A Scene in Fifteen Steps -- Step 6, a Photo Backdrop

A photo backdrop has been under consideration all along

In my previous post, I noted my notion of trying Bob Frankrone's approach to completing a scene in fifteen steps. There, I listed fifteen steps to completing the Nooksack Valley produce complex spur scene. In that list, the sixth step was to add a photo backdrop a la Paul Dolkos. As I was preparing a clinic to present for my NMRA division, my focus for the last couple of weeks was on this step.

Early in my planning for this scene, I researched packing plant images, both for structures and entire scene images. In my Google image searches, I came across this site that included a photo that featured the section seen to the left. This scene is fairly modern and includes modern semi-trailers, but it was the best starting point I found.

After living with the original image leaning in place, I decided to make some changes. I took a fairly analog approach. I printed out the original image and resized it to what seemed appropriate on my inkjet printer/copier/scanner. Then I printed several copies to create a collaged version of what I thought I wanted. Using a sharp number 11 blade and glue stick I made several changes by covering the trailer, removing the large fruit boxes, and extending the building to the left in my final collaged image.

I photocopied the collaged image, and after printing it out went ahead and cut out the image I planned to use, again with a sharp hobby knife. As I was working down in the train room this time, I cut on the tempered glass on my workbench.  As inkjet printed images are subject to bleeding if they get wet, I sprayed the image with several layers of Testors Dullcoat. After that protective layer dried, I used a sepia Prismacolor marker to color the white paper along the cut edges. My recommendation would be to use a light gray or sepia colored Prismacolor rather than black or a Sharpie of any color.

For this experiment I used Scotch Super 77 as the adhesive. It is a very aggressive adhesive, so make sure to protect whatever surface you are working on. I used some old packing papers and a paper towel, but still managed to get one spot on the benchwork. I had to go back with lacquer thinner to remove it. The point of using this glue is to avoid the photo peeling off later. 

Before applying the spray adhesive, I marked the location of the where I wanted the photo on the benchwork and experimented with coving the bottom of the photo onto the benchwork. After I applied the spray adhesive and let it dry to tacky, I placed the top in place. After smoothing the top edge down, I carefully smoothed down the bottom on the benchwork leaving a coved or rounded gap between the top and bottom edges. The photo to the left shows the photo glued in place, hopefully hiding the right angle between the backdrop and the benchwork with a coved image. 

The most recent step I have taken was to do some painting on the brown plywood bench top. The goal is to further hide the joint between the photo and the bench top surface. I used grimy black and a slate gray acrylic paint to blend from the ground into the photo. I blended the two colors, wet on wet, as I applied them. I am not entirely happy with the results, but the paint is just the first layer. I will be adding sanded grout, which I may apply up into the photo. Although I don't always follow my own advice, in general it is best to stop before I go too far. I remember Gerry Leone saying in a video that he "tries to stop when he thinks to himself, 'just a little more'."

 

Updates and Goals

I have updates and goals for both the train room (aka the basement) and for the railroad. 

As I left off my last post with wet basement issues, I will start with that. My wife helped me last week on one of our continuing rainy days, and we made a good start on removing the scabbed-in bar. As you can see in the photo, I still have some framework to remove. The damp floor in what I was calling "the floodplain" can also be seen. Not labeled, but suggested is the approximately one inch wide "French Drain Canal" between the green concrete floor and the yellow wall. Judging from the existing rot, the floodplain has been an ongoing issue, exacerbated by our wettest May on record. A steady stream of water was flowing into the "canal" until about ten days ago. I will need to build a lip along the floor (a levee) to prevent the canal from overflowing here in the future. 

In addition to the wet basement abatement, another goal for this summer consists of more electrical work. The sump pump and water conditioner are currently powered through a gnarly extension cord draped across the ceiling. They need a direct line. Renee wants some general lighting in the basement with a switch. I want a line to outlets for the railroad lighting (current and future) also switched. Plus our three season room's outlets need to be reconnected and a few more receptacles added in the basement. This really should be done before any significant  additions to the railroad are contemplated! We need a firm plan and easy access before we call in the professional. 

