Thank you all for your kind words.
I hope not to disappoint you with the loco, Soeren

Thank you Tom, that is a great thing to be seen, unfortunately I wont be able to make it this time, but definitely some other day

Cheers
Libor

No, I don´t think that you can do that!
At this time, I know about your great skills, scratchbuilding things, and the (possibly) "poor quality" of the loco-kit.
But also with this, you make a beauty of this too!

greetings...
Soeren
PS. I´ve added a first testpicture of the Venera-9/10 "kit".

This is not the only narrow-gauge-railroad with steam-locos, but perhaps the most famous.
In January 2008, I made a short trip in another "steam-loco-train" at the "Fichtelberg" in the near of Chemnitz.
Also the island "Rügen" has its own steam-engine powered trains.

greetings...
Soeren

Thank you, Soeren, that is gonna be cracking one.
There are many interesting things to visit, and its really pity I wont have enough time to go everywhere I´d want to. But I have to prefer the most important things at once
Here is some progress from tonight, the water crane in surfacer coat.






Cheers
Libor

Amazing work in progress, cracking job, keep on!
JB

Looking good so far, but has the lamp a molding-line on its "roof"?

greetings...
Soeren

Hi,Soeren,it has,some areas have to be cleaned with sandpaper and all polished before painting. Then everything will be allright.
Cheers
Libor

Libor,
You 've got the..."touch of Midas" if you know what I mean.
Everything you touch,turns to...gold.Nothing else.
keep up the good work mate,happy to see such awsome constructions like yours and JBA's
Regards,
Zisis

Thank you, Zisis, much appreciated. But truly, there is too much for me to get improved, many things I could have done better, when I look back But I am working on in
Libor

I have started painting of the tracks. The same time I sprayed rusty base coat on the crane. Once again the hair spray technique will be used to get just lightly rusty and worn out appearance in this case.



Thanks for looking
Libor

First preparations for the last large part of my dio have begun, the rock at the back. I have some ideas in my mind and I will try some techniques I have read about, but never used before. The rock base sculpted from expanded polystyrene will get a paper layer, fixed with bone glue. Then more layers will be added in combination with plaster, to get final rock like appearance. Later some vegetation, bush and tree will come out

Cheers
Libor

hmm, Libor at this stage, if i have an advise to give you, try to take as much care for your big bit of groundwork as you did for your mechanical parts and indeed you will end up doing an incredible diorama !)

Hi, JBA, thanks for the kind words, buddy, this is gonna be hard task, I have never done anything like that before, so I do not expect good result at all. Simple way would be to use some green and brown paints to give it some colors, and its done, but I am not good with paints neither, so its even harder now. Last days I have been thinking what to do with that, no food, no sleep, no progress and updates, thats very bad. I´ll get back on that after my holidays anyway, so hopefuly I will see some lightning in the dark bringing me any good idea how to deal with that. Similar idea I got thinking about my poor painting, this time how to do figures later. Well, thats so simple. If I cannot get any good looking fellas for my dio, I can make believe that nobody is there and they all gone on their lunch Ha, some idea is coming up right now, maybe that will be the same here, if I wont be able to make it good enough, I can simply cut off that back part of my dio, and its done. No rock, no worries about dealing with that anymore, back in normal life with food and sleep Well, I am getting tempted already where is my saw? I have to take a look.
Libor
Cheers

You know you sort of sound scary here Libor. I think dioramas should look like our life and not ending being completely our lives you know
Sure, when in doubt, just relax a few days and then you come up with a new will.
i don't think that big bit of groundwork could be a real problem -look at what the others are doing, a bit of Heki grass should be a must (but not too much) and have you seen the rocky surface that Claude Clervaux managed to do for his castle earlier this week? that's what you need really, you can even paint them with sort of water colour and it should be alright. figs painting is another matter of course, but be cautious, and accept to invest a bit of time in them, read SBS first, and there is no reason why it shouldn't be okay in the end. When you think of what you are able to produce after 1 year of diorama making when it comes to technical things, there is no reason for you not to believe you could have the same success with the rest. just don't be afraid of your natural possibilities.

