Noah, thanks for the shot of my module in Roseville. We had a change in plans and were in Denver last weekend. Had been looking forward to meeting you in person.
That's better than my shot. I have to say, that was the highlight of irf for me having seen it being built, but I wish more built up modules had made the trip.
Peter- That is great to hear. I'll keep an eye for Professor Bob. I like your video blog that you're doing now. I'll definitely subscribe on Youtube. Rick, I was messaging with Ryan about it. Hopefully you guys (and me) will all make it to the Richmond Craneway show. They almost would need to give you more room than the stage if there were any more modules. But, the FreeMoN setup does seem to be able to cram into some pretty tight spaces.
Below you can see that I "buried" the tail tracks on the lumber yard. I used fine sands that I colored with Bragdon weathering powders. I also removed the wood grade crossing pieces from the four extendable Kato track pieces. The reason I used those in the first place was I had them in a box, and they fit perfectly to extend my yard by a few inches. I just never realized you could 'pop' off the grade xings. I was even able to repurpose one of them for the grade xing on the road into the lumber yard. This photo shows that my layout really needs a backdrop. I'm thinking something that could wall-mount (just for left side and back-side). And it would remove with relative ease. But the question is: painted of printed photo? I am always a fan of the overall shot to show progress...or lack therof!
Noah: Those tail tracks look great. Glad to see you're using the Bragdon Weathering Powders that the old professor told you about elsewhere. Looks like you're having lots of fun working on your layout. Keep up the good work and have fun with it. Shades
The other day at my LHS, I sprang for a set of Woodland Scenics ready-made Premium Trees, and JTT Scenery premium trees. I bought them to use as examples for modeling other trees from scratch. These ready-made trees can be $3-6 each -absolutely not practical to cover even a small layout. One of the great things about these premium trees is that they have a nail for a base that can be poked into your scenery base material -firmly securing the tree. I have been considering ways to make better fill trees to cover my layout. So I pulled out the cheapie Woodland Scenics Tree Armatures that I had, to see how I could make them better. Specifically, I wanted to figure out a way to recreate the metal nail base. So I came up with this idea... Instead of using those cheap WS tree bases, I bought this aluminum tubing at the craft store ($2.50). I cut a piece of the tubing about 1/2" to 1" in length (depending on tree size) for each tree. Then I glue the rod using CA to the short plastic "stub". This small rod acts can be poked into your foam scenery base. This is enormously helpful -and you'll notice all of the premium trees have a nail like this, instead of the plastic stump/base.
Nice work Noah. That was a good fix for a perennial problem. Have fun working with those trees. Shades
Thanks guys. It's actually pretty speedy adding the tubing/stake to each tree. Now I just need more armatures. Here's a few more shots: One of the next things on my to do list is finishing this grade sing, and striping the roads.
It is looking really great Noah. Smart move with the tubing too. The shot of the lumber load through the trees is pretty cool as well. Keep up the good work and the photos!
What a great idea Noah. I have a bunch of similar tubing from my RC truck building that was too thin-walled to be useful, now I have a new purpose for it!
Thanks guys. Glad I could help. I was pretty busy with family activities and decorating for Christmas, so I didn't work on the layout much. However, I did work on the next batch of trees. I bought the WS pack of 57 2-3" Deciduous armatures. This batch used about half of that pack. I changed up the process a bit: I now add the tubing/stake before applying ground foams.
Great trees Noah. The layout is coming along nicely I have to find time to get to mine it's been weeks lol. Great work.
My work on the PVRR was all but nonexistent in December and January. Work, travel, family, and holidays consumed most of my time. However, I have gotten back to work this past week. I must say, the layout lighting is really poor in these iPhone shots. I took down my overhead lighting when I painted, and the stormy weather outside makes the layout lighting look grim. First off, just up the street from my house on Friday in East Sacramento, I caught this Santa Fe (BNSF) local parked on the passing siding. If you look closely, you'll notice the Southern Pacific badge on the H Street Bridge. This is a pretty rare sight for our area. Standard overall shot taken a few couple weeks back; I was in the process of re-painting the lumber yard pad. I made and planted another batch of ~50 trees. And I have another ~50 that just need to ground foam foliage. I striped the road -or at least the center yellow stripe (white outer striping may be added later). I'm not overly excited about how it came out, but I didn't have a much better technique in my arsenal, so I'm gonna live with it and move on. I later aligned, and glue'd that wood grade xing panel. The lumber yard pad work slowly continues. I re-painted and weathered it. I still need to add score lines in the cement -any advice on scoring lines in Smooth-It/joint compound? I really hate the lighting in this photo -it makes the landscape colors really blotchy and harsh. But you can see that I had added several more trees. They just looked too evenly spaced. With the next batch, I'll be able to fill them in more to do randomized clumps in places -following some prototype photos. One of the next projects on my to do list is this grade xing. Sitting off to the side is a modern xing detail laser'd by Baron, that needs to be installed. Not the most glamorous of updates, but I needed to show the thread some love! -Noah
Update part 2 of 2, I suppose… I deviated from myother regular to do list, and worked on the retaining wall for this eventual“wharf” area. I made these frames for mounting the Chooch rubberized retaining walls. Once the joint compound dries, I will glue the retaining wall panels tothe wood frames. I’m going to dosome over-grown vines or bushy plants, inbetween the ballasted track (above) and top of retaining wall. The terrain willbe sloped -almost like a levee bank, to the right of the retaining wall.