I want to continue with this area around the fruit and produce spur. I am giving a clinic soon, and I would like to try using the photo that I have propped up against the backdrop in this image and share the results. It actually isn't a straight photo; I collaged parts of the photo to make changes. The other experiment is to cove or curve the photo from mounted to the backdrop to glued to the benchtop. I will need to remember to coat the photo (printed on my inkjet printer) with a fixative so that water based scenery doesn't make the colors bleed or otherwise destroy the image.  Then I can experiment with first layers of scenery and weathering to blend the road surface onto the benchwork. 

Several years ago I attended a clinic by Bob Frankrone about completing a scene in fifteen steps, and thought I might try that approach to the fruit and produce spur area. Here is a to do list of my fifteen:

1. Last steps on brick building
2. Warehouse a la Bill Schopf (multiple steps)
3. Sand the cork edge
4. Sand the painted sky 
5. White wash for atmospheric haze
6. Photo backdrop a la Paul Dolkos
7. Sculptamold for texture
8. Paint and first layer of scenery
9. More layers of scenery 
10. Fence
11. Tie pile 
    
12. 12 volt DC lighting bus
13. Connect lights
14. Ballast spur
15. Details

In this prototype photo of the Interbay Yard in Seattle, I really like the area between the tracks in the bottom right area: a little uneven terrain, some tall grass and shrubs, and a pile of ties. This photo is from the digital library at the Cornell University. 

U.S. President's Railroad Commission Photographs

Experiments with Lighting

About a week ago, during our sump pump failure*, I started my experiments with lighting the brick building that I have been working on for the fruit and produce company. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I planned to have interior lighting on one side of the building. I found a photograph from a Google search for warehouse interior images to use. I decided to cut and paste parts of two print outs of the photo to form a collaged image without the people in the original image. I  resized, photocopied, and colored the resulting black and white image with colored pencils. 

I created the shadowbox by hot glueing some black foam core sides and a top together. One cutting trick that I learned from this experiment involves the surface on which it is best to cut foam core. My tempered glass base on the workbench is much superior to using the self healing cutting mat. The hard glass provides for a smooth cut on the bottom paper surface, while the softer cutting mat allows the bottom paper layer to tear. I found the difference to be remarkable. After the shadowbox joints were set, I glued the paper image to the top of the back of the box, leaving it loose to roll into place. 

The next step was to mount the two LEDs. I had decided to order the Pico Z mini lights from Evan Design and try them. I drilled a hole through the wall above the window between the garage doors on the right hand side of the building. Then I glued the LED in place on the underside of the dock roof with canopy glue. For the shadowbox, I poked a hole in the roof of the box and reamed it out so a straw would fit. After placing the straw through the hole and extending into the shadowbox about a quarter of an inch, I snipped it off flush with the top of the foam core roof. Next, I glued the LED wires to the roof with canopy glue, with the LED chip in the straw but not exposed below it. 

Today, I checked the two LEDs and they worked, so I went ahead and started figuring out the wiring. It is not that tricky at all, but I don't have much experience. The LEDs come with resistors wired in on red and black wires. My plan is to wire the two LEDs in parallel and extend the length with some 28 gauge twisted red and black wire. I have a scrap piece of wood on my workbench, and I have it set up so that I can tape the wire in place for soldering. I stripped the end of the extension wire and slipped some shrink tubing over it. I have the first connection in place, so in my next session I can get out the soldering equipment and make some connections. 

*Wet Basement Issues

We have had a really wet May here in the Poconos and our infrastructure failed. While the French drain and associated "dry well(?)" that it flows into have worked, the sump pump burned out with water spreading into the basement/train room on the opposite end of the basement last week. Luckily, we found a company that came out the next day to replace the pump, and most of that flood has since dried up. We do, however, have two apparent artesian well or heightened water table "faucets" from the base of the wall into the exposed French drain . They are both still flowing steadily, and along one section of "French Drain Canal  (FDC)" we need to fashion some kind of levee once this situation dries out. The flow of water is greater than the depth of FDC there creating a floodplain on one section of the basement floor. This is located where TOMA phase two of the railroad will be located.  The Nooksack or TOMA phase one section and my workbench area floors have remained dry. Having managed water flowing around the edge of the basement in FDC is one thing, accepting a potential floodplain is problematic. Theme song for the last week or so: Levee's Gonna Break
 

Fruit and Produce Company -- Part 4?

