Welcome back everyone. I hope you had a great weekend and got some time to get some modeling in. Let's get started. Saturday: At 7:30am, I started with the deep clean and detail of the family wagon. To say it was dirty would be an understatement and need I remind you we have two Beagles? Dog hair is near impossible to get out of the car (which is why the Mustang is off limits to pups). I did manage however to get the car back to that new showroom condition, but it took until 4:00pm and I never washed or waxed the car. It was going to rain Sunday, so I decided to stop with the interior. Angela was very happy. The John Deere was fixed but I found another broken assembly to the front axle. With rain on the way, I pressed the push mower into service and almost ran to get the lawn mowing finished before dark. I got to look at the NTrak module, that was it. Sunday: Sore from the previous day, I took my time in getting up and ready but soon headed over to Decatur for the Decatur Spring Train Fair. Sundays are usually slow, and this Sunday was no different. There were new vendors and displays but I only ran into one friend who was there running N scale. I picked up a cool B&M and Penn Central shirts and headed home. Once home I realized that with the rain and having to move everything in the garage for two hours of NTrak work wasn't worth the time, so I started programing my Athearn Genesis B&M GP9 for the ProtoThrottle. We then met up with Angela's dad and grandma for dinner and to talk with the establishment about next weekend. So how about you? Did you get everything done you set out to do or did life get in the way? Let us know. I'll be out for a few weeks but, Russell Straw, will be hosting the Weekend Modeling Plans and Accomplishment threads in my absence. Until I see you all again, have a great few weeks, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
Good morning all and happy Monday. Pretty much got 2 of the 3 things I wanted to do: Saturday: Rolled about 300 puff ball trees from polyfiber fill material used in pillows. Also decaled an Atlas RSD 11/12 shell. Have to mask and airbrush the deck now. Late Saturday and Sunday, set up outdoors and painted between 260 and 280 or so of the "trees" Never got to working on the new bridge project that is out there. Have a great week all!!
Good morning from sunny and warm Northeast Ohio! Friday, had a Cleveland USBC monthly meeting followed by a couple of adult beverages. Saturday, spent the morning cleanup up the club room in anticipation of the Division 4 layout visit tour. I spent a lot of time rebuilding some of the structures that got damaged during operations, they were fragile and in the way while operating. Later that evening I finished up a couple of cars for painting including the Lot 794 NYC boxcar kit. Sunday, did laundry and ran a bunch of errands, did manage to paint the above car for decaling later. Rick Jesionowski
After battling an ugly migraine I managed to decal a couple of additional of my HOn30 freight cars. I'll get a few more done, then do a mass dullcote to hide decals, and then a little weathering. Also started assembling a module for my new N scale mini-empire.
I finished decorating a Microtrains Postal/Express car for the Katy. Stripped a diner and observation car in alcohol to receive similar treatment.
Spent the weekend in several shorter sessions adding N Scale black cinder ballast along the edges of the tracks on the 8ft expansion section of the layout. I had used some 3mm black foam in between the cork road beds in the yard and found that the ballast blended really well with this. By Sunday afternoon got most of Carlin yard done. I had started with the WP track along the top in this photo on Friday so on Sunday started to add the main ballast there. I have been told that sometimes different batches of ballast don't quite match in color and found out that this is true. Should be OK as this area is visually isolated from the rest of the layout by the tunnels and I have plenty from the new batch to finish this area.
We had a rough weekend. Started out fine. We were doing yardwork on Saturday afternoon when someone decided to do some burning. Unfortunately the smoke sent off my wife's asthma in a big way and we had to do some heavy duty treatments with the nebulizer. Sunday morning we again encountered the burning and had a second go around. Today fingers crossed no smoke. My daughter and her boyfriend got the netting off the fishpond and I did some skimming to remove any leftover floating debris. I got some blocks under the legs of the new bench to prevent it from sinking. I watered the plants as needed. Nothing got done on the layout or workbench due to the breathing issues and the aftermath.
We have two months every Spring when open burning is allowed. So we suffer through a lot of fields afire and smoldering. The stench of wet, dead grasses is awful. Atop that, tons really nasty stuff is released into the atmosphere via this process.....