Thanks JBA, looks I got ya to take this seriously That was suppose to be rather a joke than anything else. Sorry, budy. Looking forward to see your dio finished, when I am back home.
Of course I will do my best on the ground as well, have some good references and ideas, so the result should not be the worst one, hopefuly. I painted the water crane and its ready for hair spray effect, to bring out bits of red base color. Then some weathering and then - going my holidays



Cheers
Libor

Have a good holiday you deserve one!

Thank you, Simon, I have just come back tonight. I had great time, a couple of thousands pictures taken for my next work. Another free week to go for me, so I will bring some larger updates soon.
Cheers
Libor

Nice to have you here again, in the world of armorama.
I hope you had good holidays and it would be interesting to see the result of your pictures.

greetings...
Soeren

Thanks Soeren, I had cool time there and some reference pictures will be added at my website soon. I finished weathering on the water crane today, but some pictures will be taken tomorrow. I have also made a few resin castings for the rock planned for my dio. It looked faster for me now to go this way instead of working with plaster.




I will glue these on the base and then use some clay to finish it.
Cheers
Libor

You have amazing work done, looking forward to see more... can you write something how you made those letters I need something like that in my ongoing project..

Cheers
Robert

libor-
As far as sceniking goes. Read up. Look into the Model Railroad sceniking techniques. There are tons of tutorials online dealing with the natural modeling of groundcover and such. Then, just take that first step. You KNOW what it should look like when it's done and once you take that first step, it tends to lessen the pressure you are putting on yourself. Keep it fun.
Cuhail

Oh dear, you got so hooked with resin forms that You even use them to cast rocks?!!
Ah well, this looks nice, but take care the repetition of shapes won't be too visible once they are placed!

Thank you all, guys, for the kind words.
Robert,
a few words about it is here, at my website dio

basically I used Aber´s lettering PE sheet to make a silicone mould, which served to me to get these letters as resin castings. Today I would probably go different way, to make PE placard with lettering needed, especially if there is more words or even some signs or marks.

Thank you, Cuhail, that is good call, I have studied many of them, and I am trying to use things, which seem to be handy to me, but I also do things by my way, with stuff I have bought already and techniques, what once have turned out for me well. And finally I love to discover my own method of doing things I have never done before, that is most exciting in this hobby.

Thank you, JBA, at the end this way seemed to be the easiest to go. Plaster would be too heavy and it loves to crack anyway, so I will use it in combination with some clay I have got here already to finish the scuplting and get the final appearance of the rock. I have made just three castings for the main parts, all different. Two of them are glued on the base, the last one will make another rock situated higher. I want also good bit of bush and grass here, maybe even some tree, because the rest of dio will be mostly just boring color of stone, chippings and ballast


And here a couple of pictures I have taken today, the finished water crane. More is available at my website.






Cheers
Libor

libor....first of all, THAT LOOKS AWESOME! Slainte!

As far as sceniking, you are 100% correct. In books and guides, we learn all about the different materials and techniques used, with success, strictly by others. We learn them here, at KitMaker by our contemporaries and friends.
But, it's not until we put our hands into it and do it, do we find the techniques that we, ourselves, can count on as individual modelers....and THAT'S where I always find the fun.

Now, a question. The underlayment beneath the cargo crane seems a layer higher than where you have the water pump. (An extra sheet of styrofoam) The track ties in the photo seem to indicate this too. will this be leveled out with a skim of hydrocal eventually? (or similar).

Great thread. Fun to watch ya, Libor! Keep going!

Cuhail

Thank you, mate, I did not have enough polystyrene sheets to lay them everywhere, but I am ordering them soon. This material is very good to glue any ground stuff on it. I use very strong, but still elastic white glue, which work with polystyrene just perfectly, and I have got some superglues, what do not damage this plastic at all. I´ll bring soon some updates from my ground work, which I hope to start in a few days.
Cheers
Libor