In my last post, several weeks ago, I left off with a punch list for the main building. During the past rainy week, I have tried to return to working for a little while on the model most days, and it has led to some progress.

One of the first steps from last weekend was to clear off the plate glass on my workbench so that I could make clean cuts in clear acetate. I found some clear stock in my plastics drawer, and after measuring started cutting pieces for the windows. I used Formula 560 canopy glue, applied to the back of the window and door inserts with a micro-brush, to mount the window "glass." Knowing that I was planning on adding interior lighting later, the smart move would have been to paint the interior walls with black acrylic while the building was upside down. I did not make the smart move. 

Having checked off one task from the list, I moved on to the roof. I cut some strips of three scale feet from black construction paper. Before returning the canopy glue to its shelf, I coated the styrene roof with the glue and applied the black paper to represent tar paper on the roof. After the glue dried I tried painting with roof brown acrylic paint, but didn't really like the look. I later painted the tar paper roof with flat grimy black. After two coats of that, I was happier with it. 

While it was not on my original punch list, I decided to add the medium air conditioner from the Walthers Roof Details kit in my stash. I cut the appropriate pieces from the sprue and sanded the edges to remove any tiny nubs left by my nippers. I assembled the detail kit with liquid solvent cement, managing to only have one slightly crooked wall with my shaky hands. After the air conditioner dried overnight, I filled the small open joint at the top of that wall with Tamiya putty. While assembling the air conditioner, I sprayed the sprue with the tile coping from the original grocery distributor kit with a red primer rattle can. After that had dried, I pieced together the tile coping on the brick walls. 

Over just the past couple of days, I continued to make my way through a few more items from the punch list. I struggled to add the roof over the loading dock. In hind sight, I should have not used the plastic hangers from the kit, but instead fabricated new ones from wire. But I went ahead, using the kit supplied ones. First of all, my shaky hands exacerbated my apparent need for three hands to hold and glue the hangers, roof, and structure wall together all at the same time. Thank goodness no one was watching or listening to me during that ordeal. Because one of the hangers was missing, I also had to deal with the extra holes. I planned to hide the hole in the wall with the building's sign. I filled the hole in the roof with putty. That meant that the roof needed to be painted after it was installed. I had sprayed it a gray color previously, but now I brush painted it a darker gray Vallejo color. While it looked kind of awful wet, after drying overnight the color and brush marks both flattened out. Today, before taking the photos, I applied some weathering with chalks and pigments as well as finally cutting out and gluing on the paper sign that I had designed and printed out on my inkjet printer weeks ago.

I still have a couple of items from the punch list. Looking at this photo from an observer's point of view, some kind of lighting is definitely needed. My plan is to fashion a light under the dock roof on one side and to place an interior light on the other side. I have some LED lights and supplies from Evan Designs to experiment with, so I might as well get on the ball. Along with lighting, I plan to add some simple interior details: window shades and black paper view blocks if nothing else. 

Looking at this scene from this angle, two things spring to mind. One is that I should attempt a more accurate mockup of the adjacent building than the blue scrap wall flat. The other idea is the possibility of starting some first layer of scenery around this scene. 

Before starting any of that, I will work out the lighting for this building in order to wrap it up. Seeing the progress I have made recently should keep me motivated. Beyond scenery here, I have a photo/collage in the works to experiment with on the backdrop that goes to the right of the green-roofed warehouse in the photo. I want to include that in a presentation that I am giving in June, so I have a goal/deadline for scenery along the backdrop here after this major building for the Nooksack Fruit and Produce Company is completed.  

Slowing Down, but Still Moving Forward

 

The Nooksack Valley Fruit and Produce Company Co. project is moving forward in fits and starts, but at not much above glacial speed. As a total aside, you can follow my wife and me on our garden project here, which helps explain my slowing down on the railroad. The lead photo here shows the current state of the building. Its wall color has been finalized, the basic roof is in place, and the loading dock is finished. In this post I will discuss some of these steps and list the remaining steps to finally wrap up this project. 

