So if you look on the Ttrak thread you will see my progress on the T-Trak modules and I am also working on my tram layout. I haven’t done much but I painted the roads with the first coat of grey. The drywall mud was very porous and soaked in the paint pretty quick but it also left it kinda blotchy so it’s gonna get a second coat. I’m using this as an experiment base for the T-Trak modules.
IMHO...the 'blotchy' makes it look more like older worn pavement. My roads look to 'new'. Although I pass it off as the city just 'slurry sealed' the roads...
The blotchy grey is fine but there is some white popping out here and there especially where the road and rail meet. It's prolly from my trying to wipe the rails off when I got paint on them. I will try to dabble on some more grey where I can see white. Maybe tonight if I feel better than last night.
Fresh off the workbench, a B36-7 for my freelanced railroad. The F3 has the first paint scheme of the railroad...a very simple and cost-effective lettering (easy for me!). But I wanted the railroad to have some form of identity and logo, so I worked with a decal designer...a few months of slowly working on this unit, and it's ready to pull trains wearing the company's new logo!
Today I finished something that I had started last May and posted about on this thread. Got 4 of the IR LED transmitter stands done, painted and the LEDs installed with white heat shrink tubing over the top. These will go over the 4 tracks on one of my staging yards with sensors being between the ties and will cause an arriving train to trigger a sequence that will stop that train and start another.
Some more loco detail jobs. I think I'm done for the time being having updated about 16 altogether... whew! Kato SD90. After looking at these pics and seeing the molded in grabs (which I didn't trim) I realized how bad it looked, pulled the grabs, trimmed and put the grabs back in. My first c44-9w (Kato) from the mid 90s wasn't spared. 1st gen kato SD40 re-liveried to the BN 1976 loco was a bit of a risk but I found some off-white paint from tru-color to match perfectly and got busy with the hobby knife and .2mm drill bit. Awaiting some cab window wind deflectors from atlas/blma before I call this one complete.
I am just finishing this house for my T-Trak single module. The module will be a haunted house/Halloween theme. I may even try to find some kids to “dare” each other to go up to the spooky house. I got more pics on the T-Trak thread.
Massey, that house is creepy! Looks great so far! Needs more moss, rot, grunge, deterioration and something to tone down the shine some more. Then it will be amazingly creepy!
I agree. Maybe the flash on the camera exaggerated the sheen. Maybe a final coat of Dullcoat at the end.
Yea the camera is making it shinier than it really is. Dulling it down was the first thing I did. I will try to get some natural light pics and we will see.
Jewelry wire and medical tape can make a pretty good oak tree stand in. I still need to grey it out and detail it a bit more but here is the tree.
Got some boats on my workbench. Foreground is the U18B I've just wrapped up and next project in the background, U36B coming for Auto-Train to replace my Bachmann units. (the N&W unit is the least busted up Bachmann U36B I have, my Auto-Trains are in pretty rough shape having done 40+ years of service) I printed the first U36B draft last night and made a laundry list of changes to make for draft #2. Pretty stoked to see how it looks when it's painted and decaled. Cheers -Mike
You have all seen pictures of my oil refinery (Ewing Oil & Refining - real original) that resides on club layout. The refinery had a flare unit way back on the property, which would/could be typical. The model was so insignificant that I have never included it in any pictures. I am changing that with a new version with a large flame, as if one of the process units just had a major upset. These will be the flames..... And here is an overall view, a lot of lights, piping and detail work to be done. I have some special LED's and electronic gizmos due in tomorrow and I hope to replicate the flame. There are some basic units in this shot..... Great fun, stay tuned. Stay/Be well, Carl
Well, here I went looking at the pictures before reading the text. At a quick glance, my first thought was a potato being used as a battery (I know, I know, don't judge me ) but then looking closer and reading the text, I can see where that should combine to make a realistic looking background flame. Will be cool to see how this turns out.