The question at this point is, what's not on my workbench?? A little while ago I finished scratchbuilding and painting a model of this dollhouse sized church... I left it sitting on my workbench in an alligator clip while the paint dried. So, ten minutes later I went to check on it and... the clip was empty and the church was gone! And I mean gone! I've turned the room upsidedown looking for that thing and it has literally vanished. I think my workshop needs an exorcist :-( -Mark
Mark , I would check with the cat !!!!! I found that one of our 3 may be your type of crook. :wideeyes: Mike
OMG, I found it. I pulled down my mag lamp to do some fine painting, and there it was... right on top of the magnifying glass! That clip must've snapped shut and shot the thing two feet straight up into the air! What are the freaking odds?! -Mark
Right now there are two things on my workbench: A new coating of clear polyurethane, and an ESM Keyser Valley Caboose Kit. I recently had to take down my train work desk and all my stuff to allow my room to be used for it's intended purpose; a spare bedroom. Imagine that. It gave me the opportunity to remove about 40 years of hobby stuff and give the desktop a good sanding and 3 coats of Gloss Polyurethane. It was like removing layers of history, lots of glue and paint spills and knife cuts. In the end it was worth it as I got to clean everything and organize my tools and supplies again. So having a clean slate to work on, I broke out my newest project. The Lackawanna caboose kit that was recently released by ESM. A little break to pass along some Kudos....... Thanks Bryan and Scott for your efforts. The kit is lovely! For anyone that models the Erie Lackawanna, Conrail, and particularly the Lackawanna,(there are just a few of us.) This kit is a welcome addition to my roster. I opened the jewel case and spread the parts out after reading the online instructions. The instructions are very detailed and have lots of good information, not only on the kit, but on the prototype. Lots of time was spent on research, which is helpful in choosing what is correct for the model you are building. I want to note now, this is not a shake the box kit, but it isn't a difficult craftsman kit. I have built several other resin kits and this one is the best one so far. The body casting had some minor flashing and some casting things had to be removed, and some sanding was required to clean up the base of the body and the window and roof openings. The surface and the details on the body are very smooth and crisp with no bubbles to fill. The Chassis was a little bit different. The steps in particular needed a lot of cleaning up with a new blade and various files and sanding sticks. It took me about an hour to clean up everything and get the body and chassis parts to fit perfectly. This was a bit tedious and I took great care to be careful not to damage anything or sand off too much. I then cleaned the parts with Dawn dish detergent and a soft brush. That being done, I went back and reviewed the instructions and got ready for the next steps. I know this kit has caused a bit of a discussion on the price and I don't wish to continue this discussion here. Let me just say that for the quantity and quality of the parts in the kit, and the fact that this model has a very limited market, it is well worth the price, and I look forward to seeing more kits like this in the future. N-Scale can use more items like this. Small Market, Prototypically correct, reasonably priced kits for the model builder. The first photo shows a CLEAN work bench with the kit and the tools needed to get this far shown. Key items are new blades, several grades of sanding sticks, and an assortment of hobby files. The second photo shows the body and chassis mated to check the fit. The third photo shows the end of the chassis and the only air hole that needs to be filled. I also had to remove some more material from the step up on the chassis that the body snaps down over. Before I go any farther, I need to figure out how to install working marker lights. I'm going to try to use Kato caboose trucks to pick up power.
Continuing to develop structures for the future harbor area I am now working on a Kibri Lighthouse kit that I have had some time now. Needing a smaller footprint in the harbor area I removed one house and shortened the base. Both houses had foundations of .060 X .060 styrene added to raise them so I could incorporate sidewalks from Evergreen sidewalk sheets. The cut off blunt end by the lighthouse is where the dock is for my patrol craft and a stonewall and pier is underway there. The remaining house will become the NUMA regional headquarters. The lighthouse and house are not yet secured so I can paint.
This necessarily isn't on the workbench but for the past week or so I've been working on a 3D model of the NS Admiral cab. I'm going to be using Shapeways to have it printed and hope to have the actual model in my hand in a few weeks. There's still some tweaks I need to make but it'll be available for sale once I know it works and fits on a Kato SD40-2 shell. View attachment 54057
Continuing on with the USCG station and lighthouse along with the NUMA headquarters bldg. Applied a light grey wash over the dark grey on the newly added stonewall above the dock. Fabricated a stone and wood sign for the USCG emblem and painted the structure rain gutters. Still need to finish the dock with more paint and parts. The 2nd house and base section that was cut off is now underway for the NUMA headquarters with a dock now fabricated for that structure and the structure now painted turquoise and the rain gutters painted. Sidewalks were added and the dock has it's base coat of paint.
Got the rear wall castings yesterday from "the castmaster" Superturbine. Cleaned up the edges and set them up for a first look. Final cleaning, painting and adding window decals to come. Robert
Just about finished with this... Started my Maywood Station T-Trak module. Hope to finish the station in a few days and start the street work. My goal is to have it mostly done for the Columbus Ohio N scale show next month.
Jim, Someone is having an identity crisis over in the maintenance shop... Finished these up this weekend: Brian
Thanks Mike. I like the odd ball units that have strange things done by the maintenance department. That's why I really like Jim's monster above... Here's another odd unit I did a while ago. Finished it and then realized I screwed up my notes and got the wrong road number... Oh well... Brian
