Jens.
As always a great job.

 

Good morning everybody. Thanks for your positive comments.

@Zook: Yes, I like them.
@90sF1Kid: Yes, sculptamold is much lighter but more expensive. 3,50Euro for 5kg plaster cannot be beaten I think.
@rallyP: Yes, I think so.

Step 11: Adding some scenic drama.

Yesterday I started to play with the idea to use the rests of the plaster in combination with some rockmolds to get some dramaturgy into the scenery.
You have seen the first photos. I started to love those sharp edges.

The stuff of desire.

For bigger rocks and cliffs I use a rockmold. It can be easily selfmade. I used a styrofoamrock from Noch (www.noch.de) and covered it several times (i guess 15 to 20x

) with latex-milk. A natural stone with a nice surface or a big piece of coal can be used, too. Once dryed you can put it into a bed of sand and fill with liquid plaster to get bigger areas. As an alternative you can fill it with thicker plaster and directly add it to the tracks scenery (jmswms likes to do like this).

Check the best look by changing their position and direction. Then simply plaster in place with some thicker plaster behind.
As a next step a liquid plaster is used to give a base for the next step of shaping the scenery.

Work in small areas only because you have to be fast now. The underground soaks the water of the plaster quickly and it looses its gluing ability rapidly.

The plaster debris is thrown in randomally, only bigger rocks and eyecatchers have to be put into the liquid with thought and care before throwing the debris in.

Gluing in a rock here and there will give a great and dramatic look.

After some minutes you can vac off the overload. An old sock keeps the vac from eating all that little stones and rocks that could be used later again. (Same method works to save static grass of cause, too.

The result needs some more work on detail but gives good looks I think:

To be continued soon. Kind regards Jens

 

Fantastic description! Thx´s Jens

!

 

Hello Jens,

Thanks for the great pictures and the detailed description.

That makes mut also a small stretch to build next to my parking sezial stages.

I currently have only a little space, but that's always a little way.

I'm looking forward to more pictures of your route.

Many greeting
Stefan

 

Hello everybody,

Just a little thing for now:

Step 12: Closing gaps and screwholes.

I guess theoretically you could use every kind of filler to close the gaps and screwholes, even plaster works. (Nobody cares for once covered with color

)
I use a special MDF filler. Same tube since years because you dont need much. The advantage of this investment is that the filler (ready to use) has the same behaviour than MDF. You can sand it, color it and even route it like MDF once dryed.

The scewholes should be filled and sanded twice to get a smooth surface because the filler shrinks a bit while drying. Take care to apply only when surface is free of dust.

Regards Jens

 

Hello everybody:

Step 13: Some first colors

What you need: Some brushes, especially one soft, thick one.

Wallpaint (depending on your choice of colorsceme) darkbrown- sandy- white and some water. Thats all.
First step for the rocks is a dark watery (thin solution of) brown. This dark color is only needed to create the shadows in the deep cracks and gaps of the rocksurface.
The rocks are completely covered with it. Take care to reach every gap. The thin solution will make this easy.

The upper and left part of the rocks shown in the photo are the brownish-treated ones. The part below right shows the next step: A mixture of sandy and brown color is applyed relatively dry. Just to get a second quality of shadows. The dark areas in the depth are kept.

Same effect shown at an other area of the rocks.

Next layer of color is the sandy one that is applyed randomally, here and there while you prefer one direction of apply. Take care not to use too much color. Otherwise the structure of the rocks surface might be lost.

Last step is to highlight with white color. When using a thick and soft brush with very little white color the effect will be best:

You might google "drybrush" for a more detailed description of this method.

Brushing some newspaper or whatever reduces color inside of the brush to the level you need. The picture shows about the quantity of color needed for good results. You might do some tests first.

The result. The rocks on this photo look very light, but it only because it has poor quality, sorry. It will do its job to demonstrate.
The white is strictly applyed from one direction. Keep this direction for the whole track.

This is what we got so far: You can see the difference between the first (brown; left side of photo) step and the last one (white highlightning; right side).
Dont care for the yellowish color arround the rocks. I will take care for this in one of the further steps.

Costs for today: 2,45Euro for the colors each = 7,35Euro. Total: 34,85Euro

Regards Jens

 

When i ever get to have a permanent track this is the road i'd like to go... Like it!

Merc

 

Very nice Jens

 

Hello Jens,
Very impressive and detailed how-to description!
I am looking forward to the next steps. I am especially interested in the color scheme you want to create.
Best regards,
Thomas

 

Jens,

The idea to use the remains of the plaster is great. The coloring is going well. I confess that in my builds the part I am never satisfied with are exactly the rocks and cliffs (their look, their distribution and their coloring), so I am paying attention. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

 

Hello everybody and thanks for your interest.

Step 14: Some more thoughts about colors and first details of scenery:

Okay, the rocks are colored and dryed, now we have to do it look more realistic. In order to keep it simple and cheap I didnt want to spend too much money in static grass or other scenic gear. I only allowed one little bag of grass (Heki "Savanna" static grass, 6mm). In my other tracks I glued the grass, sand and rocks with white-wood-glue. In the end I always was a bit unhappy with that because the glue is relatively expensive and dryes satinlike and not matt. So I decided to put the scenic stuff directly into the wet color.

Here we go, this is the point we start at:

Second step is to apply color. Dont save too much of it here.

