Mike, Ah yes I know ALL TOO WELL what you are talking about with all the sanding and the dust. One thing I did differently when finishing my backdrops as compared to finishing drywall, I used one of those Black & Decker Mouse finishing sanders. It would tear up drywall, but the Masonite is so hard that it sands the mud and barely scuffs the Masonite. The screw holes are a breeze while the butt joints take a lighter touch, but still beats the heck out of a sanding block. Still get all the dust, which I swear is still in some parts of the basement after several moppings, dustings, and other cleanings. Jamie
I FINALLY got some ballast down, and some gravel roads. I used an old nylon(with permission!) to sift the sand to as fine as I could get it.
Well I couldn't contain myself and I had to get some plant life on the layout. Here's the result after the first pass of planting. The sun is out today and shining through the window... great.. except for the shadows from the window. :-/
And a shot with the bridge over the canyon: And one with the track through the canyon: I'm probably have to slow down a bit now as I don't have all the foliage supplies I would like in order to get the best scenic end. Everyone's progress is a great inspiration! I've found I'm logging in every few hours or so to see if anyone's posted an update! I cant wait to see more!
Hmm, sounds like a posting for the "Addiction" thread. Nice work everyone. //wonder how long till he sees this post.
Mark, You do realise that you can use the 'Subscribe to this Thread' option from the 'Thread Tools' menu above to get an email notification whenever someone replies to this thread... Cheers, Colin -- another addicted follower of this thread
Diezmon, that ballast looks really good! Can't even tell it's N scale track! Mark, the scenery is shaping up! I kinda like shadows cast over it, makes it look like an early morning picture. Kinda scares me when I look at it!:tb-biggrin: Jamie, at first I tried a sanding block and yeah, right, no way that is going to work, so out to the garage to get the orbital sander I was using to sand the bondo on my car, and it did the job alright! Sometimes it sanded too good, and I had to redo the seam. Now the vacuum is going to be my best friend, and from the look of that room, I'll see you guys in a week. :tb-err: -Mike
Try not to burn the vaccum up!!! If you are going to be going at it for a while I suggest a pair of earplugs, the noise can get irritating after a while. My ears start ringing extra bad after a few seconds.:tb-frown:
Diezmon Great looking track!!! Mystere WOW those shadows on the cut in the rocks:tb-shocked: I bet the guys had fun back in the day blasting with tons of dynomite!:tb-wink:
First, I thought the track was HO until you mentioned it was N....lookie good. Second, good luck emptying the vacuum every 5 minutes with drywall dust cloggin' up the filters. Sure beats a broom and dustpan! Jamie
Got some time to continue on the Sullivans Curve module: Because of the angles involved, I'm making the mountain in 4 separate pieces. The main one will be the bottom layer of the largest part. Because most of this needs to be cut away to create the two-axis angles of the real thing, I kept the mountain part separate from the base for now. The next picture shows how they will fit. The near part of the mountain will be the "low" side of the diagonal rock face. This shows the view from the "tall" end of the Curve:
I'm - trying - to spend 30 to 90 minutes a day on the layout. Today in 90 minutes I was able to go from: To: There will be 3 levels around a city of scratch built hyper modern sky scrapers. Freight on the lowest which will run out of the grandure yard on the "L" and connect to the lowest level "oval". Metro will run on the straight track down the middle. This will pass over the freight at 2.5"s. It will be back and forth and some day easily extend into the rest of the room where it might link with the freight or high speed line. The day dream is to automate this line. It will have one or two passenger sidings / platforms The high speed passenger level will be 4.5"s above the surface putting it 2"s above the Metro level. All lines will some day extend around the walls of the living room. Short term Next steps: Blue foam will be painted brown / tan Intercity and Metro will be raised / supported Simple wiring Track testing
DiezMon, very nice work on the ballast! Looks like it was definitely worth the effort to seive out the larger particles. Mystere, thanks for sharing your problem solving results. You're getting great results with simple methods in a really short time. Several years ago, a popular singing philosopher stated "You might as well face it: you're addicted to ... trains." At least we addicts know how to band together for support (or enabling).
yeah, I think the results are well worth it.. even though it takes FOREVER to sift through a stocking LOL On to some grasses.. I'm going to try the 'ol Eureka town grass trick, from the recent MR. I think it needs some color work.. I tell ya, it's tough being colorblind in this hobby
Here's a short video clip of the layout. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT6JOU89BtA&fmt=18"]YouTube - Mikado coal through unfinished scenery[/ame]
So with a good 3 hours of vacuuming, I'm half way done. Man, that dust is EVERYWHERE! I also found a few spidys here and there too, and took care of them. While vacuuming, I was thinking of what else needs to be cut/sanded/chopped/possible mess makers, since I don't want to vacuum this much again. Well, I still need to get those last two 8' florescent bulbs put in. A few cuts and some drilling and they are in. Just need to be wired up. This week has also seen the most visitations of the layout room than ever. Of course, when it's the messiest, people wanna stop by and see it. One thing that kept happening was that people were snagging their clothes/bodyparts on the edge of the track sticking up on the drop down. Not good. I get in just fine, but I'm pretty skinny and agile. 80% of my train friends are not. So this needs to be fixed. Here is the deal: I'm going to recess the drop down further back into the benchwork on the one side. When in the down position, this should put the track just a bit further back than the edge of the benchwork and out of harms way. With it tucked back, hopefully nothing will get snagged on the edges anymore. This will also make the "doorway" into the layout room 4" wider. You'll still have to duck down a bit thou. Just a bit ago I removed the drop down and those 4" sure make a world of difference. I can walk through straight now, no turning sideways. I like it =) The bummer part is I've already handlaid 3 turnouts and wired up the tortoises on the drop down, so this will have to be tossed out and redone. =( I'll most likely start on this right after I finish vacuuming the rest of the layout room and finish painting the backdrops. So I doubt I'll make my goal by the end of the party, but at least I'm having fun with my layout and enjoying every one else's progress. =) -Mike
Looking good William - I am watching your progress with interest. Cajon is so awesome, yet I think, so difficult to model and there is so much going on and its so wide spread! Sullivans Curve is shaping up nicely, keep it up - I can't wait to see some stacks on that thing!!!
Good work everybody, I am trying to cut masonite hopping on one foot, Dang thing just isn't right. Anyhow Was going to work today but got busy taking inventory of locomotives UGH. Now to do freight cars.:tb-wacky: Trying to plan track arrangements for the shop area too.
