techniques

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...

Utrainia is expanding

Now that the prairie scene is more or less finished, it's time for Utrainia to expand. Since every module so far has been a straight line, I decided it was time to make a corner module.

So this morning I jumped on the computer, fired up Inventor and started sketching out a track centreline and the module boundaries. The great thing about Inventor is that it's parametric, so you can define relationships between things, such as "these two lines need to be parallel, at 45° to everything else, and 300mm apart. You can then drag things around until everything lines up.

So plan in hand I went down to the workshop and started chopping my timber.

A couple of hours later and I had the ends made up:

A great way to end the day

After a week of overcast weather, it was with a happy heart that I saw some rays snaking into the office this afternoon. So after work I grabbed a quick dinner and camera in hand, headed off up the road.

As luck would have it, the regulars were there with a short manifest. I checked on the scanner and they were waiting to take possession of the next block, so I knew I'd have a good half hour or so of shooting. 

Focus stacking

I bought a new camera the other week, and reports of a good snowfall up in the mountains had me itching to use it. So today I packed myself a lunch, grabbed a book, and hit the road, heading for my favourite spot again.

There was less snow on the road this time so I was able to park just around the corner. I opened up the laptop and started picking up some ATCS transmissions. Soon I had a pretty clear picture what was happening out there... nothing. Never mind, I had my book to keep me company and knew that in an hour or so the regular Glacier Express passenger train would be coming through.

Sure enough, a couple of hours later I saw the track occupancy circuits on the ATCS lighting up, so I headed out and set up for my shot. Unfortunately with no other traffic on the line there would be no crossings or breaks here, and hence I'd only get the one shot.