Build an ULTRA-REALISTIC Bridge – Realistic Scenery Vol.24

[Music] al and welcome to another awesome tutorial my name is Luke and in this video I'll step you through the process I used to make this amazing little scene that will fit nicely on my feature wall dioramas with water features always seem to draw the attention of passers-by and this one will certainly get their attention most of the heavy lifting was done by the new beam a laser cutter that was sent to me from flux to use on future projects compared to their cheap laser cutters I've used in the past this one was so refreshing to use the instruction manual is extremely easy to follow with clear pictures detailing each step of the process and it's relatively small so it won't take up a lot of room in your garage the bridge itself was downloaded from Thingiverse it resembles iron bridge located in the UK and I thought it would be a perfect test for the beam a laser cutter the original files were quite a bit larger than a Cho scale which is what I'm working in so using illustrator I made some changes to the scale and I also made some aesthetic changes like adjusting the length and width of the bridge as well as adding in some extra details I used one millimeter thick clear acrylic for the bridge one of these super useful features of the is the onboard camera but in order to actually see the clear acrylic I marked the edges so the camera would be able to see it it's as simple as opening up their beam studio program selecting the laser cutter that is connected through Wi-Fi and then drag the camera icon across the build area to reveal the material ready to be cut now I can import the file I want to cut position it so that it's over the material in the machine next select the power and speed settings this is one millimeter acrylic so I used 30% power and 12 millimeters per second but those settings will vary depending on the material and the environmental conditions it's quite mesmerizing watching the laser do its work but also remember to take appropriate safety precautions when working with lasers like proper laser approved safety glasses to assemble the bridge you'll need a suitable acrylic solvent cement weld on three is great for this as it's fast and strong but the fumes are also harmful so definitely work in a well-ventilated area and avoid getting it directly on your skin a small brush can be used to apply the solvent cement with the two parts pressed together the cement will be drawn between the two pieces by capillary action this process is repeated for each piece of the bridge until it's fully assembled I found that only a very minimal amount of sanding was needed to get the two Bridge halves to press together perfectly acrylic can be quite brittle so when working with fine pieces like this railing you'll really want to take your time and treat it with care to avoid accidentally damaging it the clear bridge on its own actually looks pretty cool but to move forward it's going to need some paint I use Tamiya gray primer as the base coat to cover the entire model I noticed the road surface had some gaps so using squadron white putty and sandpaper I first removed some of the paint from the area around the areas that needed filling and then the gaps were filled with putty and once that was dry I send it away the excess and gave it another coat of gray primer the bridge abutments were also cut using the laser cutter this material is one millimeter thick high-impact polystyrene the laser cutter was able to cut it quite easily however due to the material melting as the laser cuts it it will leave a slightly raised edge which is fine as long as you don't mind giving the edges a light sanding the standard plastic cement can be used to weld the high-impact polystyrene together for curved areas applying a small amount of heat will soften the polystyrene enabling you to bend it and once it cools down again it will hold its new shape all the files are used to build this project will be available on my website so if you have access to a laser cutter you too can create this great looking project and now for the bricks this is my homemade hot wire foam cutter it ended up being perfect for cutting the bricks I have a tutorial for making one of these for anyone who's interested the foam is extruded polystyrene by clamping a straight edge onto the foam cutter I was able to get a perfect straight cut each time I set up this straight edge to be about 4.5 millimeters away from the wire so once each brick was cut the width and height of the brick would be 4 millimeters as for length I made them about 6.5 millimeters long I have to give credit to Jeremy from the channel Blackmagic crafts for this idea I was watching one of his older videos from a couple of years ago where he makes these foam bricks and I thought I definitely got to give that a try so after this video be sure to check him out I found that I could cut many more bricks at once by bunching the pieces of foam together it still took a while to cut them all but I must have cut a couple thousand bricks some bricks will be stuck together but don't worry as the next step will soon fix that the bricks as they are don't really have any texture so to add texture I put a bunch of the foam bricks in a tub with some jagged rocks the more jagged the better after shaking them for roughly four or five minutes they are nicely textured and the edges have all been rounded off making them look more like an older style stone bricks there's something oddly satisfying about picking up a handful of these bricks and letting them fall through your fingers attaching the bricks to the ax