Planning the Biddle Yard backdrop

Not much has happened on the layout for the first half of this year.  Mainly due to me jumping feet first into operations and making a lot of small adjustments to JMRI.  As evidence from the last session on May 9th (the previous post), I think I've finally got a good handle on it as it seems to be working pretty much the way I've had it envisioned.  Cars are moving smoothly to all the industries in a fairly random pattern.  I'm also getting a pretty random amount and types of cars moving.  So I feel it's time to get back to the layout.

However I'm finding that I'm struggling trying to find the motivation to work on a few things.  I had planned to paint up four more locos in the Blue and & White scheme and/or start working on another scene on the layout between DuBach and El Dorado, but I just can't find the motivation to start on these projects.

The other night while staging the layout for another op session, I was looking at the yard and all I could see was the 16' long blue backdrop. Ugh!  I got to thinking this might be a fairly easy project to tackle, nothing real fancy just some paint and some backdrop buildings?

The more I thought about it the more I started leaning to picking up more of the 2d printed background buildings like I did from Trackside Flats.

Not 100% sure how I wanted to tackle this as it was going to cost a decent amount for these buildings.  I had a couple choices.  I could buy what I needed from them already printed and mounted on black foam core and mount them to the backdrop.  I could also buy all the buildings on two large sheets, cut them out and mount them myself to foam core or glue them directly to the backdrop?  Or I could buy several premade backdrops, cut out the sky and just glue them to my backdrop.

I had envisions of having buildings running from one end to the other or space them out with some painted trees.   But that would entitle 16' of printed buildings and that could ensure that I'd spend some coin to do this.  Plus not sure how to layout the buildings to make the backdrop look plausible?

Somewhere along the line, a little voice in my head spoke up and told me to go look at the actual location.  Hmmm?  So I jumped on Google Maps and looked up Little Rock, AR.  Snooped around until I found Biddle yard.  It's pretty much intact yet as UP is still using it but the engine facility is pretty much gone, but you can still see the old roundhouse and tracks.

Right away the first thing I noticed was the overall shape of the yard.  If you compare the aerial to a plan of my yard it almost fits perfectly.

Using the engine facility on my yard as an anchor point, I noticed that where I am standing when running the yard, I would be standing where all the trees are located just to the south of the actual yard.  On where the backdrop would be, I noticed another line of trees that separated the yard from the south edge of Little Rock.  I'm sure that back in 1979, those large buildings were not there yet and the tree line was probably thicker?

But this got me thinking and I started using my modelers license.  Instead of lining the entire 16' of backdrop with 2d buildings, why not just use trees, much like I have with the biggest share of the rest of the layout?  But I got to thinking: "Maybe that would not look good as then, no matter where you looked, you'd see a tree line all the way around the layout?"  It might be a bit too much?

Then that little voice spoke up again.

What if I painted a solid (or pretty much a solid) tree line along the backdrop, then add some taller buildings BEHIND the tree line?  The trees would hide a lot of the shorter buildings, but the taller ones could peek above the trees, using less buildings?

I went back to Google Maps and started taking a closer look.  I dropped the little guy onto the highway bridge overlooking the yard.  The first thing I noticed was that large building behind the trees.  Granted, I'm thinking this image was taken in very early Spring as the trees are just starting to leaf out.  But once the leaves totally fill in, it should hide the biggest share of anything to the north of the tree line?  

The first image is a view off the highway looking N/NE, the second image is from the east of the yard looking W/SW.  Those trees are pretty tall?

One can see the building back there in these views.  But once the leaves fill out, you may not be able to see much at all?  So I chewed on this for a while.

The next day at work, my mind started wandering.  Instead of buying a bunch of building flats, I wondered if Google Gemini could lend a hand?  When I got home I sat down and pulled up Gemini and asked it to render me a very large metal sided building about 2 stories tall.  Color it a two tone tan, with the darker color on the bottom half.  After a bit of fiddling it gave me this:

Since I wanted trees in the foreground, I didn't want to use printed trees due to the fact that the blue sky  showing through (if any) would have to match the color on the backdrop.  And I didn't want to go through the images and cut out the areas, so I decided I would paint the trees, much like I have on the rest of the layout.

