I assumed you were using it for a more "scale" HO effect)....but I was wondering how you were going to pull it off ;).....I believe the problem with it is that it is too fine, and this is easily covered, sealed with the paint (it also can disolve somewhat this blending with the paint).
I don't necessarily thing that the enamel itself is the problem (though it is not as fine as a good acrylic) but rather the thickness of the application (If you read the posts/SBS by vsuarez666 he too uses enamel...but shoots it in thin coats that arent very "wet").....the salt will also begin to disolve and blend with the paint if you shoot to heavy or wet.
Another thing to consider...especially at the smaller scale, is the amount of water used to attach the salt, rather than being completely soaked and wet, it is probably better to have a damp surface (brush applied)...as again the wetter the more easily the salt will disolve and bleed onto the base color, and then be difficult to remove.
Look forward to your progress.
Marc
Marc, Thanks for the encouragement...and yes I was using that sbs and did think that i had to " scale down" the effects (I believe that his subject was 1/24th) Oh well, I'll take your advice and try again. it is worthwhile and fun to try something different. Randy
Peeling paint and rust part 2....After stripping the boiler down , I started over. This time wanted not to lose detail and wanted to add lifted metal ,peeling paint rotted out look. Followed a wonderful SBS on mig forum by Per Olav Lund where he used very thin foil applied on the surface then carefully peeled portions back.
I then added the salt ( without the baking soda)......Randy
Still used enamels but thinner coats.....Randy
After some additional weathering this is the result to date.....Randy
Randy,
A couple of questions out of curiosity:
Why the white/light-grey color for the boiler? Are you trying to give it a look like preserved/painted in "white lead".
Why enamel for the over/color coat? (still seems like it's giving you some problems).
What material/paint/thinner are you using for the weathering/wash? (I am guessing it uses an oil-based or terpentine thinner.)
How long are you waiting between the color coat, and applying the wash?
Marc
Marc, The color choice was just personal choice ( thinking early 1900's mfg'ers painted greys or blacks)......the following photo shows color better...enamel choice was so the washes later of acrylics would not penetrate....Did struggle with surfacer to conceal edges of foil..... 3-4 hrs for wait time .....Any advice is welcome!! Thanks Randyl
Randy,
Thanks for the info. I think the extreme close-up just threw me. I thought it was an oil based wash over the enal, and had somehow re-softened the base color and not flowed/washed as well as it could have. This new/last photo better, as one can se how it ties/works all together. The finish and coloring on the large vertical pipe is wonderful. I like the details/touches of discoloration around the clamps and elbow, and the interior of the pipe. beautiful attention to detail and weathiring patterns.
On the Boiler Hood/top....did you use the hairspray technique or is that salt also...seems a much finer pattern?
Marc
Marc, Thank you for your comments and interest..have not not tried hairspray yet ,the hood was sponge painted..if I could pick your brain on that subject, You were trying gum aribic as the resisit on the cart? What did you think compared to straight hairspray?....Randy
Edit... Marc, I reread a bunch of your stuff in Tips, Techs,,.....answered my questions and got lots of good ideas!! (shopping for new airbrush) Thank you. Randy
Hi Folks, Got some work done on the junked donkey engine. It will go next to the machine shop when complete.
Not wanting to waste a great CHB kit of the small engine, I started with a resin casting of the boiler avaiable from SWest and added some frame and cylinder parts made up from styrene. The white metal flange pieces are from Western Scale....Randy
More....
More....
Here are a few shots ready to go.....Randy
Another...
more....
Last one.......Thanks, Randy
Not only is the modeling excellent but the diorama makes a great planter! -- Russ
Amazing work! Your machine shop brings back fond memories - my grandpa once owned a shop like this, and I spent many happy hours as a kid there (see http://web.telia.com/~u85435856/about_us/granpa.html ). Two details you need to add, to create the right atmosphere:
1) Sound: In addition to the obvious sound of machine tools biting into steel, the drive belts made a very special "flapping" sound
2) Smell: The floor was covered in a mixture of iron filings and old cutting oil, with the smell of iron and oil everywhere
/Lennart Elg, Sweden
Hello Randy,
REALLY A SUPERB WORK !!!
Sincerely !
