Newbie - District 22 - Downtown L.A. (A table top railway)

[jonte]

Apologies that this was rushed, but a little stuck for time at present as I'm popping down to the capital first thing in the morning.

   

Needs more light, preferably sunlight, so provided the weather holds, I'll take a couple more at the weekend.

Regards,

jonte

[jonte]

Well, the sun shone briefly this morning so, as promised, I took the 'crossbuck' outside and tried again.

           

If I were to try this again, I'd build a jig: simple geometrical lines on an an A4 aided by masking tape and off-cuts of fret simply don't cut it. There are more variables to consider than at first seem apparent. Nevertheless, I still rather like it and hope it conveys the somewhat down at the mouth appearance the line had at in the twilight if its existence.

Regards,

jonte

[jonte]

Hi.

           

Track primed with acrylic (auto) spray primer. Done outside a couple of weeks back after the sun eventually arrived.

Method used was to spray a small section then remove immediately from rail tops with white spirit on cotton bud or tissue. If you've never tried this before, don't spray it all in one go and then decide to remove the primer from the rail tops: it sticks like you know what and delicate parts of the rail like vees of switch ends could get damaged in the process.

Next stage is to apply heavily thinned enamel washes to simulate rust of a variety of colours. Have been practising and at least two coats are required to show through (although I prefer the much muted tone of just one coat). Incidentally, I have about five tinlets of various colours to mix rust colours plus matt black.

jonte

[faraway]

Something went wrong with my iMac screen. I see all your track work in baby blue... will there be another track in pink for the baby girls :o

Sorry, I could not resist Seriously, what is the reason for that unique color at the track work?

[shortliner]

.....perhaps because it is on Big Blue???

[jonte]

Got it in one, Jack

Thought the same thing myself when I saw the photos, Reinhard.

It's actually just a mid grey acrylic primer but the fluorescent 'dayglo' tube makes it look blue, which is another reason why I think I'll ditch it for an ordinary white fluorescent .

As I say, Reinhard, it's just a primer to help the paint adhere to the sides of the rail. It probably would have been unnecessary if I'd chosen to use 'neat' paint straight from the tin, but I want to try washes of colour again to get an uneven rust colour to the rails and I reckon that with the amount of spirit I intend to use, it would just collect in droplets, much like water paints on wax paper.

That's the idea anyway. Time will tell if it works or not.

Thank you both for looking in.

jonte.

[jonte]

Hi.

Thought I'd post an update which I hope you will find of interest.

Thoughts have turned (already) to my first 'building' project, so I thought I'd start with something which appears fairly straight forward. In fact, I intend to scratchbuild everything buldings wise, so I'm going to keep it all as simple as possible and concentrate on the weathering.

So here it is (will post later as the document is apparently too big). It's a of a mainly single storey workshop/warehouse building which stands in Palmetto Street and is the front facade of the building furthest from the camera in this shot <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emd111/3692550760/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/emd111/3692550760/</a><!-- m -->

Here's my plan of it drawn full scale size        

The result of much cogitation and consideration of what the building actually looked like, the size of embossed brick sheets used to aide construction, available windows and size of bricks on a sheet. Incidentally the side which will look onto the street ( to left as you look, will have no detail and the brick sheet will only extend from the corner for a short distance to be replaced with plain plasticard. Why? Can't be seen, so don't want to waste valuable modelling time and resources on it). The right hand side as drawn has no detail: I was going to put a main door' on here to provide a little relief, however, I've decided to foreshorten the wall somewhat as I'm going to place a slightly higher building behind in attempt to create some depth to the scene (I hope) and the provision of the door here would make the short wall a little too obvious. It will now replace one of the windows on the facing wall as drawn.
The highest aspect is simply one sheet high to save joining them, as the sheets are quite small so will have plenty of hidden joints to contend with on the length.

I couldn't find any suitable windows to represent the steel framed variety of the prototype (apart from some VERY expensive HO ones), so have resorted to what I can muster over here        

[jonte]

Incidentally, here are the brick sheets I made mention of     Made by the UK company, Wills, they need no strengthening which, unfortunately, makes them difficult to cut.

