I can hardly believe that the 4th of July is almost on top of us!
It seem like just yesterday I was watching the storms move in from the south and dump the rain on us.
My plans this summer was to remove the two aging PM42's I have and install the 7 PSX and one PSX-AR this summer when the humidity moved back in so I didn't have to deal with the Static. But unfortunately it doesn't look like that's going to happen this summer, maybe this fall if things go as plans.
After cleaning up my basement, I spent several weeks helping mother get her basement cleaned up. Not only remove the water, but we had to move everything out of one room, rip up the carpet and padding, remove a batch of paneling that had soaked up the water. Then we mopped the floor to remove any mold and then mopped it again with bleach. Once all that was dry we had to move everything back in.
But as we were doing this we decided to clear out a lot of the stuff Mom and Dad had collected over the years. Most of which went out to the garbage due to the water and mold. What was salvageable, which was the biggest share of the stuff, went to Goodwill or got donated. This will be a big help when the time comes to clear out Mom's house for the last time.
I am planning to start on my Kitchen this summer, yeah I know, you've heard that way too many times before, but I really need to get it started. I have several smaller jobs around the house to do at the same time, so I have no choice but to ignore the layout for the remainder of the summer, so updates may be few and far between.
I did however manage to get the layout somewhat organized from the frenzy of the scenery in Malvern. I still need to get some of the industrial tracks cleaned so things will run on them, but that can done anytime I have a few spare minutes. With everything going on I severely doubt there will be any Op Sessions held till this winter.
Well hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!
Several weeks ago I got a call from an old friend who was back in town for the summer again.
A couple of years ago Doug stopped by for a visit for the first time after another mutual friend of ours:Mark had stopped by to test and play with his newest HO sound equipped loco.
Well with the water all dried up, tonight I went back down to attempt the relaying of the foam floor tiles. Wow, what a PIA. I knew it wasn't going to easy, but I thought I would at least be able to do it faster than I did? I was never good at puzzles.
Only about 2/3 of the tile had to come up. From the east wall on the south side of the layout over to El Dorado all had to come up. Then from the East wall by Malvern all the way back to past Calion needed to come up. There was standing water, but it was only in small areas. I pulled back the tiles, Lisa then wiped them off with towels and i used more towels to mop up what water was still standing there. We then leaned the tiles up so they could dry.
In the storage room where most of the water came in, I just turned on a couple of fans and also turned on my dehumidifier and let them run for several days!
When the rain was coming down that night I figured I was going to get some water in the basement, which turned out to be less than I've had in the past. I actually had to remove several cinder blocks years ago and repair them, which did stop the majority of the water and I also added downspout extensions. After these things were done, the basement became dry, so dry in fact that the sump pump froze up from not being used.
I would say this is the first time since 1993 that I've had any water in the basement. 1993 was the summer of Rain. It literally rained almost every day of every week of every month. This time we got anywhere from 6" to 14" in about 6-7 hours! The main reason I got water this time was because it's been so dry and the dirt had pulled away from the foundations so the water ran down and found places to seep in. Hopefully the dirt has now swelled up enough that we won't see this happen for awhile?
Actually, I don't know what's more of a PIA? Cleaning up the water and trying to put the tiles back together or, trying to clean up the layout after I've had it all tore up from doing scenery? I have shit scattered all over the layout from one end to other! A lot of the stuff I'll have to go back through and find boxes for it and then find some place to store it. It's just going to take some time.
While I live for this type of stormy weather, it usually comes with a price. Last night we got hit pretty hard, mostly in terms of torrential rain fall here in town. The official total at the airport was recorded at 6" but there were places that got up to 12"-14"
Other communities south and southwest of here were hit by several tornados with extensive damage. So I consider myself lucky with nothing more than heavy rain.
They were forecasting bad weather all day, claiming it was coming that night, this was just after 8pm. I had the urge to build an ark.
