Water pour tests

When I first contemplated building my bog, I wondered what I should use for the water?

When I watched the video by Grant Eastman when he made his bog on  his N scale SAR layout, he used Woodland Scenics Realistic Water with good results.  So I thought why not?  It's easier than a 2 part epoxy.  In fact I had used it on my Whitewater Creek  about a year ago and had good results with it.  

However, not long ago there was a modeler on TrainBoard who used it on his river and it was a complete fail!  After pouring, two things happened.  At some point he sat a small glass jar on it and it actually left an impression of the jar on the surface.  The next thing he noticed  there were large bubbles forming in his river.

After doing some research, he found out why?

The realistic water does NOT dry solidly and you are not suppose to pour it over non-acrylic paint or PVA glues like Elmer's.  I did notice that in my Whitewater Creek a few months later, there were some tiny bubbles forming around the reeds that I glued in place using Mod Podge.  But they are not as bad as what he encountered.  His were LARGE.

So now I had two things to think about before pouring the water in the bog.  

1) What should I use for the water?

2) What should I use to glue my dead trees to the bog floor?

Well for the water, I remembered watching Boomer when he made his river scene and a drainage ditch.  Both turned out very nice.  He uses a lot of artist supplies for his modeling.  For his river, he used a mix of Golden soft gel semi-gloss mixed GAC 500 (it's very glossy when dried).  The soft gel was thick so it would hold its shape for ripples, but he mixed GAC 500 to thin it just a bit, then spread it out and used a sponge with a dabbing motion to create the ripples.  Another thing about GAC 500, it doesn't creep like most resins tend to do.

For the drainage ditch, he used straight GAC 500 pouring it with several thin layers of no more than 1/4".

Great!  This sounds like a winner, I'll give it a try.

Now for gluing the trees to the bog?  Not using the WS realistic water, I didn't have to worry about the bubbles.  But keeping this in mind, I still didn't want to use a PVA glue, what about acrylic caulking?  I tried it but it took too long to dry?

Someone told me to use CA with an accelerant.  That would work, but I didn't want to get anything sprayed on the painted bog floor that might react? 

Then a friend told me to try some UV Resin glue, it's fast, strong and dries quickly with a shot of UV light.  It also dries completely clear.  I've used this stuff to add LEDs for my loco heads lights and it works awesome.  So with this info and material on hand it was time to do a test.

I grabbed a small plastic lid, glued some sticks and a couple of weed tufts to the bottom with the UV Resin, it was fast and clear!  While it's not a permanent glue, it would hold stuff in place until the GAC 500 was poured and dried.

I poured it to about 1/8" and it did self level, but I had to coax into the weeds and up to the trees, no big deal.  Then I let it dry.  It went down solid white and started to turn clear once it started drying the next day.

After three days, it was still slightly milky in some areas.  It's been 6 days now and it's still showing some milkiness.  But the good news is, the UV Resin is not releasing any bubbles.  It also didn't creep, although it looks like it did because it shrunk thinner.

Wondering how long GAC 500 takes to fully cure, I asked Boomer a question via his YT channel and he replied it could take a bit and that maybe I should try Liquitex gloss pouring  medium.  He said it was much more forgiving.  OK, I'll give it a shot.  I went to Amazon and ordered a bottle of it.

Last night I repeated the same experiment with another shallow plastic lid, glued the trees and weed tufts down with UV Resin and poured some of Liquitex gloss pouring medium as I had with the GAC 500.

First thing I noticed was it was not 100% white in color but actually semi translucent.  It was a bit thicker, but not much (and found out you can thin it a bit if needed).  It did not creep, and I had to coax it into the weeds and around the trees.  I walked away.

Tonight I took a peek and it was dry and 98% clear, with only a very small amount around the edges and in some of the weeds where it was thicker.  Cool!  The other thing I noticed is that it did shrink just like the GAC 500.  But with no ill effects that I could see, it just got thinner.  

So I grabbed the Liquitex and made another pour over top, filling it to the rim again and walked away for the night.  We'll see how it turns out tomorrow... 

