Cisco Bridges: a new layout concept

[Scottl]

Thanks both.  It will be great to get all that white foam covered up so I can take a decent photograph. 

I'm looking forward to a few weeks of intensive layout work this December. 

[coldriver]

very cool Scott - you're really doing a nice job with this.  A warning though - while visiting the real thing I startled a bear right about at the vantage point of your last photo!

[Scottl]

   It is a pretty noisy place even without trains.  I'm hoping to make it there for a quick visit in a couple of weeks-I'll wear the bear bell.

[Scottl]

A Lord of the Rings marathon at our household this weekend (Mom is away ) gave me a chance to mass produce rock castings.  I started to piece it together this afternoon, extending into uncharted foam.



The west bank will be pretty imposing when it is done.   That fault needs some attention I see...



I still have another few pounds of castings curing.  Once the rocks are in, the rest of the basic ground cover goes pretty fast.

[Baronjutter]

One rock casting to rule them all?

[Scottl]

 

It felt more like my ruin was smote upon the mountain.   

[Scottl]

Well, I can safely state that I am not an artist.  I spent much of the week trying to do some backdrop painting, and it has been an exercise in frustration.

This is where I am at now.  The cellphone picture is rather forgiving, especially that distant mountain which is still much too light for my eyes.  The foreground trees are the hardest part, but I am really at a loss as to what I can do to improve them.








I'm starting to regret keeping the 18" backdrop.

[GaryHinshaw]

I think it looks perfectly acceptable for a backdrop, though I agree that the distant mountains should be a bit darker.  But in the end,  it has to please you.  Have you considered a photo backdrop?  I think it could work pretty well in this setting.  Consider this angle:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=417410&nseq=9

I could picture a two-layer set with a tiny bit of relief between them to capture this background.  But you would want to get more head-on angles from north of the bridge, in early morning light, for your setting.

[Bendtracker1]

I think it looks perfectly acceptable for a backdrop...

+1

[Scottl]

A photo backdrop was my plan B, although getting good photos is a challenge.  I suppose a field trip to the site could rectify that.

I guess I will keep plugging away and see how it looks.  I really want to get that white foam covered up!

[ednadolski]

I have to say, those pics look pretty darn good to me.   I think you've really done a good job capturing the form/shape/proportions, which is one element that I often see missing from many attempts.  I presume these are acrylics?  If you want to darken the one mountain then you can add a layer or two of a thin transparent glaze, using a darkish gray or earth tone.  However when I look at mountains it is not all that uncommon to see the distant ones in sunlight while closer ones are in the shadow of a near cloud, so what you have here reminds me of that effect.   As for the foreground trees, one idea might be to use a bit of forced perspective, by making two rows of model trees: a distant one of smaller (and less detailed) trees right up against the painted backdrop, and a second row of larger model trees in front of those.

Ed

[Scottl]

Thanks, it took a while to get the perspective right to my eye.  Some of it is a bit exaggerated compared to reality, and I removed a high tension power line that is a major eyesore in the real scene.

Now that is a great idea, a transparent glaze, perhaps with the airbrush.  That distant mountain has been done several times already.  I tried several versions with more blue in them, trying to give the effect of distance, but they never looked quite right.  This version looks better but some darkening will bring it together.

[nscalemike]

Who even sees the backdrop with that kick a$$ bridge in front of it!  Seriously though,  I think it looks good as it too.  Something to 'fill in the blank' but nothing to drastically draw attention away from the model portion.  I vote to keep it now and see how this all starts to fill in.

Mike

[robert3985]

I like your painted backdrop on the skyboard.  I think it really adds to the implied depth of the scene.  What REALLY implies "sky" is not clouds, but fading the "sky blue" (whatever color you choose) into a noticeably lighter shade near the bottom, from a noticeably darker shade near the top of your skyboard.  A model sky that doesn't have this fade looks much less "real" than one that includes the fade, and also doesn't look nearly as "deep".

Just as an example, here's a photo on my Echo LDE, where I've done half of what I've described above, by airbrushing the "sky" lighter near the tops of my 3D Echo hills and implying some splotchy haze in the sky..and adding a very light spray of my sky blue to the portions of these hills which are most distant.

The peaks of higher mountain ranges as you're representing also fade out a bit just from having more air between them and your eyes as compared to the foothils and talus slopes, and yours would benefit from just a bit of this which you could easily apply with an airbrush.

However, this bridge LDE of yours is really really well done, and this is one of my favorite threads.

As for your phone's camera being forgiving...I've found that in the vast majority of instance, the camera has a much more critical "eye" than my physical ones.  When I'm in doubt about a color or a scenery technique, I use my camera to confirm the results.  If the camera likes it, then I like it.  If the camera hates it, I re-do it until the camera likes it.  When I look closely at your photos, it appears that you've faded your sky already, but...I have to squint to see it.  This would mean to me that I need to make my sky "fade" more pronounced, so that it's "noticeable".

[Scottl]

Thanks Robert, it is a good point.  The original backdrop had just that effect and I agree it is very effective.  I'll revisit this with the airbrush and the Zinc White fading mix is likely ideal for this subtle effect.

I was going to try some glazes on the distant mountain using thinned matte medium and browns to shift the tone and darken it a bit.  Perhaps a hint more of blue as well for distance.