Gerry's Japanese Layout

[cteno4]

Gerryo,

 

yep its finding what works best for you and that just usually means little experiments. for some reason folks are always a bit scared to do some experiments first and just jump into the big stuff and thats where many folks really run into issues or end up dissatisfied with the results and very frustrated. i love to do the little experiments with these kinds of things, I always learn something new!

 

yep the paint and then sprinkle foam works great. you can do it on pretty big areas, just have to make sure its not too big that the paint is drying by the time you come back to start your sprinkling. its always a toss up with how big a patch to do on stuff like this as if you do it in little bits if you don't do it just the same sometimes it can give a mottled appearance or have interface lines between batches, but in too large a section things can go off on you and disaster.

 

combining techniques can be great as well. you can do the zip texturing to get some textures and colors then come back and just hit with some matte medium sprayed on to seal it up then spray or paint down diluted matte medium to sprinkle your foam onto. also you can better "set" your ground foam with a spritz then of matte medium spray or even hair spray to help secure it better. by combining things like this you can get a nicer base coat of color and texture for the earth and rock and then the ground foam not totally covering things gets you a nice mix. the zip texturing is nice as you can do the color and texture together and vary it a lot easily by just sprinkling different stuff. you can also do it in layers as well.

 

interior latex/acrylic is better than exterior as the exterior stuff can string quite a bit, even the interior does some, but on smaller bits its usually not a problem.

 

i love that little air brush that you can pop multiple colors on. ill see if i can find my foam test where i did some quick blending of rock colors fast to get a nice feel. its so quick when you don't have to clean things up to go to the next color and the acrylic craft paints dry pretty fast. i just have a little 5" computer fan i put next to the piece to keep it drying quickly when working on stuff like this.

 

the woodland scenics flex paste i suspect is pretty much matte medium. from the finished feel of it (I've never used any myself but have seen it on others layouts) it feels very similar to matte medium. you can color matte medium as well with acrylic paints, pigments etc as its basically just the clear acrylic base of most acrylic paints and interior paints. the matte is just the finish you can also get it in a semi or full gloss as well for various uses. nice thing is it comes out a bit soft and not hard like pa glues so a bit more forgiving. some use it for ballasting as they feel its easier to dig up w/o totally soaking to get pva up and its flex makes it quieter for running trains.

 

yep with small patches like that to do its best to put painters tape down over the tracks in the area and mask off other stuff as well if you can. then scenic away then come back with the careful cleanup! one trick is to put a paper towel tube onto the end of your vacuum hose with a bit of panty hose over the vacuum hose. you can also punch some holes in the side of the paper tube to reduce the suction so it won't rip it all up. the panty hose traps any detail bits you mistakenly suck up and also you can even recycle the extra foam sucked up! it is hard to keep trains running while doing scenery like his as the mess can be a problem! its a stall point for some when they stop running trains for a long time in the middle of a big scenery job and they loose interest in the layout because of no train time!

 

other idea for some spots between tracks that are in the back areas is to just cut out a chunk of styrene that fits in the space between the track bits and do the scenery on it on the bench and then just glue it in place! can be a lot easier than trying to reach over a couple of feet of layout to work on it and also doing stuff right next to tracks where you don't want it super dirty. once in place you can come back with a bit of ballast and ground foam to fill in the little gap between the unitrack road bed and the scenery piece to make it seamless. just painting in matte medium in there and then using a little tube to sprinkle along the seam works great or come back and squirt some diluted matte medium over it with a syringe later. many times in back areas if you cut the styrene base close enough you won't even have to worry about the seam as you can't see it from the normal viewing angles anyway. and if the base is painted the same color as the foam under it its hard to see the seam anyway!

 

this works well for bigger scenery sections as well in hard to reach places as working over the layout can be a bummer. big rock walls and even mountains and hills can be done as drop in bits and just try to put the seam lines in strategic places where other things with obscure them along with carefully planted shrubs and walls. this can make life easier later when needing to get at some tracks and also just deciding you want to change that bit of scenery or do a different technique etc, you don't end up having to tear up the layout! you can even just scrape off the old scenery and put a new layer down!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[gerryo]

My layout is 4 feet wide by 11 feet long. And I have access on 3 sides, so only have to reach across 2 feet at a time.

 

As for getting a mottled effect, that might even be a bonus to give some variance to the green. I will use the WS Mixed Turf to help with the effect.

 

One other thing is to have planned any roads or parking lots and mask them with tape so you don't have to scrape off the green. One thing to watch with this is to take the tape off while the paint is still wet. You can do a lot of damage at the edges trying to pull tape off of dried paint.

 

I have noticed, in videos, that there is not any serious maintenance of small weeds and shrubbery along the tracks in Japan. A good serious application of WS Ground Foam should do the trick here. What I do is soak the Foam with glue, then press it into place so some of the glue squeezes out. This can only be done after the paint and grass have dried thoroughly. Allow to dry and you have shrubbery anywhere you want it.

