Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:53 pm Post subject: Ridley USA scrapyard challenge build
The original 'Ridley USA' thread was getting a bit big so I've started a new one to post 'work in progress' photos. Comments welcome on either thread (I'll see them!)
I trimmed the pine board and the cut and glued the dense foam down, Notice that there are TWO bridges now:
Did some Paint Shop Pro fiddling to give it some colour and an idea where I might have buildings and roads.
Next step is to make some cardboard mountain mock-ups to get an idea of what height I want.
(Just noticed that it looks like the lake on the painted photo is full of Loch Ness monsters hmmmm.. there's an idea...) _________________ OK, so now what do I do?
Nice start, Tom!
May I suggest to turn the oval slightly diagonal to the baseboard. That eleminates the "circle" look even more once you have the scenery on... _________________ Modular Railroading in N-scale
Here we are as promised... a photo of 'wot I did today'.
(I had to clean all the adhesive off my hands with lighter fluid before I could take a photo!)
I used the remainder of the foam to make the hilly bits. I've not decided on how to contour the ridges. I could even just soften the edges and paint it reddy brown, stick a few cacti in and aim for a real wild west look!
Looks really good, what type of scenery are you going to use, ie grass sand etc etc? _________________ Please visit
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Updated Regularly so Please keep checking.
Thanks
Got the Plaster of Paris out and turned it into a badly iced cake!
Gave it a coat of yellowy, sandy sort of colour...
Deepened the colour to more of a natural shade and decided that a prairie sort of scene with a disused mine might be a good idea (hence the question about ballast colour!) so I printed a photo and cut it out to see what it might look like. Looks OK to me
Just got to work out what I can do to make the rest of the little layout look interesting...
Oh, and the loco and track are only there to remind me of the scale - my mind keeps looking at it in OO! _________________ OK, so now what do I do?
Hey, that looks almost like Arizona or New Mexiko! Great Job!
Have a stroll and on the way back home buy a packet of pipe cleaners. Bend short ends to a cactus-like shape, spray it green and you got some interesting and inexpensive eye-catchers
Hmmm, I forgot that you don't want to spend money..... if you have latex gloves, you can of course build the cactii from used pipe cleaners -> Yak!
Better idea:
Use short lengths of thin wire, twist them together to form a cactus (Saguaro), paint the wire green and sprinkle on some green turf or gras from the "left-over" box. Looks also very natural in Z-scale...
_________________ Modular Railroading in N-scale
Looking good so far what type of bridge are you planning over the water ?
If your using sand for some or all of the scenery i found sand used for sandblasting is ideal got a fair bit after next door had their house blasted _________________
Thanks everyone, I'm quite pleased up to now. (Total outlay is still £0.0)
Cactus sounds like a good idea Erhard, I'm thinking a few on the left hand side (nearest the camera on the last shot) will look good and have the area around the mine with just scrub, tufts of grass and bushes.
I've got no idea what the bridges will be like Nick. It will all depend on what I have available in my spares box and and how clever I am (or not) at designing them. (I'm actually making them now and not having that much luck )
I don't think you can get 1:220 scale Longhorns Pol, there are Fresians available but I think they'd look a bit out of place! (and they cost money) _________________ OK, so now what do I do?
Cheers Pol.
The front bridge will be a truss and the back one will be a very simple trestle. Only if I can get the dimentions sorted! There's a lot of clearence needed so the superstructure has to be quite a bit wider than the train. It's not looking 'right' yet. _________________ OK, so now what do I do?
Ballast laid (it looks better in real life than it does in the picture) and truss bridge built. I made the bridge girders out of styrene sheet, left over from a ship model, that I cut into strips. A bit of a clean up when the cement is fully cured (and re-align that top cross piece!) and a coat of 'red lead' should finish it off.
Btw, the green 'sponge' you can see is a synthetic wire wool - great for cleaning rails after splattering them with glue whilst laying the ballast - recommended!
Total outlay - still £0.00 _________________ OK, so now what do I do?
'They' used to say it was impossible to scratchbuild anything in Z because it was so small. Shows how much 'they' know. _________________ Get off the line Bobby!
http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t184/Poliss_album/
Great work Tom , You could use some 00 handrail wire for cross bracing or even fuse wire _________________ Experience is something you don' t get until just after you need it .
Great work Tom , You could use some 00 handrail wire for cross bracing or even fuse wire
Thanks Pete and that's a great idea. But even better is...
The Missus got sent a bunch of flowers for Mother's Day and they used a thin wire frame to support them - that's what Im going to use. It was free!
_________________ OK, so now what do I do?
It looks like if you wanted you could have a minature railway (like the Rhomney, hythe and dimchurch railway) in Z for 00 scale looking at the figure next to the loco, very very impressive so far, i really like the scenery its coming on fantastic!! Joe
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hmmmm.. there's an idea...)
)
they have very thin wire in