Photo Plank, was: Tomix ED75

[marknewton]

My new Tomix ED75 arrived on Friday. It's a lovely model, seen here on the start of a new diorama photo plank.

 

The base is plywood with a simple dimensional lumber frame, the embankment core is made of Woodland Scenics risers, the foam underlay is an Australian product called Trackrite, the track is Tillig.

 

The overhead is a bodge using Kato masts and Viesmann registers and catenary sections. The bridge is by Micro Engineering, the little warehouse is a card model by Sankei, and the Mazda T2000 is from the Ra80 series by Time.

 

It's all very multi-national!

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited June 7, 2018 by marknewton

[marknewton]

I saw a post in another forum about building what the OP called a "photo plank". It's a narrow diorama that you pose models on for photography. Since that's what I'll be using it for thought that was a better name for the thing I'm building. It's also a means for me to practice scenery techniques, which is something I haven't much experience of.

 

The bridge is from a kit made Micro Engineering. The girders are styrene, but the sleepers or ties are made of some hard and slippery plastic that is impervious to the usual solvents, so I used carpet cement to attach it to the girders. At the moment the track is only lightly tacked in place so I can fit the approach tracks and measure the height of the abutments. It will come off again so I can paint and weather the two parts separately. Still to add are the guardrails and walkway.

 

 

 

 

The overhead masts are modified Kato items, fitted with Viessmann parts representing the arms and registers. I used these so I could fit Viessmann catenary sections after I decided the original Kato plastic parts were too fragile to use without the risk of breaking. So my catenary isn't an accurate representation of JNR prototype, but it's a compromise I'm prepared to live with as I don't particularly want to spend the rest of my life scratchbuilding the stuff. I cut away the original plastic arms and drilled holes in the masts to accept the Viessmann parts, which I secured with superglue/cyano/ACC or whatever it's called in your part of the world. The masts have to be painted in that nondescript concrete colour and weathered.

 

The little warehouse is a Sankei kit that was built by fellow forum member Andrew Collier - user name"Gora". As you can see he did a lovely job too, but the roof as supplied is flat with no relief, and I wanted to try out some styrene roofing sheets made by Gallery Sakatsu. So I've made a new tiled roof using this material. Again, it needs painting.

 

The Mazda T2000 is made by a company called Time as part of their Ra80 series of Japanese three-wheel trucks. It's a very nice little model enhanced by a bit of light weathering with Tamiya weathering pastels and sticks, and repositioning the front wheel.

 

I have a few days off next week, so I hope to get some more work done.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited June 7, 2018 by marknewton

[Kabutoni]

This looks like it's going to be an amazingly nicely detailed 'plank'! Keep us updated! :D

[ozman2009]

Great stuff Mark! What are those Sankei kits like? They make quite a large range for Z scale. I'll gladly build kits, but scratch building is not for this little black duck.

[Ken Ford]

Very nice, Mark - I like the idea of mini projects like this.  It's looking very good so far!

[marknewton]

Thanks folks, I'll make regular updates.

 

Gary, I'm a bit of a novice myself when it comes to Sankei kits. I didn't build this one, and so far I haven't finished any of mine. The kits are laser cut from a very high grade card, so they're very accurate and neat in their assembly. Andrew used PVA to assemble this one, and I've been using Rocket card glue on mine, both seem to work well as long as you apply the glue sparingly.

 

There's a couple of threads here on the forum about building these kits if you want to learn more.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

So here we are, one year and one month later, and this is as far as I've gotten with the plank:

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited March 5, 2016 by marknewton

[velotrain]

Mark -

 

> The Mazda T2000 is made by a company called Time as part of their Ra80 series of Japanese three-wheel trucks. It's a very nice little model enhanced by a bit of light weathering with Tamiya weathering pastels and sticks, and repositioning the front wheel.

 

It would be even more enhanced if the cab roof wasn't floating ;-)

[marknewton]

Yes, I need to fix that. I assume the separate roof moulding is intended to represent the canvas roofs of the prototype trucks:

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[velotrain]

In the photo it looks like it's actually attached to the rack at the rear of the cab, whether by casting or glue.

 

It seems the proto wheel wells were too difficult to represent.

 

It's hard to imagine that a canvas roof could be attached to the frame securely enough that those in the cab wouldn't get dripped on when driving in a rainstorm.

 

Good work on the plank.

 

I've ordered (months ago - I've been told that train factories in Germany don't work between the holidays and the Nurnberg toy fair) some Viessmann N-scale catenary to hopefully use with Kato double-track masts for a photo base.

[marknewton]

Yes, it's cast as part of the rack. I didn't realised how bodgy it looked until you mentioned it, so it will need some remedial work. The lack of wheel wells as modelled are correct for the T2000 - the flatbed was mounted higher on these than on the shorter variants.

