Ok, that did it. It's time for all the Rick's to respond. In unision, ah 1, ah 2, ah 3..... You Are Welcome~! From::teeth: RickH, Rick B. another Rick H. Rick C. and I think a Rick D. Did you get it?:frustrated:
Making Roads Normally, I have made my roads from sheet styrene. This has become my preferred method since it is quick and easy. After cutting the road to shape, I first put down a spray paint dark grey primer layer (or, if I want it to be a concrete-based road - I use Testors Flat Dark Aircraft Grey). For non-concrete, I will then brush on a dilute PollyScale UP Dark Grey wash (75 paint; 25 blue windshield fluid). I try to make this even, but don't worry too much about brush strokes. Then, for concrete and asphalt, I use a 50:50 paint/blue wash mix of Grimy Black. I don't care of this pools, streaks, whatever. From the JACALAR, this is a good shot of the styrene asphalt base And this is a shot of concrete base BUT - for this part of the SV Station module, I thought I would try something completely different (and I almost regretted it). Here is a good close up of the road surface It is made from a package I got a few years ago called "Real Roads Systems". I cannot find anyone selling it today. I bought it early on, and thought to use it on the JACALAR, but when it came, it was not conducive to what I wanted to accomplish. Basically, it is a polymer mixture that you spread out on a sheet of plastic over a template of the road path you want to build. Once it is semi dry, you trim it, peel off the plastic, and place on the layout. You can do it "upside down", so the smooth side is up, for a nice roadbed. As it continues to dry, it hardens into a nice plastic shell. I, of course, scoff at instructions, and thought to try using this 4+ year old kit in a completely different manner. Instead of tracing the road, and making it on the plastic, I instead used WS roadway tape to create forms, and spread the RealRoads mixture directly onto the layout. You can see, above, how rough the road became, as this was the side always exposed to air. After it dried, I sanded it "smooth". The mix was already grey, but I again gave it the UP Dark Grey and Grimy Black washes, but this time with light sanding in between. My biggest horror was when two large sections of the surface dried up and created sinkholes! I was almost ready to scrape it all off from the foam surface, and go with styrene, when I thought "Hey - a sinkhole!" I was already thinking about this being the part of town with Downtown Deco buildings, so what was wrong with a bumpy road with potholes and such. So, a bit of oily black, more straight grimy black, and even some flat black (near the intersection) for a newly patched section of road. The key to the look are the different shades of grey and black, and trying not to make it look uniform (unless the road / surface is newly paved).
Looks pretty good. I like the guy to the far right who looks like he's enjoying a cold brewski while his buddies labor away.
Got more work done over last couple days. Sidewalks are now in, and final details added to the last Downtown Deco building Here is a look down the street of Old Town And, this is the detailing on the Adams Ave #2 kit
A wider angle view of the street, with the workers. The wood you see is for the fence going up behind the buildings, along the RR right of way The A&W on the corner
The back of the A&W and the beginnings of the fence. The A&W will light up The back of "Old Town", looking across the houses and the end of the station
The fence posts are all installed. This will be a plank fence, with the "smooth" side facing the backs of the buildings. I am using 0.015" (0.4mm or 1/64") thick birch ply, cut into 10 scale inch widths, as the planks. Stained, this gives a much more realistic looking surface, with wood grain, than painted styrene. The posts and stringers are also real wood.
Ya wanna stop already !!! The only thing I got done on the layout itself this month was to fix a sagging roof on one building in "Jeans Valley"...sheeeeeshhhhhhhh ! R O F L M A O !!!! :teeth:
The spiders probably took over the JACALAR. You are gonna have to put some army guys with rifles on the layout to shoot em all. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qMNPNTmCC...Bo/s1600/kingdom_of_the_spiders_poster_02.jpg :teeth:
Are you going to be at the GTE show next weekend in Richmond? I just got an email from them and now I see "Silicon Valley Free-MoN 30' x 40' N Scale Layout" http://www.greattrainexpo.com/shows/2014Richmond.html
We might drive down for Sunday since the boys have a soccer game on Saturday. Would it be OK if the boys brought a short train and took a couple laps around?
Thanks Rick, hopefully we can finish up our Pinewood Derby cars so we'll be free on Sunday. See you then!
The nice thing about modules, you can bring them in and work in front of the game Fences are going in
If the game is going well, so does work progress? And if the game goes sour, the fences are crooked and work stalls?
The opposite, except right now, going very well, so not paying too close attention. And, fence is broken and crooked on purpose
