Westlake Publishing Forums

Quote from: Barney on May 11, 2025, 01:22:14 PMHawk -- how was that rotten look achieved on your first photo - I presume it was plastic sleepers to start with
Barney

No, both samples are wooden ties. The grain in the siding ties were made with coarse sandpaper. Works a hell of a lot better than a razor saw blade so often recommended.

Quote from: Barney on May 11, 2025, 01:22:14 PMHawk -- how was that rotten look achieved on your first photo - I presume it was plastic sleepers to start with
Barney

No, both samples have sleepers made from real basswood.  The wood was distressed with coarse sandpaper -much better than the razor-saw treatment described in olden modellign mags. Different stain & inks. Builders In Scale Silverwood and very dilluted Windsor drawing Ink. 

When we look at sleepers and suchlike, we're rarely close enough to see the actual grain. What we're generally looking at is the splits, shakes & checks. As Håuk kinda sorta implies, the razor-saw attack, so beloved of ancient "craftsman" modellers, reproduces what modellers think wood should look like, not what it actually does. FWIW The 1:34-scale 1067mm gauge sleepers in this photo are balsa, dealt to with a scalpel.

The hardest problem to overcome when modelling spiked track is that most commercial spikes – such as the Micro Engineering ones I've used here – bear only a fairly approximate relationship to the real thing and scream model.

Proto-87 Stores do some nice etched spikes which look great in side elevation, but are rather undernourished from normal viewpoints. I would guess that 3D-printed spikes might be an answer, but part of what makes the mashed steel spikes work is the way they rust, which locks them in place to the roadbed.

Terrific looking sleepers, Krusty.
Is that track part of a static display?

I doubt it is possible to model track more realistically than you've done. -- Russ

Hi Bill. It was knocked up as a quickie base for photographing some logging locomotive models (in this case a Davidson locomotive scratchbuilt by Paul Berntsen).