Here is a diorama that I have been working on this week. This is my first ever attempt at weathering track, ballasting, making trees, carving foam to look like rocks, and scenicing in general. This was essentially my test bed for trying some of the things that you all have described so well. Please give me your honest opinions, was I a good student?
What looks ok, what looks horrible, what could use some tweaking, and what should get ripped out. The gondola in the picture hasn’t been weathered or modified other than adding Kadees. Its really only there to provide scale for the landscape. Weathering rolling stock will probably be my next attempt. This is all HO.
By the way, this is now sitting in my office at work, as my contribution to bring a model train to work day.
And another by the way, this is also the first time I’ve tried posting pictures, so this could be a whole lot of nothing to see[:)]
Looking good! The only thing I would suggest is to add some different shades of green and lighter vegetation along the track. Unless having a railroad go through someone’s lawn was the effect you were after?
Many modelers will pick one color grass and use it alone. Mothe Nature isn’t all one color of green, there are always varying shades of green, lighter colors, areas where vegitation didn’t grow, plain old dirt, etc.
One of the things making this diorama taught me was exactly what you are talking about. Even in a 5 inch wide diorama, the monotony of color bothers me. I will use a lot more color variation when I start scenicing the layout. I did try to add some color variation by dry-brushing a little light yellow on some of the bushes, and the top of the tree. They don’t show up too well in the pictures. I pointed it out to my wife last night after I did it, and she said it looked like sun shining on the tops!!! I happily told her that was the effect I was looking for.
Great looking peice of work!! I need to try one my self to get back into the swing of things. I’ve not done any scenery work for a few years now and I’ll need a little proctice before building my new layout.
Nice work and a good reminder that a diorama is a good way to try things out, everything from handlaid track to scenery methods to under-tie Kadee magments to whether it is practical to uncouple cars if you have equipped your telephone poles with “wires” (elastic).
I agree with the comments above but don’t get too carried away with color variation. It can look blotchy and toylike (sort of like the paper mache “tunnels” we used to stick on one corner of a Lionel layout). A few dead or brown bushes , or maybe even a few ties that look older or newer than the rest of the ties, might be all that is needed to break up the consistency. A rotted replaced tie thrown off to the side of the roadbed; perhaps some erosion on that hill rather than solid grass.
From the standpoint of realism I like the flater rock to the right but I wonder about that tall vertical rock seemingly too close to the rails – I think the RR would probably remove that one.
When you look at large vista type photos of a scene you do not typically notice much bright-line color variation provided the scenic texture is the same. A subtle change from green to brown grass as you get nearer the roadbed (and nearer presumably to weed control effects) might help, but not a sharp delineation between the two
And forgetting dioramas for the moment and thinking about layouts, Bob B is correct as to grass color but sometimes I think a more or less unified color scheme can give the effect of a large expanse. The farther away you stand the more unified; the closer you are the more you notice differences
This suggests that if you have a prized scene that you really want people to notice you should work in more variety, but to just suggest that it is a good distance from one depot to the next, more uniformity. This goes beyond scenery to structures. There is a degree of uniformity to structures in the same area. Of course there is always someone who paints their house bright blue or whatever – you don’t
Your diorama looks great. [:D] I did a similar project last year and brought it in to work for “Take a Train to Work Day”. You can see pictures from mine at http://photos.yahoo.com/spovlot and pick the “Take a Train to Work 2004” album.
One thing that I noted as a suggestion is with your roadbed and ballast. I assume that you used cork roadbed. When you split the cork strip, it leaves a ridge. If you ballast as is, the ballast rocks “hang” on that ridge and create an unrealistic roadbed profile. I recommend that you sand down the edge of the cork before ballasting.
perhaps some erosion on that hill rather than solid grass.
From the standpoint of realism I like the flater rock to the right but I wonder about that tall vertical rock seemingly too close to the rails – I think the RR would probably remove that one.
So long as the rock is outside the structure gauge of the original road there is little problem… it may have been cut back later to conform to a later standard.
When originally cut… always assuming that the track didn’t go round it… there’s another thing… whether it was cut just as far as needed or much further would depend 1. on how hard it was and/or how rich the RR was… picks and shovels or machines cost time and money… so does dynamite. Also they couldn’t just take out to base of sleepers but would have to take out to base of formation level… otherwise it would be like hitting a massive lump of concrete under the track… in some ways a solid mlump under the track would be worse than a bog… no give… a bog can be stabilised (They never found bottom in Chat Moss but the railway is still there). Okay… so then there is a Q of where to dump the removed rock… they might use it as ballast… if suitable… may need breaking… may be too friable or too shattered by blasting… it may then have been replaced in the years since. OR it may go as fill elsewhere… how far away will depend on how desperate they were for fill somewhere else. Cut a bit fill a bit was much cheaper than dead level through miles of cut or on miles of fill… where you could get away with it… similarly the road might undukate gently… moving the planet costs time and money… a regraded route might happen later… even as late as recent times (Powder River Basin traffic???) Re-grading mght go with re-alignment… especially for heavy traf fic and higher speeds… I’ve never seen this modelled (work in progress would be interesting for those that like MoW and/or construction stuff
Way cool. If those rocks are styrofoam, they a very good. My comment is like the others, way more clutter. Mother nature is never that neat. Also the dead trees could use a better weed to start with. Wisteria or some of the things from the craft stores will have more tiny branches. The big tree is good, but very WS. There are improvments available in the garden and craft stores. I have come to like more twigs and less foam (Leaves).
I agree with the others that is a great looking dio, but as spovlot was saying those ridges on the cork roadbed can be a pain. I ‘smooth’ mine by spreading joint compound on the outer edges, then painting it before covering with ballast.
Thanks for all the compliments, and thanks even more for the suggestions.
The edges of the ballast are with out a doubt non-uniform. I did trim the ridge off the cork with a knife before laying it, but I didn’t sand it. I think the effect that your seeing is more of the ballast slumping after the glue application than any ridge on the cork. I wasn’t too worried about the ballast being a little sloppy, because with the highly weathered ties and the really rusted rails I was going for a slightly use line. I think I need to have the vegetation more overgrown and intruding between the rails to get that effect.
Thank you very much! They are indeed styrofoam, and I didn’t like how they looked at all until I used a very thin wash of straight black acrylic. It was amazing the difference. I think the rocks are my favorite part and they took maybe 5-10 minutes tops to do.
Very nicely done! Gives me inspiration to get off my posterior and give it a go as well. One comment, and this applies to many, many modellers. Why do so many folks paint the sides of rail that light brown fake rust color? Except for rail on abandoned track that hasn’t been used since diesels were a novelty, most rail I’ve seen is a dark grey color with some hint of dust mixed in. Sorry, end of rant, but let’s be more observant. Otherwise, your diorama is splendid!
Very nice work…must make you feel great to see it turn out so well.
You can think about what the others have said, and tinker with some ideas of your own.
A little real, fine-sifted, dirt will do wonders sprinkled here and there to impart the chaotic approach of Ma Nature’s to any subject. Also, tuft grasses here and there, especially nearest the tracks, will look great. The odd tie cast track-side is also a good idea. Also, to get really focused on the scene and setting you have shown us, a switch with an old dented grease barrel nearby would have been a super addition.
But you needed to get the mechanics of the first order of senicing done, and you did an A-1 job. [^]