The storm lasted well into the early morning, but before I went to bed I thought I'd better go downstairs and see what if anything was happening.
Well, it's been awhile since I've had water in the basement and it's been so dry over the last several years that the ground has pulled away from the foundation. This allowed all the water to run down the outside walls and find several cracks to which to seep through. Did I say seep? I found a small river flowing from one end of the basement to the floor drain on the opposite end of the basement!
Why can't it leak right by the drain, why does it have to always be on the opposite end?
This was the first time I've had water on the floor since I redid it several years ago and installed the foam tiles. If it wasn't for the tiles I don't think I would have had such a mess as the tiles allowed the water to react with a capillary action and spread almost throughout the basement. I bet we pulled up 2/3rds of the tiles and wiped up the water.
Oh well it was time for a good cleaning.
They say we are due for another round tomorrow night and this weekend again?
Last night I finally got a good chance to play around with some static grass.
Things went good for the most part. Answered a few questions that I've had and got a chance to play with a couple of brands of grass other than Woodland Scenics. Also tried a couple of different ways to glue it down.
The first time I tried the static grass was with diluted glue and Woodland Scenics 2mm. Wasn't too impressed with this for a couple of reasons.
1 - I didn't like the length or the color. It looked like Peach fuzz or frosted grass.
2 - It didn't stand up too well.
I was told that the diluted glue could have caused the grass not to stand up. Being so thin, the glue ran up the grass and bogged it down as well as the grass not being very long to start with.
Also the color of the WS wasn't as green as I would have liked it to be.
This time I had ordered two different Noch blended grass packs. These have a mixture of 2.5mm and 6mm grass and several colors in a mostly green/yellow. Both colors were very close to being the same, there really wasn't much of a difference. After I got them down, the yellow in the mixes really showed up.
The other grass I got was some Silflor brand in a summer green 4mm and a lighter green later summer 6mm. This was much darker green without the yellow. However after applying some of it, I decided to add a small pinch of the Noch to add a bit of yellow. I can see how you can spend a small fortune on static grass trying to get the right color mix.
Before I go any further, let me explain that I had glued down a layer of ground foam for a base color. For this I used WS Blended Turf, the green stuff. Then I applied glue over this and applied the static grass.
With the woodland scenics I used a thin glue mixture that didn't work well.
Then I was told to use Hair Spray and spray it on the ground foam and let it tack up a bit before applying the static grass. This worked OK, but I had to make a mask out of paper to cover up any place I didn't want the grass to stick to. Kind of a PIA, but it worked.
Last night after revisiting a few videos on applying grass, I seen one where the modeler used straight Modge Podge right out of the bottle without thinning it. Not having any flat Modge Podge I tried using some Matte Medium right out of the bottle and then later some White glue that I did thin down about 1 part glue to 1/2 part of water. Just a enough to make it spread easier but not enough to run up the grass and bog it down.
Both glues work well and I think this will be the way I will continue in close quarters. The Hair Spray will work in wide open areas that won't need much masking.
The other thing I found out was the actual applicator. Mine is powered with a 9v battery which seems to work, but I think I was using and old battery and it wasn't allowing the grass to stand up. This could have been part of the problem in my earlier attempt?
I also noticed that the battery life isn't that long or all the batteries were already weak or drained? Once a new battery was installed, the grass stood right up! If the batteries drain that fast, I can see a plus for a 110v version!
OK enough of me rambling, let's get to the pictures... These first two shots are of the W&OV engine facility [yeah I know I need to repaint the asphalt].
The next three shots are of the Olin-Chlor sidings. These turned out pretty good!
The next five are the Crushmoore Chip loading siding. I still need to clean this siding up.
These last four are the Heavy Metal siding.
I've been warned about using static grass on active sidings due to the fact that it can come loose and get caught up in the gears of the locos. While this is entirely possible, the urge to resist the desire to do this was too great.
I will go back and manicure the grass between the rails to a manageable amount so as to reduce any problems as much as possible.
