Another weekend is in the rear view mirror. Rainy conditions kept most midwesterners indoors this weekend, were you one? As predicted, sports were the dominate theme this weekend despite the rain and cold. By Sunday however, the soccer games were cancelled due to the over saturation of the fields. Sunday I mainly worked on a airplane project that is due in two weeks. I was able to clean the layout (a monthly duty) and run a quick op session with my new rock Island GP40 I finished a few weeks back. Other than that, not a very productive weekend. So how about you? Was there bad weather in your area that allowed you to bypass the "Honey Do" list and work on your layout or modules? Let us know how productive you were this weekend, with pictures if you have them. We'll get together again on Friday, May 3rd and do it all over again. Until then... ​High Greens!
Count down begins, 6 day to go. Wife and I scheduled next Sunday to check into the hospital and deliver our little guy. House is a mess and we have less than a week to get it organized. I did glue a few more parts into the Parkview Terrace kit I've been working on. I also received a shipment of parts: cut levers for 16 locomotives, MU hoses for 7 locomotives, MU Stands for 4 locomotives and F unit shades for 8 units. I have enough parts to complete about 7 or 8 locomotives and have them ready for paint.
Well, my trip to my secondary LHS to take advantage of their 30% off everything sale was pretty good, for me and for them. How many times have you had to wait on a line of 10-15 people at a hobby shop? And, that was a consistent number for the hour or so that I was there, walking the aisles, picking up stuff for my layout and just looking at kits for sailing ships and jet fighters, which are neat even if they're not my hobby anymore. I picked up some detail parts, some small WS trees, styrene channels and a meter maid. (A 1:87 meter maid! No "Lovely Rita, Meter Maid for me.) Our weather was bright and sunny, no rain and pleasant temperatures, so it did not cooperate in keeping me off work detail. I got the shed door fixed, and put a couple of deck screws into a deck board that was lifting. After the real "guy" stuff, I had some window-washing and putting-up-screens. But, I did get to do some modeling. I got right to work with that styrene channel and some sheet styrene, fabricating about 20 inches of bulkhead. This will fill the inch and a quarter between the edge of the layout and the finished wood of the layout frame, so it's kind of like "scenic fascia." As the sun set, I assembled a Walthers fire escape for one of the mill buildings and, as the last modeling effort of the day, took it outside for a quick coat of paint. Finally, I picked up all the modeling supplies off the track and ran trains, just for a few minutes, with the room lights dim and the street lights on to illuminate, well, the kind of ladies who lean on the streetlights.
Since I am off on Mondays I did get a little bit more done this morning before tackling the Honey-do list. I continued detailing the Gulf & Ohio Midland locomotive fleet: E/F unit Sunshades installed on F7A's #1602, 1636 & 1689 Firecracker Antenna installed on SW7 #325, F7A's #1602 & 1689 and GP7's #1834 & 1864. NW-Style Nose Bell installed on GP7's #1834, 1864 & 1887. Much, much more to do, but GP7 #1834 is ready for paint and #1822 and 1864 will be ready as soon as cut levers are installed. Those will be 3 down with about 38 or so to go.
Got a few hours Friday, and a few more Sunday, so I started on a couple of Gruman LLV's that NZT recently released: Still need to glue the tire son and paint the bumpers, but since it's a single white resin block, the decals David developed really make the difference. And yes, he knows it's not an exact postal service logo, but there's licensing issues that would have killed production. Also went old school on some weathering to use bounce weathering (a 1980's technique using spray bombs and slanted cardboard) to gum up some NOPB boxcars I rehabbed (new couplers, BLMA trucks, MDC bodies). I need to do a couple of 91% isopropyl smears and some other work before I post a photo.
I'm getting some new garage doors installed in a couple of weeks so I had to clean up the garage to give the installers some room to work. Did some yard work picking up branches and twigs so I can begin mowing. I did find time to do some work on one of my T-Trak modules to prep it for the installation of a couple of signals. It will be used in a layout at Amtraks Rennselaer NY station on National train Day May 11th.