bridge abutments is easy enough it's just extremely time-consuming one by one the bricks are slowly glued on to the abutment this is one of those moments where if you can get help it will make things go much faster I drew some guard lines just to make sure the bricks were staying horizontal slowly but surely the bricks will reach the top it's a lot of effort but the results are really hard to beat the foundations for the bridge was just a touch too narrow so I had to trim the back edge of some of the bricks and given that they are foam this was very easy to make the small tweaks like this to create the mortar lines I filled the gaps between the bricks with plaster of Paris it gets mixed to it quite a thin soupy mixture and then spread out over the brickwork I give it a good tease with the brush to make sure it gets down into all the gaps you need to be a little bit quick with this step as the plaster tends to cure quite fast I'd say you have a working time of about four minutes or so once the gaps have been filled I remove any excess plaster from the surface of the bricks by flooding them with water the water will dilute the remaining plaster on the surface and wash away only leaving the plaster between the bricks it gets a bit messy so you'll want to put some paper towels down or even work over a sink if you can as a final step the wall is wiped down with paper towel further removing any leftover plaster from the surface the basis for this diorama is made using plywood I waited until now to measure and cut the base because I wasn't entirely sure how long it would need to be but with the bridge and bridge abutments done I can measure it out precisely there's no tricks to the construction just a basic wooden frame with the seven millimeter plywood glued and stapled to the frame I did however spend a bit of extra time smoothing the overall staples with putty and painting and sanding the frame to get a seamless look once the diorama is finished and the lower part of the frame is painted black it should frame the scene very nicely when it comes to fixing the bridge abutments to the base I first set them up with the bridge in place and that way I can mark their position and glue them down as for glue I used mostly hobby tack however I also used a small amount of hot glue just to give it that initial fix so won't move as the hobby tack is drying once the glue is dried I can start on the terrain the landform is built up using styrofoam packaging nothing fancy pretty much any old foam packaging or even cardboard will be more than enough for this step it's basically being used as a filler and once the basic contouring has been formed we'll refine it further with plaster because this diorama is being designed to fit on a shelf unit behind my workbench I need to ensure the edges don't overhang the base of the diorama so again with the hot wire foam cutter I trim the edges down to be flush with the base a bit more contouring can be done with a hobby knife before adding plaster the plaster I'm using is called sculpt at modeling mix from office works in Australia this stuff is great for projects like this as the plaster has paper fibers mixed in which allow the plaster to be built up to create small hills and mounds water is added until the plaster becomes a thick paste and then it's simply a matter of applying it to the scene by pressing it down and manipulating it with your hands you can apply it quite thin or even build it up in thick layers either way will work and I keep applying the plaster mix until the desired area is covered as the plaster begins to harden I continue to work it and smooth it with my fingers at the same time I'm being careful not to get plaster all over the bridge abutments any plaster that does end up on the walls or in unwanted spots can be brushed away with a wet brush before the plaster has had time to harden while all that is drying I can start painting the bridge as a little extra touch before the final paint coat goes on I'll laser-cut some extra details similar to what you would see on the actual iron bridge in England the main color for the bridge will be a red ochre Tamiya primer as well as Vallejo red brown primer are the perfect colors just start with light coats so you avoid any paint drips and the bridge will need to have paint applied from all different directions and angles to ensure the red primer gets into all the gaps and hard-to-reach areas I want the bridge to look aged with rust so used a range of oranges and dark reds to get the effect an initial layer of texture and detail is done with the Vallejo light rust i dilute it with some thinners and use a stiff brush to flick small spots of paint across the underside of the bridge you can see it gives quite an interesting and random effect it's also a good way of getting paint onto all of the beams that make up the bridge fast and easy I also apply a small amount of Vallejo rust using the same technique once those layers are dry I use some Vallejo Hull red and a sponge to create heavier areas of rust across the beams only a small amount of paint is needed on the sponge and it's mostly focused around the edges of the iron where you expect paint to chip away and fall off the railing is painted with the same technique as of the lower half of the bridge however after masking the lower half I apply a light coat of hull red to the rails this helps separate them from the rest of the bridge making the scene a little bit more interesting I apply an additional dry brushing of silver gray for an extra weathered effect and finally blend that again with a second very light misting of Hull read the