The Lone Rock diorama was built to demonstrate rock carving and coloring techniques, and also to serve as a model stand for outdoor photography.
The Lone Rock diorama began with an email from Joey Ricard over at Trackside Scenery. When Joey's not working on his fantastic On30 Spruce Coal & Timber Co. layout, he's producing an awesome series of how-to modeling videos that you can watch over on YouTube. So when Joey asked if I might be interested in contributing to an upcoming video about modeling rocks, I was more than happy to agree. Joey's videos are always fun and informative, focusing on both tried-and-true and new-and-innovative techniques. Just my kind of project.
The idea for a stand-alone diorama that could be taken outdoors for photographing models had been percolating in the back of my mind for some time. Joey's video suggestion was just the push I needed to dust off the idea and get to building. I could document the build with video and photos as I went along, and wind up at the end with the photo-diorama I'd been daydreaming about. I wanted something simple and scenic, with a short length of track and one distinctive rock formation as center of interest. Most of the build is covered in the resulting video (below), so today's post will focus mostly on additional details. Here's how it all went together.
The 12" x 24" diorama started with a simple frame of 1" x 2" MDF and three layers of 1.5" white polystyrene bead-board. Some 1" thick gold polyurethane foam (Balsa Foam) was roughly shaped to form a single, towering butte. 1/2" plywood was cut to shape for track sub-roadbed and glued in place atop the foam. The white foam was shaped with a hot-wire cutter, and a small stone culvert made from Balsa Foam was created to bridge the gully. I used Loctite Power Grab construction adhesive to glue everything together.
The butte was carved from hard density Balsa Foam. This is a commercial version of the same gold urethane carving foam used by Walt Disney Imagineering and Hollywood special effects model builders. It's available through better stocked art and craft dealers.
A short section of the 1/2" plywood sub-roadbed was cut away and a chunk of 1" thick Balsa Foam was used to form a small stone culvert. The arch was created with sandpaper wrapped around a small bottle, and the stones were carved with a hard 5H pencil.
Using photos of rocks from Monument Valley, Moab and Sedona, Lone Rock Butte was carved from Balsa Foam using mostly a #2 hobby knife. The butte was then glued to the base with Loctite Powergrab adhesive. Four bamboo skewers between the butte and the base add additional strength. See the video for more details on the carving process. My part starts at about the 8:40 mark.
Sculptamold was used to blend the butte into the base and to form an embankment along the sub-roadbed right of way. A soft, wet brush is handy for smoothing things out.
Since there would be scenery below it, the stone culvert was finished early and installed flush with the sub-roadbed. It was painted with acrylics and the mortar lines were filled with spackling paste.
Midwest HO scale cork roadbed was glued down with yellow carpenter's glue before just about everything on the diorama was given a base coat of golden-tan flat latex house paint. Then a length of Peco On30 flextrack was cemented in place with Powergrab adhesive.
A wash of diluted India ink was sprayed onto the butte to darken cracks and crevices before final painting was done. Inexpensive craft acrylics were used to complete the paint job. Colors like raw sienna, red oxide, burnt umber and unbleached titanium were applied wet into wet, working from darker to lighter tones. See the video for a more complete rundown on the painting process. Painting and finishing starts at about 12:45 on the video.
The track was painted and weathered using Joey Ricard's easy techniques featured in this video from TracksideScenery.com. First the track is painted flat black. I masked off the diorama for this and did the painting outside with some Krylon spray paint. Next the ties are painted with a light tan acrylic. I used Apple Barrel "Khaki." Then the rails are painted with rust colored chalks suspended in 70% isopropyl alcohol. The final step is to give everything a good dusting with black and dark brown chalks. There's no power going to this track so I didn't bother to clean the paint off of the railhead. On powered track I'd use a Bright Boy or paint thinner to clean the railhead after painting.
