Progress 9 (Go to: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)

Quite a few months have gone by without an update, even though work has continued on the DF&D layout. It is nearly but not quite done. Since the last progress page, the mountains were completed and painted, sealed and landscaped. Another coating of water was laid down and more structures were added along with some fine details and LED lighting.

(72) This has to be one of my favorite shots of the train in motion, as it contains some of my favorite elements: great perspective; the details of the scenery up close and personal; the newly re-done river; and the ridiculous irony of the realistic scale of the train and the edge of the table. Bizarre.

(73) The money shot. I get a lot of comments from viewers of this site that they have a hard time believing that all this detail is on a Pub Table - well here's the proof. Again, as I have no room in the house, this layout was designed to sit out in the open like a piece of furniture. With its two matching pub chairs (you can see them on the first progress page) having a beer and watching the trains go 'round is a pleasure.

(74) This is the perspective most adults have when viewing the DF&D. But I designed the layout to be "compartmental" and use visual clues to force the eye to find little vignettes unto themselves: a farm; a mine; a crossing; a gas station; a woodland; etc. The edge of the layout invites one to get closer and explore at eye level... yes, perhaps that trail into the woods does lead somewhere.

(75) The double wood plank crossing on the Old Dutchman's Highway is one of my favorite train spotting vantage points. The mud tracks on the road from trucks coming and going from the Dumluk mine was achieved with chalk pastel. The sign was designed on a computer, printed out, glued to another piece of paper for thickness, and cut out and mounted on toothpicks in the shrubbery
Bringing scenery right out to the edge of the layout is a judgment call... in a high traffic area, trees and shrubs can catch on the clothing of passers by... to say nothing of the paws of little curious children. If I had not mentioned... GLUE EVERYTHING DOWN.

(76) Here can be seen the dirt road running back to the Dumluk Mine & Coal Company. I was thinking that any industry that dealt with coal, coal dust, dirt and rocks in the 1930's must not have been exactly OSHA friendly... mater of fact it was probably quite dangerous, unkempt, and wicked filthy. Especially for a family owned business. The renewed history of the Dumluk Mine is that Grand pappy Dumluk was one of the original founders of Standard Oil in 1870 but sold his interest to jump on the ground floor of owning this mine. Unfortunately, the Dumluk mine never got off the ground floor, and we all know what happened with his buddy Rockefeller and Standard Oil. An ironic bit of Dumb Luck. I like the way the black coal dust and dirt mix under the truck tires and have caked the rails. I might run some barbed wire fencing between the rail right of way and old man Yoder's apple orchard. In fact I think I will do just that - noted on things to do list.

(77) Here's a look at how I pulled off something I didn't know if I was going to be able to pull off. Okay, I'll explain. When one "plans on paper" be sure to factor in a heck of a lot of fudge factor. What seemed like oodles of room betwixt these two tracks and tunnels was in practice a close shave. Very hard to model so that it gives the illusion that there is more room between them than there really is. Now I realize this is a model train layout and there is room for "modeler's license" but in reality, no tunneling engineer in his right mind would bore two holes in mountain so close... or would they? Anyway, with the careful placement of trees and such I hope I pulled it off.

(78) This is fun. Lets take an evening stroll up moonlit country road to the train station. It's October and the air is crisp, but there are still a few hardy crickets chirping in the tall dead grass by the side of the road. Soon they will burrow away form first frost until next spring.

Those tufts of long grass and weeds are dyed human hair and static grass. The road has many coats of flat paint, pulled taught to crack it and make it buckle.

(79) An overview of the road over the bridge and towards the Yoder Farm. Next time around I'll get the camera on a low angle so one can appreciate the leaf littered ditches on either side of the road and the sharp brush covered rise to the cow pasture. Old man Yoder has a tractor-torn dirt road leading to his farm and that's just fine - only city slickers have gravel or paved driveways. A luxury that doesn't interest Zeke Yoder.

(80) A very popular photo with model railroad friends, this night shot of Apple Valley Station, filled with red-eye travelers going west when the DF&D stops running freight and coal and converts passenger service to all points west after 6 p.m. A very eclectic short line is the Dingmans Falls & Delaware.

Note the judicial use of the tree line to isolate the station scene from the rest of the layout.

(81) I am very pleased with the look of the revised river. What was once a garish and false blue-sky reflection, has been re-painted a realistic multiple shade olive-green-brown of the prototype. The last layer of gloss acrylic really leveled out and developed some pleasing waviness. I plan on adding a few more thin clear layers to build up the depth and sheen. Perhaps some waterside vegetation as well. We need a kid fishing from that bridge to be sure.

(82) I added some scale boxes, crates, palettes and junk against old man Yoder's barn and lit the barn with an LED and "color correction shade" which is simply a conical piece of white paper towel dyed with the color one wishes to project; in this case. a warm yellow. The straw on the ground and on the barn floor is totally mobile as it is chamomile tea glued to a wax paper base. The pumpkins are modeled from plastic modeling clay and oven cured.

The same LED and "color correction shade" method is used in the farm house. The paper shade also does a fine job of diffusing and spreading the light evenly and an LED lamp is directional; usually straight out of the top of the lamp. I may post an LED photo tutorial on this later.