Jacq's 1:35 adventure

[jacq01]

  

 The psychological effect of my hand problems was far larger than anticipated.  Together with an unexplained loss of muscle power it had an enormous negative impact on my daily life, including my modeling pleasure. The investigation results however turned out ok, no viral/bacterial or neurological cause, but the reason is still not known. Now with 2-3 sessions physiotherapy per week the negative trend is reversed and muscle mass is returning.  Together with the showing signs of spring, enjoying things is slowly returning.

Now that the sawmill diorama layout needs discipline to finish the last ideas, I wondered : What's next?

Marc, Nick, Bernard and Per Olaf showed some intriguing 1:35 work and I became interested.
 But what ?  Purpose, subject, railway and presentation are important items.
For already a very long time I have been looking at the painting "Die Erftmühle" by Andreas Achenbach, a german painter from the 19th century.



That was it !!
I have challenged myself to built this building complex based on traditional "fachwerk" building techniques in 1:35 with single bricks, tiles, etc.
The biggest challenge will be to create a believable concept including a 600mm "Feldbahn" with a realistic matching amount of rolling stock and traction.
Another target is to built the diorama on 2 modules of 1200x700x700 mm.

Jacq  

 

[jacq01]

   

Marc, Nick, Bernard and Per Olaf showed some intriguing 1:35 work and I became interested.

     Jeez,  I forgot Dallas 

     Jacq

[DaKra]

Beautiful scene, caught my eye too when I saw it online a while back.  I have a larger format photo of the same painting downloaded in my landscape reference file. 

Here's a thought-- why not build the scene as a stand alone piece?  Work of your level does not need a model train to justify its existence, and the train might detract from it.   

Dave

[Frederic Testard]

I share Dave's opinion about the subject. It was made in 19th century, and the model could be that of a 19th century scene.

[TRAINS1941]

Jacq

Glad to hear the hand is improving.

Excellent subject for you to do.  I think their right you really don't need a train in the picture with your modeling skills it would be just fine as is.
Looking forward to the 1st pictures of progress.

Jerry

[jacq01]

 

why not build the scene as a stand alone piece?

  Dave,

  I agree, but than it is not a real challenge ( at least not for me)
  To integrate the feldbahn in such a way that , when there is no train, it is not noticable and when a small train is visible you only notice it because of the movement,  it fits right in. 

  To work out such a contradiction is the challenge.  Construction of the diorama is a matter of finding solutions for all questions that pop up, stick to the decisions and built with innovation and persistance.

   Jacq

[Ray Dunakin]

That's a beautiful scene and an excellent choice for a diorama!

I'm glad to hear that the hand is finally improving and I wish you a full and speedy recovery.

[finescalerr]

In today's culture, such a painting would be considered "old fashioned" and maybe not really art. After all, we have cameras for those who prefer realism. Instead, the art world wants to see someone's impression of that scene.

Since my thoughts about today's culture are unsuitable for print, I would encourage Jacq to recreate that scene in three dimensions -- with or without the tram -- and to call it a sculpture. Should anyone question the inclusion of the tram, why that is simply Jacq's impression of the painting, thus proving his sculpture is, indeed, art!

Russ

[shropshire lad]

Jacq ,

  Brilliant . I really look forward to seeing you completely lose like I have and start constructing buildings one brick and tile at a time .

 I remember you posting this picture some time ago and thought then that it would make a fantastic model , with or without a train track near it . There is no reason why you can't incorporate it into a layout , but it would also make a fine stand alone model .

 To help you kick start your project here is a shot of the building I am presently having a go at modelling . It has not had much progress for some months but when you get going with your maybe that'll kick start mine back into action.

  Nick

[artizen]

Good luck to both of you on your brick building exercises! (Says he who has now got to make more bricks because the paved floors of The Steamy Pudding Hotel and Café took my last few bricks - only 13,000 so far and counting.)

[Malachi Constant]

Hi Jacq --

It'll be fun to watch you dive into the world of 1:35 scale and crazy rulers!  I like the scene with or without a train ... personally, I can easily imagine this whole scene as a rich, 3-d backdrop for a simple little line running almost straight across the front of the picture and crossing the stream on a little wooden trestle.  (Not quite straight, of course, maybe just a very gentle sweeping curve to the rail line.)

And, of course, very glad to hear that your getting some improvement with your hands ... that certainly helps.

Cheers,
Dallas

[finescalerr]

I'm curious about something and we may have discussed this before: Is there very much railroad related stuff in 1:35, European or whatever? It would seem its advantage is using crossover items from military modeling.

While I consider them essentially the same scale, my personal preference is for 1:32 because I can use On3 standards for finescale American prototype two foot gauge. Some kind of industrial switching diorama in that scale and gauge will be my "retirement project".