 

 

I also wondered how waterproof these canvas roofs would be, but looking at the many different makes and models in the book I have I see that the majority of these three-wheelers had them as opposed to solid metal roofs, so I can only assume they were considered acceptable. But I reckon they wouldn't keep the cold out in winter, either. :)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited March 18, 2016 by marknewton

[serotta1972]

I saw a post in another forum about building what the OP called a "photo plank". It's a narrow diorama that you pose models on for photography. Since that's what I'll be using it for thought that was a better name for the thing I'm building. It's also a means for me to practice scenery techniques, which is something I haven't much experience of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like the idea of just building a diorama or plank as it is called to display trains and for taking pictures.  I enjoy looking at my trains almost just as much as running them so this is perfect.  No pressure to conform to any standards as it will be a stand alone piece.  And yes, we get to practice scenery techniques.  Thanks for the idea Mark.

 

-Junior

[marknewton]

My pleasure, Junior, but I can't take credit for the idea. If you build one please post some photos of what you come up with.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

A bit more progress on the plank.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Some more progress on the plank:

 

 

I've added the stone retaining wall to the banks of the creek. It needs to be weathered to tone down the contrast between the colours and kill the shine. But for something I made using a material and technique I've never used before I'm reasonably happy with it. I've also primed the bridge track ahead of painting and weathering it as well.

 

This is the scene that inspired the plank:

 

 

What I'm building is obviously not a slavish copy of the photo, but it's near enough for my purposes. As said earlier, I'm doing this to get some much-needed experience with making scenery. And already I've learned a few things. The most important is that the overall impression is probably more important than absolute accuracy. I also found that scenic modelling can be very relaxing after a stressful day at work.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited May 8, 2016 by marknewton

[bnicolas1987]

Great job!

 

But why are your previous pictures not available?

[cteno4]

An unfortunate problem with his yahoo account where the photos are.

 

Jeff

[marknewton]

As Jeff says, I had so many problems with the Flickr account that I used to host my photos, and so little "help" from Yahoo, that I sent them a very rude email and told them to close the account. I told them a few other things as well, but they're not appropriate to repeat in a public forum.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Today I permanently attached the catenary masts. Initially I wasn't sure of the best way to do that, given that the embankment is made entirely of foam. After a bit of head scratching I used epoxy adhesive to glue a length of wooden dowel to the base of the masts. I then used a wad punch of slightly smaller diameter than the dowel to make a hole in the foam next to the roadbed. The dowel was then coated with foam tack glue and inserted in the hole.

 

Rather to my surprise the masts are firmly secured in position and are quite rigid. The overhead wires are just a temporary installation to establish the correct position for the masts. The permanent OHW will be fitted once all the other scenic work is finished so that it doesn't get damaged.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

I'm on lates this fortnight, so I haven't had much modelling time, but I managed to do a bit more on the plank this afternoon before work. I painted the insulators and the registers on the overhead masts, and I laid and ballasted the track on the embankments.

 

The track I've used is Tillig code 83, which is very nice looking but rather delicate. The rail is pre-weathered, and the sleepers/ties are larger and more widely spaced than those on the comparable Peco code 83 fleet track. To my eye the track looks more "narrow gauge" as a result, so I'm happy to trade robustness for appearance.

 

The ballast is a locally made product made by a bloke I know who uses real ballast material that is finely ground. I went for a reddish-brown shade which matches the ballast colours I've seen on many secondary lines in Japan. Rather than muck around with all that tedious business of applying dilute PVA with an eye dropper to secure the ballast, I used neat latex carpet glue. I applied the glue to the foam roadbed, stuck the track down then spread ballast over the lot and let it set. Once the glue had dried I tipped the plank over and collected the excess ballast on a sheet of newspaper to use again. I think this gives a better looking result than the conventional method, and it's definitely quicker and easier.

 

When I'm home tomorrow morning and awake I'll post some photos.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

The idea behind the plank is to pose models on it for photos. Here's a couple of HobbyModel freight cars I'm building, as well as a finished example.

 

 

 

 

The finished car is one I bought from forum member Gora. I've since added a bit more weathering to match my other cars.

 

You can also get a glimpse of the ballast and painted OHW masts.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Some more progress with the plank. I've been teaching myself how to use a static grass applicator. I own two of the things. One is the well known - and riotously expensive - Noch Grassmaster, and the other is a cheap copy from China. After using them both today I reckon that the Chinese knockoff works almost as well as the German original.

 

 

 

Even though I'm a novice at using these things, I'm reasonably happy with the results so far. The only real problem I had was that I managed to zap myself somehow with the Chinese applicator. :(

 

I'm not sure exactly how I did that, but I'm damned sure I won't be doing it again...

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[cteno4]

Mark,

 

Nice! What length grass was it?

 

Jeff

[marknewton]

Thanks Jeff.

 

I used a mixture of 2, 4 and 8mm fibres of varying colours for the initial layer, then put on a second thin layer of 6mm fibres. I'm still on the steep part of the learning curve, so bear with me. I found out that the Chinese applicator has a capacitor in its innards, so it retains its charge after being switched off. So now I know to discharge it by putting the grid near the earthing pin and waiting for the arc! :)

 

I did a bit more work on it this morning, using a similar mix of fibres layered over a base of Woodland Scenics clump foliage. I took these photos before the glue was completely dry, but I think it looks good regardless.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Staffy]

Looks great. Could you provide a link to the Chinese version of the static grass applicator please?