new kid on the block!

ok heres the satin 'wet look' effect in the mud ruts, i've tried some seapage around the terraces on the cliffs and it looks ok, but must be careful not to over do it or it'll turn into euro disney! (if you know what i mean)



heres my guys in the cave under neath what will be the village, once they've fixed the cars they go out via one of 2 tunnels onto the motorway...not sure if this arrangement would satisfy health and safety!




heres the muddy turn off from the main road up to the track (must finish that routed connection!)


and the over view, still tons to do..
steel bridge
old mans garage under the bridge,
olive grove on the terracing
the pit cave and tunnels
the village!
the road works on the main road
all barriers, etc

yikes

cheers ember, i'm gonna hold off on any more rain until near the end just in case!, at the moment the ideas for the details are changing daily, which brings me to my problemo

most tracks i see on here are stylised to a certain place in a certain time, and the purists pick the correct detailing for that area in that period, 60's italy, mid west america etc..this is great and correct....BUT.....the problem i've got is the following.

i live in spain and so mostly copy the scenery from around here, much of which is very beautiful of course..olive and almond groves, cherry trees, etc etc.
however i studied architecture in manchester and now work in steel, so i'm very influenced by the industrial revolution railway architecture there (big rivets, massive girders etc.)

the problem is, that the bridge detailing that i want for the track is based on 'iron bridge' in england (picture to follow) and straight opposite on the track will be the olive grove terraces typical to here.! basically that type of bridge wouldnt exist in rural spain, it'd be all rustic stone .

so...what do you all reckon, we're creating a fiction here after all, can i just mash up all my best bits in one track and hope it fits together or do i have to smooth down the styles into something more coherant??????

add to this problem the fact that i'm rubbish at making trees and they all look like they're from some kind of japanese garden, and you can see what type of pickle i'm in!

Oh my. Both tree and bridge are gorgeous.

Tree first. Now I'm far from expert in these things. Maestro Korando will no doubt be the best one to adivse. But I'd be inclined to lightly spray (airbrush) the foliage/needles with a few shades of green. Working lightest to darkest. Being particularly light handed on the darks. Various shades of grey green, through olive and eventually to a rich pine green. I'd be keeping the paint to fairly low intensity washes. Better to do more light coats to build up rather than a couple of heavy coats that go too far.

But see, that's me. I feel most comfortable with a paint brush in hand. Therefore I'll do more detailling in paint than in add ons.

On the bridge side of things... I don't see any problem with a bit of fantasy. But again, that's me. What I'm working on is a complete fantasy. A very loose combination of a few places, taking bits that I like from here and there, with an overall flavour of here.

The iron work on the bridge could stay whilst using the stone work of the piers to blend in with the rest of the track flavour, ie) local stone. That's the way I look at it anyway.

I have a similar enigma growing on my track, in that I haven't been able to resolve one little area without having to resort to new style concrete freeway construction. This will definitely be one of my last areas to work on in the hopes that I'll come up with a better solution that will give me the construction I need without compromising too much on vision and accessibility.

I guess it all comes down to what you want from your track. No doubt others will say different.

Cheers
Embs

sig,

Go with the Iron Bridge detailing! Mr. Telford's work is certainly inspiring, and I think that it's important to build some of ourselves into these fictional layouts.

Why not come up with a storyline that supports what you build. It's possible that a bridge of similar detailing could have been designed by an apprentice of Telford. Perhaps this apprentice was of Spanish decent and happened to be the son of an iron smith. The father wanted more for his son, so he sent him off to England to apprentice for Telford. The son becomes a sucessful engineer in England and returns to his home years later to build such a bridge at the entry to his village as a monument to his father. Just and idea, but I do think that liberties can be taken to suit our own tastes.

As for the tree, it's perfect: it would be a crime not to use it! I think you could make some very realistic foliage for it by replacing the needles with Woodland Scenics Fine Leaf Foliage. There are plenty of on-line hobby shops that sell it, so I don't think that it would be too difficult for you to get.

Nice work, keep the updates coming!

Brad

thanks for the great feedback folks!, its a bit frustrating working in a vacuum sometimes, stuff you go with at the time sometimes later turns out to be a big mistake!, ok the tree stays..good!.i like it and it draws the eye to the top of the hill when looking at the track as a whole, also forms the basis of the plaza and also we got married under a similar tree on the top of a mountain next to a hamlet!..so that all ties in.
this afternoon i found ancient plans of a bridge designed by a disciple of telford, who happened to live just down the road from here, those plans just happened to be in dxf format on my computer, ready for laser cutting...strange...now how did that get there!!!

time to spend a few dollars at woodlands scenics methinks, in the meantime i might start working on the hermitage (a small version of our village church) while the forge is preparing the bridge bits!!

thanks again gang

QUOTE (sig @ 25 Sep 2009, 21:45) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>thanks for the great feedback folks! / ... / this afternoon i found ancient plans of a bridge designed by a disciple of telford, who happened to live just down the road from here, those plans just happened to be in dxf format on my computer, ready for laser cutting...strange...now how did that get there!!!
time to spend a few dollars at woodlands scenics methinks, in the meantime i might start working on the hermitage ..
Uh-oh .. by Engaging Infinite Improbability Drive .. it's been built-in in every W s OS since second WW. Hit any key and you never know what happens. Never fails ..

