Continued building the carfloat that will be fixed at the bottom right corner of the layout, representing traffic to Oakland. It's two pieces of .8 styrene sandwiched together (we wanted the line between), with rails gorillaglued on: Had the cleats & bitts from Seaport Model Works http://seaportmodelworks.com/index.php?cPath=35_37. The round hatches are tabs off of Grandt Line NBW sprues. The rails protrude because we'll join those up to the carfloat-approach turnout, then we'll cut the gap when everything's set to ensure alignment. Gave it a once over with some Grimy Black with a "mist" of Scalecoat "Graphite" for a hint o' metal: Will add some debris, including coal droppings, & then weather with some powders & maybe drippings from the "Big Jug O' Stain", unless people have other suggestions. But so far it seems to float our boat
That's a great looking layout as it stands right now, and hoo ray for the family involvement. The Carfloat is very impressive. I have the greatest respect for the hand-laid switches. It'll never be me, I don't have the patience and have never had the experience of hand-lad switches that work.
The BJOS is a large glass jar (I think it was spaghetti sauce) in which I keep my weathering / staining solution, which is 70% iso alcohol, india ink, WS "Earth Colors" Black, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, maybe some slate grey, probably some Polyscale grimy black, more india ink. I dunno. I throw the basswood strips in there to stain when I build bridges or for replacement ties. I dip a brush in there and paint the sides of cars & styrene buildings to weather them (with various levels of success) I dip a paper towel in there and blot the cedar shingles to color them before applying to the roof. I've had the same jar for at least two years. When it starts to get low, or weak, I throw in more alcohol (usually the 70% iso, but there's probably some vodka or sake in there too)(don't ask) and whatever else I think it needs. Usually more india ink & some kind of brown. It's kinda like Pappy's moonshine: not exactly sure what the recipie is, but when you start to go blind it's done.
MC Fujiwara....I just spit coffee all over my monitor !!!! Thnxs for the grins and laughs. :tb-biggrin::tb-biggrin: .
You can use coffee to stain / weather things, but I don't recommend using the Big Jug O' Stain as your morning cup o' joe. (Unless you want to weather your American Standard porcelain & take a trip to the ER) Sorry about your monitor. Just curious: did it shoot out of your nose? I get bonus points for that.
I was just finishing lunch while reading this thread. Immediately called to see if the warranty on my laptop covered a guffaw followed by salad damage was covered. It's not. They suggested unsubscribing.
Oh gee, here is the rest of your layout. Very nice. I like the hand layed turnouts. I also like the home made barge. Hmmmm.... kinda scared of the weathering spitoon though.
I guess that's what they mean by "dressing your wounds". What can I say except "lettuce rejoice!" and thanks for reading. [Funny: my kids & I have a running game of "who can make Mommy laugh hard enough at dinner that she spits food / shoots drink out". Guess I'm turning pro.]
Wow. It's been a minute since the last post. Craziness of school starting and all, I guess. Finished weathering the carfloat: Drybrushed some light grey, brush some glue & put some gravel & coal droppings, drizzled some "Big Jug O' Stain" on there, and then powdered it up nice & good. Might have gone a little overboard with the gravel & cinders. Oh well. After this photo shoot, I didn't want to get the powder everywhere, so I sprayed it with Dullcote. Then I remembered that Dullcote makes powder vanish. Oh, well. After it dries, I'll see what it looks like. Worse comes to worse I work the M.C. magic again with powders. If anyone has any groovy carfloat weathering tips, I'd be happy to hear them! Also got the float apron made & almost installed, so tomorrow, after a quick trip to the LHS, I should have picts of an almost finished carfloat scene (and thus all track installed).
That's lookin' great so far. Don't worry too much about the gravel and cinders. Have a look at this photo and you'll feel much more prototypical: As for more details, I was going to ask about rust on the sides and maybe some other deck stuff, then I found this photo which does a good job of showing what I'm talking about. Can't wait to see the apron!
Funny: that's the pict I had in mind while building & weathering. Guess we need more gravel & coal on the deck. Well, we'll get another go at, since the Dullcoat pretty much erased all the powder.
Finally got the carfloat & apron installed, water effects and some basic ground cover done. Following some advice by David K. Smith, we ended up screwing the float to the layout to ensure rail alignment. Still need to add some more details: ropes, more weathering on deck, dockside details, etc. But it's nice to have the track 100% done, along with our staging / connection to the off-layout world.
