Another work week is about to be a memory as we delve deeper into Fall. This weekend, more painting and weathering as I try to get the rest of nscalerone's loco's done in early Conrail. I also have a few freight cars to weather for a friend in AZ. Probably won't have much time to work on the layout but who knows. Got a train show in NY this Sunday and since it is supposed to be 80, that means dropping the top on the railfan Jeep for the trip up and back. How about you? Any shows this weekend? Layout progress? Buildings, locomotives, freight car painting and or weathering? Let us know. Post your response and as always pictures are great, we'll all gather on Monday the 1oth and see each others progress.
My Digitrax DT400r throttle has a problem so I probably won't be able to operate my layout until I get it back from Digitrax. I will be scenicking and signaling my T-Trak modules somemore this weekend although with the nice weather lawn maintenance and leaf pickup may take priority.
Going to try to hand lay more rail and solder feeder wires. Maybe start filing my switch points and the frog assemblies.
It is a long weekend for me. I hope to get the roadbed down for the rest of the mainline loop and maybe start to actually lay some track.
I am going to give modeling with real cement a try. I am building a modern highway overpass and am going to build the abutments, piers, and deck using Quikrete anchor cement. I have seen results from other modelers and it results in a very realistic look (because it is real cement). This weekend I am going to make molds and pour at lesat the abutments, hopefully the piers as well. Jamie
This weekend I'll paint the newly-paved road in front of the diner. I've got some crossbucks and road signs to assemble, and a bit of ballasting to finish that section of the layout. My wife is hopping a plane to visit her parents later in the week, so I'll at least pull out the Walthers Car Float kit and spread the parts out on the table. I'd like to get a start on that next week when I've got the house (and the weekend) to myself. I need to print up interior walls and floors for the second and third story windows of Merchants Row. I'll finish up the signs for the stores, and probably get the overhaniging lights mounted on the outside walls. This is a normal 2-day weekend for me, and our daughter is in town, so I hope I'll have time for all my plans. (Yeah, like when has that ever happened?)
I've been sidetracked (ouch) by another project recently since I'm still thinking about what to do for lighting in my boxcab project. Here's what I've been up to and what I want to work a little more on this weekend: The trees (immediately on the other side of the train) are made from homemade ground foam. I used a blender with water and chopped up foam bits to grind it down nice and small, then used water and acrylic paints to color them (12 varieties so far), dried them out, then rechopped them dry to get them smaller. I've done four trees so far and I'm really happy with the results I'm getting. The trunk on the left one is a trimmed down piece of a clipping from a Christmas wreath while the trunk on the right is Cat5 cable, bent into branches. Both are wrapped with brown florist tape and I painted the wire with burnt umber acrylic paint. I used spray mount adhesive sprayed directly on the branches, then dipped them in the ground foam till I got the look I wanted. I'm also almost finished with my cardstock buildings. The closer one is a coal distributor (free kit download from Evan Designs) and the other building is the chocolate and bon-bon factory (designed by me). Both were printed on cardstock with my HP inkjet printer, cut with a sharp X-acto and glued and taped together, then weathered and blended using pastel chalks. I'll add more details and install them on bases so they sit flat. I also added a crossing sign (cardstock printed on my HP, CA'd onto a piece of wire from an old HO kit), some grass/ground cover (ground up parsley flakes and oregano using a pepper mill, screened it to get the biggest chunks out, then used spray mount and sprinkled it on where it needed to go), and filled in some cracked PlayDoh (it shrinks a little when it dries) and blended the colors in with chalk. Here's another photo: I really like how the PlayDoh roadway came out, especially with the filled crack. Here it is from the top: Well, that's what I'm up to, and maybe a little work on the boxcab, too.
I'm busy with turnouts for my Pueblo & Salt Lake RR. The next dual gauge turnout is waiting.... Wolfgang
Cork is down for my yard area, worked on getting backdrop and fascia materials cut and in position Friday night. Got two new undec shells in mail today from Atlas, 1 GP-9 w/dynamic, 1 GP-9 w/o dynamic. I painted Gettysburg #105 and #107 years ago, and after getting a GMM fan/louver kit realized that I used a GP-7 for #107, not a big difference, but if I'm going to do the upgrade details, I'd better have the right grill pattern etc. Only problem is re-doing the decals :thumbs_down: , I did them letter by letter, line by line. Unless someone knows someone who knows how to get me some custom decals :tb-wink: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=863774 So will be working on those two for the foreseeable future, and working on more roadbed and trackwork when I need a break from detailing/painting.
