Oh No! Not Another One: The Farm House Diorama

[TomPM]

Since the Water Tower Diorama is about 95% complete and major construction is complete on the Passenger Station Diorama it is time to move on. For inspiration for this diorama I went to my seven year old son who is supposed to be helping with this one. I let him choose from the structures that were assembled. He chose a built-up structure from Model Power called Jordon’s House. He and I have dubbed it the Farm House.

The general layout of the diorama would be a farm house and a few out buildings along a country road. The tracks would parallel the road.

 

[TomPM]

The first step we did was lay the road bed. For this I used Woodland Scenics foam road bed. It was attached to the pink foam with white glue.

 

[TomPM]

Next we put down the track. It is Atlas code 100 snap track. From the Passenger Station Diorama I learned that I need to overhang the track from the edge of the diorama to make it easy to hook the diorama into the layout. (I didn’t do this on the Passenger Station Diorama and the first time hooking it in was difficult and involved removing some of the ballast and scenery.)

 

[TomPM]

Now we weathered the track and ties. For this we used Folk Art Asphaltum. We brush painted the ties and side of the rails with two coats.

 

[TomPM]

My son then decided that he wanted a rock cut along the railroad. So this meant adding a piece of foam along the tracks.

 

[TomPM]

Then he wanted a drainage ditch along the tracks. So we cut out a ditch.

 

[TomPM]

Next came shaping the ground. For this we used paper towels soaked in a “wet” plaster solution. This is where we encountered our first problem. The solution was too wet and when the paper towels dried they were too brittle. We had to remove them after the pictures were taken.

 

[Matthyro]

That is a really interesting project for a Son and Dad to work together on Tom. How did you get a 7 year old interested in model railroading. When my son was that age all he wanted to do was play football or go to football games. No model railroading for him even though I had a small layout then.

 

[TomPM]

Thanks Robin!

My son actually got me back into model railroading. When his interest peaked my wife and I thought that me modeling would be a good thing for all of us. My son’s interest came about because of Thomas the Tank Engine. He watched the videos and went crazy over trains. He has his own HO set which he runs over the layout. He also has several other pieces of rolling stock and is permitted to use certain pieces of equipment from my collection.

 

[cabdriver]

Tom, this is a very interesting and captivating thread. Please continue to post us on your progress...reworks and all. :thumb: The pics are great. I love to see work like this done from the VERY BEGINNING!

 

[TomPM]

Thanks guys!

I had not worked on this for a while because I did not like something about it. I finally realized that I did not like the fact that the railroad was in a cut. So I removed the foam piece and now have a level diorama.

With the cut out of the way I was inspired to recarve the drainage ditch and lay plaster soaked paper towels across it to begin the ground process.

 

[Taipan]

The drainage ditch was a great idea. I think I might try that.

 

[TomPM]

Thanks!

Now that the paper towels have dried I went and added a layer of Plaster of Paris.

 

[TomPM]

I now have finished painting the base with two coats of Folk Art Acorn Brown.

Next is ballasting.

 

[Papa Bear]

Neat project, Tom.

 

[TomPM]

Thanks!

I completed the ballast before we went on vacation. I then added the road using Woodland Scenics Smooth-it and Paving Tape.

 

[TomPM]

Since I know the edge of no road is smooth I took an Xacto knife and roughed up the edge. I also added cracks and other imperfections.

 

[TomPM]

I began coloring the road. First I sanded the road to get somewhat smooth and remove any roughness from the areas I previously stressed. Next I painted the road with a coat of Folk Art Wrought Iron.

One thing I noticed after the paint dried was that I have a lot of little holes that I did not see during the pour or before painting. Looks like road crews will be out here doing some patch work. I wanted the road to look like an old country road but now I need to figure out a way to patch some little potholes.

 

[MasonJar]

Tom,

I have had good success simulating tar lines and patches (on tar paper roofs) by applying craft paint via a glue syringe. Takes a while to dry, but loks good when done...

Andrew

 

[MasonJar]

Like this from Lee Valley:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=20003&cat=1,110,42967

Andrew