Thanks Rich! I sure love those bridges and I know just where I could put one if I expand. As far as your ballast goes, I think I would try and go at it with a little tiny hammer. Breaking it up may or may not work. Even if you only get it down so that only a few little bits remain you can cover those over with a new thin layer.
How big is your room? It appears to be a good size. I really thought the shot of pulling into the station was cool. A few people standing around inside and out would really add to the scene. It looked quite real.
I had track nails in just a couple of spots on my current layout and in some of the photo’s my daughter took for her photo club and in a video I had made, they jumped right out at me even though they were painted and the track had ballast. I think with more of us using video and the quality of the cameras improving still photo’s, the nails have to go. Either after gluing the ballast down or just use caulk from the get go. The three foot rule has gone out the window as we look at our layouts through the lens.
I am now taking photo’s as I go, as I find they pick up things I just don’t see myself. I am not sure why that is. A tired brain perhaps.[D)]
Looking forward to seeing more. You could do a video of looking back at the loco as it goes around the layout, that would be cool. Let the chase begin!
I stumbled across this Youtube contributor a few years ago. He takes layout videos to the next level. He uses a chroma-key green screen background that is amazing!
And he did some onboard stuff that got me interested in trying it. For some reason he hasn’t posted anything on his layout recently.
Actually, ballast that is glued down with a water/matte medium mix is very easy to remove when it is outside the track itself. Isopropyl alcohol is your friend.
The problem is the ballast glued on top of the ties (a major no-no). That ballast is extremely difficult to remove in its entirety. Expensive, but easier, to just replace the track.
If you have Windows then Windows Movie Maker is totally free and works quite well for cleaning up movies. That’s what i edit mine with, and I have to mirror image the whole thing since the iCar records through a mirror. Pretty easy to use, too.
Wonder Share is much more Powerful You can do Split Screen
Picture in Picture and will auto convert files as you set the preference to and also up loads to utube or any device but still easy to learn and it gets great reviews >
Try Denatured Alcohol, not Isopropyl it is stronger and will not harm plastic. I used it to loosen and remove the ballast and glue from an Atlas#4 and a wye and it cleaned up really good, then washed in warm soapy water and looks brand new. I also used it to strip paint off of CMW plastic trailers, does a fast job, no harm to them from it. Sunnyside brand.
That’s odd, because all the videos I edit are from my iPhone, Movie Maker handles them fine. I have the Minuteman iCar that holds my iPhone for on-board videos. I do need to edit and post the one of it all going into the river last time I was using it.