Note that the wet color due to some reaction with the plaster has some total different look than the dryed: Test first!

Something else needed is some dry sand (stolen from my childrens sandpit; very cheap solution!). The sand has to be sifted to devide the little stones from the fine sand.

As a next step the little stones are strewed into the wet color. Note that the stones should be applied before the fine sand.

Overflow is taken off with a vac.

This is what we get:

Looks nice so far, I think.

Next step will be to apply some grass and details. Here is a little preview. Tutorial to follow.

By the way: Did you start building yet?

Have fun, regards Jens

 

Great Jens.

 

Looks very good, Jens.
I used also real stones in the brook of the Swedish Rally Track.
It is not only easier, but it is not wrong at all; just like real stones.

rallyhub

 

I think it looks excellent.

You did not use glue for the static grass? Does Heki static grass come in different colors? I do not want to spend the money in the apparatus but I "need" to use static grass.

 

Hi freaks!

Step 15: Some more scenery and coloring the road.

Next step is to color the road. I have chosen a relatively light matt grey. The lighter the grey is the better you can add darker nouances later. Black or dark cars can be seen better, too. Further more you will get some weathering by the rubbermarks of the tyres while driving the cars arround. I added some darker grey here and there to get some old and worn look. Some little olive matt and light brown here and there and the road looks good. Some cobblestone to be added here and there maybe later. Color is applied with a brush first and partly washed off with a dry kittchen paper. White lines were done with white paintmarker and a lexan-stripe.

The reverseloop is thought to be made look like sand, stones and earth. Additionally the surface should be kept smooth. A little bit brown here and there was added to the lightbrown base. Then I added some dark brown, dark grey and white spots. They were applied with a toothbrush and give some nice look that nearly cant be devided from the surrounding optically.

The fence in the foreground is just some new-years-rocket and thin copperwire. The 'trees' are just a test-version to get some idea where to put them later.

Costs for today: 6Euro for the light grey acrylic color mixed at the colorshop. Sum: 40,85Euro so far.

@rallyP: Heki does 3 kind of colors for 6mm static grass, this one is called "Savanna".

Hope you enjoy. Regards Jens

 

Hi Jens,

I like the sandy marks on the road surface at the reverse loop.
Thanks for your clearly explanation.

rallyhub

 

Maybe some tinned copper for the street area and regular copper for the dirt
area so it will blend a little better ?

That is what I wanted to do to my track,but could not find the tinned copper....

Looking good Jens..

 

Hello Jens,
your new track is very beautiful.

I look forward to how it goes.

Nice description.

Greetings

Stefan

 

Wow. Beautiful

 

Hi fellows, thanks for your interest and your comments.

@Zook: Yes, I thought about that, too. Lets see.

Step 16: Cobblestones

Some cobblestones as scenery detail for the roadside today:
First step is to mark the area where you want to have the cobble.

Second step is to work out the the gaps. I am sure there are several ways to do, but I did the cobble with an engraver. Several others here did it with a Dremel. A cutterknife or something like that will do the job, too. Best look is when cobble is arranged rightangular to the sideline in my opinion.

The gaps are brushed with a darkbrown and the lighter brown (used as underground for the rest of the track). Overflow is soaked with a kittchentowel before drying.

Then every single cobblestone is colored with some grey; I used two different types: a lighter one and a darker. When first coat of paint dryed the light stones get some dark-grey drybrush for more 3D, the dark ones are drybrushed with the lighter grey.

For now it looks like a freshly layed down tile-floor and some weathering is needed. I just brushed and dabed some little light brown here and there.
Here is the result and a picture of the materials used.

The very light areas are just because of some undryed colors. They look better later. Watch next picture for result after they were dryed.

Engraving or cutting out cobblestone is a bloody damned job but I guess it is the only way to do it most realistic. I tryed some potatostamps earlier, too. They might be used for areas of cobble more then 1m away from the viewer. Here is an old photo of this:

Next time stamping I would do darker Base (later gaps) and lighter stones. I guess that would look better. We had a nice discussion about the cobblestones in that time. You might watch the 'Targa Strada Del Vino'-thread starting arround post #50 for that.

Hope you enjoy. Regards Jens

 

Nice job, Jens, and a mighty fine tutorial.

Christian

 

That is excellent and timely too as I will be building some into the hillclimb.

 

Hi Jens

I tried carving cobbles with a Dremel but with fairly "average" results. In the end, I rolled out a thin (3-4 mm) sheet of DAS clay, which I stuck down with PVA glue, and then created the cobbles by pressing a ruler into the clay to create the lines, and then used a spoon handle to define the individual cobbles.

Initial attempt at engraving cobbles

New version made from modelling clay.

With a bit more colour applied

The end result also added a more different road surface.

I suspect that when I tried Dremelling the cobbles, I didn't carve deep enough. Had I done so, I might have been happier with them

Continuing to enjoy this thread.

Don

 

Jens,
You never stop surprising me! Have followed some great builds of yours, but that you where such a good teacher was new to me. I can only praise you for this simple but excellent ABC, that clearly will take all fears away for a novice builder (and semi experienced ones) and their first build. Great job Jens, looking forward to see more.
Per

 

QUOTE (Kellerkind @ 28 Jan 2013, 20:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That looks so good

Definitely one of my favorite slot car pictures