Sixth Annual International Spring Layout Party

ok sorry i took so long but i got so tied up with weathering some locos
ok here it is the one you have been waiting for:the park
hey it is the best shot out of a Hundred of those shots i took

 

Flash: even without the concrete joins, it looks very good.
A coca-cola style billboard on the side facing the left would be good. Even better could be a little "action" scene - a blank frame where a billboard could go, some tools at the bottom of the wall, and a "coca-cola" van in the nearest space, with a guy and a long roll of paper.
Done well (and I don't see how else you could do it!), it would give the impression that the coke guy is halfway through replacing the billboard.

It's not tuesday, but I'll have a little mid-week progress update:
Been nailing hardboard to the wall. I like my new toy (electric stapler)
.
Just have to sand, add more spackle / filler, sand again, add two coats of paint and my Layout Party progress is done. So I'm probably "on target" for the 21st (aah, March!)

Also cleaned my workbench off. I had it down to "nothing but a cutting pad". Now it's got 4 sheets of sandpaper, two paint brushes, turps, measuring tape, surform rasp and an electric stapler.
Some party

 

I've heard of progress, but this is the "Progress of the Month" award. You even took two weeks off!:thumbs_up:

 

Hey, some good progress being made here, you have totally nailed those buildings Flash, excellent work. Another ATSF Admirer, great stuff mate. RRfan, nice park, but I want to come over there and just brush the track a little on your siding to expose the ties.

My progress:



Did some plastering. The blue cardboard in the background is only temporary and is there to give me something to plaster up to. I will slide the cardboard out and replace it with my painted background once I have finished the messy stuff.




I found my roll of masking tape Flash. This a view of a pile of wet paper soon to be covered with plaster.



In a couple of days this will be dry enough to paint, but in the meanwhile lots of sculpting to do.

 

I got to it and completed a project that I have been puting off for a while now. Install better lighting above the upper level.



Two tri-phosphor floros.



Here is the result, a nice soft honey glow a big improvement.

 

Cleggie: Looking good. Love the masking tape - wonder if they can get that shade anywhere else in the world?
Are those tubes the same colour as the teeny-tiny Crompton ones?

More mini-progress reports. Because I'm just so thrilled with this shade of blue (and the fumes are probably starting to get to me)

Two coats of blue paint, nicely dithered vertically to make a Staging Deck backdrop


Two (and a half) coats of lots more blue paint, not so nicely dithered for the main deck.

(More photos in my album)
Much progress this weekend just gone; should compensate a little for the fact I'll probably be offline completely next weekend and patchy during the week. Ahh, March.

 

Work and other obligations have precluded me from doing much for the layout party. I do now have the door framed, legs and braces attached and 2.25" of extruded foam applied. I have marked the foam with a grid to aid in positioning of the track.



Hopefully things will start moving faster now. I'm going to start test fitting some track this afternoon. I have a shipment due toward the end of the week that includes a double track plate girder bridge, so track cannot be permanently positioned just yet. I also have to put the final touches on a common pile trestle and assemble the Walthers Art Deco underpass before I lay the roadbed and permanently attach the track.

 

I was busy over the weekend. All turnouts have replaced the Central Valley head block with a PC board throw bar tie. I've painted the track and I've started ballasting.



Wolfgang

 

Wolfgang: Do you ballast before you put down ground cover? Thanks.

Great job of painting and ballasting track. :thumbs_up:

 

Okay, got the track out and started test fitting this afternoon to see how it is going to work out. I started with the yard and the yard lead. I think things will definitely start going faster now.

 

poppy2201: That's a good website on the Northfield & Wichita Ry. Co. Your table construction is really an excellent platform. It is much more finished and complete than most layout bench work and certainly better than most beginning layouts. I am looking forward to the construction and hope you will start a thread or just post to the Weekend Photo Fun after this Layout Party is over. Don't forget us, you know?

 

Thanks for the kind words. Once the party is over, I will keep updates going with a new post in the N scale forum.

 

the siding is supposed to be like that i tried to make it look like it was in bad shape i still have to improve on that a little but i still have to add a couple of weeds to the siding too

 

I accomplished a little.
I started the 1st grain elevator a Walthers ADM kit.
I have the silo's built and the main building both are painted and I'm working on masking all those tiny windows to paint them next.
Also the sheds are built and primered I need some galvanized paint to finish them.
Any suggestions on a paint?

 

I use artists acrylics for buildings. It is inexpensive, available at the craft section of your favorite store, and comes in a myriad of colors. I use their silver all the time as the basic color for galvanized metal. You can weather it with some of the other artist colors.

 

RRfan:
I don't want to sound too critical, and I understand the "in bad shape siding" idea. I drive past one on the way to work that is totally overgrown so that you can only just make out the rails through the tall grasses and weeds. Keep up the good work!

 

Participation in the party has come to a screeching halt. After test fitting some track I have found spacing issues especially in the yard area. Ground throws are not going to fit properly. So it's back to the drawing board and come up with other options.

What I have so far:

Option A: Redraw present plan but I'm going to lose some operation capabilities.

Option B: I have found a plan that is simple and utilizes Kato Unitrak that I like and could make some modifications.

Option C: Found another plan that utilizes Atlas track but I would make some modifications to it also.

Anyway, I'm going to explore these possibilities over the next couple of weeks before continuing.

 

The first segment has got some Woodland and I've built the house for the track scale. I followed the article in the NMRA Bulletin Oct 97 and Nov 97 by Pete Moffett, MMR. There's one example with a scale which has only live track. My scrap yard scale has to weigh cars of 70 tons. The scrap yard switcher is a 44-ton. This engine can run over the live tracks.

You see, I've even installed a bulb. This way the scrap yard crew can work at night. They have to make money!







Any more suggestions for this scenery?

Wolfgang

 

This whole process is taking alot longer than I thought, but that's ok. It's me alot of the time, I dissappear into the train room and sometimes just look at things. Stand and stare, letting my mind imagine land forms, or looking at my efforts and do they measure up to what I am trying to achieve.

On the whole , I am mostly happy. There is still lots mre to do. More painting, grass planting, rock details, scree slopes, and of course, trees and shrubs. But that will come latter. Right now my focus is on getting basic land forms in place with a little paint to give me a feel for how the overall picture will look.


Before:


After:
I still need to apply some more washes to the rock faces to make subtle differences in colour.

The track is weathered, but what is missing are the trees, grasses etc.

The other thing missing from this picture is the backdrop. The blue cardboard is a "gonner" as soon as I have the replacement backdrop painted.