This beckons back to the old argument of do I use a printed backdrop or a painted backdrop.  Do I want my eyes drawn away from my layout and onto the backdrop, or do I want the backdrop to just be there but not the main focus?

Painting the trees would do two things, I feel it would keep my eyes being drawn to the backdrop and it would also keep the look matching the rest of the backdrop around the layout.  Painting it would be!

Using the image that Gemini gave me of the big building, I asked it to render a line of trees in the foreground, but only about 2/3rds as tall as the building.  Again after a few adjustments to the wording, it gave me this:

The little voice cheered!

Now I had a good visual representation of what I wanted to do, and the way I've painted the previous trees on my backdrop I had a good idea of what I could do.  However I got to thinking, these trees are going to be a little closer than any of the others which meant I was going to have to make them a bit more detailed and I would probably have to trunks to make it look close to the image.  I think I can do this?

I took one of the 2D flats I purchased and decided to sacrifice it for the cause.  Figuring that the paint might soak into the image and ruin it, I sprayed it down with several light coats of a matte finish in a rattle can to hopefully seal it.

If I actually do this, I will NOT apply the images to black foam core, but will instead print the image on cardstock, then glue that to the actual backdrop.

Then I applied a thin coat of dark green that I've used on my "Distant Hills".

Next, I used some latex paint that was close to a tree trunk color and simply sketched in some trunks.

What I didn't take images of was the process of adding the stipple black blotches for shadow and applying the different shades of greens, starting with a darker green then working towards the lighter shades and ending up with an almost yellowish green to represent sunlit leaves.  But you can get a good idea with this image.

Here it's sitting in the yard against the backdrop.  I might have to adjust the height as it might be a little tall?

Now to see if I can bring this idea to fruition.

Cajun Hydraulics, open for business

Well, for the most part anyways.

You gotta love the long holiday weekends!

I started working on it again Wednesday night, getting the details ready, some final painting and some minor weathering, then started applying the details.  Had it pretty well wrapped it up late Saturday night. 

The detail parts are made up from a mix of stuff:  Detail parts from other kits, both old and new, 3D printed parts that I got off eBay or FB, a couple of items I picked up at some shops over time and of course, one of my favorite items to use: LEGO pieces.

I suppose I could have added a lot more to the building, but I didn't want to overload it and have it look as if I had stepped back and threw a box of parts at it.

For now I'll call it done, but there is still some painting of parts and weathering needed to do like the concrete pad, the overall building weathering and some of the small detail parts yet to be added.  For now I can handle it without worrying about messing up the weathering.   At this stage I can at least use it as a keystone when I start rebuilding the tracks in DuBach.

Now I need to clean up the workbench and worktable, uuugh!  I envy those who can keep their workspace clean and organized throughout a project.

Assembling Cajun Hydraulics

With 3D printing hot and heavy these days, I'm still learning the old school ways I guess?

I got the Pike Stuff kit assembled and then started working on the middle building which I used sections of the DPM modular wall sections last night.  I dug through my styrene stash and first added a lip to support the roof section, then I kept working on it so it would be self supporting.  It might be a little overkill, but it should stand up for the long haul.

I also got the concrete pad finished up.  Since I didn't have any 0.060" styrene on hand, I used plain 0.030" sheets and with my homemade Dupli Cutter, I scored 10' squares.  After gluing two sheets together, I added a lip around the edges to make 0.060" so it sets up against the ties, but below the railhead.

Kit bashing is definitely not as easy as kit building, but at the same time it provides one with a challenge.  This is something that I'm going to need to learn from as I have a lot of kitbashing for the layout.

 

Next I need to start painting the buildings and concrete pad.  I'm trying to figure out how I want to attach the buildings to the pad?  Either with magnets or blocks, hmmm?

Starting to rough out Cajun Hydraulics

In the last post I laid out the new plans for DuBach, LA. and also mentioned adding a new industry:  Cajun Hydraulics.  They are a manufacturer of Hydraulic hoses. This came about as I picked up a few of  the Carbon Black hoppers that came out a few years ago from Scale Trains.   

