Hemi: tear everything down and move just a couple of blocks? Sounds traumatic. For myself, I got very little done; starting with catching a small cold, and then with finding the Google Earth Challenge forum. Ooh boy. Instead of any of my stated todo list I managed to: completely rebuild my north-wall (non layout side) "book" shelves, including moving all the woo woo woo to drawers beside the computer. I have 3.2m of science fiction, 2.1m of normal fiction, and some amount of non-fiction (train magazines) Now there's a shelf "accidentally" at the same height as the staging deck And another even more "accidentally" at the same height as the main deck should be fix the closet door so it stays shut I did move some of the wiring around: I've got my DCC box in place, as well as 56W of main-deck lighting (despite having no main deck!) No photos, my computer is acting up So this week, before Tuesday 19 February, I should do some of: (optional, pending help) staple hardboard backdrop to walls Sort out the permanent DCC bus wiring before it gets too awkward Try to finish hardboard fascia for staging deck (should be possible as a one-man-job) Possibly draw track on plywood Possibly add cork roadbed to plywood Possibly carve up plywood subroadbed from helix yard ladder (bottom right of that last picture) to helix start (just behind the camera) and put into place A very long-winded post to say "some progress, not much and not on the stated goals, sorry no pictures today"
Flash, I await each of your posts with eager anticipation. I aspire to half of your competency -- it would be a 100% improvement in my modeling skills. P.S. I don't know the TrainBoard policy about downloading other peoples' pictures; I hope it's OK because these photos of yours are like a workshop!
Thanks for the compliment. I can tell you there are many better than I, and mostly because they have patience. I am sorely lacking in that, so I always have to be able to do it over again. When I mess up, I just go to something else and come back later when I am not so disgusted at myself. My friends at SAMRA always test their technique on something first, and I might do that for rolling stock or an engine, but for scenery, I can always weather or pile more on top of it.
here is mine (sorry its late) sorry its alittle blurry i have to redo this end and weatherand paint it the second one i have to paint the road the third i have to plant grass and pach up grass all over the layout the fourth i might redo the road putting a layer of spackle should do it (my brother and his freinds take advantage of the layout wile i go to harrisburg for the day but my mom makes shure now that they dont go in the trainroom anymore)
I worked on the layout tonight--disassembling it.... I cut the bus wires, severed the mainlines and staging tracks, and even cut the roadbed.
As much blood, sweat, and tears as you invested in constructing it, it must have been like cutting your heart out to disassemble your layout. Is there any silver lining?? Anything you've gained in this first construction that will lead you to doing something differently/better when you re-construct?
RRfan: I'm looking forward to seeing some pics of your park scene after you plant some more grass. Do you think you may also add some trees like Todd (pachyderm217) showed in his tutorial thread and in the Modeling Images of the Week thread?
Sllllowly but surely This is becoming a theme. I did in fact get something done...the bridge is basically complete. But I was sick most of the weekend and still didn't get anything done on the wiring. Probably won't post again until around the 25th or so. But, here's a pic of my bridge....
Hemi: Sorry to here about your layout dismantling, hope you have more room in your new digs. Look forward to your re-assembly. All the best mate... hope it all goes well for you. Finally, I have the double track bridge for the center track and over the next couple of weeks will graft it into place and do some scenic layers for the river and the other bridges. Ok, a bit of a slip up here. I appear to have a slight missmatch in the color. The backdrops aren't finished yet so I will do a touch up to match the color better. Also a little more detail on the mountains. Did a little plaster hillside on the far side of the helix. It will have a tunnel mouth for the down line on the helix.
All, The new digs is a very nice place. The catch is I likely won't have time to rebuild it until after my family vacation in late March. When I do have time, it goes back together identically to the way it is now. I'll just have to replace a section of rail for every track that was cut.