Lloyd
Lennart, I do need that flapping sound!!!!.....
Lloyd, Thanks for the comments....Randy
This grey boiler I´ve never seen before, and looks so real!!! I test the salt in a rusty model I´m doing, and doesn´t works as yours. So, will keep trying... grrrr
Thanks for sharing this!!
Okay Russ, maybe i got carried away with the plants!!!!!........
Lucas, Thanks for the comments, keep trying ,I screwed up alot ....Randy
Randy,
Great job on the frame...and neat scene. Glad you posted this, as I have a project where I need to build some steam piston and frame parts as well, and this really inspired me to move ahead, and gave me some ideas on how to approach it.
Marc
Marc, Thank you for your comments, I was pleased with the way it turned out except for the "studs" showing on the bearings not being threaded. I need to order some tiny bolts and replace them. Randy
After many distractions, finally got around to making some changes to the machine shop exterior.
I had wanted to age and change the look of the siding somewhat so gave it two coats of "silverwood" then added some battens.
Also changed some roof sections, removed a small section of shingles and tarpaper on the shed roof and replaced with corregated material dipped in ecthant fluid. Not done aging the roof yet but I'm going in the right direction (refer back to earlier pic) ,... With a layout tour coming up at the end of the month this project is being put in the " finished for now " file......
Thanks for viewing along the way, Randy
more
more
more
more
on the layout
more
more
more
last one
What a great scene!
Thanks for posting!
-Marty
That is one nice job. And double what Marty said that is a great scene. And thanks for posting.
Jerry
Hi Randy,
It has made a great little scene, especially with the track rolling past it now. I'm fond of some of the shots where the lighting is a bit more subdued, and the interior lights are throwing a few more shadows. I also like the look of some of your ground work between the shop and the track. I still think I'm gonna have to steal that elevated tank idea and use somewhere on one of my future projects, probably one of my favourite mini scenes amongst your shots. Good stuff...
Cheers,
Dan
Thanks Marty and Jerry....still learning on the finishing techniques but having fun!
Hi Dan, Thank you and you bring up an interesting subject, layout lighting. After taking models outside to photo them it really shows the great look to be had if our artificial layout lighting would be more life like. I plan on trying some of the new lighting products that promise a more true natural colors. What did you guys decide to use on your newest display layout? Randy
Can you say "article"? Please contact me at finescalerr@msn.com if you are interested. The modeling, lighting, and scenery are most satisfactory. -- Russ
Randy,
Lighting on Dolly Varden was fluorescents, with 5000k daylight tubes. We actually blotched some pale blue paint randomly over the tubes though, which mottles the light spill a bit (avoids some of that harshness often found with fluoro's). There was also spacing between the tubes, from 1-2' gap of no light source, which also helped create a bit of light and shade across the layout. If you refer back to one of the first overall shots I posted of the layout, you can see areas where it darkens a bit. Almost helps to divide scenes a bit too, as trains emerge back into better light. This probably only works well though in a shadow box style layout, where you can control the lighting levels a bit better. Lighting standards tend to vary quite significantly between different exhibition venues. Having seen many layouts that just use the ambient light in the venue, and how dull they can appear, we tend to always put a bit of effort into setting the best possible light to view our work in.
Dan
Really nice, Randy! I really like the lighted scenes.
Thank you Russ, will be in touch!
Thank you Chuck....(cutting slots in rivets for screw heads!!!!! Amazing stuff)
Randy
Nice Job and great scene Randy! I like very much!
Franck
Outstanding job on this scene Randy. I also like the lighted ones.
Leon
What everyone else said. It's a lovely piece of work. I particularly like the guy leaning on the post – he adds a nice relaxed natural touch. Is he a stock figure or your own work?
Thanks, Franck and Leon, appreciate the kind words, Randy
Hi Kevin, thank you and the figure is from " Arttista". Good line of poses but they fall short up close in the face and hands with poor detail. Have ordered some "Phoneix " figures that Dan uses. I wish I could do figures!! I need to get Ray to teach me! Randy
Nice job Randy... The night scenes are very evocative, well done.
Paul
Thanks Paul, The simulated night time when I dim the layout lighting and turn on interior lites is always popular when having guests over. Randy