As most know who follow my blog, my layout is more or less a freelance design of the Little Rock and is meant to give the flavor of the line and not represent it prototypically.

After picking up those hoppers, and knowing I wanted to redo DuBach, it was time to see if I could get it to fit.  The first thing I needed to do was to make it served by the NB local and keep the placements of the current spurs designed to use the proper trailing point spurs so that I didn't have to go back and redesign the Ops in JMRI.

Luckily I was able to move A&A Cement and ARKLA Plastics to new locations while keeping the same trailing point turnouts proper, thus not making me redo the Ops plan.  Where A&A Cement was recently located, was actually a double ended siding that was used back in the day to store a few cars when the Ops were different.  I plan to remove the turnout from the left end of that rear siding (just right of the Bog) and use the right turnout after I move it to the left a bit.

With the location set, I wanted the chance to use a backdrop flat building for Cajun Hydraulics.  I wanted it 3D and not a normal kit that would be seen on other layouts, this meant I needed to kitbash something.  So I started looking around, looking for three different kits that would fit together and would possibly tell the story of growth.

I came up with the idea to use the tall brick section of the Walthers Cornerstone Water Street Freight Terminal as the original building. Second I came up with a newer brick building with the use of the DPM modular 2 story wall sections. I used four sections: one with windows high and low and I cut out the opening in that one for a walk through door and overhead door from Pike Stuff leftovers. Then I used two blank 2 story walls to finish out the length. The last set was cut in half for use of the ends. The final building was the N Pikestuff Modern Yard Office.

Each one of these kits would have the look from the 40's to the 60's and finally to the late 70's.

I determined the length of the DPM brick walls by sitting two hoppers next to them and quickly realized this would be a rather lengthy industry, especially when I added the tank car unloading spot using the Pikestuff kit.  But I had the room so onward I went.  I would also need to make a base for the eclectic concoctions of buildings.  I plan to use a 0.04" for the base and will have to add another strip around the bottom to raise it to rail height.

The vertical storage tanks on the right end will be used to store whatever chemical is brought in via the tank cars.  I found those on the web, made by a company called igMakes.   

The owner creates things a little thicker to withstand rough handling as most of his prints are made for wargaming, but started designing things in N scale.  I think these will work and look just fine once they're painted, weathered and the scenery finished!

 

Ruston Depot signs

It's been a while since I've posted last due to some personal issues and I also think I got a little burned out working on the layout after the big push on the bog and the depot.

One thing that I stopped for was that I decided to send my ISE Sensors in to ISE so they could reprogram them.  This allowed me to have a 2 second delay instead of the stock 5 second delay.   After I received the sensors, I got them tucked back into place and found that the 2 second delay is much nicer.  While they were gone I also did some work weathering  the depot a bit and I added a couple of signs to it.

These were simply made by printing the signs on my printer then gluing them to a piece  0.010" piece of styrene and applying them to the building and the shield was a decal.

The Yard backdrop

The one rule about my backdrop is that I don't want it more detailed than the layout, I don't want it to draw your eyes from the layout.

Right now the backdrop is same color blue as the rest of the layout and in time I'll paint it with trees and clouds to match the rest of the backdrop throughout the layout, but I plan to add some buildings to it.  I had always planned to make some 3D flats by cutting up some models, which I still may do?

Several years ago I ran across a seller on eBay called Trackside Flats.  This seller took images of actual buildings and cleaned them up to make them look like generic buildings, these are then glued to 1/4" foam board so you can attached them to your backdrops to create an urban scene.

I thought these, combined with painted trees, hills and clouds might be the answer I've been looking for?

So I ordered two of his flats from his website, one of the shortest and one of his tallest flats to see if they'd get me somewhat of what I was thinking of.

They may not be perfect, but they do add a lot of depth to an otherwise flat scene.  My thought is to not have them all side by side,  but have a group of 2-4 buildings sitting next to one another and then leave some space where you can see trees and hills between them.

Having a solid run of buildings across the entire 16' of backdrop would, I think, look to be too much?

Wrapping up the barn

I got the last of the corrugated sheets installed on the roof I then set about to weather it.

