From armchair to benchwork!

Rick, this is only one person speaking, but I would like to put forward a suggestion. Before I do, I just want to say the layout party is an excellent idea. Here's what it did for me:

1. It made me join TrainBoard. Never heard of it before Now I check it every day.

2. It did get me off my butt and my layout is operational, though not scenicked yet.

3. I gleaned lots of ideas and thoughts, some not related to the layout itself.

From other comments, I know I'm not the sole beneficiary of your vision and encouragement. Thanks so much!!

What I'd like to offer up for you to think about and perhaps discuss, is to amend the format to a two-part layout party, with a one or two week recess in the middle, before resuming. Here is what prompted me to suggest that:

All of us have a list of priorities, responsibilities, demands and recreational options. These shift daily and weekly. One of the reasons our layouts don't get done it it lurks in the nether regions of that list. Your party serves to elevate it to the top, which is a wonderful thing.

However, after about three or four weeks, what happens is the items pushed down need to be attended to. Not all are duties, let's be clear about that. In my case I had a spate of Lakers tickets I couldn't refuse , as well as an Angels game and an all-day railfan trip.

I would guess that, with these other time demands, time starts flying a bit too quickly and before you know it, two weeks went by and you missed a "report." Then the usual syndrome sets in and you're tempted to check out.

If there was a one or two week recess, it would allow for a "reset" and restart.

Second point. The 80/20 rule says the first 80% of the progress gets made in the first 20% of the time, while the last 20% takes 80% of the time. I suspect (this being only my first layout) this would apply to layouts too. What it means is after the first three or four weeks progress doesn't look or feel as great. Which in turns makes it feel not worth reporting.

A recess would allow for a breather and/or time to take care of those pesky things we want to get out of the way, so we can have "reportable progess" again.

All that being said, how about 3 weeks on, 1 week off, 3 weeks on... or something like that? Just a thought...

Thanks for the encouragement!
William

 

I find I work in spurts, even in the layout parties. Usually what happens is things take longer than I thought because other factors I hadn't thought about rear their ugly head and I have to solve those before I move onto the actual task I committed myself to. This is especially true on a new layout, like mine. If I committed to building two kits, I don't think I would have as much of a problem as everything is in the kit, except glue. But then I could see me getting bogged down on the painting before assembly, and it taking more time than I planned on.

I guess what I am saying is that since everything I am doing is new, I don't have a good handle on time parameters. I think shortening up the time span might be better, shortening it to one month, and maybe hosting three "parties" a year. My problem with this suggestion is that I have found timing is critical on how many get involved in the parties. I have found around the 2nd week of October to be a good time as many modeller's come out of the summer mind set, only to have kids and organizations start up in late September. So it takes a while for many to get back to modelling.

The time frame for this one was good and there was lots of participation. I would rather have something intense happen, do it, then stop. This one is feeling draggy toward the end, but the first one (8 weeks not 6 weeks) just petered out, 8 weeks was definitely too long. I'm suspecting 6 is too long as well.

My problem is if I put a third one in the calendar, where do I put it?

This layout party has proven popular and I have been requested by several members on different forums to host one in their forum. I prefer the Trainboard forum because it is more active than some forums, but not overly active. For example, on the Atlas forum this thread would just disappear over the horizon. The longest thread I have seen survive there is two weeks. So we're onto a good thing here, and here's a toast of champagne to making it better.

 

Looks like I just need to learn on how to post pics on this forum

 

to post a photo here all you do is click on the image button below where you type your message, it will come up with a box, and you copy your url into the box, and click ok, and it adds it in for you.

at the atlas forum i cant seem to get my photos to work even though it works the same as here.

sorry if i dont get the point acrross to well im not the best at explainng things, but i hope i helped

 

Well, I fell off the bandwagon after a couple of good weeks. My own fault. But I think it is a good thing to do, as it gets a lot of people working and helping each other.

Suggestion:

Start a new thread for each week. This thread gets REALLY long. Like "Layout week 4 updates" or something along those lines. Just an idea.

 

I agree with the idea of starting a new thread each week.

 

Weekly threads would be too much for me. We went to a monthly format (see the April thread), and that seems to be great. If it was weekly, I would lose all sense of continuity. Call me lazy, call my connection slow, but it's just too annoying for me to go back to the forum level and then pick a new thread each time I want to follow a guy's recent progress. I don't have all the layouts straight in my head from memory, and I enjoy reading a guy's most recent post, and then going back through the thread and remembering where he's come from. I can do this by just clicking through the pages if they are a single thread. If I had to click on the forum main level, click on another thread, and then click on a page in THAT thread, I would not bother.

David

 

I agree with the idea of starting a new thread each month. I'm very agreeable today.

 

I also think monthly is a better idea, my connection is kind of slow and it would just be easier.

 

My point about weekly was because this is a 6 week long thread, so you would basically split this into two threads, one 2/3 the size, and one 1/3 the size. Or you could have 6 threads 1/6 the size.

A help for those with slow connections or limited time would be to re-state your weekly goals when updating.

I just think it's really hard to go back through and find the last week's updates when there is no clear dividing line on when it was. You have to search through a couple of pages sometimes. Just my opinion on the matter.