The basic ground cover is Polyblend Sanded Grout. I mixed it up with a little water to form a thick paste and then just stippled it on with a cheep paintbrush (don't use a good brush for this! You'll never use it again). The erosion lines were pressed in with a pencil. The grout does a good job of representing soil while also filling and smoothing any remaining gaps in the foam base. This color is called "Sandstone," appropriately enough, and it dries a couple of shades lighter than it goes on. The wet grout generally stays where you put it but I also wet it down with a misting of diluted matte medium to lock it in place.
Once the grout had set overnight, the final coloring was done with light washes of acrylics to blend and unify the grout layer with the rock carving.
Real dirt and rocks were sprinkled on and then glued in place with white glue and diluted matte medium.
The track was ballasted with local sandstone, held in place with diluted matte medium.
Woodland Scenics "Field Grass" was used to make clumps of desert grasses and weeds, held in place with dabs of Aleene's Tacky Glue. Any loose fibers were later cleaned up with a shop vac.
A few more bushes and desert plants finish the diorama. The juniper bushes are Super Trees from Scenic Express covered in Noch dark green foliage. Clumps of gray sage were made with Woodland Scenics medium green bushes, lightly sprayed with gray primer. The prickly-pear cacti are castings from Pegasus Models. Lastly, the 1" x 2" frame was painted flat black to match the fascia on the Thunder Mesa layout.
Building the Lone Rock diorama was a quick, fun and rewarding project. Even if you don't have room for a full layout, I encourage anyone to try their hand at a small diorama like this. It can be finished in a week or so, and it's a great way to learn new techniques or to experiment with scenery ideas. I'll close out today's post with the finished video that Joey and I put together, and with a few photos taken outdoors in beautiful Sedona, AZ.
Set-up for photos in Sedona, AZ.
A small diorama like this is great for photographing models outside in natural light.
That's it for this project. Questions and comments are welcome below. Adios for now, amigos!
All of the final touches are in and the sound is turned on for Big Thunder Creek. Does that mean the scene is finished? Well, there's always more to add but we'll call it done for now!
Welcome to the fourth and final post chronicling the build of Big Thunder Creek. Its been a fun and rewarding project that has brought a lot of life to the layout. In this installment I'll add the finishing touches to the scene, including some animal life, an old cottonwood tree, and the sound effects of birds and rushing water.
The Cottonwood
Throughout the desert Southwest, the majestic cottonwood has always been a welcome site. Cottonwood trees only grow near reliable sources of water like springs, creeks and stock ponds where they provide shade for weary travelers and habitat for wildlife. The bright green of a cottonwood grove can be seen for miles across the desert and always means life-saving water. When planning Big Thunder Creek I knew that it simply would not be complete without at least a representative sample of the cottonwood.
A Fremont Cottonwood in fall color beside a desert wash. Even if there's no water visible on the surface, a healthy cottonwood means that water can be found just below ground.
Cottonwoods have gray bark and distinctive branching trunks. I created mine using yard clippings from our paradise trees and Super Sage tree material from Scenic Express. The paradise tree clippings do a good job of representing the twisted trunks and thick branches of a typical cottonwood, while the sage is perfect for representing the smaller leaf-bearing branches and twigs. Paradise branches were trimmed and cemented together and a pin was cemented into the base to make it easier to plant on the layout and to work on at the bench. The Super Sage was soaked in diluted matte medium to make it pliable (as per the instructions) and then individual sprigs were cemented to the trunk and branches with fast-setting ACC.
Much has been written about modeling trees so I'll just cut to the chase here. Once the trunk was complete, the crown was sprayed with 3M 45 General Purpose Adhesive and then sprinkled with Noch Spring Green Leaf Flake. The other creekside bushes were made in a similar fashion and all were planted on the layout using Aleene's Tacky Glue.
Ground cover beneath the tree was created with a layer of fine dirt from my Sedona collection and ground up dry leaves from the yard. Everything was held in place with a spray of "wet" water (water with 1-2 drops of dishwashing liquid) and then glued down with diluted matte medium. Various ground foams, sticks, plants and grasses from Woodland Scenics help round out the scene. Good scenery is variety and layers, just like nature.