I painted the roof  with a coat of Vallejo Neutral Gray and let it dry overnight, after which I sealed it with a heavy layer of Dullcote to seal it and give the surface some tooth.  Then applied a layer of P3 Armor Wash and let it dry overnight.  The Armor Wash is kind of similar to a black wash, which can be left on if desired.

In my case I used a "Q" tip, damp with alcohol and wiped of the biggest share of the Armor Wash so that it just highlighted the grooves (yeah the lighting sucks and doesn't show the difference very well).  When this was done, I sealed it with another coat of diluted Dullcote to seal the Armor Wash in place.

Now came the fun part; the rust.

This time I decided to try another approach to apply it rather than to lather on oil paints and then wiping them off for a finish.  I started with the craft acrylic paint: Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna and Deep Yellow Ochre.

I started off making a wash from the Deep Yellow Ochre and added a tinge of Burnt Sienna and applied this over the entire roof and wiped off the excess with a "Q" tip.  When dry I used a Deer Foot brush to stipple on straight Burnt Sienna in patches.  After that was dry I applied the Burnt Umber in the same manner.  With each color I used less and less to build up layers, applying them to the bottoms and corners of the metal panels.

Once this was done, I came back with some pan pastels and dusted some of the panels for a slight variation in color.  I also applied some Pans to the rest of the outer face of the barn to give it that weather worn look like I did before.

After this was all done, I applied another diluted coat of Dullcote to lock everything in place and used an Exacto to slightly bend up some of the corners.

So far, so good.

Lying in bed I got the idea to try something different.  While it's an old barn and old house, something just seemed to be missing?  These would look great in a dry western scene, but since these be will located in Louisiana, which can get humid and damp, I'm thinking it should have some moss growing on it?  Not much, just a trace.

So grabbed more craft paint and started adding a bit to the house first.  I started out stippling on tiny bit of black to block the area, then I grabbed some dark green and mixed a bit of black to darken it a bit more as I didn't want it to stand out as green as a lawn.  Once this was done, it looked a little to flat, so I used the deep yellow ochre, added a bit or green and lightly stippled it around the patches, just enough to see small dots.  

I liked that, so on to the barn...

With this project to a stopping point, I can now start laying out the positions of the buildings for the abandoned farm scene and know where I can start carving the floral foam to its final shape.

 

   

 

The Barn's roof

One thing I wanted to do to this barn was give it corrugated metal roof.  

I found some online from a company that showed some, but was unsure of the actual size as they just said it for "HO & N".  So I took a chance and I got lucky.  Looks close enough for me.

I glued roof to the barn with the roof supplied by Showcase Miniatures so I had a good solid base to work on and to help keep the kit structurally sound.

I started by cutting the material into roughly 3' x 10' strips.  It's pretty heavy foil and it doesn't seem to flatter out like typical foil would.

So I got started, piece by piece....

Once I get it all glued on, painted and weathered, I'll come back and beat it up a bit and bend up some of the edges for an aged, wind blown looked.

Barn weathering

As always, I get ideas as I'm doing something and decide to strike out and see what I can do with the idea before the project is finished.

After getting the outer facade applied the structure, I got to thinking about how best to weather it?  I thought about washes but with cardstock I wasn't sure it would be a good idea to apply something wet on it.  So I dug out my trusty Pan Pastels and started playing around with some on the scrap portions of the kit.

After getting an unseen area coated, I decided to go for broke and try the facade.

Here's the raw facade.

Here it is after applying some Pan Pastels.

Here are the four colors I used:  

Orange Extra Dark    Neutral Gray

Raw Umber               Raw Umber Shade

I sparingly applied the Neutral Gray in a random pattern.  Then applied the Raw Umber in the same way but a bit more heavier and blended the two together.  I used the Orange Extra Dark along the roof overhang to highlight where the sun didn't beat down on it.  The Raw Umber Shade being a bit darker was used along the bottom to show dirt splatter.

I'm kind of thinking about dry brushing or using a sponge to add some remnants of white paint?  

I'm also kind of wondering if I should use a darker gray since the area I'm modeling is not in a dry, arid climate?  The darker gray may give it a damper look with a bit more moss?