Touch up left mainly, buy or find some glue I have. Work table taken down for now. Not much to finish it up. Add the 3D printed HVAC stuff. I really like the Late Night Hobbies warehouse kit. Hope he expands his N Scale line at some point in the future? At least I chose a simple project and the Party motivated me to get it built. I have had it for a few month's now
Finally got some items off my Honey-Do list and had time to get the last few of the 21 coil loads painted metallic steel blue. Still have to sand and fine tune 5 loads for easy inserting and removal, and touch up the paint job on 6 other loads. Five gondolas need to be lightly weathered. 21 Coil loads painted Steel Blue by ppuinn posted Jan 8, 2025 at 10:31 PM After painting the coil loads, I mounted the Leather Tool Caddy from MicroMark that I got for Christmas. It is mounted under the lower deck, directly under where I posed the coil loads pictured above. All the tools in it now had been on my 36 inch x 36 inch work table, which was behind me when I took this pic...along with about 15 containers of various modeling tools, supplies, and the paints I used on the coil loads that took up over 2/3 of the table. Leather Tool Caddy by ppuinn posted Jan 8, 2025 at 10:31 PM When I finish the coil loads and weather the 5 gons, I'll start on the Billet loads...and may find time to take some action pics of the new Locos.
cbg said:"kinda like a rattlesnake, COILED and ready to go..." Clever! Your humor has some bite! If the Reno you are from is Reno, Nevada, you probably see a lot more Rattlers there than I see here in Central Illinois. Could I say you were POISED AND ready to go with that line?
The track work on the end module is finished and wired. Took me a while to figure out the power routing for the electro frog turnouts to prevent shorts. Had to use slide switches so I put them to work as switch stand shanty ground throws. Quad bends in the throw bars allows the extra travel of the slide switch to be absorbed. The switch bases will be blended into the scenery. Wiring the electro frogs to the slide switch allows positive contact with out relying on the point rails making contact with the rail to transfer power to the frog.
OK, I'm in this year, about 3 weeks late, but better than last year, when I missed it completely. I've been posting regularly on the weekend modeling thread, but will be posting here for the duration. My goal for this year is to make as much progress as possible on the initial round portion of the layout. I'm looking to at least get all the track laid and operational. The next priority will be backdrops and scenery.
Welcome Railmix! It’s Never too late! It looks like you’ve started a spiral. Will it be stopping there or do you plan to cookie cut it, lift or lower it, and continue with a straight section above or below the larger loop? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You are correct, Reno, Nevada. Thanks for your comments on my humor, it does get away from me at times (I didn't say slither....) I haven't seen a rattler in years near town, too much growth and activity. Get a little out of town and that is another matter. We have a small "mountain" right near the airport that is actually called Rattlesnake Mountain and it used to be loaded with them, but I really haven't heard about many issues lately. I would say chances of seeing one is pretty low now, maybe 2 or 3 on a SCALE of 10.
Actually, the spiral is the Hicksville branch. It will thread its way through a double-sided backdrop, so the spiral should be less obvious. Although the scenery won't be flat, the track grade will. The eventual connection to the rest of the layout will be through a wye in the foreground area. (The layout is sitting on sawhorses right now for convenience in construction. Right now, it's turned 180 degrees from its actual orientation. Some idea may be had from looking at the mockup: GreenRiver side: A few miles away in Hicksville-Well OK, on the other side of the backdrop: Note: Permanent backdrop will not feature the Walmart logo.
I'm finally working on the layout. Little Miss Allie woke me up to go pee at 3:00am, very unusual for her. She did her business right away then ran back upstairs. That little bugger beat me back to bed and was fast asleep before I got to the bedroom. I decided to stay up and have coffee in the train room. I trimmed a couple pieces of Unitrack for the mainline and a few more for the industrial area. When I'm away from the hobby I forget how relaxing it is to work at my modeling bench. This morning while listening to Yes Fragile I wore the noise canceling headphones my wife gave me for Christmas. Listening to that album and working on trains took me back about 50 ears.
