Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Hey, I'm back

I didn't go anywhere, I've just been doing lttle fiddly stuff that I didn't think was worth writing about.
One thing I have been trying though is to come up to Bob Stack's standard of Illawarra / Blue Mountains type scenery for the Coxs Gap area of my layout.
Just so you can compare and realise that I still have not made it, here is a video Bob has just put on YouTube from his South Coast Rail blog.
Having checked his scenery out you can now see my efforts.

What I see I need is more bushes, more shrubs, more weeds and to tone down some of the greens with my airbrush. Of course the tiny air bubbles in the rock castings are going to have to stay, I'm not the focussed.
Here is an unusual 'helicopter' shot of the area I call the tear drop as the line climbs from Coxs Gap to Wollar. The junction is to the Ulan No. 1 coal mine towards the back on the left behind the outcrop at the end of Coxs Gap loop.

Chris and I took our grandson Cameron to RTM at Thirlmere for his first trip to see the real thing recently, he loved it, so we will see if he keeps the interest over the years. No, I haven't been encouraging him to like trains, that would be Chris.

That's about it for now and I am going to be off the air next week as we go on a short vacation, no trains, no internet, horror! Well they tell me there is other stuff you can do to while away the hours pleasantly.

5 comments:

Ian Phemister said...

Hi Ray,
It's great to have you back. Always enjoyed your updates and seeing the layout progress.
Great.
Ian

South Coast Rail said...

Ray,
there is certainly nothing wrong with your rock work. looks good to me. Maybe some more 'green stuff' amongst it and it will be ok.
The scenery you have done in your 'helicopter' shot is also brilliant. This to me is just as hard to capture the feel as rock work. This is typical out west nsw type scenery. My layout does not have any flat areas to reproduce this type of scenery. Oh except the flat area around Bega which I hope one year will have a roundhouse and loco area.
regards
Bob

WATTLE FLAT said...

Great work Ray, I like the look you have captured in the scenery on the tear drop. Following your blog I am alway interested to see shots like that one. Can you please advise the size of the curve. Many thanks Darren

Ray P said...

Darren

Like all scenery it is a combination of multiple correct colours firstly then multiple textures as a close second.
The curves are 30" (762mm) radius and the tear drop is a rising 1 in 40 from left to right. The total width of the tear drop is 6' (1830mm). Distance from the front of the tear drop to the far backscene is 11' (3350mm) and it is about 4' (1200mm) wide in the 'waist'.

Ray P

WATTLE FLAT said...

Thankyou. 30inch seems to work well and will be what I will continue with on my tear drop. Darren