2-2-Toot Scenic Adventure

[VerdevaleRailway]

The cacophony of management at Galgorm Hall and Verdevale Railway bring before you, the esteemed members of NRM, a proposal that will revive the weary, excite the intrepid and restore youthful vigour!

Our proposal is the '2-2-Toot Scenic Adventure" to fit on a diorama not exceeding 4 square feet (2x2). It can have any dimensions that you choose, but please, no more than 576 square inches!!
You are free to explore the area above your base board to the stratosphere.

The objective is to explore the use of materials and techniques that the modeler has shied away from, and there is no judgement of the finished product.

Everyone is invited to interpret a canal/water, railway and associated infrastructure scene, and plagiarism will be looked on most favourably!!! But all must be new build, whether scratch or kit.

There is no necessity for a preliminary plan, you can make it up as you go along.
There is no start time, but the adventure concludes Easter Sunday.
We would like any Youtube tutorials that you referenced to be included as links as you go along (preferably not at the conclusion) so that we can broaden our skills base, and links to websites that provided background info would be appreciated also.
The degree of completion is immaterial, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The updates will be in this single thread, that you can reference back to in your own layout or workbench thread.
Non participants should refrain from offering critiques unless they are specifically requested by an explorer, but are free to provide advice, and especially if this has not been requested by the explorer, please do so in a private notification.
The best way to share your knowledge is with a demonstration, join us in the build!


We have a happy community here, and we want this to be an open platform in which you can do as much experimentation as you like without criticism. Come and have a bit of fun


V.R.in cahoots with Paul

[Emettman]

Interesting.

I will mull.
And peruse my reserves of koominhandi.

Chris

[carnehan]

Well, now that concise explanation is out of the way I'll put forward my entry in to the diorama category.

I'm thinking my diorama will be an independent piece that I can have in a display unit in the house (assuming it passes muster with the Mrs) that will allow me to present a loco or some wagon builds. i have a couple of boxes I want to tick too with the build, partly for the look of it but also to try some modelling techniques I haven't done to date.

With that in mind it will have an embankment carrying a single piece of track. The line will have a small bridge spanning a canal and the remainder of the scenery will be fields. I was also thinking the canal will have a lock gate to make it more visually interesting with perhaps a small lock keepers house and the bridge will be a stone structure.

The canal allows me to try modelling water for the first time, the embankments are a feature I want to create on the layout so It will be a good learning tool, I also want to experiment with static grass as I will use it on the layout too and I want to experiment with foam board so the stonework bridge gives good opportunity for that.

My measurements are going to be approximately 14"x9" to enable it to fit in the unit in the hallway. There probably isn't going to be much action on this until the New Year but at least I've thrown down the gauntlet.

Now, who else is going to join V.R. and me on this adventure?

Paul

[VerdevaleRailway]

My build will be an Inglenook Sidings. This is something that I hope will interest the guys I work with. I have a donor Triang jinty and will be using Triang series 3 track, so that will give me an opportunity to hone some soldering skills.

I'm planning a small timber trestle bridge over a creek, so i can find out how to use water, and like Carnehan experimenting with static grass.

Working size will be be 4' x 1' and working in OO

It will need to be fairly bombproof, the points will probably remain unwired as that will be easier for them to use, but I'll need to concoct uncoupling apparatus that is simple and foolproof. I have in mind something that I think may work well, but will require some experimenting.

I'll also be foraging into trees

V.R.

[Bufferstop]

A bit of clarification which is it
Two square feet - 1ft by 2ft = 2sqft
Two feet square - 2ft by 2ft = 4sqft
Somebody has to ask these daft questions because someone else will make the wrong assumption. Haven't decided yet whether to join in, some things to get sorted first but best of luck to all who do.

[VerdevaleRailway]

A bit of clarification which is it
.

Apologies for the confusion, 2 feet by 2 feet, or more accurately 576 square inches in any configuration is the maximum space for the diaroma

Hopefully that allows a working area that can be best utilised in the participant's scheme of ultimate utilisation.