The sheets are also rather small so plenty of joints to contend with (drain pipes and cables are our saviours here) and the bricks (even for 4mm scale),a little on the large side. In their favour (and why I've chosen them) they have plenty of 'deep' mortar courses which lend themselves to this sort of thing    
Experiments with ordinary ready mixed tile grout to represent areas of 'high' mortar and random 'rendering' for wont of a better expression. They also show my attempts to represent the concrete lintels of the original. The shorter one is okay but too proud; the longer is more what I'm after and is only just proud of the brick. Created using masking tape and then gentle sanding before the tape is removed to reduce height and create a little 'texture'. It's also been attacked at the ends with a scalpel to remove some of the grout of the perpendiculars, to create the rougher shapes of the original. Parts have also been 'darkened' with a very thin wash of matt black enamel. This will also work with other colours for mortar and concrete. Most of the mortar will just be washed in, as usual, with a thin wash of a suitable mortar colour, with only a few 'raised' mortar areas as described, and the brick itself will be washes to represent the orange brick with chipped white wash and red masonry paint of the original. I'm hoping it will work and will practice on the Wills sheet, which has already been primed with an acrylic spray primer, shown in the above photo. I will post developments as they come.

Finally, I've decided to build another crossbuck!!!

As far as I can tell, in the Patch area, these appeared singularly however, I've reason to believe that elsewhere they appeared in pairs (or more), so will build a 'friend' for it.
Rather than repeat the first, I've noticed that there was a second type like this <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dpdproductions.com/photos_rrgallery_rathole/11c.jpg">http://www.dpdproductions.com/photos_rr ... le/11c.jpg</a><!-- m --> which had a round (metal) post rather than the square wooden of the first. Presumably, they were an updated version of the first and replaced them when damaged/vandalised etc.
I'm going to use this excuse for mine which I also wish to show as having sustained damage. So, rather than use the wooden arm as in the picture above, I'm going to replace it with metal arms as in this <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dpdproductions.com/photos_rrgallery_rathole/04d.jpg">http://www.dpdproductions.com/photos_rr ... le/04d.jpg</a><!-- m --> which will be easier to demonstrate.

How will I do this? Simple: use brass again for the arms and 'anneal' it in the flame of the gas cooker to make it more malleable.

I've already made a start:

       

If you look closely, you can see the 'soot' marks left on the brass arms by the flame. Problem is, they bend far too easily now. They will be soldered up and joined to the post again with solder. The post btw is the some of the copper tube left over from wire-in-tubing used t operate the points. It will be cut to size when everyting has been soldered up.

And that's it for now. I hope you find this of interest, but please tell me if I'm boring you; sometimes I don't know when to stop

jonte

[jwb]

There is actually enormous variety In crossbucks. This is the sort of thing I used to post on rmweb, but I get the impression that everyone there is so intent on putting together something slapdash so they can sell it six months later that they don't appreciate stuff like that.

   

   

   

   

[jonte]

I'm afraid nobody would want to buy my meagre excuse for a railroad. In fact, I only made the 'wings' detachable so's I can get it through the door to take it to the dump eventually!

I certainly didn't realise there was such a variety of crossbucks, jwb, so thanks for taking the trouble to share. I'm not really surprised that most modellers aren't that bothered about sundries such as road signs, but I think street furniture really adds a sense of place to a scene, so I certainly appreciate the 'mundane'.

Excellent quality photos btw.

Thanks again,

jonte

[jwb]

Here are several more. Almost no two alike in general, actually.

   

   

   

[jonte]

If no two are the same, I might just get away with it

There's plenty of valuable material for me to work from there, jwb, so many thanks.

Your input is really appreciated.

jonte

[jonte]

Hi All.

Actually, I hope jwb is reading this especially. Why? Well I have to admit I am in awe of his wealth of knowledge of prototype rail roads, especially those of the Los Angeles environs in which I'm particularly interested.

In particular,I admire the quality of jwb's photography and those he has been kind enough to post for my attention thus far are priceless as I'm so far away. For instance, although the point of interest was crossbucks on this occasion, they also contain a wealth of detail such as the colour of the earth around Downtown LA, which from others photos I've seen is inconclusive (possibly many are old or just out of focus).

So, if you are reading this, sir, perhaps you may have one or two others to share that would prove invaluable to me establishing a 'definitive' earth colour for this fascinating district of Los Angeles?

No problem if you haven't; I'm already most grateful for those you have.

Kind regards,

jonte

[jwb]

Here are some shots -- actually, I think the color of dirt in coastal and valley California is pretty consistent:

   

   

   

   

[jonte]

That was quick, jwb! Thank you.

Ah, more atmosphere.

If I'm not much mistaken, it's a sand colour with - on occasions - a pinky beige to it. Hmm.

I think play pit sand has the yellow and fineness quality to it, but that would require a beige/pink/grey coloured scatter adding........unless I washed over the sand once laid with a wash of paints of a suitable hue.

Anybody any ideas, please?

Many thanks once again, jwb.

jonte