I had to do quite a bit of work to get the cars to roll freely. The tracks very rough from glue and from stray grass that stuck to the rails. I had to scrape the tops and inner the edges of the rails to get the cars to roll and the loco to run without stalling.
Here's the proof, but please forgive the crappy quality of YouTube. The original video was pretty sharp until it got uploaded.
Malvern will be the only place that will have sidings that are as overgrown as these.
Last night I got a chance to apply a layer of glossy Modge Podge on the actual lake.
After applying some to the leftovers in the cup the other night I found that the Modge Podge went down and actually dried over the Quick Water and sealed it! On the left side you can see the dried Modge Podge, on the right you can see where I touched the fresh Quick Water with my fingertip.
When I applied this sample I used a round brush and stippled it on with the hopes of creating a surface with a slight chop on the water. I didn't want any waves or white caps.
Treading into uncharted waters even further this time, I think things came out acceptable? While I lost the mirror like finish of the lake for those cool reflection shots, I should now be able to keep it much cleaner easier and not get a bunch of fingerprints from people wanting to touch the water! I also won't have to worry about seeing bugs, flies or other dirt stuck to the lake surface.
It also kind of helped to disguise the lake bottom, the dead fall and the rocks since I didn't get the pour murky enough. The one thing I'm not real happy about is the the lake now almost looks blue rather than having a greener color like before. Not sure if the Modge Podge added to this effect or that it just brought out the reflection differently? Either way I think I can live with it. If anything I can always apply another coat of Modge Podge and this time tint it with some green paint.
I may have to get some kind of varnish to seal the Modge Podge as I seem to recall that it can be reactivated if it ever got wet? So I don't know how it will react with the humidity. Also the way I fixed the creeping water was to apply some Matte Medium where ever the rocks and deadfall looked wet. Anyway, here are a couple of final shots before I conclude this mini series on the lake.
Before the Modge Podge
After the Modge Podge
As always, thanks for your comments and also for following along with me... Just a quick note: This is my 100th post! Hooray
Next comes the water....this is something I've only tried a couple of times before years ago with mixed results. I've never been a big fan of the poured stuff like the two part epoxies, so I've tried to steer clear of them. The one process I did have good luck with was a plaster poured river bed, painted to add depth and then I brushed on several layers of Gloss Medium to give the watery effect. This was pretty simple and convincing and had planned to use it again when I got a chance.
But lately I've read about several new types that got me curious. One was the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water, the other was Magic Water of which Rod referred to in his comment from the last post. The WS realistic water just seemed too expensive, as most of their stuff is and I didn't know much about the Magic Water. While doing some research on it I also came across another product that caught my eye: Quick Water, I found this at Michael's in their floral department.
Quick Water, like Magic Water is a two part resin mix. It's also an acrylic resin with next to no oder that takes about 8-10 to setup. It's mainly used for floral arrangements for silk flowers. It's designed to look like water in a clear vase that promises not to yellow, shrink or crack. But there is a drawback that I found out later on, I'll explain it at the end of this post.
After getting the lake bed sealed up I got the bed of the lake painted with acrylic paints to simulate depth, added the rocks, got the Kudzu in place and then I added a some twigs to simulate dead fall. Once everything was glued into place and dried, I broke out the Quick Water!
One thing I wanted to try was to tint the pour to help things look murky. Others have said to mix in the cheap acrylic paint to do this. So I grabbed some the green I used for the lake bed and winged it!
I only mixed about 6 oz which was actually more than I needed for an approximate 1/8" to 1/4" pour. After stirring for the recommend 3-5 minutes and I added the paint, stirred a bit more and drew a heavy breath and began the pour! It was self-leveling and went on very well! I used the stir stick to help coax it around and into the entire area. There were a few bubbles, but they were removed simply by blowing gently across the surface. Once poured I shut the lights off and went upstairs. I did return a few times to make sure it wasn't leaking, thankfully it never did.
