I got nothin' done today, had an unexpected plumbing project. A simple half-hour job to replace a leaky faucet washer turned into an afternoon project, resulting in two new bathroom faucets. I hate plumbing work, especially when I'm jammed into the bottom of a bathroom vanity.
Got the last staging track laid. Still need to wire it up. I highly recommend installing lower level staging BFORE the upper level is built!! My head hurts! Terry
Well, one more step toward completion of the basement. We got the bugger painted, and we're just about ready for the floor to go in. Unfortunately, they had to order the vinyl that we picked, and it's not going to go in until the week of February 14th. Unfortunately, that means that I'm going to have to all but back out of the party. My new goal is just to get Altoona to its final home.
foundation work Tonight I set the foundation for a few structures. In some cases, it means merely setting pins in the leveled ground surface that prevent a bumped structure from moving. For others on uneven terrain, I build a simple styrene foundation like this one. After cutting and anchoring the white styrene, I sawed slots in the foam substrate with a thin kerf saw to accept strips of styrene brick sheet. Once inserted in the sawed slots, the brick sheet was easy to hold in place while applying styrene solvent. Here's the unpainted result. After painting with Polly Scale Aged Concrete, it looks fairly believable on the layout. It will be time to dig out the airbrush for some weathering soon.
"Dig" out. My sentiments exactly. I should be a better person, I know. Great scene, pachyderm. Really nice on the DPM kit bashing.
Tracy, I have been avoiding replacing a washer on our bathroom faucets for a while. I fear that attempting it will result in a similar situation you were in. Pachyderm, the foundation for that building turned out great! It is nice to see a building placed so well on uneven terrain. Good work! For myself, not a lot of progress this past week. I have been experimenting with painting the sky on my backdrop. I think I finally struck success with a technique last night. I will see if I can finish one of the walls and then post some photos. Cheers!
Here are a couple of progress shots. I did get around to doing a little plaster work this weekend. Here is the area next to CJ yard. and the east end of Spadra Hopefully I will get time to do a little more during the week. I guess it is appropriate that this looks like a winter scene as the temps are supposed to drop into the teens with sleet and snow starting tomorrow. It must be all those damn yanks coming down here for Super Bowl bringing this weather with them.
I desperately need to take some photographs. The main lumber mill T-Trak module has track laid with drops. The second mill module has the track laid out (but not yet attached) and I have applied the hardboard ("masonite") fascia board. Hopefully, by the end of this week the drops will have been soldered to the track and the track will be mounted to this second module also.
work Well with this weekend being the birthday extravaganza for my youngest's fifth birthday not a whole lot was achieved. I made the bridge abutment and downslope cover and continued to attach the I beams to the underside.
SKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As promised, I did a little more painting after dinner and got a little closer to having one wall finished. Seeing photos of it is a good way to hi-lite the areas that I still need to improve. I think I will wait with painting the landforms in the background until I have some landforms built in the foreground. Let me know what you think, and please be honest with ways that it could be improved! Cheers,
Excellent painting work, Ben! I'm very impressed. I built a board fence tonight. It may be hard to see but those are individual 0.010" X 0.060" styrene boards.
Snow day progress Had a snow day today and hunkered in down in the man cave. Dug out the airbrush and did some quick weathering. Made and planted a batch of trees along with lots of underbrush. In the photo above, there is another board fence near the center. The one on the extreme left was built with individual vertical boards - way too much hassle. The one on the right is made of sheet styrene scribed by hand - much simpler and looks just as good. Probably took 30 minutes to build and paint. Perhaps during tomorrow's snow day, I'll finish the ground cover to the left of the cut in the photo below.
Whew! Thanks, Michael. Thanks, Strasburg. Thanks for your kind words. The hard work on the Dixon cityscape is complete now. I finished the ground cover on the left side of the cut. Eventually, power poles and perhaps a few signs will appear, but now I'm ready to stare at running trains for a while. Whew! My biggest goal for the winter layout party is complete. Time permitting, I'll build another structure for the new industrial park at Meridian, visible in the photo below. I experimented with scratch building chain link fence but I'm not crazy about the results. The propane distributor needs chain link fencing, but the price of BLMA etched fence makes me think twice. There will likely be a Rix Pikestuff building erected to the left of the yellow building.
mission accomplished I wanted for the FREMO meeting next week two small curved modules, a 90 deg corner module and some structure for my Salina. Well, I've accomplished this - so far. These are the two modules, 10 deg and 5 deg. This is my first 90 deg corner module, made of two segments. And this is my town of Salina. It has got a stock yard. The six houses are old Kibri kits. Eventually I will replace them. But for now ... Wolfgang
I've said it before, and I will say it again. Pachyderm and Wolfgang, you guys make this stuff look so easy. Your modelling is so consistently well done. I think one of the toughest things I am learning is that smooth realistic transitions in scenery is very important, and you both have it figured out to a Tee. Great Work!
Thanks, Ben, for your generous gift of kind words. Being placed in a similar league as Wolfgang is an unexpected honor. I've been watching and admiring Wolfgang's artistry for about five years now. His outstanding contributions to the hobby are a continuing inspiration for me.
