scenery

More photos from my camping trip

Some more photos from my recent camping expedition. I like this bit of coast line, lots of different places to climb out and get photos from. After I'd pitched my tent I climbed back around the coast a bit and waited for a train. I was soon rewarded by a huge freight train growling up the coast. The sun had set by now, but the headlights were making their presence known, as were the triple locos on the head.

After that it was quiet for a while so I headed back to the camp. While I was gathering up some driftwood for my campfire I head a distant rumbling, so I grabbed my camera and got ready:

Nice! A return freight heading the other way. I watched for a while then went back to toast some marshmallows.

The next morning I was up bright and early, woken by...

Gone camping

One of my favourite ways to escape for a weekend has always been camping by the sea. Since I was on my own this weekend, and it's been a while, I decided to spend a night under the stars. So I dug out my camping gear, loaded up the wagon, and set off for Utrainia's Coastal Highway.

I found a good spot to pull off, parked the car and gathered up my gear. After half an hour or so of clambering around the coastline I arrived at a nice quiet wee spot. I found a nice sheltered spot and pitched my tent. And as luck would have it I was right next to the mainline!

I fell asleep listening to the waves crashing into the shore, occasionally interspersed by clickety clacking as a train went past.

The next morning I rose bright and early to the fresh sea air. After breakfast I grabbed my book and camera and found a nice spot where I could comfortably read and watch the ...

Rocking rocks

Well the queen of Utrainia is away for the weekend, which means it's back to bachelor living for me and the cat, and the bulk of the weekend has been spent in the garage, bag of plaster in one hand, empty pizza boxes in the other!

During the week I went on a collection trip up the road to get some suitable soil. I tried to turn this soil into a clay-coloured paste to cover the raw polystyrene, but instead I just made mud. Mistake #1!

Correcting this mistake, I made a new paste consisting of: "Deck and Pave Grip" (very very fine sand), acrylic modeling paste, water. Mixing these together made a nice gritty paste that I used to cover the polystyrene and blend the rocks into the scene. This worked well.

I then glued the first tunnel into position and filled behind it with boulders. The boulders were easily made: take one zip lock bag, some old plaster castings and a hammer. Put plaster in bag, seal, bash. When done you should have a good variety of plaster rocks.

Making Rocks

A canyon requires rocks, and so rocks I've been making.

Molds

For the steep cuttings near the track I made a latex mold of a rock in the garden. This was a fairly smooth-faced rock and so hopefully will represent where the railroad has blasted and excavated away the rock.

After applying 3 layers of latex to the rock I peeled off the mold and prepared it for casting. To cast it I supported the mold on some card and spooned in some plaster. From the same batch of plaster I applied some to the vertical polystyrene surface where it was to go.

I kept a careful eye on the plaster, and as soon as it was no longer liquid (but still quite soft), I transported it to the site. Using the cardboard to support the mold I bent it to shape and pressed it onto the wall. I left the mold in place till it was dry, then peeled it off.

This worked very well for get...

Static grass

Mid-west Utrainia is famed for its vast fields of waist-high grass, so naturally I had to model this. A recent innovation in model railway circles is static grass, and after some hunting and researching I set about making some of my own.

The grass fibre

First ingredient is static grass fibre, apparently a side-effect of textile manufacture. I got mine from ebay, from Aussie Scenics. I used their Wheat Fields, Late Harvest Brown, and Desert Scrub flavours. Since ordering they have come out with a new expanded range of dry looking colours which I am keen to try. Another source on ebay is War World Ltd, also on ebay.

The Grass Blaster

The other ingredient is a static grass machine. Mine is a home made one, based on a very simple circuit of power-pac...

Power poles

When the Soviets build the Utrainian State Rail Road (USRR) they strung up a great network of communication lines to ensure operating orders were swiftly and efficiently delivered throughout the railway. Of course as the relentless march of technology progressed, two-way radio links mostly replaced the traditional analogue lines of past, however if you look hard enough there are still patches of the old lines standing.

To model this, I took some very ordinary Atlas N scale telephone poles. I chopped off the molded on bases and drilled a small 1mm hole into which I stuck a beheaded track pin. I then primed them with some spray can primer (good and quick).

Nice and straight? Notice original brown plastic underneath.

I stuck them in a lump of cork and went ove...