Its pretty funny actually. They built the tracks through the 4th dimension. At first it was complete nothingness, but later on shapes formed terrain. Then it grew color and eventually plants and foliage.
While drilling supports for the bridge, the crew actually hit a field of extreme electromagnetism. This caused a huge explosion and suddenly the sky turned white, sending the valley in a flash time warp twenty years into the past. Crew members Hugo, Sawyer, Miles, and Juliet vanished during the white-out. Interestingly, its the same thing that happened on Lost.
But, they were sent 30 years into the past, not 20, and it was Sawyer, Miles, Juliet, Jin and Daniel. Hugo didn't get there until he, Kate, Saied and Jack disappeared from the airplane. Just hope you don't plan to detonate a nuclear bomb to bring the crew back to the present, sort of.
only if you also put in the Hydra station with the bear cages (with Kate in her skimpy little sundress).
Great thread. Love the track plan. Um, how about a hot air balloon park? They would be tough to scratch build but? I'm sure you can do it.
Interesting.. I'll have to think about that one! Better yet, inflatable/deflatable hot air balloons! They could launch from the field in front of main street then venture up over the backdrop to get the aerial views of Thunder Valley. Hmmmm.. Well, I bought the foam core boards that will become the elevation supports. Thunder Ridge should be elevated by tonight.
Before I temporarily dismantle the layout in order to put in the elevation, I took some time to glue the turnout ties into place. I just used some Midwest Products basswood "Scale Lumber", cut to length.
Glue is drying on the elevation supports. I cant wait to get the subroadbed back over top. I decided to go back with my gut instinct and pushed the height of Thunder Ridge to 16.5 inches, or 220 scale feet, above the river bed. Thunder Ridge is also 14 scale feet above Thunder Pass which should give some great variation for photography! Here's what the supports look like:
Track is back on top of the elevation supports and Thunder Valley gets its first glimpse of shape with a mock-up!
Looks like we know what someone will be doing this weekend! Looks like a great beginning. Can't wait to see it come together.
Uh oh. I think I may have painted myself into a corner. The elevation supports raised the track height to 55 inches above the floor, making it very hard to reach inside the back of the river valley. Hmm..
And the cardboard mesh is in place! I've made two additions to the river valley scene, a cascading waterfall between the rear bridge and the foreground bridge, and a short tunnel to the inside loop. With the addition of the waterfall, I'm back to building a wooden trestle for the bridge in back since the depth of the valley is not so steep in that area anymore. The front bridge will be based on the far bridge in this photo. Ok, enough babbling. PHOTOS!! You can see how I've added a few rock shelves to give asymmetrical variation to the valley walls. The new tunnel will really add to the photographs from this angle by providing a great crop.
HOLY COW! That's going to look awesome! One of the things I love about this site is how the members here really raise the bar.
Isn't it amazing how much things changed by adding some vertical elements to this? Wow... If I hadn't seen the pictures of the flat sheet, I wouldn't believe it started out that way.
Seeing this come together so quickly is breath taking. Equally so are the time stamps on your posts! Did you sleep at all last night?
