Model Railroad Blog

Creating A Color Vintage Skyline

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Backdrop image of San Diego skyline circa 1955

 

My most recently completed commercial project is an N scale, proto freelanced, SP project set in San Diego in the 1950’s.   It was important to my customer and friend Jim that we create at least a reasonable representation of the San Diego skyline IN COLOR from that era.  Creating the almost four foot long image inset became a fascinating and extremely challenging project in and of itself.  Finding images wasn’t a problem.  Finding them in COLOR was a major problem. Between the two of us we spent hours searching the web to no avail.  Jim made personal visits to the San Diego historical society.  Nothing.

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My first approach was to purchase “colorization” software to add color to the image shown above from the cover of the book “San Diego Past and Present” by George Jezek.   How do I put this diplomatically….said software was as useless as tits on a bull.  Just worthless.  Long on hype, short on power, these programs do nothing that a select/bucket fill in Adobe can’t do.  Back to square one.  I let it sit for awhile and then a thought occurred to me.  I wonder how many of the iconic structures in the photo above still stand.  I called Jim and he started digging around.  Bingo!  To our total amazement almost all of them still exist in perfectly restored form, they are just obscured by taller, more modern buildings in front of them.  Jim did some more digging and came up with the names of the key buildings.

On to my tool of choice, Google Streetview.  Between street view and commercial photos I captured shots of each key structure and squared them up the best I could in photo shop.  More research on the web and I found a good shot of a low rise San Diego background hill.  What followed was almost eighty hours of cut and paste as I painstakingly edited each structure.  Using the black and white photo as a guide, I first pasted the hill in the back and then pasted the structures in place working back to front.

Dave Burgess of Backdrop Junction produced the custom printouts on peel and stick vinyl.  I can’t speak highly enough of Dave’s professionalism and patience in working with me.

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Once the  skyline was finished, it was inset into place on one of Dave’s Southern California images and printed out.  The roll of vinyl was then placed on an MDF backing following the instructions Dave provides in a video tutorial.

 

Our Quest for Realism

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It’s our ongoing quest, how do we create something that  looks like a “model of a railroad” NOT a “model railroad”, not a toy train set.  The answer lies in studying prototype photos, I mean really studying them and trying to get a handle on what we’re looking at.  It’s not easy and it’s not something where spending money will help solve. The most difficult aspect is often determining what color we’re looking at and how we re-create it.

The image above was taken on South Maywood facing east.  Let’s break it down and come up with a plan of attack.

A and B:  Chain link fences are everywhere.  The eye knows what they’re supposed to look like and it certainly knows when we get it wrong.  They are a “mutha” to model accurately and one of the most common tip offs that a photo is of a model not the prototype.   Note the fineness of the prototype mesh and rusted posts.   The only way to really do this right is to use wedding “thule” aka bridal veil material (very inexpensive and found at stores such as JoAnn Fabrics).  The mesh comes in gray, and rusty brown as well as white.  Since you are building from scratch, you have the opportunity to get the post diameter right.  Assuming they are two inches in diameter,  .022″ wire would be correct.

C:  The trash.  Note the color (mostly white), the size, and how it accumulates against barriers such as fences, and the volume.  I’ve found the tissue that is stuffed in gift bags to work well for white paper trash.  Simply copy the photo as to size and distribution.

D:  The soil and ballast.  This is a tough one.  What the heck is that color and how do you copy it?  A sub-conscious tip off that we are looking at a toy is overly uniform color.  Note the subtle color transitions from muddy tan to muddy gray.  Note the fineness of the soil.  First off, to dial this in I’d practice on a scrap first.  I typically use Arizona Rock and Mineral products.  I think I’d use their “Low Desert Soil” as a base but this is a larger size aggregate so you’ll need to run it through a wire strainer first.  They also make blends called “industrial dirt” and “asphalt”.  I’d experiment with mixing these into a variety of small batches of the low desert soil as well as sprinkling it on as on overlay.

Other things to note: the pale gray of the faded ties, the soil covering most of the ties, the stains on the asphalt behind the fence, the broken asphalt at the bottom edge of the photo (this is the shoulder of S. Maywood).

One of the things I love about model railroading is that it is such a level playing field.  Exceptional results are available to everybody that is committed to putting in the time, study, and practice, and commitment.  You can’t buy the solutions to the challenges in this post and those solutions are as available to the young student and retiree on a fixed income as they are to a person of means.

Federal Cold Storage

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I’ve mentioned a number of times how much I rely on mock ups to test scene composition. Call it my blind spot, but I have a hard time visualizing exactly what things will look like when viewed in two dimensions on paper. My original plan was to put a low, one story building in the corner “L” of the layout. Tall buildings abutting the backdrop can be problematic visually, especially the thinner they are. I placed my planned, one story, subject in the corner location and it left me totally unmoved. Placed in the corner it just looked “wrong”. Breaking convention, at least in this location, I needed something taller. The answer was easy to find in the iconic Federal Cold Storage building a few blocks away. I “think” the width of the structure, along with some judiciously placed trees will get me by the backdrop transition problem. With the change in the layout, I’ll probably have to rethink other features such as the cold storage door, but I think the new layout can accommodate it better.

The model is based on a kitbashed RJ Frost kit from Walthers. There is always some interpretation involved in creating the look you want. There is also an art to avoiding the land mines that ultimately result in that hard to define “model railroady” look. As cool as the sign is on top, I have a hunch this will look better if I omit it. As bitter of a pill as it is to swallow, I’ll also need to allocate a fair amount of space for the lot out front to avoid the toy look.

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Hitting the Target of Design Success, Part 2

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Last week we discussed the importance of self awareness in hitting the target of a successful design.  Ultimately “success” is defined by a layout that actually gets built (or mostly so) and provides the level of enjoyment the owner wants.  It needs to target the areas of the hobby that the builder actually derives the most satisfaction from, not what the model community tells him he “should” be interested in.

Let me introduce you to Earl.  Earl actually exists, not individually but as a composite of people I’m typically approached by in my design business.  Age 67.  Recently retired. Not rich but financially secure.  Has wanted a layout his entire life but it’s always taken a back seat to work and family demands.  Limited modeling experience but very knowledgeable about the prototype.  Modeling activity has centered around some clubs and frequent attendance at train shows, at which he never leaves without dropping major bucks on rolling stock and structure purchases.

Earl has one major advantage, he knows himself (truth be told this is fairly rare but roll with me on this).  Earl has been exposed to operations and doesn’t give a rat’s rear about it.  He’s been told he ‘should’ design for ops. but it just doesn’t matter to him.  Earl loves structure building and has fond memories of rail fanning in Appalachia.   He wants a canvas consisting of long coal drags being pulled by big power through the valleys of Appalachia.  He has a large roster of both steam and diesel power as well as hundreds of coal hoppers.

The plan above is my design.  By conventional standards it is flawed.  There is no staging.  There is limited opportunity for switching.  Consisting of double track, there is no opportunity for train meets in an operational setting.  Why?  Because, as I said earlier, Earl doesn’t give a crap about operations.  Never did, never will.  The above plan is a platform to watch trains cruise through scenery, display his motive power, and populate his towns with structures.  In short it’s designed to his interests not the outside world’s.