Here's how it turned out the next day.
All in all I was very impressed!
The only bad things I noticed was:
One, It did creep up into the rocks pretty good, but this could be taken care of fairly simple and it wasn't terribly noticeable since the rocks were not a straight line like the edge of the fascia.
Two, The tinting wasn't as murky as I had wished. But I think I have a plan to help make it better.
Here are some shots that I was screwing around with afterwards.
I do like the way it reflects. This would have to be kept very clean to maintain this level of reflections. This next shot I got the itch to play around with GIMP to see how things would look if I was more proficient with this type of software, don't laugh too hard.
Now, as for the drawback I mentioned earlier.
After 48 hrs or so, my curiosity got the best of me and I couldn't resist any longer. I went down, turned on the lights and just a like person who sees the sign "Wet Paint", I reached out and touched the lake with my finger! Expecting to find a hard, slick surface, my finger instead was stuck to the surface like a fly on flypaper! It was so sticky I didn't think I was going to get my finger back without taking some skin off! WTH? I went back upstairs and sat down at the computer to do some research on Quick Water.
I found several pages where others stated that the Quick Water took longer than 48 hrs to fully setup and yet others had stated that it never got solid, but wound up with a consistency like a Super Ball. Sometime the tackiness went away, sometimes not. Great, just great! Now I had a great looking lake that was nothing more than a giant flytrap!
I Suppose I should have done what most do and that is to test something off layout. That way if it goes wrong it can be tossed into the circular file without ruining the layout. But I guess I was a little too excited to do this. Besides everything I read about this product didn't give any indication that the final consistency would being rubbery or sticky. Common sense would say that if this was used for a floral arrangement, you wouldn't want it to collect a thick layer of dust over time that couldn't be cleaned off. But then Common Sense is pretty much a lost art these days.
I do have one trick left up my sleeve so I'll see how that turns out and post it...
Last night I added the heavy vegetation around the lake, namely the Kudzu.
To do this I started out with Woodland Scenics green poly fiber, Scenic Express Super Leaves and Matte Medium to hold it all in place.
I tore off a small batch of fiber, then I stretched it laterally very thin in both ways directions [almost so thin that it came apart] and kept it as flat as possible. I wasn't trying to make a tall bush like plant, Kudzu is more of a vine that lays pretty flat like carpet unless it's covering up a tree, house, telephone poles or anything else where it can go vertical, so I didn't want it very thick.
Once I had the fiber stretched out, I glued it into place with some Matte Medium by placing several blobs of it here and there. Then I started laying the fiber down on one end and pressed it into place making sure it came into contact with the glue. Any type of glue can work for this, but be sure it has some body to it. I've read where others have used Alene's Tacky glue, Woodland Scenics tacky glue, as well as caulking.
Once it's been pressed into place, it has a tendency to stay put as the ground foam acted almost like Velcro. I finished applying the rest of the needed fiber and then let it dry overnight. I apologize for not getting a shot of this as I got a little ahead of myself the next night when I started to apply the leaves. Before I began to apply the leaves, I trimmed up the fiber so there wasn't any stray strands sticking up.
To apply the leaves I suppose there are several methods, but I chose to use hairspray this time. I started off by masking some of the tracks with masking tape and made some paper masks from newspaper to cover the lake and most of the rocks so the leaves wouldn't stick where I didn't want them [no sense giving the Kudzu anymore of a chance to take things over!].
After getting the poly fiber soaked with the hairspray I began carefully sprinkling the Super Leaves onto the poly fiber and padding them into place. Along the base of the rocks I broke up some twigs to simulate deadfall and lightly glued them down as the "Water" will lock them into place later.
As you can see I also stretched it down over the rocks in a few places so it looks like it's trying to spread out.
This is something I've been wanting to do since I decided to model this section of The Rock! Besides, how does one go about modeling the south without Kudzu?
