Any MiNi Mod-U-Trak Photos from the NMRA show?

[mcjaco]

Ops has started to come up in conversations at the shows.  I think some of us are getting a little tired of the roundy round.  But it's too tough when you have people asking you questions.  The layout was so big at NTS you could literally lose your train if stopped to talk someone with out watching where you were. 

A couple of us do "operate," for lack of a better term, during shows.  You'll often find me running a local around the loop picking up and spotting cars, and ducking into passing sidings to let the other trains go around.  It does atract the attention of some people, but it's mostly to keep me entertained, and it can be challenging staying in the clear of Nate.   

[Sokramiketes]

Ballast is Arizona Rock and Mineral Pennsy Gray Blend.

For scenery, the latest process that we've been pretty happy with is what we did on this curve module:


After carving the foam and puttying any gaps, the first step is a coat of tan earth paint and Woodland Scenics green blend fine turf sprinkled on while the paint is wet.  Sweep off the excess turf when the paint is dry and vacuum the module.

Next up is a base layer of static grass.  We use full strength Mod Podge, a premixed matte medium, and brush it on the module where we want static grass.  A mix of Silflor late summer 2mm and 4mm grass is applied with a Noch Grasmaster.  Keep the applicator close to the surface, and don't sprinkle on too much static grass or it will just start to look matted.  Some white Mod Podge showing through is OK.  Vacuum up the excess, using a paper towel over the shop vac nozzle to catch the static grass if you want to save it.

Next vary the look of the static grass by highlighting areas with 2mm and 4mm Autumn grass.  You can mix in some Late Summer.  Use WS Scenic Cement or the premixed thin matte medium from Scenic Express in a spritz bottle and spray patches of grass for highlights.  Concentrate on hill tops and steep slopes, where water would run off and the grass would dry out.  Additional applications in this manner help to create a rolling look to the grass, and less of the manicured golf course look.

Then we'll go back and start adding other textures.  The undergrowth in the forested areas is WS poly fill, spray painted gray and brown, with WS turf sprinkled on top.  Some tea leaves from cheap tea bags are used for fallen dried leaves.  Other bushes are added with WS foliage materials, as well as some tufts and other random materials from Silflor/Scenic Express.

The trees are Super Trees armatures from Scenic Express.  We don't waste time with the matte medium soaking and other suggested techniques in the instructions.  We just remove the "leaves" from the armatures, spray paint the trunks, and apply ground foam.  To get the shadows and color variation, we go back with green paint from spray cans.  Don't be afraid to paint scenery materials if you need to vary colors!

After I had the foam carved on this corner, Jamie and I knocked out the scenery application in 2-3 hours late one night.  He came back the next day to do a couple highlights and rub some Smith & Son's dirt in places, and planted some trees. Maybe 4 hours total on this corner.  Scenery can be fast and still be good.  Just takes the right materials and approach.

[sizemore]

Mike,
Excellent! Thank you! Guess I have another weekend project lined up in a few weeks!

The S.

[Philip H]

Well with instructions that clear an dprecise, how can you go wrong?  It looks great!

[mcjaco]

Honestly, the slowest part about the scenery is the drying time.

Oakwood (standard 5' x 18") was knocked out in an hour.

[wazzou]

He said tea bag.  ;D

[altohorn25]

You are so freekin funny Matt; oh wait, I didn't tie up the main with a local ONCE this past weekend, did I.  That would have been you screwing around out on the main. 

Nate

[lashedup]

We still have plenty of scenery to put down on other modules, so Mike and I will put together a video for you guys and maybe a time lapse of basic stuff we do. I was actually putting static grass down early in the morning before the show opened and people were amazed at how fast you can cover an area.

- jamie

[Philip H]

And here's a link to the page on Model Railroad Hobbyist where they posted their video - also nicely done!

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/MRHT_2010_NTS_MODUTRAK

[rochsub]

I really like the look of the static grass, both in the pictures/video and even more so in person.  However, there is one thing about the static grass that I'm having difficulty with and that is the uniformity.  Specifically, the uniformity in the height of the grass and to a lessor degree, the uniformity of color.  Wild growing grasses in the Midwest are usually a dozen or so different species of grass and weeds with different shades of green and brown and differents heights plus a few bushes thrown in here and there.  Would be interesting to find a way to get the grassiness of the static grass, but add some jaggedness to the hieghts and color.

Daryl

[mcjaco]

Daryl,

We use a couple of different lengths.  Jamie has found that spritzing matte medium over the first layer, and reapplying the grass also gets a lot of changes in height. 

[lashedup]

I really like the look of the static grass, both in the pictures/video and even more so in person.  However, there is one thing about the static grass that I'm having difficulty with and that is the uniformity.  Specifically, the uniformity in the height of the grass and to a lessor degree, the uniformity of color.  Wild growing grasses in the Midwest are usually a dozen or so different species of grass and weeds with different shades of green and brown and differents heights plus a few bushes thrown in here and there.  Would be interesting to find a way to get the grassiness of the static grass, but add some jaggedness to the hieghts and color.

Daryl

Texturing the static grass is something we're still experimenting with. Skibbe and I made some good progress on one of the curves trying some different techniques and I have a number of other things in mind to try out. Our biggest issue going into this show was getting something down on the modules so we didn't have acre's of foam. Putting initial grass down is very quick and easy. Getting a good texture going though requires a lot more hands-on work. You can generically get some of this by sprinkling on various fine ground foams on top of the static grass. You can also rub them in a bit. We're experimenting with wild flowers and various other ways to vary the textures. It is hard in n-scale as the perception of what "looks" right and is actually in scale are often directly conflicting. You can go crazy adding texture and end up with something that looks like it is cluttered and/or too busy even though it is correct for scale. 2mm static grass is 12 inches tall, but making it a little taller actually just looks better and more realistic when viewing it from normal viewing angles.

So we're still playing.

[wm3798]

The MRH video is bangin'.  The urban scenes are blow-mind.

My only thought to the contrary is that maybe the grass base scenery is a little too uniform...  Maybe it's just cause I'm an unwashed east coaster, but to my eye there should be some more transitional colors and textures, particularly around the urban stuff.  Looks a little too clean.

But otherwise, a great ambassador for the scale.

Coulda done without the "This is N Scale?" crap at the end... Oh well.

Lee

[Ian MacMillan]

My only thought to the contrary is that maybe the grass base scenery is a little too uniform...  Maybe it's just cause I'm an unwashed east coaster, but to my eye there should be some more transitional colors and textures, particularly around the urban stuff.  Looks a little too clean.

It looks better in the photos too me as you can see the color and height changes. The video is really nice but washes out some details. To my eye from the photos and the videos it is spot on for central/western WI, having spent most of my teen years out there from May-Sept.

New Lisbon


Camp Douglas


Tomah (@ Tunnel City)

[Sokramiketes]

My only thought to the contrary is that maybe the grass base scenery is a little too uniform...  

Russ Porter photo that I used for inspiration on the Newport corner: