More images from Mina County!!!

Been playing with Topaz ReMask to place actual photos behind the layout to strategically make it look realistic.  The layout design has been on hiatus as we have been concentrating on putting the fence up around the layout so that the cats can once again roam free in the basement without the Godzilla Effect.

Here is the camp at the top of the mountain at sunset.  Background:  sunset over the Catskills in the spring.

 The farmstead.  Background:  The Trapps along the Shawangunk Ridge.

 The tunnel under the mountain's peninsula.  Background:  just some random sky.

 The town at sunset.  Background:  Woodcock Mountain in Washingtonville.

October 28th, 2015: Topaz ReMask

So, I discovered a great new tool for making photos of the layout, called Topaz ReMask.  I can cut out cleanly the basement and add a background photo to make things look more real.  These are three old iPhone photos of the layout, remade using this technique.  Now I have to start using my real camera more often!!!

The River Is Done...On To The...Fence???

So, the river is complete.  Took a large number of coats of Polycrylic to get it done and some small stones as well but it is done!  Hallelujah!

Here is the view at the top of the mountain with the rock-strewn stream leading off...

And the covered bridge is now in place, held there by the gypsum spread with a pallette knife to bring the road up to the level needed to cross the bridge.  We will be placing traffic lights on either side as this is a one-lane bridge.

Next up are the portals and cliffs on the 4X3 peninsula.  Why are we working there?  Because of the need to put up a fence around the layout so my dad can start letting the cats downstairs again without fear that they will Godzilla the layout.

The cliff (the last one on the layout!) has been carved, gypsumed and painted and the portals are in place.  The ballast has been glued down and texturing put in place.  Now we will ignore this area for a while, we got enough done so we could get the fence up.

We put posts up and an overhead beam to hand an 8' section of fence from.  We are doing this all around the layout.  We just need to make sure the cats can't get onto the layout.  They've done it before.  A tornado would have done less damage.  :)

So, the build goes on!

September 14th, 2015: The Mountain Consumes All

We have been spending all of our time on dressing the mountain.  The silicone river did not work out so we tore it out (came out mostly in one piece) and carved it deeper, painted it with gypsum and then Woodland Scenics paints and then used tinted acrylic lacquer to fill it in.  We are still not happy with how it looks, it is going to take a bit to overcome the mistakes that were made but it should come out all right in the end.

In the meantime, work continues on the top of the mountain.  Lots of texturing is being placed, even some of the hydrocal rocks we molded two years ago but never used are being placed on top.

We are also placing a modular fence around the layout to prevent the cats (who are, for the time being, banished from the basement) from jumping on top and playing Catzilla.  We have experimented with placing posts with fencing permanently in places we can easily reach around to work on the layout and access trains and then connect them with removable fence sections.  Before we can go any further, we have to finish the area on the peninsula that the trains come out on.  Once that's done, the rest of the fence should go up relatively quickly.

July 18th, 2015: The Layout As It Stands So Far

July 18th, 2015: The Mountain Takes Shape! (PART 2)

Next, the road had to be shaped and covered in gypsum.  The hot wire routing table was used to accomplish the shaping of the foam and setting of the grade of the roadway.

The foam, once in place, had to have the lower waterfall area carved into it. 

The newly carved foam areas were covered with gypsum and then painted.

Silicone was used to create the lower falls and stream.  It was covered in clear polycrylic but it developed a weird yellow color to it so it had to be painted to cover it up.

Next up is finishing the slaughterhouse which will go in the lower right area in the above photo:

And then the mountain has to be covered in greenery and trees.  Once that is done, the roadway will be finished and the bridges put in place...and the main part of the layout will be completed.

July 18th, 2015: The Mountain Takes Shape! (PART 1)

It's been a very busy couple of months.  After finishing the town we started working on the mountain.  It was just two platforms with foam on them, so we had to give it elevation, topography and, most importantly, a waterfall.  The waterfall was something we knew we wanted on the layout since its inception and the hour was at hand to make it.

