I decided to share some actual "work table" photos of the progress today. These are such nice days, I've been setting the table up outside, rather than be cramped in the shed. I had the drill out, so that I could put the hole in the floor of the bar, for the eventual lighting (and the hole through the foam here, and the foam/bench -- and the holes even line up!)
I basically have the scene completed (though everything is drying, so the in-situ shots will be later). I put some static grass in, across the street from the hardware store, making a small park. Park benches are arrayed along the rim, looking down at the yard. Every bench is occupied, today, with a guy sleeping, two elderly gentlemen talking, a couple, and a guitar-man, with case open. There is even a young lady, jogging (i moved the table, for better lighting) There is an iron fence keeping the folks in the park from falling down the embankment into the yard. And, there are some guys who set up a checkers game, in the alley next to the hardware store!
Thanks Sawyer - I've really enjoyed putting this one together. Will move on to next area, now, and comeback to this when ready to do the lighting. Will also need to do some backdrop work on the right hand side (you will see when I post the "final" photos from everything back on the layout).
Here's the final scene, in place I still need to add some painting to the backdrop, to extend the scene into the wall and beyond, but the modeling is now "complete". (I know, nothing is ever fully complete - there's always something to change). I may lower the iron fence - it hides the detail over there just a bit too much. I can bring it down the slope, or just cut it down. (Also, need to fix the one leaning telephone pole - amazing what you see in photos, and not in real life).
The corner looks great Rick. You've put a lot of detail into a small area and brought it to life. You're right, pictures show all those little flaws that you don't see in person. Even with a leaning phone pole it's a great scene. Besides, some poles do lean quite a bit, though most are pretty straight.
Impressionist? For all my life, I have "known" that I was a terrible artist. I cannot draw (or cut) a straight line of any distance, have never drawn a picture that looks like what I wanted, etc. So, one of my precepts going into the layout was to use photos or bare backdrop. But, the scene behind the caboose called out for something more, so I said "hey, it is only paint. The worst that happens, you have to paint over the backdrop". So, I did this completely backwards. First I added the close in details, leaving me to be extra careful on what should have been the initial painting. Anyway, I do like how my hills and trees and park came out. My background buildings.... meh. But, they do give the impression that this scene is part of a city, just that we have a park extending out from the tracks.
Comparing those two photos, your painted backdrop is very effective at giving that corner even more depth! Great work!
The mountains begin to rise It has been a long time in coming, but I finally started on working on the mountain area of the JACALAR this past week. Not a huge amount of progress to be shown, but some. First, here is a photo of one of my finished bents, for the trestle, next to the bridge plan Built tunnel covers and liner, dropped feeders from all the tracks in the tunnels, hot glued them in place, and have started on the mountain. This first progress is simply the edge of the overlook, where the Donner Lake photo goes (took it off the wall, for the work). I'll have trees on this ridge, which simply rises slightly from the track area in front. To compare, this is the area we're looking at (slightly different angle) the ridge will help to buffer the foreground images in the backdrop.
A couple more pictures of the ridge, along with the tunnel portal (which still needs to be finished - and terrain brought up to the portal) I've left enough room in back to slide the backdrop photo back into place. Won't be getting anything else done for a week, though, as we leave for New York this evening.
I realize this is over a year old, but what can I say, I'm reading this due to Mark's call out on progress threads. This is the best idea for making control panels I've ever heard. Of course, I have no idea if it worked out, because I haven't read on yet, but I just had to mention it. I HATE control panels, but if this worked, I might not hate them so much anymore.
Hopefully you've gotten a few posts further along to see how the panels came out. I am pleased with them, though I would have made some changes in how I actually did it, if I had to do it over (such as the adhesive to put the film down - I would have used a spray adhesive, so that I didn't get the blotchy spots). I would have also made the boxes just a tad deeper - all the wiring inside tends to push the panel out. Other than that, they have worked like a charm. Using Powerpoint to draw them up was simple. Just remember that panels can be "abstract", they don't have to be scale representations of the layout.
Yes I saw. They look great. I think personally I might try using visio to draw them....of course, I have a copy of visio, most people don't. I recently had to rewire a panel at the club that was also far too shallow. I improved it, but given the space, the only way to have made it clean and neat would have been to draw up a circuit board for the entire thing and mount the switches to it.
Mountain Progress I actually did this work last weekend, but only got around to taking photos, today. Work and life has gotten very busy! (Taking the photos was the first time I even went into the train shed since Sunday!) This is the "removable" part of the mountain, which covers the entrance to the three lower level tunnels from the doorway liftout bridge, as well as the upper tunnel, which runs from "Donner Lake" to where my trestle bridge / gorge will be. This is a combination of straight foam and plaster cloth over crumpled newspaper construction I was specifically going for the sheer cliff effect over the triple tunnel, as the rails disappear into a "solid wall of rock". At the lower left of this photo is the exit of the upper level tunnel, leading to the trestle bridge. The solid piece of blue foam will be attached to the layout base so that the removable section is flush with it. Plaster cloth and joint compound will be used to create a transition which hides the seam. There will be a wooden tunnel portal on the upper tunnel I totally got into making the mountain last weekend, to the point where I forgot to take pictures in progress. Of course, my hands were covered in plaster and paint, so not sure I would have wanted to handle the Nikon.
Here's the entrance to the upper tunnel on the other side. I've placed a portal for visual reference - still a lot of work to do. The white wall is where the Donner Lake photo goes The central tunnel of the lower three can be seen in this shot I've realized that I am actually going to have to do the ballasting and scenery paint/stain before I continue on the mountains coming forward, so that I have good working access. I'll always be able to reach this area during operations, but it is a stretch already for ballasting.
