Swamp-erific!!

Gday all!!
Here is the last of our posts for today. This swamp has developed into its own feature deserving of its own post.
This area located on the third module and just off the old highway as it passes under the rail over road bridge. This area has not changed much in the 30 years since 1981.
The swamp was created using 6mm static grass, through a grass applicator that applies static charge to enable the fibres to fall vertically into a water/PVA mix. Adding detail to the swamp is the use of pre-fabricated grass tussocks in the form of small adhesive patches. Ill post more information on these at a later date as they are a great and useful product.

The trees on the hill use the same technique as described in the previous post. Woodland Scenics Confer Green matt was cut up into 7mm squares and teased into fluffy shaped pieces and glued onto the wire tree armature with a small amount of Selleys Quick Grip.

Not bad eh!! Who would have thought the train was supposed to be the feature of this photo!!

Another angle. I cant take my eyes off this area!! It looks soooooo real!!!

To prove it I took a photo of the ACTUAL swamp during my recent trip. The colour of the reeds slighty differ when the season changes.

This finalises this group of three posts. Hope you enjoyed the progress. If you have any questions feel free to contact me on zomer_1@hotmail.com.

Take care and happy modelling.

Adrian and Paul.

Introducing GRANDVIEW.

Gday All.





No these arent photos from the recent trip to Orbost. These are indeed the CrAzY photos of Pauls progress showing he, like Chuck Norris, doesnt sleep!!


Words nor photos can display the amount of time and effort that has gone into this piece of foam to recreate an era long gone. Paul tells me that there is much more detail to go into this scene such as telegraph poles, bitumen road, power poles, fenceposts, houses and of course the rail over old highway trestle bridge.


Elevated view from the 'new' highway bridge showing T325 rounding the curve (soon to be the large trestle bridge of 157 trestle piers). Again much more work is required to recreate the scene as per Weston Langfords photo on the day Paul is modelling (http://www.westonlangford.com/images/photo/114614/).

Overall photo of the second and third modules. Each tree is handmade or heavily altered wire foliage branches. Many hours have been spent creating the trees alone.

Land perspective view of the hill. Many photos were referenced to ensure the size placement of the trees replicated the original location as at October 1981. Currently the lower half of this hill is extremely dense. Nature is engulfing and rapidly rotting the bridge.

View along the old highway towards the hill.

With the treeline now completed, this takes us one step closer to recreating the sensation of being in a place of great scenery and amazing feats of railway engineering. This also represents a time when the thunder of steams trains still echoed through this valley.

A lot has been completed but a lot remains. We hope you stay tuned.

Take care and happy modelling

Adrian and Paul

A visit to Orbost

Gday all!!

Sorry its been a while since our last update. To make up for our absence here are a couple of posts to keep your eyes truely appealed.

Last Sunday I made the trip to Orbost to take photos of the location and explore parts of the area I didnt know existed.

The following photo was taken from the old highway crossing looking towards Bairnsdale. This photo shows the longer trestle bridge and the 'new' highway bridge.

This photo shows the remains of the rail over old highway bridge. This will be modelled on the third module as it was in 1981. Originally it consisted of more spans however was later filled leaving ony a few trestles exposed.

View along the old highway. These two large trees have been a local landmark and feature in many photos and videos taken of this area.

View of the short trestle bridge (completed on the layout). The station was located just beyond this bridge. Virtually nothing remains now. :-(

The iconic view from Grandview lookout. Many photos have been taken from this location in the almost 100 years since the opening of this bridge. Not much has changed in this view apart from the lack of rails and differing paddock arrangements.

Hope you enjoyed looking at these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Take care and Happy Modelling

Adrian