road and footpath are done next Vallejo splinter camouflage base is a nice cement color and is used as the base coat I applied about three layers and to speed up the time between coats I used a hairdryer just be careful to avoid holding it in one spot for too long as the acrylic can bend and warp into the heat the footpath texture is made using the paint splatter technique the initial layer is Vallejo gray rlm and after that layer is done a second layer using Vallejo silver gray is used the last step for our footpath is to tie everything together again with a light misting of the Splinter camouflage base as you can see it's really starting to come together the road surface already has the texture applied from the over sprays we did on the footpath so that needs to be done is to paint it a darker shade of grey to simulate tarmac Vallejo dark sea grey is a nice color for the tarmac Road and it's diluted quite a lot so that when mist it over the road surface it changes the overall colour of the road surface but the texture underneath is still visible an extra layer of texture can be applied with rust-oleum heirloom white it gets sprayed from a distance so it leaves a speckled effect after a few minutes it should be dry and excess paint can be dusted away from the surface a second very light coat of dark Seagraves missed it across the surface to bring it all together to a jam whether the surface of both the road and footpath I had a grimy wash using mega enamel thinners and a streaking brush a grime also from meg the washes stippled over the surface I avoid dragging the brush as the enamel thinners will soften the rust-oleum paint we applied and smudge it the wash can be spread out by dabbing a sponge on the surface and spreading out the paint without causing it to smudge the oil paints take ages to dry but a hairdryer can help the paint dry a little bit faster while the oil paint continues to dry I'll start on painting the bridge abutments a selection of three medium and light Browns are used to highlight individual bricks the paint is thinned down to our wash so the color change between the yellow color of the foam and the painted bricks is only subtle it's a bit tedious painting the individual bricks but when it all starts to come together it will be worth the extra effort once a good amount of the bricks have some paint applied I use some Vallejo Israeli sand gray primer as a top coat this layer is thinned down quite a lot so that it doesn't completely cover the bricks we just paint it it's applied with a few light passes making sure I can still see the different colored bricks and the mortar lines are still defined next some silver gray is dry brushed over the entire surface it's a general coat covering the bricks to help give them that stone color it's not immediately visible but the change is certainly there lastly just like the silver gray a dry brushing of u.s. blue Grey's applied to further bring out the brick detail again it's not all that noticeable until you compare it to the side that hasn't been dry brushed yet now I move on to painting the terrain a basic coat of brown is applied this is Joe Sonya's fawn which is a nice earthy Brown that I like just be careful not to get it on the brick wall before adding the dirt texture I decided to finish off the road and footpath some extra pieces of styrene were cut in the laser cutter to make the footpath and I had to scrape away some of the foam and plaster mortar to get them to fit snugly against the bricks they get painted using these same techniques as I did on the road surface across the bridge the only difference is I used rust-oleum gray primer as the base coat for the road I used the same misting technique and then dark sea grey until I got a nice color match with the bridge just be gentle when removing the masking tape as it can peel away the paint from the foam bricks if you're not careful the footpaths are glued down and it's all weathered with the oil wash the gaps between the footpath and the bricks can be blended with some dirt mix with beige colored grout once the excess dirt has been removed I mask the road surface and miss some of the scenic glue mixture over the dirt to fix it in place the rest of the diorama gets covered in dirt as well the dirt mixture is basically four scoops of dirt collected straight from the backyard with a scoop of canvas grout and a scoop of corn silk grout after mixing it it becomes a very dusty light gray however once the glue is applied it changes to a nice medium soil color I make two versions a coarse mixture and a fine mixture the dirt is applied using an old spray can lid and Stocking but before that I paint Mod Podge matte over all the sloping areas first the glue is lightly diluted with water and paint it on you could also use a cheaper white glue for this step as well but just be aware that some glues will dry shiny and can often darken the dirt texture quite a lot once the glue is down I sprinkle over some of the larger coarse dirt the glue will help those larger pebbles stick to their sloping surface some of them will roll down but that's okay next a layer of the fine dirt is applied over the top this will cover all the remaining bare patches and will also submerge the larger rocks and pebbles making them look like they're protruding through the dirt as opposed to sitting above the surface that way it will look much more realistic before fixing it down with glue I remove any dirt from unwanted areas like the dust that is covering the walls and from the middle of the riverbed the glue I'm using is a mixture of one part Mod Podge matte and three parts water with