I must admit that this winter weather is not motivating me. Between the weather and life getting in my way, I didn't get much done in the last week. What I did get done was to paint the bottom of the stream and swamp. I mixed the following colors Deep Green Black Burnt Umber White on the fly. It was a dab of this and a dab or 2 of that. The paints are just CHEAP "Dollar Store" and "Big Box Store" acrylic paints. Gary
A yard grows in Grantsville I ordered four switches and a pack of joiners last weekend. They switches arrived on Wednesday, but the joiners were shipped separately and got stuck in the US Mail system due to the snow storms. I was able to scrounge up enough joiners to get a start on the north end of Grantsville, which allowed the completion of the passing siding and yard track 1. Certain joints were soldered and most feeders were connected to the buss wires. The joiners should arrive Monday, and I’ll be able to temporarily lay out the freight depot and connect the car shop tracks at Charleston this week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sorry, no pictures today. I added the first layer of water-based varnish today. The varnish thinned the CHEAP Dollar Store / Big Box Store paint, and I have a couple of thin spots near the bottom right edge of the swamp. It's not a big deal I can hide them. BUT the green paint transferred to the brush and then into the quart of varnish. I don't think there is enough green to tint the varnish, but it is still aggravating. Gary
Been back from Japan for a few days now, getting over the time difference and catching up with things here at home after being gone for a month. I am starting late in the annual layout party so am keeping my goals modest to match the time I have left. While I was away I missed a local show with the Ntrak club in December and found out that the show in February had been canceled. However, the annual show at the air museum is coming up in April and the Asian layout I belong to will be setting up for sure and maybe the Ntrak layout as well. So with an effort to go with the flow, my focus will be the Asian modules. Specifically, I want to detail a Kato building that has been vacant on the module for years. I did repaint the building a few years ago to get rid of the plastic look. I'll also work on developing the scene around the building. I brought back a few items from Japan and of course lots of inspiration. Here is the building. There will likely be a convenience store on the 1st floor, (known as 1F in Japan) and various other business on the upper floors. Signs, window coverings and possibly some interior detail and lighting should bring this to life. The building was mounted to the module with 4-40 screws and is easy to remove and re-install when finished. Depending on how this progresses, I may start some other things related to improving the modules for the April show.
Back in the swamp this morning The varnish has dried. Sorry that this is a bit blurry. Now onto the next step of adding a layer of white glue. I wonder how LONG the glue is going take to dry. Hopefully, I didn't make it too thick. The shadow in the image makes the glue look bent but it is not. After the glue is dry there will be a few layers of varnish. Gary
Gary, Is the varnish water or oil based? Have you tested varnishing over white glue to be certain you don't get unwanted results like hazing or who knows what?
The varnish is water-based. No, I have not tested it, so it's going to be interesting. It would not be the first time I had to tear something out after putting many hours of work into it. Stuff just happens.
Been sitting at the computer working on some paper signs for the 6 story Kato building. I am using a combination of M/S Visio and Google Translate to make these. Brought the building into the house so I could size the signs correctly. The final versions of these will be more precisely cut out with a razor blade and laminated with glossy tape so they won't look so much like paper. Those vertical signs are being checked for height and will actually be mounted on a sign board that sticks out from the front of the building. I am still planning on a convenience store for the ground floor but it looks like the base is set up for a restaurant so I'll need to remove those details first.
I finished the LED light arch this morning. It nicely freed up some space on my little workbench. I'm thinking longer feet would allow me to cantilever the arch off the front of the bench. This would light up the slide out findings tray I often use as a work surface. I did some more work fitting the compressor to the aftermarket tank. I need to purchase one more air fitting seal, final tighten all fittings, then wire in the pressure cut off switch. I should finish it up tomorrow. On a side note, the leads to the OEM compressor switch were just wrapped around the switch terminals, no solder no connectors. Just wrapped and twisted. That's Central Pneumatics quality for ya.
