Rock castings part 2

 The ravine module required plenty of rock castings. I enjoy dramatic rocky mountain scenery and this module has been designed to show off little trains among big rock features. 

Using my Woodland Scenic rock moulds I spent several sunny afternoons churning out rock castings of all varieties. I'm not the biggest fan of jigsaw puzzles and fitting them together can be a bit of work. When I place duplicate castings close to each other I try to place one upside down to create more variation. I do like the Woodland Scenics moulds. But more than once I wondered if they could have been made in standard sizes so they could all fit together more neatly. I guess this would risk making them look too uniform and most people probably use the moulds to create small cliffs and outcrops rather than deep ravines. 

I realised that I didn't have as much clearance between the cliff and the rails where they emerge from the tunnel. The tunnel face in particular was a bit close to the edge of the module. I didn't have a rock casting thin enough that would work here. So, inspired by my earlier attempts at rock carving, I covered the foam in a thick layer of plaster and as it set up I carved it with my pick and a craft knife. I had several attempts and had to fill in some areas with more plaster, but overall I was pleased with the results. After getting onto my second 5kg bag of plaster, I started to worry that too many castings would make this module heavier than I wanted. So I used this same carving technique for all the rocks on the left side of the ravine above the rails as it didn't call for as much plaster as individual castings. This also gave a nice seamless corner where the two cliff faces meet. 

After completing the left side I ran out of inspiration and left it for a few weeks. But when I returned to it I found the right-hand side went much faster than I expected. I used a little plastic palette knife to plaster over the gaps between the moulds. I then used my carving techniques to blend the textures between the castings. 

I removed the temporary plywood bridge and then cut a single span of plywood just narrower than the railroad ties and painted it brown. It supports the track nicely and gives a mocked-up look of what a girder bridge may look like. I used some scrap bits of metal to mock up where the steel viaduct supports. Because I need a solid place to build foundations for my steel viaduct supports I used some large castings to make an uneroded island in the middle of the river. At present it looks quite round due to the shape of the castings, but I will work it into more of a teardrop shape with rocks and gravel to model the sediment deposits that build up behind solid objects in the river flow. 

Yellow foam ravine. Not very scenic just yet. 

In this photo, the left side of the ravine is finished.
The rocks from the rail upwards were carved by hand.
My experiment with the large backdrop is in the background. 

The castings for the right side of the ravine being fit together before
blending the castings together with more plaster. 

The completely 'rocked' ravine, including an island
in the middle of the river.

The initial temporary bridge was replaced with a narrow piece of plywood, painted brown to blend in. The thin bits of scrap metal mock up where the viaducts steel supports may be planted. 

Right now the rocky island looks quite round. I'll extend it to more
of a teardrop shape using other scenery materials later on. 

Backdrop practice

 I enjoyed painting the backdrop for the last layout. Chris Lyon's videos on YouTube were super helpful and gave me the courage to give backdrop painting a go. 

This time I wanted to improve the look of my mountains and found some videos about painting mountains with a palette knife. I found a long piece of scrap 3mm MDF and started to paint. I started with just half the board and finished a scene. Then another day I tried to fill in the other side of the board and varying my technique. I found the palette knife technique helpful for giving texture and shape to the mountains. A brush smoothes things out too much. 

The next step will be to upscale and try and translate my learnings onto the larger canvas of the module backdrops. I am aiming for a higher horizon line. This gives the effect of the hills and mountains being closer rather than too distant. I feel a low horizon line makes me feel like I am looking down on the scene from a 'drone point of view'. A high horizon line will give the viewer the impression they are really in the scene looking up a the mountains. After all, I am trying to recreate the feel of mountain railroading and my line is set in the heart of the mountains. 

An aerial view of the practice board as a work in progress. 

The completed scene on the right hand side of the practice board.
I didn't give much thought to composition rules. But the lake would look a little
better if it was slightly more to the left. 

The completed mountains on the left side of the board before adding the foreground. 

The completed scene propped up against the module backdrop. The first attempt at scrubbing in the outline of the mountains on the module can be seen behind it. 

Rock casting part 1

After ballasting the yard I made a start in casting rocks. I needed plenty and use the Woodland Scenics rock moulds. The plaster that I had on hand seemed to do fine when mixed with my ground cover dirt, but the rock castings I made with it had a chalky texture. I wondered if it had been sitting too long. I discovered this after painting and staining the first rock moulds I had fitted to the hillside above the town where a lot of the detail sadly got washed out. They looked quite featureless and dull. I bought some new plaster, which fixed the problem going forward. 

I thought I would have to pull out the failed castings and refit and shape new ones. But before I did that I thought about carving the old castings to see if I could put more detail into them. I hacked and chipped away at the castings using a pick and a craft knife. They didn't look too bad at all, so I decided to leave them in place. This gave me the confidence to try carving rocks on another part of the layout, so it was worth experimenting with. 

The rock castings before blending them together and painting. 

The final result after carving the castings and painting.