I am only taking a break … you know, summer, good weather, outdoor activities … but it feels like I am getting into the mood to start working on the layout again …

Rscott, Ed, your posts were the last little nudge I needed to get going again!

After concentrating on the structures so far, I wanted to get some other scenery done. On the right end of the terminal I need a paved area so that freightcars can be unloaded there. On the prototype the entire terminal is covered by asphalt nowadays, but I only want part of it covered and model the rest as it was until a few years ago. I wanted the paved area to look old and partly covered with gravel. I have been thinking about how to achive this look for quite a while. My sandpaper method to build streets had to be ruled out, because that would give a too clean look (the same with plaster or styrene). Another idea was to fill the area up to the rail heads with very fine ballast and then glue it down with the usual water/glue mix. That might have looked good, but it would have been very difficult to remove the ballast from the inside of the rails once it would have been dry. So I tried something new. I used plaster, but added black paint when preparing it. Then after spreading the plaster on the layout, I immediately dispersed very fine sand and fine grey ballast on the area and carefully worked it into the plaster by tapping with my fingertips. When the plaster was dry I vaccumed the area to remove all loose ballast. Still needs some more detailing, but it is a start.

WOO-HOO! Doesn't that look nice?

Very nicely done! An thanks for getting going again, as I too need a nudge (actually a hard push) to get modeling again!

The result of your technique is very good. You should stay with it.

That looks really real Kurt! Great job indeed!

Awesome! Looks very realistic.

As usual, my reply is a little late :oops: , but nonetheless I really appreciate your kind comments. Truth be told, I was quite surprised myself how well this method for my paved area worked. And because it was so easy and went pretty fast, I will use it for a second lot on my layout.

We are having quite a heatwave here in Germany at the moment and because my layout is in the attic of our house, it is quite hot up there and I don’t want to stay there longer than necessary. So working on the layout was out of question the last few days. To get something useful done, I took the NYA Geep I started working on "only" 2 1/2 years ago from the shelf and added the last few details. Now painting it should be a piece of cake …

That looks great Kurt, can't wait to see it painted. What did you use for the conduit on the signal box?

If I remember correctly, the conduit is made of some piping from a Cornerstone tank set.

Nice work

Kurt a little late on this one, but when you get a minute could explain your lighting you used for this great picture?
The daylight look and the showing is just stunning

Thanks
ratled

Mike, thank you!

ratled, the light in this shot comes from a 150 W HQI Metal Halide lamp with a color temperature of 5200 K. These HQI lamps are not very practical as photo lamps, because they are heavy, get very hot and need a few minutes to heat up, but the light they are emitting looks more like real sunlight than that of any other artificial lighting. HQI lamps are quite expensive, but I got mine at only 30 EUR on ebay and that was a good argument not to care too much about the downsides.

Thanks Kurt. You got that outdoor look for sure. If you posted that on another site that the "yes, it's a model" thread, you would make the banner! I have 5200k full spectrum lights for lighting just need to get that directional look and shadowing you captured.

Looking forward to more when you get it done

Steve