Russ

[shropshire lad]

Russ ,

   From what I have observed there are an increasing amount of railway related products being released in 1/35th scale but most of them are WWII German standard gauge , purely with dioramas in mind as nothing is produced to run . Although I'm sure it is perfectly possible to make them run . Being a narrow gauger much of what is produced is of no interest to me , but there is a certain amount that could be used . For instance , a standard gauge boxcar ( or whatever the German equivalent is called) could be used either on a siding or put on blocks to become a storage shed but most of the locos are huge and would swamp any 600mm gauge loco you might have .
   To my knowledge there are very few manufacturers making narrow gauge locos and even fewer who make them to run , in fact the list comprises of one name , our very own Bernard Snoodyk . The problem with Bernard is that he has a day job and that day job is very demanding so his ability to produce goodies for us is severely limited . It is for that reason that I have been trying to get him to retire for some time so that he can get around to building the Decauville locos has said he'll build for Jacq and I ! ( Now that would look good tootling passed a watermill with a few skip wagons in tow ) .  So really this is still a scale for scratchbuilders who model European scenes but one that is well supported in the accessory department by military modelling manufacturers .

   I see 1/32nd scale as an American and , to a certain extent , British scale which has alot less support from manufacturers.

    Nick

[jacq01]

   

I can easily imagine this whole scene as a rich, 3-d backdrop for a simple little line running almost straight across the front of the picture and crossing the stream on a little wooden trestle.  (Not quite straight, of course, maybe just a very gentle sweeping curve to the rail line.)

    That is the whole idea, a very simple unobstrusive little line out of the woods on the left, across the stream towards a little landing on the right where the stream joins a small river. From there the line dissappears in the woods along the river /hill side. This way a continuous loop is possible with the storage underneath the hill, accessible from the back, which will fill the complete scene from left to right. Very basic with no more structures than shown in the painting, some clearings, cattle, some figures and the woods.
  I intend to curve the diorama so left and right cannot be seen from a single view point.
  Traction to be mainly steam ( 19th century) like Decauville , O&K, Krauss, scratchbuilt as the only available rtr loco is the Decauville  by Bernard.
  Track will be along Marc's idea's but adapted to the 19th century practice.
   
  This is the basic starting idea, which slowly will evolve into a final plan by the time all concept and technical questions are solved in a satisfactory way.

  One of the problems I have is determining the approx. dimensions of the buildings.  How do I transfer the 2D impression into a 3D plan with length, width and height.
  I have tried my luck with Google sketchup but got lost. I am one of the old school who learned to draw with pencil, square and rubber....
  At the moment I am preparing manually a perspective lines sheet to determine the main properties, based on a height of 2,40m of the brick corner from the plasterwork to the eaves.
  Tedious work as the painter worked with various vanishing points. Luckily he used one horizon     
  Suggestions are welcome. 

  The people of the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf are very interested and I have been invited to the new exhibition in September with paintings of the Düsseldorfer Malersschule.
  An earlier private viewing is not possible due to reconstruction work in the museum.

  Jacq

  PS
Ian, you have any visible results?  I can't find photo's of your work on your website.   I have seen Nick's work in Warley and I was hooked. All references are welcome.


 
   

[artizen]

Jacq - thanks for assuming that The Steamy Pudding is being built to some sort of standard!!! I used a runny mix of plaster to mortar the brickwork on my tunnel portal this afternoon and stuffed it up because the mortar was more water than runny and swelled the cardboard mortar courses I use to space the bricks. Ho hum, I lost 13 bricks off the parapet. Managed to retrieve 11 - I saw one floating to the bottom of the swimming pool so no point chasing it. As soon as I have a satisfactory answer to the mortar technique I will post photos on my site. I will change my technique from working franticly with runny mixes and trying to cover too much at once to a new technique of working really slowly using my fingers and a stiff mix. Seems to reduce the incidence of air bubbles between the bricks and it 'works' better with less waste.

My work is not good enough for this forum. I only lurk on here to go oooh and aaah and learn stuff. One thing I have learned from five months of building with individual bricks - it is far better to go the extra little effort and make your own moulds for making bricks so that you can crank them out by the thousand as you need them in any colour and to some extent even change the texture etc. It appears that using casting plaster with cement oxides is extremely cheap as well as being incredibly robust. The results will stand up to being outside and using rigid PVC foamboard for a base means that it never swells, rots, warps or is affected by sunlight or water. If you are using a technique for mortar courses, let us all know as that is the achilles heel on my models so far. I have to have something ready for the Australian Narrow Gauge Convention at Easter so I am starting to stress now!