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HOn3 Display Diorama

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Posted: Wed Aug 29th, 2007 02:16 pm

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Dave D
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I will be using the Broken Casting technique here to blend my different castings together.

Here are 2 castings applied to the base.

Notice the castings on the roadbed area....these are some I have saved from other pours and some are new pours I have broken up.

These are used to fill in the gaps between the castings...I search for a shape that either fits...or...I snap and scrape the edges until they fit the area I need them for.

After check fitting them I use some Power grab on the backs and seat them in place and move on to the next one.

Notice near the bottom there is a piece of casting that hangs up over the base.

I want that to sit down so I apply pressure to it and snap it off.

( I have already done this to the area to the upper left of the casting on the right side. )

I could leave it like this and just glue it back on....but I want the crack to be less wide.

So i trim some of the material on the edge so it will snug up to the other edge closer..here I drew a black line with windows paint to highlight the edge I want to leave on.

After shaving up to that line with an exacto...a Dremmel would work well too...I checked the fit....looks better.

Now back to snapping cutting and fitting more pieces for the gap above.

Now for the fun part....using a hobby Hypo...

I mix a thin slurry of plaster and draw it up into the hypo...then it gets squirted down behind the broken bits and in the cracks.

Have a spray bottle of water handy.

When some of the plaster squirts out of the joints, take the spray bottle of water and mist the stuff that squirts out right away, and it will flow and smooth out real nice.

This joins everything together.

After a little scratching with a pic and so on....it looks like one piece. You'll see later...I hope. :bg:

Last edited on Fri Aug 31st, 2007 08:26 am by Dave D

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My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master.

Posted: Wed Aug 29th, 2007 11:30 pm

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Dave D
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Thanks guys!

I'll be happy if I can just capture the flavor of the area when it is complete.

Here is where I am at with the rock outcrop at the block wall.

Still need to blend it in a little better in a few spots but I am happy with how it is comming along.

____________________
My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master.

Posted: Thu Aug 30th, 2007 07:19 pm

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Dave D
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Everyone,

You are much too kind.

How about I get a Railroad built and see where that goes huh?

But...you have my curiosity peeked now, as to just what it is all those MMR have had to go through, in order to have that little wall hanging...I will have to go have a look. :Hmm:

____________________
My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master.

Posted: Thu Aug 30th, 2007 07:52 pm

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Dave D
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Meanwhile......back in the modeling cave...... :bg:

Here I added a casting to the end of the block retaining wall.

I guess I was in a hurry and did not press the top edge in far enough and I ended up with a gap again.

No biggie. :mex:

Here I pressed on the top edge and snapped it back....you know the procedrure...

While I was at it I added another chunk on the upper left area there, and started to blend in the bottom of the crack.

Here it is with everything filled and blended.

____________________
My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master.

Posted: Fri Aug 31st, 2007 08:23 am

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Dave D
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I agree..NGSLG is my favorite.

Here I have started adding castings up from the previous area.

Here is a mold with the cast plaster still inside setting up.

Here it is with the mold removed..I cut the upper edge of the tunnel opening and you can see at about 10 o'clock on the opening where I have begun picking and chipping at the edge of the new casting, there was a lump there I didn't like so I chipped it off with a pick.

One thing I neglected to mention when I was talking about injecting plaster with a Hypo, is that when some of the plaster squirts out of the joints...Have a spray bottle of water handy.

Take the spray bottle of water and mist the stuff that squirts out right away, and it will flow and smooth out real nice.

I'll go back and add that to that area of the thread.

Last edited on Fri Aug 31st, 2007 08:27 am by Dave D

____________________
My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master.

Posted: Fri Aug 31st, 2007 12:56 pm

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Dave D
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Glad you are enjoying it so far.

Ken you should do one..great way to stay in the hobby while you go through all involved with finding a new place and doing the move.

Here is a shot with the castings on the upper area complete.

____________________
My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master.

Posted: Fri Aug 31st, 2007 10:48 pm

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Dave D
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Muffin man!!

How are ya Pat!

I have made my own...in fact thanks for reminding me...I have a rock outside I used in the landscaping, that has some fantastic detail on it. I noticed it last winter...I told myself to make one when it got warm and forgot all about it.:Doh:

The molds I use most are the Bragdon Enterprise Molds.

