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I put together this diorama to get a feel for what's involved in building a small model railroad, and to see if this whole hobby is something I'd be interested in doing. No, this is not a module, and does not connect to anything - it is just a piece of "art" and is an experimental playground for testing out techniques for building components (like various tree types, grasses & foliage, etc.). Yes, in spite of its tiny size, it is fully functional! It currently runs DC, should be fine for DCC, and even includes interior lighting in the little shed! I expect to use this as a test track, for testing locomotives and for maintenance.
Note: An expanded downloadable/printable article describing the details of this construction process is available as an Acrobat PDF file here. To download it, right-click on the link then select "Save As..." or "Save Link As..." (depending on your browser).
So here's how I went about building this diorama...click on any photo for a new browser window where you can zoom in on the details...
I used a kit from Woodland Scenics for the basic layout and guidelines, since this was my first attempt at this kind of thing. However, I built a more solid base using plywood and a 1x2" frame under the plywood. Since I knew I wanted a stream and pond in the scene, I scratch-built a bridge for the track. I did not like the kit's suggestion of just black craft paper for the tunnel interior, so I built my own tunnel from plaster for more realistic interior walls.
The inside of the tunnel was created using a flexible pipe form, with crumpled then un-crumpled aluminum foil shaped over the pipe for the rough interior texture. I then painted the inside of the tunnel using the "spotted" paint dapple technique.
At the lower left is a shot of the bridge before I installed it on the diorama. I modeled the bridge from an actual prototype railroad bridge about a mile from my house.
The detail below shows the bridge installed under the track.
To fill in the landforms, I used blue building insulation foam from the hardware store. I carved the foam with knives, chisels, and rasps. Some rock forms came with the kit, and others I made by casting plaster in pre-made rubber forms. The rock forms were glued to the foam hills.
Plaster cloth and spackling paste was used to fill in the gaps and finish the landforms around the rocks and railroad bed. I also painted a plaster tunnel portal (it came with the kit) and installed it on the front of the tunnel. I used plaster cloth around the sides of the foam for a finished look and to strengthen the foam side panels.
Note that I left some of the blue foam exposed. I wanted to see how well bare foam would work as the finished surface. It turned out to be fine, after painting it.
Then I painted the raw plaster rocks with water-based paints using the spotted paint color technique (just dappling multiple colors over the plaster, then filling in with a wash of black india ink and water). It is amazing how real this makes the rocks! This is the same technique I used to color the inside of the tunnel.
I painted the rest of the foam land forms with house paint. I took local photos of the foothills and compared the "general" background color with paint chips from the hardware store.
To learn how to make rivers, waterfalls, and ponds, I got another Woodland Scenics kit. Yes, most of the literature says you should tint water brown for realism, but I've seen many deep ponds and streams so crystal clear here in the Colorado Rockies that I wanted to model snow-melt water. I did add some green ground foam to the 2-part "Magic Water" I used for the main pond, to simulate algae growth! The 2-part Magic Water works best for deep ponds - it took only 3 pours to get the depth I needed here.
After the basic colors were added, I finished the ballasting the rest of the track (see photo below; the photos above show only the base cork bed).
For the waterfall, I used the Woodland Scenics "Water Effects" to make 3-D water rivlets. The stream was Woodland Scenics "Realistic Water," which works well for shallow water; it still took several layers to build up the depth I needed in some stream areas. The textures of running water on both the pond and the stream were created with more Water Effects. For the fast-running water highlights, I dry-brushed white paint on the ridges of the water effects.
The scene really starts to shape up once you add some vegetation! I started with a couple of colors of static grass, covering all the rest of the painted landform. I used a browner color for areas where dryer grass would be, and a greener color for more moist areas around the water. I varied the green with some green ground foam (fine turf), and added a few bushes using clump foliage. I then added some Indian Paintbrush (yes, there is a material for this!) and some yellow wildflowers. This is basically ground foam colored yellow or red-orange.
Note the shed on the left. I added shake shingles using a laser-cut paper material. Very realistic! Click on the photo for a detailed view.
I added more clump foliage to produce the bushes around the trees. The critters and figures are not permanently mounted here - I just added them for the photo and final slide show.
The spruce tree in the lower center was an unmodified Grand Central Gems small pine tree. These are the most realistic commercial conifers I have seen.
Under the pine trees, I added Woodland Scenics' "Foliage" to represent the bearberry and evergreen ground cover so common in the Rockies. This material is a fiber coated with green ground foam, and is easy to cut and glue as a mat.
For the main deciduous trees, the main kit included tree armatures and clump foliage. You twist the plastic armature to resemble a tree branch structure, then coat it with glue and dip it in the clump foliage. Though the clump foliage would work, I had read articles in Model Railroader about using a fiber material for creating the underlying twig structure of the tree. I used a black fiber material to provide contrast and depth, pulling it out thinly and draping it over the glue-coated branches of the armature. I then sprayed the fiber material with thin white glue, and sprinkled green ground foam (coarse turf) over it. This produced a much finer, lacier look to the trees than the clump foliage would have provided.
The kit did not include any materials for aspen or pine trees (conifers). The aspen-like trees were the simplest - I just bought a package of Bachmann light green "Wire Foliage Branches" and stuck them into the ground; I had to drill small holes where I had plaster coating.
The main conifers on the ridge were made using separately purchased Woodland Scenics conifer armatures. I tried multiple techniques here, since I have never been satisfied with the geometric cone-shaped conifers you usually find commercially. Some trees I did by stretching the black fiber to shape pointy-egg shapes around the armatures. Others I did by the instructions, just putting glue on the branch tips and sprinkling on forest green turf material. On both of these, I finished the trees by spraying with thinned white glue and dusting with forest green static grass - this produced a more realistic pine needle effect.
For larger photos of the diorama construction, click on the arrows of the image below.
For photos of the completed diorama, click on the arrows of the image below.
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