*** FLASH - UPDATE - BREAKING NEWS!!! *** Yesterday I started a new thread asking for general ideas for my new layout space now that all the benchwork is complete: Forum: Layout Design Discussion Thread Title: Open Request for Ideas - Layout Design Thread Link: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=96088 The very first person to reply had some sensational ideas I had never thought about in terms of track planning -- so good that I've decided to stop work on my open staging yard that was my goal for this Sixth Annual International Spring Layout Party. If I hadn't started working on this party project, it would never have occurred to me to start a thread for the whole layout, so many thanks for the opportunity. Maybe next year I'll sign up for the Seventh Annual International Spring Layout Party and work on some specific incomplete part of my layout (I'm sure there will be lots of opportunities for that!) Thanks again everybody!
I constructed it in 5 pieces so I could disassemble it easier. Not that it will be simple or painless, however....
yes i will add trees to the layout and not just grass to the park but to the entire layout it is a little blurry but i need to get some crap moved out from behind where i took the shot as you can see it needs grass and trees and bob the Deer is up in the corner
I'm wiring the last segment of Diamond Valley. Therefore I've attached the appendix to install the turnout mechanics. Wolfgang
I must have been clairvoyant--the disassemble was more dificult than I had imagined. I managed to install a roadbed riser in front of one screw that held everything together, as well as installed leg screws in places that were covered up by other framing members underneath. The big section is a 6x9' U shaped affair, and I wonder if it'll fit up the stairs around the corner at the top! On the good side of things, I have a new camera coming--one with a ridiculously long focal length. Should come in handy at places like Azure, CO; Shed 4 & 5, Java East and Sheep Creek Trestle on Marias Pass; and a zillion other places where a long lens is necessary. A great review is here: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/panasonic_fz18.html I ordered a 4GB SDHC class 6 SD card as well for it. Total paid for both? $280 bucks. A screaming deal from 86th St Photo, and Tiger Direct. I can't wait till it gets here! Kristal said I need to pay half for it, so I'll be painting again!:tb-cool::tb-cool:
Well I missed reporting in last week because there was nothing to report. I can’t say as I have made great progress this week either, but at least I got started. Inertia is a tough thing to overcome. I did take a couple of “before” pictures. Here are two views of the area of the layout that I will be working on. Fortunately my goals for the seven weeks were modest. Maybe they should even more modest. I didn’t paint the rails or ties when I was originally constructing the layout because I had no idea at that time that I wanted to do that. I won’t make that mistake again, if there is another time and another layout. Trying to do that with track in place and with scenery partially done is going to be a real pain. About a year ago I did paint some ties when I ballasted one section of the layout. Of course, by now I have forgotten what paint color I used. I’m looking for a run down branch line look, which includes older ties. I wanted something that looked right to me (whether or not it matched anything in real life), maybe a medium brown with some graying. Finally, after trying a number of possibilities in my paint stocks, I settled on using Polly Scale “DRGW Building Brown”. I’m going to dry brush a little gray on top and see how that looks. By the way, one of the other paints that I tried was Polly Scale “Railroad Tie Brown”. But that seems to give a look of newly creosoted ties, way too dark for my needs. I could barely see the difference in the ties I painted with that color vs. the unpainted black ties of the Atlas track I am using. Of course, that’s also influenced by the lighting around the layout and my eyesight. Anyways, I don’t have pictures of the tie painting in progress, but maybe in a day or so. Then it will be on to trying to paint the rails. That’s going to be even a bigger pain. I ran some tests using various colors to try to get to a rust color that looked okay to me. What’s rust color? Even holding up a couple of the old spikes that I have laying around I can see several different shades of 'rust'. Anyways, right now I’m leaning towards using Delta Ceramcoat “Brown Iron Oxide”. I’ll look at the test samples again in the light tomorrow before deciding. One thing I have decided on is to only paint the side of the rails that you can see from beside the layout. That ought to cut that part of the work in half! :wink2: I’ll try and do something to report on this week. Regards Ed
I just wanted to update on the move--I had to remove another module for everything to fit up the stairs, so when I get time to, I have a lot of track refitting and repair to do. On the good news side, the move went very well. The contract movers are doing the real work. I just wanted to move the expensive stuff.