Eeeh .. about the concept. Scenic Elements! .. Meaning the track runs seamlessly through different kind of scenarios/scenes. Through a spanish village square /top right. Next, over the bridge into brittish rural countryside /over bridge to bottom right. A cottage, low stone walls, gates and stuff, a windmill .. Perhaps later past the heremit in his cave /the cutting at bottom level where a car is parked .. Then up-hill the Rocky Mountains in US /left ..

-- ron --

QUOTE (ronMcRain @ 25 Sep 2009, 14:54) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Uh-oh .. by Engaging Infinite Improbability Drive .. it's been built-in in every W s OS since second WW. Hit any key and you never know what happens. Never fails ..

Eeeh .. about the concept. Scenic Elements! .. Meaning the track runs seamlessly through different kind of scenarios/scenes. Through a spanish village square /top right. Next, over the bridge into brittish rural countryside /over bridge to bottom right. A cottage, low stone walls, gates and stuff, a windmill .. Perhaps later past the heremit in his cave /the cutting at bottom level where a car is parked .. Then up-hill the Rocky Mountains in US /left ..

-- ron --

OK Ron.
I have been using computers since 1981 but do not recall seeing any "bridge plans" in the OS? What are you referring to?

Cheers!

QUOTE (ronMcRain @ 26 Sep 2009, 06:05) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Ah well .. my second nature took over for a moment, that one trying to be witty, reg. findings on your HD. I almost always fail and never learn .. Sorry about that!

Back to the subject ...

-- ron --

I was not sure if you WERE being funny or serious! More the former than the latter but I also know there are things in Win that most of us are unaware of but they are there nontheless.

So let's ask the question again... what bridge pics did he find? Would be interested in knowing if he is willing to share.

(Sorry, I am saying "he" since I forgot the original post and am now in the reply mode...)

Cheers!

blimey now the pressures on isn't it, now we're all up to date on how the original was built and the genius that telford was, i've got to step in and provide a masterpiece!! well, luckily after changing the proportions of the bridge to fit the actual double span that i've got (about 1m 20cm), we loose the perfect semi circles that is on the original, which also breaks somehow from the englishness of the thing. it is now much more eliptical and reminds somehow of bridges in italy to my mind.(probably a good thing).
construction will be far easier than the original, as all the tricky stuff will be done by laser. however, this time i'm going to layer the pieces more to give more of a 3d effect because the footbridge for track one (see earlier in the thread) looks too flat!, also mix wood for the flooring of the pedestrian walkway, and maybe some sort of tubular handrail. then it has to be fixed to the track and the stone supports added around the steel structure. should be easy!, i dont think i'll paint it, just rub down the rougher edges with sandpaper, i'll rust on its own where it needs to.

meanwhile i've come back from a great weekend seeing the correfoc in barcelona (look it up on you tube) with a bag of miniature trees picked from a park there, fotos later, and i'll try and post a pdf of the bridge plans

see you soon sig

ok so this is proving to be just like floristry (my mums a florist), you cant just plant trees, willy nilly!, they seem to look better in group types. pines with pines, deciduous with deciduous.(like in real life of course), also i'm very conscious of the overall view, as my track is small (1and a half chip board sheets) it is easiliy appreciated in 1 'eyeful', meaning that 'eyeful' has to look good in on go!, the heights need to build up to a 'crescendo' on the top of the hill and lead down in height on the way down again.
now the 'architectural trees ' are inthe shrubery can be placed as they lok a bit odd, growing straight out of grass and rock!
the 'trees ' that i found are all from types of grasses and shrubs from around here , there was even a seed pod that looks like a palm tree!. the colours are very autumnal which i like (luckily) but with a bit of airbrush i'm sure they can be made more vibrant. personally i'm enjoying the muted colours in the track, another concept in landscape design is keeping the colour palet to a minimum.basically the only bright colours on the track will be the cars and the village girls






regarding the bridge, i'm trying to figure out how to portray rivets, i could precut holes in the steel and then weld small tacks through the holes so the heads look like rivets, but flippin 'eck what a rave!, any ideas??