The finished cottonwood and environs. The challenge here was to build a tree of realistic size that didn't completely overpower the rest of the scene.
Critters and Other Details
Water in the desert attracts animals like a magnet, and while much of that illusion will be conveyed through sound effects, I wanted a few representative critters that would be visible to viewers.
Some ducks and a turtle made from Sculpey II. These were baked for about 15 minutes at 275ยบ and then painted with acrylics. For scale, the pin that makes up the head and tail of the turtle is about an inch long. It was trimmed much shorter before being added to the layout.
The ducks and turtle in their natural habitat of Big Thunder Creek. For the record, the ducks are named Donald and Daisy.
Why did the armadillo cross the train tracks? To get to the creek of course! This little guy is a white metal casting from Wiseman Model Services.
More greenery along the creek. This small hill between the bridges was created to help separate the creek from areas to the right. The cacti are excellent plastic castings from Pegasus Hobbies.
An old Indian trail winds its way down to the creek from the mesa and a pair of Ute braves have stopped to pay their respects to Thunder Falls. The figures are from Woodland Scenics.
Finishing the creek scene meant finishing up the track too. Here, ballast is being spread along the mainline with a small, soft brush. This was then held in place with a spray of "wet" water and then glued down with diluted matte medium. The mainline ballast is died chick grit and the sidings are red dirt from Sedona.
Adding Sound
As I have on previous projects, I turned to ITT Products when it came time to add sound to Big Thunder Creek. I wanted an ambient effect with the roar of the waterfalls coming from an upper speaker and babbling water and bird sounds coming from a speaker near the layout fascia. Their small sound modules are perfect for adding spot sounds like this to specific locales.
Sound modules and 2" speakers from ITT Products. The modules were wired in series to a panel switch but the speakers were placed farther apart. The speaker for the waterfall sound module was placed directly behind the big falls and the speaker for the brooks and birds was placed closer to the front of the layout.
The wiring for the sound modules is very straight forward and the instructions are quite clear and easy to follow - even for an electronics dummy like me. Here the two modules have been wired in parallel and leads have been added to connect to a 9v power source. Small jumper wires have also been connected on the center on/off terminal to allow for continuous looping sound. The orange disk at lower left on each module is the volume control.
Here the two sound modules have been mounted to benchwork below the layout in a relatively easy to reach location.
The best way to demonstrate the sound modules is with a video. To wrap up the project, here's a short movie on the sights and sounds of Big Thunder Creek. Enjoy!
Thanks for coming along for the Big Thunder Creek project. I hope everyone enjoyed the journey. Of course, there's still lots to do on this side of the layout with Thunder Mesa Mill and other structure projects waiting in the wings. We'll see what I'm in the mood to tackle in the days and weeks to come. In the meantime, thanks for checking in, amigos. Adios for now!
An eagle soars high above Big Thunder Creek as the TMMC crews go about their daily work. The cold, clear water issues from a hidden spring below Baxter's Butte, creating a green oasis of life in the midst of the red rock desert. Backdrop and smoke effects added with Photoshop, all else as modeled.
Water has arrived in the desert! As the spooky Never Mine takes shape on the slopes above, a flash flood of clear epoxy resin has transformed Big Thunder Creek from a dry and dusty wash into a gurgling, splashing oasis of life. This past week was spent creating the water effect for Big Thunder Creek and detailing the surrounding scenery. Follow along with the photos and captions as I describe my process for creating believable waterfalls, rapids and pools with acrylic sheet, clear resin, paint and silicone caulk.
The Creek Bed
Before modeling the water itself, the creek bed needed to be detailed. A layer of sand and small stones collected from real creeks in Sedona, AZ and Silverton, CO was laid down and glued in place with a generous amount of matte medium diluted 1:1 with water.
Once the glue for the stones had set, cattails, tall grasses and other greenery were added along the banks. I wanted this area to appear more lush and green than the rest of the layout. Most of the plant material came from Woodland Scenics and Scenic Express. Note that the foreground trestle deck was still removable at this time to allow for modeling the creek.
