Built myself a new, larger, and far superior work bench a couple weeks ago. Splurged on far better wood than what I usually employ, and it was worth every penny. Another change from last time is the work bench is below the drawer instead of above it. This allows my knees a little more breathing room, and a available height in the drawer closer to 4" as opposed to 2 1/2". In other news, we had a ton of rain and cloud cover yesterday, and today, which has meant train room temperatures nearer 75 degrees as opposed to 90. I took full advantage and started some scenery work along the river. Following the same theme as last time, working from the same pictures as last time. I would show you the pictures, but I can't find them, and am simply working from memory. I've looked at them so much they're pretty much imprinted in my brain -_- Right now I'm waiting for some boulders to set in the molds, then they'll be installed. After that I'll pour a plaster layer behind them to raise the river bed up so I don't have to fill the whole thing with rocks. Cheers!
More scenery work The trees aren't permanent, just trying to help the imagination process. I think it's looking good, but a long way to go of course. First things first I need more talus...
Sweet scenery! I noticed you have two Virginian hoppers and are they Athearns? I should be getting 10 in the mail soon and I was just wondering how you like them if they are.
Thanks for the compliments guys. The Virginian hoppers are actually Bowser units, but I have a ton of Athearn hoppers (including five Virginian) and I've never had any complaints about them. In my opinion the detail is slightly better than the atlas 90tons. Saying that I prefer the Bowsers over anything because the stirrups are much finer. More importantly though, where on earth did you find 10 of the suckers? I couldn't believe I found the five I did, but still, 10?!
The leaves on the tracks are very much intentional. Hopefully that helps fill in the details a little bit. I must admit, I'm not overly happy with the fallen leaves. The flock size is just a little too large for my tastes. Going to try picking up some WS coarse turf and see if that comes out a little better. Still once I grind some dirt and dead leaves into it I doubt one would notice the over sized 'leaves'.
Great idea on the workbench. A friend did this under his staging, but did not build the segmented box storage drawer like you show here. You've got me thinking that a few of these drawers above the work area would not be too complicated to build, yet a great solution to my open fold out table with a mess all over it. Thanks
Built myself a cheap spray booth out of some blue foam, and set to painting the supertrees I have so far procured from the giant boxes. Up to now about 70% of them need straightening, which I think is done by boiling them, but I'll have to double check that. I have about 50 so far, and reckon I need a fair few more to finish the layout Sorry for the crappy picture, the problems with the camera flash and shoddy lighting.
I boil mine, then immediately soak them in diluted mat medium for a few hours. When I'm ready to take them out, I hang them on a line by the trunk with a clothes pin. Then I add a few more clothespins to the top to add enough weight to straighten them out while the mat medium sets. Once thats done, then I paint them and add foliage. I don't have any pics off hand, but the results are pretty good!
I couldn't resist knocking a few trees out. Scenery is by far my favorite aspect of the hobby (besides watching trains go around and around and around...) so this proved to be a nice little treat A teeny tiny taste of things to come... I think the next step is to finally lay the last of the cork, track, and then on to building the rest of middle mountain so I can crack on with the fun stuff
Today's endeavor: Painted and weathered CVM truss bridge. Had been sitting around for months untouched, so decided to put my new d.i.y. spraybooth back to use, and got things done. I started with a satin black out of a rattle can for the bridge and espresso for the deck and rails. This was followed with a black chalk on the deck and rails and then a rust red chalk for the rest of the bridge. It actually turned out better than I was expecting, which was a nice surprise. In other news, I'm so over the mine scene, and trying to integrate it that I'm considering just plastering over the entire thing, nice scenery work be damned.
I'm now starting a Chessie layout, the St. Louis Line. Lots of B&O geeps to paint...anyway, great job so far!