The mountain had additional 2" foam added to it and then was carved to include a stream that flowed to where the waterfall was to be.  Landscaping is being added to it to give it a base for the trees that will go in later.

One of the other issues we had to deal with was connecting the roads from the west side of the layout to the manufacturing area on the north side.  In order to make this work, we had to engineer bridge crossings over a track and over the stream in front of the waterfall, where the covered bridge will eventually go.  This required a great deal of foam to build some of the areas up six inches higher or more from the last bare areas of homasote.  The bridge in the above photo was designed on a simple web-based CAD program (Tinkercad) and then sent to Shapeways to make out of 3D-printed plastic.

The waterfall was made from clear silicone caulk streaked with glass fiber "angel hair".  The caulk was laid onto a piece of wax paper and spread out with a metal painter's spatula, angel hair placed on top and then a second layer of silicone spread on top of it.  The spatula was used to etch texture into the silicone before it dried.

May 10th, 2015: The Mountain Begins Construction

With the populated areas complete, it was time to begin work on the mountain.  It is the last major area on the layout that we have to work on outside of the 4'X3" bump out area.  The trains are all programmed onto JMRI for computer control and it is now time to raise the cliffs!

So two areas were carved.  One was the portal entrance on the southwest side of the roughed-out mountain and another next to it.  Once both areas were carved, gypsumed, painted and installed, they had to be reconciled where they met so some more gypsum and paint were added.

Once that was done, it was time to add foam to the top of the mountain platforms and start carving.  Today the facade for the waterfall was installed using carefully measured and cut 2" foam, liquid nails and pins.

It felt odd to put those pieces of foam on that empty area.  It's been more or less unchanged for the last two years and sealing it up makes the fact that the end of the build is coming undeniable.  A multi-level waterfall will be put in here.  The carving will continue, continuing the cliff line and putting in a stream up above to flow into the waterfall in the coming weeks.  Liberal use of our large amount of Fusion Fiber will help with sealing the cracks between the foam pieces but that will not be until later this summer.

You Are Now Entering Fred

The town has really come together.  We'll be putting in more detail pieces over the next year or so but now we are going to tackle the mountain on the northwest corner of the layout.  Here are some shots of what we've been able to accomplish in town!

First, here is the town from an aerial view.  The buildings are mostly Woodlands Scenics, assembled and painted painstakingly.  Some are pre-built and painted buildings acquired from train shows.

 The southwestern part of town, on the other side of the tracks.

 Awaiting the opening!  The lamppost is Woodland Scenics as well, made of pewter and hand-painted.  The people came in bulk from China.  The sidewalk is an interesting story...the areas where the buildings are were islands of 1/4" foam with gaps for the roads.  I used a few different materials to fill in the road, starting with WS Smooth-It System.  I didn't care for it, it left a lot of lumps and gaps so I filled in with gypsum and then first used a flat chisel and then sandpaper to smooth it down.  I left enough of the foam to form the curbside.  The lines were made with paint pend purchased at Michael's.  The road was painted with WS Asphalt paint.  The sidewalks were first painted with WS Concrete but it didn't look realistic.  I repainted with WS Stone Grey and then dry-brush stippled white paint onto the gray to give it the worn pavement look.  It was tedious work.

Once the base work was done, my dad positioned the buildings and glued them in place.  He glued in the small detail features, including dumpsters and fire hydrants that were Shapeways 3D-printed items.  He also placed the people and telephone poles.  We may or may not put thread between the poles at some point but now we let imagination do the work.

The drive-in on the lower left of the above photo was originally on a base.  My dad removed the base.  It was very painstaking work but the end result works.

We have used up our Metal Works cars and now need to order plastic cars because Metal Works' selection is pretty much exhausted and it's getting expensive to get them.

It's always summer in Mina County!  Even in the dead of January.