scenery

Making trees for the High Line

Modeling anything in the Sierras or Rockies requires a lot of snowy conifers. I had a few 55-packs of Heki conifers on hand, however these are quite short. Nothing jumped out at me on ebay as being worth my money, so I set about making my own. After some more prolific googling I settled on sisal rope trees, rather than the more commonly used furnace filters technique; I just couldn't get the filters to look right.

I started by buying a metre of sisal rope from Mitre10 and some 22 gauge wire; I wanted thinner but that was the best they had. I figured if it was too chunky I'd use some stripped electrical wire.

The first step is to comb out the sisal rope; Rachel very kindly donated one of her many combs for the job.  I warned her it would never be the same again but she said she was willing to make the sacrifice! Oh for understanding partners!

Building the High Line

While preparing a summary page of all the modules in Utrainia, I realised that I hadn't actually posted anything about the construction of my second module. Let's fix that...

I have a particular fascination with snow, and have spent many weeks in the USA trudging up hills through knee deep snow and chasing blizzards to get the perfect snow photos. I always enjoy it and I love the look of fresh snow on the railroad. So for my second module I decided to model a stretch of the BNSF "hi-line" in Montana, where the BNSF main line crosses Glacier National Park. Full of conifers and representing mountain railroading at its finest this seemed the logical place to model. This module is the transition between double track and single track mainline, and so features signals, a #10 switch, a switch heater (to stop the points icing up), a signal shed, and some assorted railway detritus.

The inspiration for the scene is this wonderful photo of the ...

Installing the rockfall shelter portals

The rockfall shelter is continuing nicely. Yesterday I spent some time cutting slots in the rock to accept the end walls of the shelter. This involved lots of slow sawing with a broken hacksaw blade, and lots of plaster dust everywhere.

Today I did a test fit and all went well. So I mixed up some "super concrete" which is pre-mixed patching plaster and PVA. The PVA makes it stickier and easier more pliable. I filled the slots with a generous helping and then pushed the portals into it. Hopefully when the plaster dries the PVA will help hold the portals in place. Any gaps I carefully filled with my "super concrete", and I added a good thing seam to the inside edges.

A machinist's square helped keep things nice and square, and a selection of overly large wagons helped check clearances.

Rockfall shelter progress

Some more progress on my canyon scene. The rockfall shelter is the focus of my attention this time. During the week I used some premixed plaster to make little foundations for each leg of the shelter. With the shelter roughly in place it was time to make some ends for it. I made a rough pattern out of cardboard and then made a matching mold. Poured some plaster, strengthened it with some balsa splints, and clamped it between two plates of glass.

I then did the opposite for the other end of the shelter.

While studying some photos of the prototype I noticed how uniformly coloured the scenery was, so while waiting for that to dry I started working on blending the rocks into the rest of the scenery. I'm trailing using a medium-gray base coat on the scenery that I'm dry bushing...

Ballasting the canyon scene

Progress continues on the canyon scene. Today the hard working Utrainian railway crews laid down not one, but two, main lines.

The tracks have been carefully curved and aligned, and clearance tests done to make sure even the largest Utrainian trans will be able to pass with ease.

A quick test with the start of the rockfall shelter. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished scene, I think there are going to be a great angles.

On a roll, the hard working Utrainia engineers added some superelevation to the curves. Superelevation is where the outside edge of the curve is sli...

Rock progress

Been a bit quiet here in Utrainia for the last month or so. With good reason however, as my CNC machine has been taking up all my time. I am hoping that once I have ironed out the bugs it will be both accurate and powerful enough to help make many of my models. I can design them upstairs in comfort, and then "print" them out on the machine, which will then carve them out before my very eyes. Currently there is still a bit of work to do on it, and I'm waiting on a few final components.

In the meantime, I have resumed work on my canyon scene. I have finally finished carving all the rocks, after a couple of additional weekends work carving away. Now it is time to move on to more exciting stages, as I stain all the rocks.