 

Just more theories.

gerryo

[cteno4]

interesting, I've never tried to soak the ground foam and then place it! Ill have to try that! learn something new all the time.

 

run an hobby knife down the paint/tape edge to keep from pulling up paint if its dry.

 

you can also lay roads with painted cheap chipboard. cut it out to the shapes you want. bit of joint compound at the joints. you can even preprint or paint lines and such on them before putting them down. pin tape also is great for lines as well.

 

jeff

[gerryo]

HARD work.  Got the first sanding done on the layout.  Still a few small spots to fill but it's nearly ready to paint.

 

Ordered the last bit of track to connect the Unitram section to the ground level station.  I'll have to work in a couple of short storage tracks for the Railbuses.

 

It seems there is always more things to add.  It's really too bad that the Viaduct Station takes up so much space.  I sure could use some of that for a small yard for my Odakyus, Naganos, etc.  But I guess that Shinkansens have a priority in today's world.

 

Back to work.

gerryo

[cteno4]

Glad to hear it's progressing! Keep the head of steam up, scenery is a place many get bogged down in, but if you can get to the point of seeing results then it can give you that second wind!

 

Viaduct stations do take up room, but such the quintessential thing I'd you want shinkansens! Always the space trade off and there can never be too many storage tracks!

 

Jeff

[gerryo]

This thing about space has me thinking. If there was a different shaped, or oriented, Viaduct Pier there might be some room under the viaduct, and even more under the Station. I'll have to think on this for a bit. If there is enough height under the viaduct for a track to cross, then there should be enough room to run a track under the viaduct lengthwise. With the cross member removed from the existing Kato piers, there would be plenty of space, even for the Pantographs.

 

It wouldn't be necessary to cut every pier. Just the ones where you want a track to be.

 

Under the station you could run a Unitram track right up to the back door. And short parking tracks where you don't have any stores.

 

Seriously.

gerryo

[railsquid]

This thing about space has me thinking. If there was a different shaped, or oriented, Viaduct Pier there might be some room under the viaduct, and even more under the Station. I'll have to think on this for a bit. If there is enough height under the viaduct for a track to cross, then there should be enough room to run a track under the viaduct lengthwise. With the cross member removed from the existing Kato piers, there would be plenty of space, even for the Pantographs.

 

It wouldn't be necessary to cut every pier. Just the ones where you want a track to be.

 

 

Tomix piers are great for this, in fact that's the reason why I initially ended up going with Tomix for elevated track.

[gerryo]

Hi railsquid.  Yes I kind of thought they looked better from pictures.  But all my track and stations are Kato so not feasible to change now.

 

gerryo

[gerryo]

Got all my sanding done, rough job though it is. Two coats of very dull grey over all, and I will put a white trim all around the four edges. This will help to keep the derailed fast trains from falling on the floor.

 

I've started on the wiring, using all Kato pieces. Actually, the wiring is going to be simple as the Kato turnouts are Power Routing, so need fewer isolators. This also means fewer Power Supplies. Just where I want to keep things isolated, like the Viaduct. Two power packs needed here, and I might get away with two or three for the ground level tracks. Depends on how many trains I want to run at the same time.

 

gerryo

[gerryo]

I laid out all of the track again and made a few changes to the ground level tracks as they were too much in the way of the Viaduct.  The Viaduct is now almost 11 feet long and fits better over the lower tracks.  The ground level track is now basically an oval with some sidings off and runs through my Lower station.  It seems to work out that I can run the unitram track into one end of the station and out the other back into the city.  I won't know this for sure until I get the final order of track.  Another siding runs off the lower track and onto an incline single track viaduct up and into the viaduct station. 

 

Tried some of my trains on lower level and everything worked just fine.  Moved up to the Viaduct and nothing worked.  I traced the problem to the viaduct power cords.  Neither one that came with the V13 were any good.  I had already ordered two other ones to supply power to the other end of the viaduct.  I sure hope that they work.  I adapted two regular Unitrack power cords to the viaduct and my Shinkansens work just fine. 

 

I have made what I think is the final order for track which will make up the track through the viaduct station with two sidings.  I will use number 6 turnouts here as there seems to be too many troubles with number 4's.

 

Back to work.

gerryo

[tossedman]

Sounds like things are happening out there Gerry! Hope you get your camera and computer working. Looking forward to some pictures. Thanks for sharing.

 

Todd

[gerryo]

Hi Todd.

 

Actually I am waiting for my daughter, who lives in Calgary, to return my new hard drive, so I can access it from this laptop. Don't know when that is going to happen.

 

Been reading your posts as well. Good on the T-Track.