I left off my last post on this project with the walls built, but unsure of the color to paint the bricks. It took a couple of attempts. First I sprayed the completed walls with a rattle-can primer in a khaki color. After that had dried I started to sponge on some acrylic craft paint off-white and tan colors. As I was really unhappy with the look, I stopped part way through and cleaned off as much of it as I could with a damp paper towel before it had a chance to set up. The next day I masked the concrete foundation with painter's tape and sprayed with a white rattle-can lightly over the walls. I stopped short of complete or even thorough coverage to allow some subtle variation. While out in the garage with spray paints, I sprayed the doors and windows with a dark green primer. After yet another overnight drying session, I applied several light applicatiions of Vallejo Wash colors; I just touched the saturated brush tip to the wall allowing the wash to flow through the mortar lines. I finally had something close to the subtly worn white, painted brick look I had envisioned. 

While I had been using the scratchbuilt loading dock from another building for my planning, I wanted to build one specific to this building. After taking some measurements, I drew up plans for this one and created a cut list for the strip wood needed.  I cut the pieces to length with either my Zona razor saw or on the Chopper. (Something happened while cutting the deck boards on the Chopper as later I found them to have length variations.) After they were cut, I stained them with Hunterline Cordovan Brown weathering mix. Later when I started assembling the dock, I tried a new technique that I picked up from a Thunder Mesa Studio video by Dave Meek. Instead of building on the drawing covered by wax paper, add another layer to allow for a fixture technique. Tape the drawing to a piece of foamcore before covering it with wax paper, so that a starting piece can be pegged into place with pins. That provides a rigid piece to fit and glue the other pieces to. This photo shows this technique in use as I glued up the frame for the dock. While gluing on the deck boards, I used a metal block lined up with one of the long deck frame boards to keep the decking boards even on that side. After the glue dried, I went back and turned the deck upside down and trimmed some of the longer decking back with a chisel-bladed hobby knife. That, some sanding, and gouging with a hobby knife, turned inaccurate cutting into part of the weathering of a well-worn loading dock!

To wrap up this slow moving building project I need to:

• Finalize the roof; maybe paint, maybe tar paper.
• Decide on coping for the top of the walls, then apply and paint
• Window glazing and any interior
• Roof over loading dock
• Lighting
• Signage

Golden Spike Award Clinic

The Golden Spike Award can be seen as an entry into the NMRA's Achievement Program or as a guide into improving one's model railroad skill set (or both). On Saturday, I will be giving a short presentation on the NMRA Golden Spike at a virtual meeting of the Susquehanna Division. This is an updated version of a clinic prepared for the Alleghany Western Division a number of years ago. 

Below, I will provide links to a downloadable version of my clinic. In addition to a PDF of the presentation, I want to also provide a link to an NMRA web page that doesn't have an obvious link from the Achievement page on the NMRA website. For registered NMRA members, the Edutrain clinics include a useful one by Bruce DeYoung, MMR for which I will provide a link. His clinic is geared towards both someone hoping to achieve the award as well as giving guidance for evaluating others. 

1. Download a PDF of the presentation here: Golden Spike V.3
2. Open the "hidden" NMRA page explaining the Golden Spike 
3. Open the NMRA "Edutrain" clinic on the Golden Spike Award

Initial Operations Update

 

Just in the last few days, I created a new, freelanced piece of operations paperwork in Pages (one could use Word or any word process application). A recent blog post by Tony Thompson in Modeling the SP discussed using Train Line-ups for operating. He shared a Southern Pacific standard form. After a brief search online, I didn't find a GN form so I adapted the Clearance Form A that I had reproduced as part of my collection of somewhat prototype paperwork. 

As I continue to work on the first phase of my 4th Subdivision branch line railroad, I plan to start with very simple operations approach: sequence of trains. This Daily Train Line-up form provides a basis for using train sequence somewhat prototypically. In Tony's earlier post here, particularly in the comments, he discusses the use of a train line-ups form as a paperwork foundation for outlining an operating scheme. 

In this earlier post, Thompson also mentioned the "On Operation" column by Jerry Dziedzic in the February 2019 Model Railroader. While the train line-ups described in the article were targeting the safety of track gangs, they also could be thought of as a snapshot of a schedule. With my one-town initial TOMA approach, using the Train Line-ups form could substitute until I later develop a timetable and fast clock system.