a few drops of dish soap however first the area is misted with isopropyl alcohol the alcohol helps the glue soak into the dirt without it beating up on top next the glue is misted onto the dirt making sure it covers the entire area and no spots amiss any areas that begin to pull can't be soaked up with a paper towel I also remove any excess dirt and glue from the sides in previous videos I used German black brown for the riverbed unfortunately I've run out of that color so I made some using black mixed with dark brown the resin I'll be using is a deep cast clear epoxy from a a composites in Australia it's great for large pores like this as it doesn't get too hot when curing and can be poured in very thick layers before pouring the edges are damned with some standard masking tape excess tape is cut away with a sharp hobby knife and a bead of hot glue is run along the joint to further ensure no resin leaks out on to the table the resin is mixed as per the instructions at a ratio of two to one I worked out that I would need about 600 mils of resin for the area I wanted to cover however I mixed up a total of 750 mils because I wanted to make sure I definitely had enough to cover the entire riverbed the resin has quite a long working time of about two hours so there's no immediate rush to get it poured once mixed to color the resin I used some woodland Scenic's murky water tint which worked perfectly and mixed into the resin very well I also added a couple of drops of Vallejo sand acrylic paint however this didn't mix in so well so I definitely don't recommend coloring this particular resin with acrylic paints just stick with the woodland Scenic's color pigment and you should be fine pouring the resin in straightforward it will find its own level as it slowly makes its way towards the edges of the river it's a lot of fun seeing the scene come to life when the water is applied if you need to help the water reach some of the tight spots or you want some of the water to run up the slope slightly you can use a popsicle stick to help move it around also it's a good idea to have the hot glue gun ready on the side because if you do find some holes it's a good way to quickly stop any leaks to remove bubbles a small soldering torch will work perfectly it works really well to remove even the smallest of bubbles there just make sure you don't direct it towards the foam bricks that will melt very fast and if they catch fire the entire brick wall could go before you know it and a good step to do before you actually start pouring the water is just to make sure that the diorama is on a level surface now the resin is covered to prevent dust settling on the surface and left for about 24 hours before moving on to the next step once the resin is cured overnight I can remove the masking tape from the edges don't worry about small chips as we can cover those later with foliage and brown paint I also shaved down the lip along the edge of the river surface using a sharp hobby knife to protect the surface of the resin while I continue to work on the scenery I cover it with Mod Podge gloss this will be quite a thick layer of glue and will act like a masking layer that we will remove later when we're ready to add the ripples to the river surface I make sure to thoroughly coat the surface and I'm careful to go right up to the edge of the river surface without making contact with the dirt layer once the entire river is covered I leave it to dry now for the road markings this step requires lots and lots of masking but it's worth the effort each line is carefully lined with some Tamiya masking tape doing my best to keep each line straight and keep the line width constant for the center of the road I'll add a traffic island again using the laser cutter I place some masking tape on a scrap piece of plywood which was then placed into the laser cutter next I used Adobe Illustrator to drop the traffic island that look nice and would fit in the desired location the file is then simply sent to the beam software and aligned with the tape that was placed inside the laser cutter this is one of those many handy features of the laser cutter now I just set the power and speed of the laser and select cut and the laser cutter does all the hard work the template is positioned on the road carefully getting it centered and once that's all down all of the remaining areas are covered with masking tape when applying the white paint I found it much better to mix it up slightly thicker so it won't run under the masking tape and I also applied in very thin light passes allowing each layer of paint to dry using a hairdryer will greatly speed up the process some areas of masking will require multiple steps to get the final effect like the traffic island but once the paint has been applied and the masking tape has been removed it makes a really nice transformation other Road markings like the give way lines and the arrow on the road were also made using Adobe Illustrator and cut out using the laser cutter the same process is also applied to the road surface that spans the bridge as well now for some fun adding static grass I use the woodland scenic static King along with some of their 4 millimetre grasses as well as some noch six millimeter grass and a little bit of mini nature 6 millimeter grass as well a mixture of all four types of grass was added to the static grass hopper and mixed together resulting in a nice blend with a variety of colors the glue tends to dry quite fast so I connect the high-voltage line and the power so that it's ready to go the glue I'm using is static tack I found this glue works well but you can