The Morning Daylight eastbound on the main, passing along the JACALAR's yard. And here we see a westbound Calif Zephyr passing the Morning Daylight
Yeah, I am really pleased. Now to figure out the ends and working them back into the existing stuff. I am thinking just some more Radical Flats buildings. Of course, now I have no excuse (except too many other things to work on) to not finish the yard
Yea...I'm working around the corner to 'Lucky Penny Yard' myself. I'm nervous...it looks overwhelming :-(
More Desert My other main project for this weekend was to finish up the desert on the lift out bridge, so this morning (which came much too early - I hate time changes) I brought the bridge back inside, got a mix of different rocks and ballasts, my yucca trees, and some cacti. Here are the results under the searing desert sun (a halogen work lamp) The cacti are the Woodland Scenic set. At first, I was worried about the size of the saguaros, but then looked up that they can get up to 20 meters tall! The tallest in the set (which I didn't use here) is only 10m, so they are all good, even for N-scale. What it really says is the set, which is labeled for N-HO-O is really undersized for the other scales. Only thing these cacti don't have are the little spines sticking out of them (lack of which really does show up in photos)
A couple other photos you can still see a couple of glue spots which are not dry yet. Last items to be added will be a couple coyotes roaming among the rocks.
Yuccas and rocks look great! Big plastic cacti: not so much, methinks. Wonder if some gray weathering powder would knock that shine off a bit. Also wonder if you could paint some diluted white glue on the short cacti and static grass them with the WS "honey" 2mm to get that fuzzy look (go back and trim down after dry)? Or you could put a lot of them together and have John Hurt in a spacesuit peering into one as it opens...
They look good Rick , But I to think they need toned down just a little. I don't do them as they are only in Arizona. Great Work Rick, Mike
I already dusted them with brown and gray powders - which worked well in natural lighting. Under the halogen light, clearly see the plastic. Hmm, static grass them. I could try that.
Excellent ballasting of the unitrack especially around the turnouts/ manual operation sliders. Is there a page that details this in the last 93 pages? How about the Kato uncoupler magnets are they working well for you? (Hands free operation?) Your thread would really benefit from an index with hot links to certain phases of the build. Thanks for sharing.
Brian, those aren't the uncoupler magnets, but the expansion tracks (which have rerailers, to hide the sliding portion). I have a couple located in my yard, and still haven't decided whether or not to keep them. I'm leaning on taking them out, and just using toothpicks, since then I can uncouple anywhere. They work just fine, though. An index? Oh no, work!!! (plus, difficult to maintain for a forum thread). The real key on the ballast is that right around the manual switches, and any moving part .... there isn't any added ballast! Instead, I paint the unitrack roadbed to match the final dried color of the Arizona R&M ballast.
Rick, amazing as always! Let me know if you ever want to photog a Northern Pacific train on those beautiful rails! LOL
Static grass on WS cacti = Disaster! Looks like a miniature cactus shaped Chia Pet. Wiped it off and washed immediately. Sorry, no pictures. So, tried more Bragdon powders, and still really didn't look good, soooo... Desert Sand and Slate Gray washes! This wasn't your typical wash, though. I diluted the craft acrylics with both IPA and water, painted fairly liberally, then, used a fine mist of IPA. Waited for about 10 seconds, and then blotted with a paper towel. These look a whole lot better! Thanks MC and Mike for pushing me this extra step These photos are out in the real California sunshine!
Thanks Mike and George. Of course, that first photo shows where I missed filling in some gravel. Of course it only shows when taking a photo from this angle, which is near impossible when the bridge is on the layout, but, I hate gaps and straight lines like that.
The large backdrop looks outstanding! The yuccas look great and so does everything else youve been doing! Keep up the progress photos....love them!