They range in price according to the size. 5.00 for the small ones to 50.00 for the huge ones. ( That's not as bad as it sounds as you can cut the big ones to get about 3 or 4 med or 5 or 6 smaller molds.) It depends on the mold you buy as to weather you would want to do that...some big molds like one that I bought for 48.00 have 4 or 5 different patterns in them...some don't.

The one in the pic is a medium size I bought at a local LHS.

I nagged them into stocking them.....now they can't keep them on the shelves.

The website for Bragdon is here...

http://www.bragdonent.com/smpic/item2.htm

I see they must be redoing the site as they used to have thumb nail photos and now you have to click the icon.

They are the best.

____________________
My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master.

Posted: Sat Sep 1st, 2007 09:56 am

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Dave D
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Okay,

I got the itch to color some rocks so here is what I did.

For the paints I make my own Flo stain.

I take the color I want and pour about 1/8" into the bottom of an empty Floquil jar.

Then I fill the rest with Diosol.

I am going to use Diosol for this for the last time here.

It is no longer produced and my supply is limited and I will use it for thinning paint for locos and rolling stock from here on out.

I have used regular paint thinners and they are fine for this..the only thing about those are, they are not formulated for Floquil paints, and they separate.

Thats bad for painting with the air brush, but for stains with castings, all you need to do is swish the brush in the bottle to re-mix now and then, and they work great...its what I used for the Engine House walls.

So here is what I did.

I will work in sections to get a variety of hues as that is how rock faces are..the tones vary in areas when seen from a distance. you will see how that plays out soon.

I selected this corner to work on.

The first stain for the base coat is made with Floquil Dust.

This I just swabbed on with a brush..3/8" wide or so.

Then I made another stain using Floquil rust.

This gets applied in a random manner...this helps get color variations within the separate areas...remember.....variation,variation, variation.

With the thin stains, as you apply washes, sometimes the washes overlap and that creates more...you got it...variations.

The last stain I made for this was with Floquil Oxide Red.

This is in New Mexico but on the Colorado border and the rocks have a Red tint there.

( Did you know Colorado is from Spanish, meaning ruddy or red?)

Now you do.

This stain was also applied randomly...this is so much fun!

Do your best whacked out paint artist imitation while your at it..I chose Bob Ross..."we don't have mistakes...only happy accidents!"

Then I used a thin Ink/alcohol wash made from Higgins Calligraphy ink and Isopropyl alcohol.... I use the 97% alcohol blend I find at the local drug store.

I used another empty Floquil jar and put 4 drops of the ink in and filled the rest with the alcohol. Calligraphy ink is very dense and dark...a little goes a long way.

This is about after 7 washes or so...also some added concentration on the cracks and such to highlight them.

It looks very light in this shot but it is not... I had my work lamp and the camera real close when I shot this so you could see the .....variations...of color.

Here is it as I start a second area for coloring, same progression of stain and colors, you can see the true shade of that first area now.

Here I stopped and took a picture, so you can see the difference in the shade from the first, to the second applications of color from left to right.

The second application complete.

On to the Oxide Red wash.

Variation,Variation,Variation.

And finally after the ink/alcohol washes.

Close....

And back a bit.

Ken lives there....did I get it right Ken

?:Hmm:

I am thinking I will do some more redish blotching in the second area.

____________________
My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master.

Posted: Sun Sep 2nd, 2007 08:32 am

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Dave D
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The prototype has an overhang of blocks on the upper edge of the retaining wall.

My mold did not have that on it so I made a strip of plaster that I formed by pinning 2 bits of strip wood parallel to one another on a piece of foam and then I just poured and leveled it off.

After it set up I removed the forms...just like pouring a mini sidewalk....and then I snapped bits off of the end of that to make the rough edges for the block ridge. They did not always snap straight across and I did not want to score them and have the knife blade mark on them so I would just use my thumbnail to break tiny bits off the ones that were not straight to even them out.

I only had to do that on about 4 or 5 as sometimes the other end snapped straighter and I just flipped it and used that end.

____________________
My father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master.

Posted: Sun Sep 2nd, 2007 08:41 am

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Dave D
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I had my first real screw up too.

I was doing the streaking on the stone wall face and I just over did it....I should have remembered.......less is more.

Todays project is to try to straighten that up which is going to be tough because it is hard to downplay color once it is on.:Doh:

It doesn't look bad close in for pictures but when you step back...I'm just not happy with it....I'll figure something out.

Meanwhile I could not resist setting the piece of track on the roadbed and shooting from down low to get a feel of how it will look in the end.