 

Dead trees and Homer

I recently got some dead trees and stumps planted in the bog.  

Next up on the "To Do" list is getting the water poured in the bog.  For this I plan to use some GAC 500 for the water as suggested by Boomer.

I did a test to see how well the GAC 500 pours around the stuff that will be in the bog such as trees and weeds.  It self levels pretty good and doesn't seem to creep like most resins would, I found that it has to be coaxed into some of the smaller details. It may take awhile to dry completely, but so far it looks promising.

After getting the signals installed, one of the LED's didn't want to cooperate, so I covered it by sending Homer out to have a look see and get it replaced.  

The Showcase Miniatures crossing signals are a very nice kit and would recommend them highly.

 

First run of the crossing

Well it's not completely finished, but it's far enough along that I can test it with a train.

I'm kind of excited about this as it's the first time that I've built anything visually electronic and actually got it installed and working.  It did not go completely smooth, I had a couple of hiccups but nothing major.  I had to pick up some wire splitters that I found would make the wiring and installation easier.  I guess that's a learning process?

I've still have to install and adjust the right sensor, but that'll come once the depot is built so I can hide it within.   Once this is done, I plan to put the finishing touches on the bog and try to get that wrapped up before a planned Op Session in late Jan.

Once I get things cleaned up, I'll get another post with more pictures and maybe a better video.

Added more trees at Ruston

Nothing special to report, just added a few more trees at Ruston. 

Played around with the new camera phone.

Super Tree conservation

Even in a hobby, conservation serves an important role. 

So after working on a batch of Super Trees, do you find yourself with a pile of smaller pieces that are almost too small to make use of but you hate to see go to waste?

Well after pruning my last batch I wound up with a decent pile of small bits and pieces.  First thought was to gather them up and crush them into a useful byproduct for ground cover.   After getting them into that pile, I got an idea!

Why not spray the pile with an adhesive so they hold that shape and then cover them with ground foam?  I think they'd look like thickets?  At least that is pretty much what I've determined Woodland Scenics Briar Patches are made from? 

So I grabbed some hair spray and gave them a heavy coat, and just like hair, it held its shape. 

Then I sprayed them with a coat of Krylon Dark Camo Brown and let it dry.  This increased the hold of the shape.

Next I sprayed a coat of Spray Adhesive and sprinkled on several shades of fine green ground foam and sealed it again with a liberal coat of hair spray and Viola!  Instant thickets!

Who knows, I may not be the first one to do this, but I like it!  Cheap thickets, almost zero waste of the Super Trees and you get a nice looking byproduct.  You can leave it in one big mass as I did, or it can be cut or torn into smaller pieces.

On this day, let us not forget the more than 2,300 U.S. servicemen who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor 83 years ago.

December 7th, 1941

Fuller tree lines

I made more of the thickets and briars and added them to the tree line.

Super Trees are awesome but the only slight drawback to them are the trunks. Even in N scale they can look spindly and malnourished. What I've done in the past is to build up different types of vegetation to help hide the trunks. Which in the wild, rural areas is not uncommon. A stand of trees in the rural areas are not manicured to the extent as they are in urban areas, so the underbrush grows untouched and fills in the tree line. Thus resulting in what looks like a solid mass of trees.

In this wider shot you can see about 4 or 5 different types of undergrowth: The home made thickets, Woodland Scenics clump foliage, several of the bushes with and without the white flowers, bits and pieces of broken off Super Trees that I flocked. Then on top of the static grass, I threw down several colors of course ground foam, followed by several colors of fine ground foam.

Briar Patch and Thickets

I'm always looking for some new variation of vegetation to add to a scene, IMO the more you have, the less your eyes will see a repeating pattern.

On a recent trip to the hobby shop, I came across a product from Woodland Scenics called Briar Patch, which is supposed to resemble thick and or thorny bushes.  I thought this would be a nice addition to the bog scene, so I grabbed a pack of it.  I think it was about $9 each.

