# Retaining wall, does this look right for scale



## pat_smith1969 (Aug 21, 2016)

I went to my local hobby lobby and picked up some basswood. Slapped together a quick retaining wall. At first I thought the vertical supports would be too large and look off scale. Now that I look at it, it is looking ok. What are your opinions? Of course this is a prototype, the real wall will be painted and weathered. Actually it is upside down as the long sections sticking up are meant to be trimmed to be level with the terrain and keep the wall level.. but you get the idea.


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## pat_smith1969 (Aug 21, 2016)

The verticals are 1/2 x 1/4 I think. Which would make them 3' 7" by 1' 9".. which is a pretty unrealistic dimension I think. I think bridge trusses are 18"x12" so these beams would be twice that. I am not a rivet counter but do want it to look proportional.


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

It would be nice to find a real example, must be pics on google. Off hand it looks about O scale to me so you would need to halve everything. Here in FL and most likely other places, retaining walls are made up of interlocking squares that are around 6'x6'. These have a plastic like mat connected to them that is buried in the fill to hold the wall from bulging out so the wall is vertical (this is used on approaches to bridge intersections. The wall I think your building would typically be H girder piling with concrete rectangles slid between the flanges. So you might look at the structural plastic to get an idea of what the size might be.


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## pat_smith1969 (Aug 21, 2016)

This is kind of what I was going for but on a larger scale. I agree however, this is a bit too large. I think I will drop down by half like you said and that will look pretty good. 









for the shorter sections of wall I am going to change over to this style of wall.


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## Bwells (Mar 30, 2014)

I did the same thing only with balsa. It has a little rougher texture than basswood and is much easier to cut and sand. For the uprights I used 1/8X1/8 and took off 2 of the sharp edges with a couple strokes of sand paper and for the horizontals I used 3/16X1/16 and did the same on the two corners facing out. It still specs out as too large but that is as small as I can work with.


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

How good is the assortment at your local hobby shop? If it’s not that great, you might want to check out MicroMark. They have scribed sheathing that can look like floorboards or stacked timber for a retaining wall. That would be a lot easier than stacking and gluing a bunch of 1/8” wide sticks.

http://www.micromark.com/scribed-sh...1and2-inches-wide-x-24-inches-long,11503.html

They also have dimensional lumber that you could use for the shorter wall.

http://www.micromark.com/basswood-s...nch-wide-x-24-inches-long-pkg-of-10,7424.html

I did something similar to your shorter walls in O scale using ¼” X ¼” sticks.


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## pat_smith1969 (Aug 21, 2016)

So here is the new retaining wall... I still need to trim the bottom to size and make it level but I just tossed it on the layout for size comparison. It is probably too large but it is much better than the last attempt.

I died it with black shoe die mixed with brown.. but the brown never came through at all.. it was about 50 50 brown black with some red thrown in.. but only the black came through, with what looks like some blue. I hope to tone that black down with some brown dry brushing, maybe some grey instead.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

IMO, these walls are too tall, I'd keep them to the height of the upper track.


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

I think the thing that is making this not look just right is the cross members are two large. Compare them to the ties in the tracks and you will see what I'm referring too. The wall that you are modeling is made of ties that are used on the track. Your choice of stock is way to big for ties.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

I used wooden coffee stir sticks, and bamboo bbq skewers, last time i was at local dollar store they had packs of these for a buck apiece


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## pat_smith1969 (Aug 21, 2016)

I agree that they look a bit big Ken. A tie is roughly 9x7 I think (inches). If we say these are not ties but they are actually 4x16 planks, it looks a bit better.. but it still looks too large I think. 

I definitely do not like the color. I like the color of the wood in your picture Warren.. how did you get that color? I used shoe die and it turned out too black. 

Also what did you use for the dirt colored ballast in your layout Warren? I have a train yard I want to be a dirt/gravel based yard with no actual ballast.. Kind of a poor somewhat neglected yard.. with grass and stuff. My mains will be ballasted like normal of course.


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## pat_smith1969 (Aug 21, 2016)

Hey Gunner, I left the "feet" on them. The idea is to have the feet be trim-able so that They can be trimmed even on any part of the layout. In this picture I just plopped them on the layout for a size comparison. When I actually apply them the feet get cut so that the boards are horizontal... then the next panel gets cut similarly so that when you lay them on an incline all the boards are horizontal and they kind of step up the incline.. 

Not sure that made any sense.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

pat_smith1969 said:


> I definitely do not like the color. I like the color of the wood in your picture Warren.. how did you get that color? I used shoe die and it turned out too black.
> 
> Also what did you use for the dirt colored ballast in your layout Warren?


The coffee sticks were glued to some shop wipe rags to hold them together, the the bamboo uprights went on top ... I think I used a wash of minwax wood stain, medium brown

The dirt is basically just sand blasting sand, 50lbs for around eight dollars at Princess Auto, with shredded moss and some normal ground cover and grass in areas


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## pat_smith1969 (Aug 21, 2016)

So I didn't like the color, but since I now have a TON of cut up wood with that color I figured I would see if a little weathering would make it tolerable. Let me know what you think.... does it need more? or less?
I am color blind (I can see colors but some of them look alike to me, like greens and browns) so I had to go by the utube tutorials. I weathered these with a little burnt umber (which I think is brown) Some slate grey and some concrete (light grey). I probably should have tossed in a little red for good measure I suppose.

I now have two types.. a spaced RR Tie wall and a plank wall.


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## pat_smith1969 (Aug 21, 2016)

The idea with the spaced tie wall is to put some of that brown grass\quilt batting behind it.. .place some dirt/gravel in the spaces.. add some green grass growing out of some of the spaces.. maybe even a bush... kinda like in the above pictures but with more dirt/growth rather than ballast.


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

I would go heavier on some grey as creosote tends to gray in the sun.


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## jlc41 (Feb 16, 2016)

I agree with Lemonhawk. I would also use more brown. The dock is a little darker than in the pic, but you get the idea.


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## pat_smith1969 (Aug 21, 2016)

So here are three pictures of my latest attempt at a retaining wall. I got brown shoe die this time and like the color a LOT better. The old black walls I put in my tunnel (where the viewing window will be). I figure the black would look good in the underground. 

Let me know what you think.. they are 1/8 balsa horizontals with 3/16 verticals. I drybrushed some "driftwood" color on them and hit the lowlights with some black. They are not glued in place yet.. just laying there to give me an idea of how best to mount htem and to make sure I have room to clear my long passenger cars (which I don't now, but can modify the surroundings slightly.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

sizing looks good, and colour looks like fairly new creosote coating ... :thumbsup:


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

A little weathering on those piers and you'll be all set.


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

That looks much better, I like the vertical streaking. You could probably go a little lighter, but you now got something that really looks good:appl:


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