I was able to get a start on a necessary evil on my N scale Housatonic RR. The background hills behind Pharmco and on both sides of the gorge had trees, but no underbrush and deadfall. The simple layer of ground foam just didn't have the look of a forest floor. I scattered a mix of materials under and around the trees throughout this area to simulate dead leaves, branches, brush, etc., and got it all glued down in this hard to reach portion of the layout. I also added a chain link fence around the Ethanol Tanks, and added some static grass and home made tufts around Pharmco. Last but not least, I added some "Army Painter" tufts with foliage for some added texture at the bottom of the gorge. I still need to do piping and weathering on Pharmco, but that will come after the rest of the scenery is done. The unballasted and unpainted spur tracks to the right are from Stratus Foods. I will need to build a cement pad and provide pipes and hoses for unloading the vegetable oil and corn syrup tank cars. That will be the next area I will address as I continue to work my way around the layout doing the second layer of scenery.
Saturday turned into a long day at home. Didn’t have to goto work until Sunday. So Saturday I was able to start working on some loads. 28 N scale ballast hoppers need loads. Also made 4 bulkhead loads. Cut, stained, and glued a new roof for the scratch build I’m working on too. I was able to change out the trucks and couplers on a model power N scale caboose. Sunday was nothing done Monday continues with the loss and scratch builds. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Saturday was windy and rainy so the yard work got postponed and I was able to steal a few hours on the layout. I got a little more 'landscaping' and detailing done on my "Waverly" village scene. This is totally freelanced, the small yard represents an interchange between the EL and the Lehigh Valley, on the NY/Penn border just north of Sayre, Pennsylvania. The track in the foreground is the EL mainline, east bound out of the hidden reversing loop. Still need to finish the kitbash for the factory next to the yard. I'm working on something that will extend beyond the tracks to truck docks next to the highway below.
I hope Mrs. Tompm is doing much better. On here late due to car building and errands. Good to see some input I have not seen before. Worked a little on the project Friday. Caught a little fish on Saturday. Literally one little fish. Weekly stuff on Sunday. I love trees! (It's f i n a l l y warm in Northeast Ohio.) SB&HC cars look sharp! Katy express too! Fine ballast job. N scale Housatonic trees and forest floor, cool (Pharmco look goodco). Lotsa' loads coming. "Waverly" was worth turning sideways to see. (We all love computers...) Earlier, I was able to finish prepping horizontal end frames. Will do verticals next. Then more stuff! Everyone be safe, healthy and have fun.
Hey Guys, My weekend went as planned - kind of. Did what I was planning - just in the order I planned Saturday, my Wife decided to go into work to catch up on things - so, I worked on my H12-44 project a bit. Sunday: I replaced the two faulty latches in my Wife's car. Then continued work on the H12-44 Hope y'all have a great week Wolf
Nothing went according to forecast. The weather stayed surprisingly good all weekend. Shorts and t-shirt stuff. Which was helpful since my Friday project turned into a two-day event. I casually mentioned there was a tire problem to be "dealt with" on Friday. Didn't happen. So in addition to retrieving my paint booth from storage, I also loaded my winter wheels. Spent most of Saturday swapping wheels and tires in search of a vibration. At least I proved to myself it is not likely the tires. Got tired of being a tennis ball between the tire shop and the mechanic. Got a good workout doing tire changes, too. I did make some progress on the garage cleanout, shelving shuffle. Here is what it looks like right now: In the back, center is the venerable paint booth. Possibly the finest piece of woodworking I have ever done. Smooth joints, round corners, still ticking after 30+ years. Ignore the overspray. The empty space holding up the cordless drill is the landing spot for the laser engraver when the enclosure gets finished. All this needs to be at least organized, if not finished, by the time I go to the airport to pick up my wife and mother-in-law tomorrow. Sharp eyes will note the lack of power and ventilation. Didn't get to that. Didn't get to BBQ either. It's OK, I did get Carne' Asada. Stay safe,
Was gonna post a pic of my ginormous mega tower design but I ran out of pixles. With 7 people in about 1700 sq feet I just don't have access to the trains. I'm thinking of taking them down to one 2X8 foot table and work on detailiting / scnery on that. Ostensibly we will move in about 18 to 24 months at which time I'll have a diddicated train room. We shall see.