The Waterfalls
There are several different ways to model waterfalls. I chose to use a technique learned from Sam Towler's fabulous Nature's Wonderland layout. Basically, 1mm (.04") thick clear acrylic sheet is cut to size, and then textured with a hot soldering iron. I built on Sam's original technique by also using the soldering iron to fuse strips of acrylic together and to shape and sculpt the falls into the more complex forms needed. More acrylic was fused in select places to show variations in the flow of water, and more was added at the bottom of the falls to simulate foam and splashing water. Warning! If you try this technique, use breathing protection and work in a well ventilated area. Also, don't burn yourself with melted plastic or the hot tip of the soldering iron. And always look both ways before crossing the street.
My creek needed three waterfalls and each was sculpted to fit its particular spot. Here, the edges, lip and foamy bottoms of the two lower falls are being highlighted with white acrylic paint. Highlighting is done on the top surface. This is later covered with clear resin or gloss medium to bring back the shine.
Dap 3.0 Crystal Clear Silicone Caulk and Sealant was used to glue each waterfall in place and to act as a dam to hold back the Envirotex resin in each pool when it was poured.
Here, all three acrylic waterfalls are in place and it's just about time to mix up some Envirotex. Note that the walls of the canyon have been darkened at their base with some dark browns and a touch of moss green to simulate rock dampened by mist and splashing water.
The Pools
For the water in my creek I used Envirotex Lite, a two part clear epoxy resin. It's a really good idea to wear gloves while you do this because you don't want this stuff on your skin.
I mixed up small batches in 3 oz dixie cups, taking my time and following the directions. Measuring and marking 1/2" from the bottom of each cup (one for resin, one for hardener) helps to accurately measure the required 1:1 portions of each part.
The resin was mixed 1:1 with the hardener, stirring and scarping with wooden stir sticks for about 3 minutes. A drop of moss green acrylic paint was added to the first pour for depth and color. This project was done in several successive pours and used almost an entire 8 oz kit of Envirotex Lite.
Here's a shot after the first three pours. Envirotex Lite is self leveling and will slowly flow down to settle in the lowest spots (make sure your creek bed doesn't leak!). I started at the topmost pool above the highest falls and worked my way down to the bottom, allowing the resin to spill right over the falls as it went down. A masking tape dam across the fascia kept the resin from oozing right off the front edge of the layout. This was allowed to cure for about 48 hours.
Rapids and Fast Water
Envirotex is great for modeling water but it cures completely flat. For rushing water and rapids, I used clear silicone caulk applied in strips and dabs, directly on top of the cured resin.
A flat toothpick was used to spread, feather and form the caulk into waves riffles and rapids.
Fast water below the big falls.
More rough water caused by stones below the surface. The caulk was applied in any logical place where the water would be fast or disturbed by rocks or other obstacles in the creekbed. It helps to look at lots of pictures of creeks and rivers!
Behind the lefthand trestle pier is a calm backwater. I gave this a mossy, overgrown look by dabbing dirty green acrylics onto the surface with a small brush.
Once the caulk had set overnight, highlights were dry-brushed on using white acrylic paint and a light touch. This was followed by a thin, clear topcoat of resin poured over the entire creek and brushed across the tops of the rapids.
The final step was to further break up the flat surface of the water by swirling and stippling acrylic gloss medium in the faster moving sections of the creek.
When dry, these surface ripples reflect and refract the light, adding to the sense of realism.
Up Next
The creek scene is starting to come together. In the final part of this series, I'll describe all of the little details that help bring it to life.
With the completion of the water effects, Big Thunder Creek is just about done. But the creek itself is just one element in a larger scene where many details large and small will help bring it all together. As always, thanks for checking in and following along. Comments and questions are welcome below. Happy trails amigos and adios for now!
It's been a busy day at Big Thunder Creek. I wonder if the fish are biting...
