I’ve updated my website with some new pictures of the Oakhill area of the Bear Creek and South Jackson.
Take a look here if you’re interested.
Regards,
Charlie Comstock
Charlie
all I can say is that is 1 beutiful layout and if mine turns out half as good i’ll be happy.
keep up the good work
Gav
Hi Charlie,
Looks great except for the sign that seems to be floating in space(photo 7), and if the gravel company has shipped all their gravel, how come there are hoppers waiting to be filled? [:D]
Bob Hayes
It’s a sad story but the night before theives broke into the quarry and stole all the gravel. Senior snooper Trick Dacy is on the case but until he figures out where all the gravel has got to (not to mention the crushers, steam shovel, etc) those empty hoppers are likely to be keep sitting there. [:(]
As far as floating in space, the quarry employees were gonna real wood for the posts to hold it up but got their hands on some of that transparent aluminum stuff which they used instead.
Regards,
Charlie Comstock
Neat rock work, Charlie! Is that on foam or did you coat it with sculptamold or plaster? Long a fan and eagerly waiting to see the new peninsula plans. (hint-hint) jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
Looks great as always![tup] I really like that rock ridge with the pines on it. I’ve got a couple areas where I want to do the same thing.
I love it! Not only is the modeling great, but it gives conveys other sences…its as if you can smell the pines, the gravel and the creosote ties.
David B
How did you light the photo?
Paul
Both the scenery and the image are excellent, Charlie. I really like your stone-work. That almost shouts, “I’m a labour of love.”
-Crandell
Thanks for the nice comments guys.
The rock cliff is hand carved plaster layered over pink foam. I learned (actually I’m still learning) rock carving from the demonstration by Joe Fugate in his volume 4 scenery dvd and from the demonstration by Kelly Newton in the Keller video of the Utah Colorado Western.
It turns out that the rock carving isn’t as hard as it looks. The cliff face in the quarry is three batches of plaster ( I’m using US Gypsum No.1 casting plaster ). I mix it up about 12oz at a time in a plastic beer cup then use a rubber (kitchen) scraper to assist in ‘battering’ the cliff wall between 1/2" and 1/4" thick when the plaster has set enough to be the consistancy of cake icing.
Then I started hacking away on in with some oil painter’s knives, an xacto kife or two and a (house) “painters tool”. After is gets in rough shape I use Kelly Newton’s wire brush technique to ‘flick’ on it. I also dab the plaster with a wet sponge when it’s still kind of runny to avoid having a smooth surface.
It takes about 20-30 minutes to mix, pour, and carve a plastic cup of plaster. The carving in the quarry took a little over an hour! (it took much longer to mask the backdrop - and you need to be thorough with the masking becase bits of sloppy plaster go everywhere…). So the plaster rock carvings aren’t as hard as they look (but it does pay to practice a bit). The blasted rock face look is a lot easier than carving major rock formations because it’s so random.
Regards,
Charlie Comstock
The lighting is just the 4100K twin T8 fluorescent layout lighting. I set my dSLR’s white balance manaually to 4100K (to match the lighting colors). Check it out at
Not the most realistic lighting I’ve ever done but it makes picture taking darned easy.
Regards,
Charlie Comstock
Charlie:
Unfortunatley, this forum software is pretty brain-dead when it comes to pasting links into your post – they come in as ordinary text and are not clickable, which is very annoying. Instead of just pasting a link into the body of your post, your best bet is to do something like this instead: Charlie’s lighting example link.
Select the text you want to turn into a link and then click the chain icon on the edit tool bar. Fill out the form to insert your link. I like to further emphasize links by making them bold and underlined – also done using the edit tool bar.
Dang Joe, all this time I was typing in the code
[ url='link"]title[ /url]
That way is much easier.
Charlie,
It all looks great. I’d like to particularly complement you on your backdrop. I think a great backdrop is one that you don’t notice and yours is really a good blend with your layout.
I’d also like to know how you did the grass. It’s pretty convincing work.
The stake truck aging seems just right, too.
Good Work!!
Actually, Joe, all you have to do is hit return after pasting the link.
Like the link to this aerial shot of Pacific Grove, CA taken from a balloon in the early 1900’s.
http://www.pgmuseum.org/archives/exhibit/birds~1.htm
Andre
Only works on Internet Explorer…not on Firefox… [banghead]
Sorry 'bout that. You could always type [ url ], do your paste and type [ /url ] after that. Only do it without the embedded spaces as in the example
[ url ]http://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/assorted/monterey/mont_br1952emptt.jpg[ /url ]
http://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/assorted/monterey/mont_br1952emptt.jpg
Above is without the spaces.
Andre
The banghead part isn’t because of you, it’s because I use firefox…[:I]
Thanks Shay dude. The backdrop is mostly house paint except for the clouds which I airbrushed using some artists white airbrush paint (MUCH cheaper than Poly Scale) and the tree trunks which I used artists tube acrylics for and the mountain scene.
It took two coats of each of the tree layers to get coverage with the latex house paint. This turned out to be a good thing because it allows for extra (apparent) ‘detail’ to show up in each layer. Lotsa work but it came out fairly decently.
It’s important (I’ve heard and I agree) to paint backdrops under the railroad lighting to get the colors to look halfway right.
Regards,
Charlie Comstock
Charlie, you didn’t tell him how you did your grass …
I know Charlie is using the Noch Grassmaster static applicator. Unfortunately, the Grassmaster, because of the strong Euro, is now pushing $200.
However, here’s a video on youtube I took of applying static grass with a home made model I constructed for less than $30. Here’s some more info about it here on my layout web site.
I’m real pleased with how this home made applicator works – I also have used a Noch Grassmaster and my home made guy actually has a slightly stronger static field, believe it or not!