Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge
Thanks everyone for the positive vibes on the underpass! I actually have a blog entry devoted to building that particular feature here: https://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rai...j-overpass if you want to dig deeper into my decisions on how to model it.
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
Piece by piece, there's a little more progress each day here.  A little different view of the scenery back behind the bridge looking toward I-80 in the upper right.  I've taken down my highway bridge sections to give myself some additional elbow room.

   
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
GREAT Todd.  It is hard work but it is working out nicely. I love your creativity.  Cheers
Charlie
Reply
Thank you Charlie, and I will take that beer!

I've spent what little time I had available this weekend to putting in shrubs in the foreground areas - same technique I used in Mud Run for simulated Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron.  What I'm going for is depth in an area of the layout that is nearly vertical, but that's a good interpretation of the terrain in the gorge - it's quite steep in a lot of places, rocky and pretty wild.

   

Here's a shot I took from the CNJ side of the river (now that rail trail through the gorge) around Thanksgiving in 2005.  Steep embankment full of rhododendron and spindly trees.

     

Another few days of dressing more shrubs and I'll move on to foreground trees.
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
The Lehigh is not calm or quiescent, especially through the gorge.  My wife and I took the tamer of two whitewater rafting trips from Jim Thorpe a few years ago.  She ended falling out once even so.  

Got my bottle of Woodland Scenics Water Effects out and added some rough water (2nd application) around the rocks in the river.  Once this dries (clear) I'll get the white paint out and add some rapids, especially after where the piers will go.  At this point I'm trying not to jar any of the scenery and shake some leaves onto the surface of the river, so I'll let things dry over night before getting the paintbrushes out.

   
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
Decided to pull the trigger and buy some fishermen.  This is coming to my mailbox soon:

Woodland Scenics HO A1910 Fly Fisherman | ModelTrainStuff

Should be a good set to add to the river scenery.
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
Foreground trees complete!  I think I'm almost ready to reinstall the girder bridge and piers.

   
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
Wasn't happy with the seams of the bridge abutments (it's three different pieces of Styrofoam glued together.  If you were building it with blocks, you wouldn't have the gaps.  So, got the spackle out and then got a ball point pen to re-score the seams between the individual blocks.  It means I'll have to get the paints out again (black over the spackle first, then all of the other colors in the stone), but it's better to get it right now before the piers and bridge go in there.  I wanted to weather the abutments anyway, so it's just going to mean a few more days before I can run trains over this bridge.

   
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
More baby steps.  Paint was applied over the last 24 hours.  black first to get into the deeper sections of the foam and then a collage of browns, reds and grays.  Happier without the discernable gap between sections of the the abutments.  Next some weathering (both piers and abutments) before remounting the bridge.

   
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
Before weathering....   

A rolling stone grows no moss, but a stationary one attached to a bridge pier and built near or in a river?  There will be moss.  

I made some basic assumptions - the southern abutment (north facing) would have the most moss, and the northern abutment would then have the least amount of moss.  The closer you are to the water's surface, the more moss would grow.

First step was to get about 6 shades of green out of the paint box - if you ever look at moss closely, you'll note that there is a ton of variety in terms of color.  My technique is to apply alternating dark and light shades with an almost dry brush.  If you put too much of one color on, dabble and mute that area with an alternate shade.

Here's the result:

   

I was going to start putting the paints away, but my eye kept straying to the piers.  There was something that just wasn't jiving with nature.  About 10-12 scale feet above the water level, the moss stopped.  It was a very jarring transition, and I didn't like the result.  However, I didn't want to add it all of the way up the pier, and I decided to experiment with a brush that was almost completely devoid of paint, brushing across the upper sections of each pier and adding just a hint of each green color.  If I made a mistake and added too much paint, I got the block colors out and faded out the green.  This might be hard to present in a photograph (the difference is subtle, but definitley more pleasing to the naked eye here in the room), but here's the end product (in terms of paint).

   

I'm going to prepare some moss fragments to add to some of the masonry for that "3D" effect, but don't know if that's going to get done before my upcoming trip to Texas to see my granddaughter for the first time (another interlude that's probably going to mean I still won't be able to run trains over this bridge until I get back).
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
Very impressive and thanks for the step by step. For some reason moss never dawned on me. Now I might need to go back and look at few things.

You said the abutment is Styrofoam? If so did you carve all the blocks? In which case I am even more impressed.
Tom
Silence is golden but Duct tape is silver
Ridley Keystone & Mountain Railroad
My Rail Images Gallery
Reply
Todd, ya done good.   Applause The moss effect is very realistic. You hit it on the nose.
Charlie
Reply
(06-19-2023, 08:39 PM)tompm Wrote: Very impressive and thanks for the step by step. For some reason moss never dawned on me. Now I might need to go back and look at few things.

You said the abutment is Styrofoam? If so did you carve all the blocks? In which case  I am even more impressed.

Tom,

   Glad you enjoy the work.  Both the abutments and piers are Styrofoam.  The piers are carved from a single block of it (the 3" green stuff), whereas the abutments are three pieces of 1 1/2" thick pink.  There are some pictures and sorta "step by steps" in Let the hardscape begin! (morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com), about 1/3 of the way into this (long) blog entry.  The pink pieces I cut on my table saw, the green pieces were cut into blocks on the table saw and then cut carefully with a very think kerf Japanese dovetail saw.  I cut the sides first, then the fronts and backs, pretty much by eye.  When they were the right shape I spackled them and then etched the joints between block with a sharp nail (after laying out the blocks with a pencil).  Then paint, paint, paint....

  These are my second set of bridge piers, the first were fine until I applied spray paint.  The propellant in that stuff eats Styrofoam...  If at first you don't succeed.....
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
(06-20-2023, 08:09 AM)Charlie B Wrote: Todd, ya done good.   Applause The moss effect is very realistic. You hit it on the nose.
Charlie

Good ole' trial and error!  Thanks.  Hoping to add that 3D look tonight but I had to cut the grass before we leave and tomorrow night's our 31st wedding anniversary, so I'm taking the bride out for dinner before we drop the dog off.  In other words, it'll have to wait.
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows
Reply
Sorry to nitpick, but a "very think kerf Japanese dovetail saw" -- did you mean thin or thick?
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)