After getting it home and inspecting it, it looked like it was made from chunks of Super Trees with ground foam glued to it.  Simple enough.  It was tightly packed and was rather brittle.  While trying to break/cut off a section, it wanted to crumble quite a bit.  My first thought was that I could replicate this fairly easily by using a course furnace filter for much cheaper?

After digging through my scenery supplies I found a package of  Natural Aire filter that I picked up a while back for another project.  This should work nicely?

I cut off a small section to start with.  There's a backing screen that helps hold the filter together, this I removed by simply peeling it off.

I cut the strip into a small block and stretched it out thin then squashed it into a bush like shape and sprayed it with Krylon Dark Camo Brown paint (which was close at hand) so it was brown and not green.

While the paint was still wet, I applied a good coating of some fine burnt green or late summer ground foam to cover the filter fibers and shook off the excess.  Next I sprayed it with a good coat of cheap hair spray and sprinkled on a light amount of some brighter green ground foam for a variance of colors (I do not like a monotone look for vegetation) and shot it again with the hair spray to lock it all in place.

Once dry, I trimmed it up and placed it in the scene up against the base of the tree line.  I'll add some smaller bits and pieces of foam to help add layers to the scene.   

 

Trees of the bog

Today I got the static grass applied to both sides of the track that runs behind the bog so that I could finally start planting some trees against the backdrop.  Wanted to get these in before I started working on the trees that’ll be in the foreground.

Luckily I had enough trees left over from the Whitewater Creek scene to cover  the majority of the area.  With a lot of open spaces between the larger trees, I started filling in with some leftover Super Tree pieces that I removed while planting them.

That still left a lot of open area space at the base so I started making some brambles and will eventually work in some smaller vegetation and some poly fiber bushes to give the tree base a fuller, thicker look.    

The bog continues to green up

A few weeks ago after performing an update on my computer, it gave me the double barrel middle fingers!  Turns out the Bios became corrupt and then I spent another weekend getting up and running again after the repair.

In the meantime, while trying to stave off the withdrawals, I continued to work on the bog adding most of the vegetation around the shoreline.  As of this post, 90% of it is done.  I still have to apply static grass on both sides of the track and start adding trees around as well as some dead trees and rotting stumps in the bog.

I plan to add a small cabin and an old boat dock where there is still bare earth.

    

Bog vegetation

Ok, I went down after all the ghouls and goblins went home tonight and played around with the first little section.

I applied the glue base then placed the dark green tufts around the edges.

Hard to see but I did add some lighter colored tufts towards the middle and rear.

The large white flowered shrub is something I got from Scenic Express made by Martin Welberg. Before adding it I misted it with hairspray and sprinkled on some Woodland Scenics white flowers.

Next I mixed some 4mm dark green and 6mm autumn grass and applied very heavy around the entire area and sucked up the excess.  I then sprinkled on a variety of fine green ground foam and misted it all with more hairspray.

Before it dried, I lightly applied some Woodland Scenics yellow and purple flowers.  Then added some small bits of clump foliage and the Woodland Scenics Tall Grass and misted more hairspray to lock stuff in place.

I'm not sure how deep I'll pour the water, but it should be at least halfway up the edges.  This is just the undergrowth, I plan to add more small shrubs, trees and stumps along with some 12mm tufts to the bog bottom around the edges.

Tufts, tufts and more tufts for the bog

I know I know.....

There've a been a bazillion static grass tuft "How To's" posted over the years, but a friend asked me how I did mine to get them looking full and not chincy looking.  So I took a few pics when a did a batch, hopefully these pics will explain it better.

These tufts happened to be made using a lighter color so I had some color variation.  For these I started with some Silflor 6.5mm Late Summer and Autumn grass. 

Then I mixed it into the hopper, roughly in a 2pt Autumn to 1pt Late Summer mix.

Next I started applying the glue dots to the Non Stick pans.

Next I applied the negative clip to the tray and started shaking the grass onto the dots, and continued until they were fully coated, then I moved the static tool above the grass back and forth keeping it about 1/2" above the dots.  This helped to move the grass some more and keep it standing upright.  

Then I shook the tray so that the excess moved around the dots even more.  After that I turned the tray upside down and tapped the edges slightly to knock off as much grass as I could.  

