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.