 

gerryo

[gerryo]

My viaduct station is 7 sections long, which is plenty for my small Shinkansens, and double wide so that I have a siding track on each side.  The amount of space wasted under here is quite large and I have wondered what to do with it.

 

So, I took out 6 of the viaduct piers and cut out the cross member from two of the long sides on each one, but only half way - to the center post.

 

This makes an open corridor almost the full length of the station.  From a single track, which runs between the station and the side of the layout, I can install a 6 inch 45 degree turnout and a 45 degree curve the opposite way, and this sets a track down the center of my corridor.  This corridor runs past the back door of the viaduct Station, and makes a perfect siding for my Rail Busses to drop off passengers.  The Trams could run into here as well if I can figure out the trackage from the city to the ground level station.

 

I wonder if there is an auto start/stop system which could work here???

 

Anyway, that's for the future. 

gerryo

[gerryo]

So the future is upon me sooner than I expected. I think I have nightmares about my layout and dream up more changes. At this rate I will never get it done.

 

This morning I came up with the idea that if I do that track work under the station, no-one will ever see it. So I removed 1/2 of the station which left the station the wrong way around. I had the front of the station facing the layout. With all that additional space there is some room along what was the back of the station to do some streetscaping, and it seems that Kato has some nice looking pieces to do just that. Now the station can be turned around to face the other way, and gives me more work to do.

 

This layout WILL eventually be useable. NEVER completed.

 

gerryo

[Bernard]

gerryo - Layouts are never completed......we always keep "revising them" think of better ways to arrange things whether it's for more space, things we want to add, etc....there is always something. Last month I didn't like the road that was around a town on my layout so I ripped it up and redesigned it. :)

Edited May 7, 2015 by Bernard

[gerryo]

I am at the point of starting the wiring of all this mess.  I have a pretty good idea of where all the wiring will end, like at my power packs.  The starting points are another matter.

 

How many power connections should there be on the Unitram part of the layout?  This part is abt. 500mm wide, by 2188mm long.  Each run is continuous with Isolators at each access point which are at each end.  Does it need power at both ends of this part?

 

The Viaduct will be powered about half way along its length which is 3300mm.  As it is, the shinkansens run full speed all the way around.  Should there be additional power connections?

 

My ground level tracks will have 2 power feeds on each loop.  One at each end.

 

I will have a Tram/Rail Bus track which will run along the back of the viaduct station, which will be powered separately from the Unitram section.  I am debating whether to give this track a separate power source to allow trams to run in either direction from the ground level station. 

 

From this it seems that I will need 7 power supplies.

 

gerryo

[cteno4]

Gerryo,

 

On the viaduct I would put 2 feeders in it across from each other.

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

I have found using Kato the you don't want power feeders more than 2 meters apart or you'll get power drops.

[cteno4]

Yeah kato does not use very heavy gauge wire as well. 2m is a good rule of thumb.

 

We have had things vary a lot on the jrm layouts can also depend on the age and status of your unijoiners.

 

Jeff

[gerryo]

I have removed the Kato Viaduct from my layout.  It simply took up too much space which could be used for better things.  There is more to model railroading than watching 2 trains go round and round.

 

Now I have a different problem.  Since you can't put a short straight into a Kato Viaduct curve, how do you build a half viaduct loop for double track?  Can you put 2 single track viaducts together, side by side?  And if so, what piers do you use?

 

gerryo

[katoftw]

You can use the same piers with single viaducts next to each other.  They use all the same clip locations.

Edited May 16, 2015 by katoftw

[gerryo]

Thanx katotfw.  They have nice small bases and will allow other tracks through easily.

 

gerryo

[gerryo]

With this round of changes I will have gone from a large double track Shinkansen Viaduct Loop to two smaller viaducts for my ground level tracks.

 

One is a single track viaduct up and over the ground level double loop. This single track is to service a small country station on the opposite side of the layout from the overhead station.

 

The other is a double single track viaduct on my ground level double track loop, to go up and over this single track at the opposite end of the layout.

 

This single track will also service some small industries along that side of the layout.

 

I think I've finally got it.

 

gerryo

[gerryo]

I got the remainder of the track for the single track viaducts today, and went to work installing it. I now have 3 single track viaducts. Two on my double loop, side by side. And one on my Railbus loop which goes from the overhead quad track station to a Suburban station.

 

This means that all track loops are in place so I can now tie them down, after drilling holes for the wiring, and maybe start some grass growing and some shrubbery along the tracks.

 

I guess that this means the end of the planning stage. OK, so I have some sidings to install for all those trains that I will have. Although it seems that my interest is in EMUs, DMUs, Railbuses, and Trams. Not entirely, 'cause I still have 6 specialty trains to find space for.

 

Anyhow, it all works and that is a load off my mind.

 

gerryo

[miyakoji]

I'm looking forward to some pictures!