also use standard white glue as well glue is randomly applied roughly where I want grass and a cheap paintbrush is used to spread out the glue in the decide spots I only work in small areas at a time now the static grass applicator is turned on and shaken over the glue like magic the grass will stand on its end and quickly transform the hillside into a very nice-looking grassy slope depending on the steepness of the slope you may need to use a comb to direct some of the grass fibres vertical the fibers tend to stick out at a 90 degree angle from the surface but we want them pointing straight up towards the sky removing excess grass can be done with their vacuum and a stocking to collect the loose fibers for use in other areas on the model you can also turn the model upside down and tap on the base to shake the loose fibers free now it's just a matter of scooping up the loose grass loading it back into the static grass applicator and then continuing the process of adding glue spreading it out with the brush and shaking the static grass applicator over the area bushes and weeds are made using a variety of woodland Scenic's ground foams some of the larger foam pieces like the clump foliage can't be fixed down by applying some glue in the desired spot and then pressing the foam into the glue the fine and coarse foam can simply be spread out over the grass the grass fibers are usually more than enough to hold the foam in place however on the really steep spots like on the sides of the hill you may need more glue to hold the foam in place I also created some vines and bushes that extend part way up the wall for a bit of extra detail and interest this process is continued until everything is covered this layer is fixed permanently with a light misting of isopropyl alcohol and immediately followed with some scenic glue and for the larger bits of foam I used a syringe to make sure they got a good soaking of glue trees and bushes are made from sea foam and woodland Scenic's medium green coarse foam along with some finally foliage and briar patch starting with these smaller saplings first I break some small branches from the finally foliage and glue them onto the model the large trees I made needed a small hole drilled first and then they also get glued down permanently now is a good time to attach the bridge it's a bit of a tight fit so only a small drop of tacky glue is needed when lowering the bridge into place I'm being really careful because it's pretty easy to chip and scratch the foam bricks once it's down the model really starts to transform into something quite spectacular now for the finer details Moss is added to some of the bricks with a little bit of static tacky glue and some woodland Scenic's fine turf the base of the bridge is blended in with the rest of the model using more of the dirt and grout mixture it's fixed just like everything else with isopropyl alcohol and scenic glue to add weathering streaks to the walls I use scale model as supply concrete dust pigment be sure to start light and gradually add more powder because a little goes a long way some Vallejo olive brown mixed with some green Brown and gloss was used along the base of the bridge abutments to create a water line a line of paint is applied along the bottom and then a large soft brush is used to feather at the edge of the paint a light wash was made using the green bow next with a lot of Vallejo thinners this was roughly painted along the darker water line adding a little bit more detail a bunch of street signs can be made using an old aluminium can and signs printed on photo paper I have an old tutorial from a few years ago showing how these awesome looking signs are made I also added some woodland Scenic's streetlights to add a bit more visual interest even though this isn't a night scene having these lights still looks pretty amazing some more scale model as supply pigments are used to dirty up the road making it look a little bit older and much more realistic again just add small amounts at a time to prevent overdoing the effect the Mod Podge masks can now be removed it works surprisingly well and once the mask has been removed it reveals a perfect glassy River surface now the ripples can be applied with some Mod Podge gloss it's applied in a much thinner layer and it's only applied in small manageable spots at a time the airbrush air is used to push the wet Mod Podge around creating the awesome rippling effect the process is repeated in small sections at a time until the entire river surface has been covered now for the very last step framing in the model by painting the sides black building a model like this is no simple feat but with some patience and a lot of time it's certainly worth the effort I just love sitting back and looking at this model it's something about making scenes with cool water effects that draws so much interest I hope you enjoyed watching and don't forget to check out my patreon page if you'd like to help support the channel Cheers and thanks for watching

Channel: Luke Towan

Views: 1,060,161

Keywords: How to model a bridge, how to build a model river, realistic river diorama, how to model water, how to build model railroad scenery, how to build scenery, building realistic scenery, building realistic scenery from scratch, model railroad scenery, realistic bridge tutorial, river tutorial, luke towan, boulder creek railroad, realistic scenery, static king, woodland scenics, deep pour resin, making a river using epoxy, make a river with resin, beamo laser cutter

Id: s8QBTbC5JIc

Length: 33min 40sec (2020 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 26 2020