 

I think that having the dividing line is the main point. However long the thread, be it 6 weeks or one month, There should be a post on the same day each week (let's say Monday) that states "OK, we are now starting week number 2, time to report in and face the truth about your progress". This should be posted by the person who started the thread. It shouldn't have any comments about the week before or the poster's own progress, just a single post to mark the passage into the next week. Maybe the text can be bold or another color to make it standout. This would provide the seperation that people following the post needs.

As Corey said, just my thoughts on the matter.

 

Aha! I think we are talking about two different things. For the Layout Parties (like this thread), I agree with you two that we should do seperate, weekly threads! These are supposed to be formalized sessions of intensive building and friendly interaction, with weekly goals. I totally got lost and confused trying to figure out who had posted yet and who was MIA. A weekly new thread for the layout parties would be perfect. The first/main thread would show our overall goals and starting point, and each week we'd just list that week's goal and our progress in a new thread.

What I was talking about was different - the "in-between parties" time. Here, we are not posting weekly, and there are no formal goals. We're just continuing to stay in touch and talk about what we're doing. Basically the same thing that happens in this forum overall, but a touch more personal since the same people from the party are participating.

So I agree with you guys - the layout parties should have a new thread labelled "Week Two, Week Three" etc.

Hey by the way all you HO guys: as you know I'm in N scale, but I have all my old HO stuff listed in the yellow pages forum here on the trainboard. Check out my post there (I'm mentioning it here 'cause I never knew it existed until I stumbled across it yesterday). I'm looking to unload it or trade it for N scale goodies.

Regards,
David

 

David, Mike and Cory,
I agree about having the week separated. I didn't even think about it until the third "party." Okay, I'm asleep at the switch. I could try separate threads. But I also feel there is a certain synergism to a thread that is over a hundred posts; I'm not sure where to go on this one. On the next party, I will create separate threads.

By the way, to toot our own horns here, but on the net, believe it or not, at trainboard we are one of the busiest layout design forums going. The largest is at Yahoo! groups but it is very formal, and can be intimidating; they are champagne and caviar, we are more beer and chips.

 

Do you have a link for the Yahoo group?? Not that I'd consider leaving this place...but I'm curious. I might have to tuck my shirt tail in and go over there and see what's going on...

 

He's probably referring to the Layout Design SIG (Special Interest Group) on Yahoo! Quite the following from what I have heard, but can be a tad bit serious as mentioned.

Layout Design SIG

 

Thanks. I'll just stick around here. I don't like serious people.

 

Hi, kidz...

Been busy during the past week...I ran a little short on hobby time.

I promised pix...here's one to show my best work:

http://home.tampabay.rr.com/djobloni/buildings.htm

Remember the stencil technique for building signs from MR magazine that I described in an earlier post? I had such good results with this technique on a 2-color Coke sign that I decided to try a multi-color Pepsi Cola sign. Yes, the sign in the left foreground is painted on! Try this technique...you'll be amazed at the quality of your results!

The building in the right forground is a City Classics Iron Front building kit, constructed to look as if its neighbor was demolished. Here's a brief recap of the techniques used on this building:

Start by applying a thin coat of drywall joint compound, also called "mud", to a brick wall section and allow it to dry. Thanks to Kathleen Renninger for publishing this article in MR magazine:

http://www.trains.com/content/dynamic/articles/000/000/001/655jkmpv.asp

If you have areas of the wall to remain free of "stucco", apply masking tape before applying the joint compound. Sand it smooth. Pull up the tape and the compund will break cleanly. This works well for defining areas where floors or ceilings would have been for a demolished building. 1/8" wide tape is about the right thickness for a floor.

You can also use a hobby knife to remove the compound. First, scribe lines to outline the area to be removed, then use a chisel blade to gently peel up the compound. This works better than masking tape in that some of the compound is left behind in the mortar lines, leaving a realistic looking surface.

Lightly spray with black to "dirty up" the plaster. Give it a light spray, then mask some sections in rectangular or square shapes with tape or a piece of cardstock, then lightly spray again to give the effect of discoloration on the wall.

Its best to start with a prototype photo of a demolished or partly demolished building. I recently discovered the Library of Congress' website with a collection of old photographs. Here's the link:

http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/pphome.html

Click on "Prints and Photographs Online Catalog" to get to the catalog and the associated search engine. Search for "Jayne Building" to find the photos of the building that I used as a prototype. This is a great source for photos of old buildings!

I think the layout party was a success! As others have commented, it made me get off my butt and start some of those projects that I've had in mind for a long time. I also agree that a 4-week duration might keep momentum better than 6 weeks.

Best regards to all!

Bruce J.

 

I Like Beer and Chips
Count me in on your next 6 week power run.I'm so far behind on my layout my wife might take away my right away if i dont get going
Just a little background.I am into N scale, freelanced bridgeline between the great northern and the forests and mines of the great north.Ive ben collecting stuff for years.God have i got stuff,piles of it,all collecting dust.(cept the locos and cars mind you)Kits and wire and switches and electronic gadgets and plywood and o and on ,Its spillin out the bedroom.Anyone wanna help clean??didnt think so. Anyway i could use a good kick in the rear and a lil group like you have here sounds ideal.I dont want to bust in though,so i'll humbly ask if you'll have me first

 

of course you;re welcome here
the more the merrier!