Great work, all! Brian, those signs sure come in handy,don't they??! I got some ground cover down, built the view block hill at the end of the penninsula and tried to "extend " Co. Rd. B thru the backdrop. BTW, the ground cover is dyed sawdust.( old school) Keep workin'!! Terry
Another rainy day in the Pacific Northwest. You know what that means, no yard work and I get to do train stuff instead!! yea!! Got the beginnings of the helm and the aft portion of the superstructure mostly done. The hull took its first dip in the water at Eastport to see how things are going to fit. Real tight, but she will fit. Might have to call out the Corps of Engineers to widen the waterway. Brian
It was a very busy weekend but I managed to squeeze in a couple hours to work on the shelf layout. I wasn't happy with the 'tarmac' look of the raised platform - so I used white and black chalks to dull it up and a final shot of dullcote. It looks alot better but the paint did put a little bit of a warp in the platform (as pictured) which will be fixed when the platform is totally completed and permanantly installed. I added a wrought iron barrier and experimented with a couple trees. I also 'gravelled' the area around the tower ( to the left of the photo). I need to finish the area where the truck is. This area will be fenced enclosing MOW equipment/pieces of rail etc. when it's time for super-detailing. I'm looking ahead to 5 -12hour shifts starting tomorrow so I may be tight to accomplish something for later this week. Keep up the good work everyone !
Wow, great work everyone! It is inspiring to see what you all are accomplishing. It makes my own efforts seem puny. But I am plugging away. I weathered some track this weekend but not as much as I had hoped. Still, any progress is worthwhile. - Jeff
As said many times above, everyone's making good progress here! :thumbs_up: I'm getting very close to finishing my "New" 4-4-0! Tonight she arrived at the paint shop and got her first burst of new paint! I love how much that reverse rod adds to the picture! So is that a whistle lever on top of the cab? I saw one in a picture and figured, why not. No idea what it actually is but sure looks like it controls the whistle. I also painted those old red wheels black as well as the tender. I'm going to let this set overnight then tomorrow I'll go back and touch up all the bells and whistles and such.
Last day off before I have to go back to work. Did a little bit more on my container ship today. Anchors Away!! Beginning of the antenna mast. Lastly, the start of the fore mast. Thats all for the next few days. Brian
Incredible work! I keep rereading these posts and each time I see new details that I missed before. Keep it up...three more weeks to go! Jamie
Week #5 Update I almost forgot to post my own update! Emerson house track installed, wired and tested. This was not part of my original WLP2 goals but had to be done as a prerequisite: Distant hills pencilled in using prototype photos and some (hastily assembled) scale trees as a guide: Distant hills painted using a specially mixed blend of my foliage green and sky blue colors: Cardboard web and masking tape layers of the scenery base completed in the town of Emerson (gotta fill them gaps between the tracks soon): Jamie
Ahh, you noticed! Like I said this project really got my creative juices flowing. I also used a cake decoration bottle for the exhaust stack (you know, the little sprinkles you put on top of the cake). Still thinking about augmenting that with a specialty printer paper roll center. Jury is still out on that. Also I used a metal closet rack end cap for the sat nav antenna on the top of the helm. hey, I'm giving away all my secrets.....:tb-tongue: Brian
Update Jan-27 It took a while to get going on my work, as my internet hobby shop inexplicably took several days to process and ship my order of needed supplies. At any rate, I painted my tunnel portal(s) and fitted one in the scene. I still have some work to do to attach it and then fill in the area to the left and above. I also decided to put in an old rotting abandoned spur to the right. The ties are down and painted, I'll add in a little ballast and growth. The remains of a foundation will also be added to the right with all sorts of growth overtaking it. The bridge piers are being put together. I elected to canalize them from an Atlas viaduct kit. They should work out well.
Progress! - Thank you! Mystere! Thanks to Mystere! providing the parts for the curved ends of the loop and my sweetie for organizing my track I was finally able to make this happen: The hardest part for laying track was selecting the curved pieces as I just can't easily tell them apart. My sweetie traced each one on a foam "food tray" and labled it. You can barely make them out in the photo. Note the curved lines on the forward right hand tray. The tray to the upper right has the stacks of curved pieces. I should have trains running by this time tomorrow! The backdrops were done by Pete Nolan. Thanks again to everyone else who ever made even a single post to trainboard. Next steps: (Functional) Wiring - Should be done by Thursday 1/28 Track testing - Should be done by 2/10 Repainting and covering the blue - should be done by 2/17 Additional work will take place after cataract surgery
An unscheduled 'sick day' resulted in some unscheduled work on the layout while the little man was at school. The tower yard was gravelled. You can see the first section of chainlink fence I have ever made -using florist wire and metal screen. I have two more sections to make/ install. It turned out to be a lot easier to do than I thought - and inexpensive. ( I really like cheap ) -Repainted a maintenance truck in a CN colour scheme. -put some rail sections in storage on ties - they just need some more extreme weathering. -planted some shubbery here and there as I continue detailing this section. I am slowly creeping across the midway point of the layout and my plans for this winter party are coming to fruition. Here's a comparison of where I was at the beginning.. ..and where I am now. Unfortunately, I haven't solved my 'lighting for photos' issue. In the above shot I used a pair of work lights to increase the lighting but it ended up too shadowy. Oh well, another day for that.
Looking good Grey One!! I'm glad I was of help. And that food tray/curve match template is a great idea. It gets pretty tedious tryin to find/read the piece markings. Hmm, another idea might be to run a black permanent marker over the markings to give them readable contrast.
Power leads dropped. < bemused grin > After I finished dropping the dozen leads I realized I only needed three since: Kato turnouts are power directing which easily isolates areas I have two concentric ovals and the freight yard, ("L" to the left). I have two power supplies I won't be adding on / off switches anytime within the next year.
I have managed to get a little donw on the layout this year, less than I would have liked though. Now, if the fables Atlas curved turnouts had materialised.... Track installation was begun on the Coon Rapids section of the layout - and this time I installed and wired the turnout drives as I went along. Tortoises, Blue Points and NCE Switch-it's are used - All track and accessory bus wiring is located at the rear and the CabBus cable to the front. The turnout frogs will be powered from the track bus and Switch-its from a dedicated DCC accessory bus. Remote indication will be to a local panel along with single push button control of the powered turnouts.
Back in the saddle again Finally had a chance to finish the road into Burt. I still need to add poles, signs and more undergrowth, but the messy stuff is done. I'm fairly pleased with the road surface this time. I crushed some coarse limestone sand down to a useable size in a machine I have at work. The portion I used passes through a No. 30 sieve. The fine dust in the mixture keeps the finished surface from looking like railroad ballast. When I've wetted the crushed limestone with diluted Mod Podge, I smooth the road surface with a putty knife. The effect is much like finishing concrete; working the surface brings a fine paste to the top and closes up the big pores. I used a double halogen shop light to cast the shadows. It seems to give the shots that summer early morning glow (on my monitor).
Looks like a late spring thunder storm is approaching if you ask me. Great work Todd! :thumbs_up::thumbs_up:
