Sorry for the late post, busy couple days. Scott continued to make improvement at the mill. He's contoured the landforms and has laid down the first layer of spackle. He also cut more road pieces out of asphalt shingles and recontoured the north road entrance. Doug is just about done with adding bumpers to the Maple Valley Road. This is a nice touch of realism as the city used bumpers to separate the tracks from vehicle traffic. As for me, I stripped the tape back and started sanding the concrete inserts. I wasn't quite as careful as I could have been, so once I sanded to my satisfaction, I spent a great deal of time cleaning the areas adjacent to the rail. Clearance was slightly impacted in spots, so it demanded the attention. By evening's end all the clearance issues were taken care of and the first coat of paint will be the first step next time we convene. Until then, thanks for checking in. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Last night I finished the sanding on the concrete inserts at Boeing. Then pulled Vallejo Cement Gray (71.045) off the paint shelf and gave the inserts their first coat of paint. Next comes one last coat of Golden Coarse moulding paste and another coat of paint. Then the fun begins, lining the rails. More on that to come. Thanks for checking in! RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Here's our recap from Tuesday's work party. Reynold has been working on an SD60 with a front truck derailment issue. I'll be honest, this is the third Athearn we've had with truck problems. Wish they'd figure that out. That said, by evening's end he had this one resolved. Scott and Doug were still working on Maple Valley. Scott started the evening putting the final contours on the landforms and test fitting the templates. He then completed the road cutting and did a test fit of the entire set up. Now it's up to me to get the buildings finished. In the meantime, I taped up the tracks in Boeing and put string in the gaps to prevent the paste from going where it isn't desired. Then gave the inserts the final coat of course molding paste. It is a skim coat to cover up any uneven areas and to set up the final texture. Before calling it a night I pulled up the string and the tape to allow everything to dry and not set up in the gaps. In the next step, we'll lightly sand the surface with 220 grit, then put down the final base coat of paint and we'll begin the center track area. Until next time, thanks for checking in. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Greetings from sunny Arizona, where it's supposed to be 81° today. I have no idea what the fellas did last night on the RGW, so I thought I would bring you up to speed on my new project, the Portage Municipal Belt Line (PMBL). I have said many times my next layout would be small and involve switching. Well, that project is now underway. The PMBL is being built in my garage down here, it will be a simple layout that involves staging cassettes that accept and deliver trains to/from the layout mainline. The concept came from several sources, I really wanted to build a Milwaukee Road theme and include a dock with ferry transfer. After much research I decided on Portage. It was serviced by multiple railroads in the mid 70's and with the Wisconsin River being prominent, I've read about ferry traffic, but have no confirmation, so I'm just taking some modeling license. Last trip in town I purchased the lumber and cut it to the dimensions needed. Yesterday my son and I started putting it together. It's 8ft along the back wall and 9ft along the garage door. The yard section is 5ft deep. The workbench will serve as the staging yard at one end with removable cassettes. I'm not sure how I want to accomplish the same at the other end, but have no doubt we'll figure it out. Friday, I will hopefully complete the layout carcas and then get the legs in. The floor slopes toward the front, so I have levelers ready for all the legs. Should be a fun day. Thanks for checking in. M RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Fini. Next trip in we start the subroadbed! This was a fun week. Until next trip in, talk to you again from WA next Tuesday. Thanks for checking in. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Good evening from rainy Washington. Is it too early to want to go back to AZ? Oh well, we just completed another quality evening on the RGW. Scott has made excellent progress on the Maple Valley Mill scene. Last week he completed the road and this week he began putting back scenery. I had him put down real dirt for starters. I'm not quite sure what other structures might fit well in this scene, so minimalist was the word of the day. I spent the early evening getting the final coat of Vallejo Cement Gray on the inserts. I then began painting the exposed wood supports behind the backdrop with a dark graphite gray. The goal was to minimize its appearance and I'm pleased with how it turned out. Once the inserts were dry, I began work on the inside of the tracks. I started with 020 styrene strips, cut to fit inside the molded tabs of the ties. It works out to be about 13.5mm. I cut as many straight sections as possible. I later trimmed the pieces to ensure they hit in the middle of a tie for future CA glue. As you can see, the curved areas remain, so the next step will be creation of templates in order to cut the styrene to fit. Once I have all the pieces cut, I'll sand both sides of the styrene with 60 grit and then begin the process of CA gluing them in place. I hope to have them all in place by next Tuesday. That's all for tonight, until next time, thanks for checking in. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Getting there.... Not much left for this phase, just the lower backdrop edge. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Time for dinner.... We'll see if I have motivation to do any more after that. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Another night of work in the books. Scott and Doug are nearing completion of their respective projects in Maple Valley. Scott continued adding scenery around the mill. I was pleased with some of the subtle color changes he's incorporated since last week. Meanwhile Doug's median barrier project is taking shape. All of the barriers are now in place with a first coat of paint applied. The next step will be weathering them so they are not so stark. As for me, I completed gluing all of the styrene inserts in place. I then turned my focus to the concrete (balsa) inserts inside the building. I started by painting the exterior backdrop our Hidden Lake Blue to cover areas damaged by double stick tape. Then using every available 123 block and even my DeWalt drill, I glued the balsa in place and weighted it down for the night. These photos have been edited to reduce the shading inside the backdrop, absent that it would be hard to discern any definition. So if the colors look off, that's why. I'd rather you get a better look. These two inserts fit as expected and I'm pleased they are finally installed. There is a bit of work remaining to cover the gaps between them, for example, the space immediately in front of the riser, but that will be an easy step to complete. That was it for tonight. Next week I will start adding the L channel to the styrene inserts. The L forms the sides that will hold the molding paste. Should be an interesting challenge. Until then, thanks for checking in. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Thank you Mike, you’ve inspired me to do some filler strips on the Port that I’ve needed to do for a long time! Excellent work there buddy! Dale
Thanks Dale. Go watch YouTube creator Boomer Diorama vlogs 68 and 72. Great stuff. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
One down, four pieces to go. Just completed the surge bin, next the dryer. Thanks for checking in...... RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Here's tonight's RGW update. Scott has done about all he can do in Maple Valley until the machinery/structures are ready for install. So while I looked to other projects, he completed more of the grain silo. There's nothing like a quality collaboration! There's still more to go, more ladders and the piping at the bottom of the silo, but this one is pretty much done. We need the orientation of the piping before we can attach the stanchions, so that will be a bit. Reynold was able to finally determine the source of the derailing by the Athearn truck. Turns out one of the wires was just loose enough to create instability traversing turnouts. He pulled it apart, resoldered the connection and successfully tested it. As for me, tonight I started adding the "L" Channel, Evergreen 291, to the existing styrene center track inserts. Here is what we are building.... This diagram comes from YouTuber Boomer Diorama. The only difference in our process is we have code 83 rail. The key is using a 1/16th shim to set the 291 away from the rails. I precut two different lengths to allow flexibility in tight areas. Once you're ready it's simply a standard styrene application. Plastruct plastic weld is used to attach the 291 along the full length of the inserts. Next step will be to airbrush a rust color around the perimeter of the inserts. Then comes the interesting part, filling the void with Golden Coarse molding paste. Unfortunately a lot of taping is necessary before any of that happens. Hang in there with me as this all comes together. One last item on the list was filling the voids between the concrete inserts under the backdrop. The first coat was done last week, so after some sanding I added another coat. Once this gets done it will be repainted gray. Well, time to call it a night, we much appreciate each of you for always supporting our thread. As always, thanks for checking in. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
