Rock Painted

Work continued on the latest test board, with the rail mounted on the ties, and the ties both dybrushed and having 2 washes applied (one black, one raw umber). The photo is taken right after the rock was painted, so at least one day must pass to see the actual outcome. It's quite possible that another layer of burnt umber and a black wash will be needed.

Nothing is secured so far, as the rock and the pieces of foam will have to be tied together after some more painting. The track itself still needs to be weathered with 2 light coats using the airbrush, as one can see clearly right now how the hole thing shines. The Brawa telephone signal and the Preiser wooden crate will have to be painted as well, then secured to the board.

The last photo shows a small setup using the Tillig ballast, but at this stage the ties only received one batch of drybrushing and a black wash.

Bridges

A medium curved bridge span will be needed for the PT segment. Searching for a curved bridge prooved rather difficult, one of the few i've found it's the Marklin 74613. 3 of these will be needed to bridge the gap. As different weathering techniques are required for metal bridges, 3 coats of Tamyia German Grey have been sprayed using the airbrush in preparation, a few months ago. The 2 photos show the difference in color for the unpainted bridge (right) and the painted one (left).

A New Test Board

While the quest for the perfect weathering of a wooden sleeper goes on, I needed a place to test how rocks will fit in the scenery, and various other techniques I've been reading about (as Joe Fugate's revised method of zip texturing - actually blending the rocks with the underlying terrain).

The base is identical to the one used for the first test board. The rock is made using a Woodland Scenics Mold C1244 facet rock while the car is an old PIKO manufactered in the 1980s.

Rocks !

I've started tests on the Woodland Scenics rock molds. The model shown here is a Classic Rock C1236. The formulas for the plaster and for the colors are still being developed, since I don't have WS Lightweight hydrocal, nor the WS concentrated pigments used here.

Old vs New

Since the old Sony DSC-S730, pictured here on the right, had its limitations when it came to close photography and general performance in poor lighting, and also because it's not that practical to always take every single item to be photographed to folks with professional cameras, a bit of an upgrade was made, in the form of the Nikon D3100, seen here with an 18-55 lens.

Corrections On Ties

What didn't turn quite all right on the test board were the ties. Even treated with some weathering powders, they still don't escape that "plastic" look. The search for a better way goes on...

Optical Detectors

I've done a few tests today with the MRD1 optical detectors. Didn't really want to mess with wiring and electronics at this time, but further construction on the layout is not really possible without setting in place the infrared detectors and the wires needed. The biggest concern right now is how to hide the emitter/phototransistor pair, since both are rather shiny and bulky - bigger than half a wheel in size. Bushes or some type or vegetation would be a good choice, however there are areas where this just can't be used. For example on a parrallel set of tracks, as they are found on the PT section of the layout, where there are 2 curved tracks bordered by hills/retaining wall,with nothing on them but ballast. To make infrared detection work reliably, the emitter / detector must be placed at different hights (underbody of cars/locomotives where empty space alternates with wheels) and not perpendicular to the direction of travel (gaps between the cars would incorrectly signal the end of a train). Therefore in my case, each of the elements of one pair should be grouped together between the tracks, at a relatively low height, while the corresponding elements in the pair should be hidden in the hills/retaining walls on each side of the track).

So basically what needed to be determined was, if an obstacle is placed between the emitter/detector, for example a thick piece of paper, what is the dimension of the hole through this obstacle so that detection would work reliably. It was determined that for 1 mm, everything works just fine. Even more, if a thin enough paper is used, even if it's coloured, the infrared "shines" through. So for our example it would be possible for a small crate to be placed between the tracks, covering the 2 elements there, then 2 small holes of 1mm should be drilled on each side, and then this small holes could be masked with some paper matching in colour.

For the moment I just need to find alternatives for this crate, which might be too big to fit between the tracks.