Then I reapplied the negative clip and repeated the whole process.  After that I laid the trays upside down so that gravity helped to keep the grass from laying down as much as possible.   

This is how they turned out, nice and full!

This is about what 12 trays have made for me so far, and I think I still need more?  If I had to buy this many, I would have had to take out a loan...

The Bog gets some weeds

Starting to play around with the static weed tufts for the bog.  One tray is 12mm Dark Green and the other is 7mm Dark Green.   The 12mm isn't wanting to stand up as well as the 7mm.  Gonna play around with different glue mixtures.  Lots and lots to make...

But it's a start.

These are just set in place and not glued yet.  Most will be glued to the raised areas, some will be glued to the bog bottom.

The Bog gets some color

After waiting 24 hours for the Sculptamold to dry, I dug out the brushes and paints, and then I got the bog area painted with the base colors.  The surrounding area got a coat of my earth brown latex and the bog bottom was made by mixing some chocolate brown, with a drop of black, orange and yellow craft paints.

As Grant mentioned in his video, when painting the bog bottom while the earth edges are still wet, it might mix a bit, but this will just add to the bottom to show a bit of depth change. He was right. However, this might be all for not. 

By the time I get the tinted water poured and try applying some ground foam around the shoreline for algae bloom, most of the color will probably get covered up? But hey, why not shoot for it?

The Bog takes shape

I found a little time to work on the bog this week.  First thing I did was to repaint the backdrop, paint some new clouds and then added the tree line and then painted the MDF bottom.

Next I got the shoreline and islands created using Sculptamold.  Once this stuff dries I'll get it painted and then I can start working on the details like grass, weeds and stumps.

Louisiana Bayous

Ok, maybe not a bayou, maybe more like a bog...

As I continue working on the layout I find it changing a lot more than I had originally anticipated, but this is a good thing.  

Recently while working on the highway crossing at Ruston and getting the scenery roughed in, I started thinking about having something different than typical forested areas.  In this case to the right side of the highway behind the tracks the scenery begins to rise up to some low lying hills that I installed so I could have the farm scene above track level.  To the left of the highway behind the tracks, I'm planning to leave it a somewhat flat, wooded area.  To the right of the highway in front of the tracks I wanted a county road that leads to the Ruston depot and parking lot where I can unload hoppers of Lime for the local farmers.

That left the remaining front corner to the left of the highway.  My first thought was to dig out the ceiling tile and foam to make a depression that was lower than the other areas which would help define a natural transformation to the low hills.  This sounded good.

As I thought about more, I thought it might be a good place to put a low bridge or even a culvert, but both would mean that I'd have to continue this behind the tracks and for reasons yet not discussed, this might not work well for what I have planned with the woods back there.

The other night while surfing the web, a video popped up from a modeler that I enjoy following.  He's made a lot of videos on his N scale Southern Alberta layout.  The one that popped up in my feed was how he made a marsh or wetland!  This would work and would fit into my local.

The other nice thing about this idea is it would serve double duty, similar to the way my Whitewater Creek scene did.  Not only did fit the local, but it also served as a scenic divider between Fordyce and Haskell.  I've also been planning to redo the tracks and shrinking the footprint of Dubach eventually.

Here's kind of what I have in mind.

In order to do this, I would need to remove a section of the ceiling tile, which is 5/8" thick and I then install a solid base, which for this I chose a section of 1/4" MDF.  This will give me a solid, flat surface that I can paint and then apply the sculptamold over that I'll use to form the edges and small exposed islands of the bog.

I cleaned off the area and quickly sketched out the bog.

Next I used several sheets of paper and taped them together to create a pattern and transferred to the MDF and cut it.  Then I laid the MDF on the area and traced around it and removed the ceiling tile.

After removing the ceiling tile, I glued the MDF in place.  This left the MDF about 3/8" below the ceiling tile.  

Before applying the Sculptamold, I'll need to paint the MDF with a deep dark blackish brown for the color of the bog water.  I'm also going to need to get the backdrop painted as well.