Initial post amended

Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

[VerdevaleRailway]

Not quite ready to commit, but I am 99% certain, so my assumption is that I build something in my own thread but put titbits in here, or have I not quite grasped the concept

We had intentioned to have the builds all within this thread

Thanks for the question Dave

[nickbrad]

Everyone is invited to interpret a canal/water, railway and associated infrastructure scene, and plagiarism will be looked on most favourably!!! But all must be new build, whether scratch or kit.

Am I right in reading that it must have a canal/waterway? I have an idea for a diorama that could fit nicely into this size, but I hadn't planned for any waterworks. I guess I could knock together some ideas though that do include a water feature

[VerdevaleRailway]

I can incorporate that element, but as its winter I may have to resort to snow & ice.

TBC

That fits in perfectly! Have you depicted snow and ice previously?

Am I right in reading that it must have a canal/waterway? I have an idea for a diorama that could fit nicely into this size, but I hadn't planned for any waterworks. I guess I could knock together some ideas though that do include a water feature

We're very flexible, we'd accept a puddle!

Thanks for the questions guys. As we proposed, the adventure is to document moving your gunnagetaroundtoit file into the gotaroundit file

Cheers, V.R.

[nickbrad]

I have a 34 inch long piece of Celotex left over which I can cut down to 16 inches wide, bringing me in the parameters of the competition and I have an idea in mind, even if it wasn't my original one. I am officially declaring myself in!

[carnehan]

Great to have you aboard Nickbrad. Looking forward to what you produce.

Paul

[carnehan]

So, who's made a start on their toot toot adventure? Anyone? Ok, I'll kick it off then

A measure up of the display cabinet revealed that my maximum dimensions to allow for easy insertion and extraction of the diorama would be 13"x9". With this in mind, a length of 1"X1/4" timber was purchased at great expense to form the basic frame of the build.

IMG_3800.JPG (108.47 KiB) Viewed 3540 times

Fitted with screws at each corner and similar on the centre brace it's as square as I'll achieve with my modicum of woodworking skills. Next up, the track and canal bed formed using 6mm ply and upright struts from same 1"X1/4" timber.

IMG_3801.JPG (85.1 KiB) Viewed 3540 times

With this done, I now have a clearer idea of the space I have to work with. The track length is just over 300mm in length allowing a Class 40 to just squeeze on to the track for display purposes. Seeing the space I have at the front of the diorama has me thinking I will have to omit the lock gates I wanted on the canal. The space required for them is perhaps going to make the thing look too crowded.

Next, using card, I will apply a base to the rest of the frame to allow me to glue polystyrene blocks and sheets to form the undulating landscape and railway embankment.

Now, who's next with an update?

Paul

[carnehan]

That's more like it Dave. Glad I'm not alone here.

Paul

[nickbrad]

I vow to at least cut my foam to the correct width tomorrow, plus start shaping the water feature. Beyond that, who knows, I want to start cutting into my "other" competition entry tomorrow as well.

[carnehan]

Great news Nickbrad. I really must get started on my competition entry too.

A little more progress on the diorama was made last night.

IMG_3803.JPG (108.43 KiB) Viewed 3517 times

I used 2mm mount board to produce the base fixed down with PVA glue and some panel pins. I made an error by fixing down the trackbed before fitting the card base. I had also fitted the bed with nails rather than screws which meant the bed snapped when trying to prise it off. Lesson learnt. Once the base was fitted, I cut some more ply and this time fitted with screws which will help should I need to remove it again for fitting the canal bridge or painting the canal bed.

Back to the base. I needed to add an additional brace to the frame to support the card and also created a gentle curve to the canal sides to take away the sharp straight lines of the diorama. I still have card to fit to the sides but was waiting on the little support pieces on the canal bed to dry before completing this. I'm not sure whether to do a natural grass embankment or a stone wall for the canal sides. With the addition of the curve I've lost quite a bit of width to the canal so the stone wall may be a more prudent solution.

Paul