The Little Rock Line

They came that way.
Snippet from his website:

Each building is a photo of a real building in the real world giving real life weathering and detail. Each building has been re-sized to scale and photoshopped to remove as much modern items as possible so they can be used on almost any era layout.

 

I continue to bounce back and forth between projects. I got the building flats and played with them as I continued painting the styrene highway. I repainted the highway several times before I found a color to my liking. Next up was to add the stripping to the highway.

I thought about using vinyl tape but thought they may wind up looking too fresh for what I wanted so I decided to paint them instead. Recently someone on a forum used masking tape and "painted" the lines with Pan Pastels, which looked real good, but I know from experience that they can fade away pretty good fast when overshot with Dullcote to lock them in place.

I decided to use paint and stipple it on so it wouldn't be a solid line of yellow and white but still look somewhat warn. After doing a little research to figure out the proper widths of the lines, I used some Tamiya 1mm tape to separate the two middle yellow lines and 6mm to mask the outer edges of them.

For the outer white lines I used a strip of 2mm tape to space them away from the pavement edges. Then again I used a strip of 6mm for the inner edge. I just eyeballed the widths.



I used some White and Yellow Tru-Color paint that looked close to the proper colors, I figured by the time I got around to weathering the highway they would blend nicely.






Now I'm playing around with the "crossing" stencils: the one that George sent me and another that a buddy 3D printed for me.

Unfortunately I'm having issues with using the stencils. I have tried several times painting them with brushes and different viscosities of acrylic paint, but so far the paint seems to either leak from under the stencil or if I happen to barely move it, it spreads the paint. I even tried to tape it in place.

I let it dry once and when I pulled up the stencil, some of the paint came with it. I may try spraying with my airbrush yet. In the meantime I looked for some decals and came up empty handed, with the exception of some vinyl transfers. So I ordered a set to see how they'll work.

I've still got some work to do the roads: weathering and adding tar lines, but here is where I'm at with them now. They're not glued down yet.

 

The striping looks really good. Nice work.

 

Thanks Joe!

 

I’m in the same situation, Boxcab. I really like the roads that Allen and some others have made but they are beyond my abilities at this point so I’m using peel and press roads made by Busch.

 

I could NEVER do lines like that. I cheated and made one single yellow line with a straight edge and a extra fine point paint pen...



The white lines where done the same way...

**Ignore the shaky hand painted diagonal lines...

 

Thank you all for the kind words.
I'm very thankful at my age, the hands and eyes are still working, but my eyes do call out for assistance from a pair of +3 cheaters (reading glasses) when I sit at the bench.

But if you look closely, the lines aren't perfect, thank God for the 3' rule...

 

I've made some good progress on the highway since receiving the crossing stencil that George sent me. Thanks George.
At the same time a buddy on another forum said he'd try printing me one that was stretched. What did I have to lose?
A week later I got it in the mail.

I first tried to stipple some thinned acrylic paint on but it was too thin, so I tried it again with full strength but now it was too thick.
So I thinned it just a touch. I also left the stencils in place for a bit so the paint would set up and not smear when I removed the stencils.
But some of the paint came up with the stencil....

I was hesitant to spray it with a solvent based paint as I didn't know if the lacquer thinner would melt the 3D printed version.
But i decided to give it a go since he sent me three of them. The first one would be a sacrificial offering if nothing else? Well the spraying was the answer! And to my surprise, the 3D print held up to the lacquer thinner with no issues. Yay for me!

Here is what the sprayed stencils turned out like. Yes, I touched up the stencils with a tiny brush to hide the lines from the stencils.



Later, after I forgot the STOP lines near the tracks, I went back and taped them off and sprayed them as well.
With this done, I could proceed with weathering the highway.

For the overall weathering I went back to my trusted weathering medium: Pan Pastels. I used a light gray to help fade the stripping a bit. For the tread paths I used a bit darker gray and mixed it with the light gray and worked them in with a soft brush to keep them from becoming too heavy.

Along the outer edges of the highway I used a light brown pastel to give it a dusty look from the dirt shoulder.

The oil spots near the crossings were made with a Soil Wash from Rail Center by MIG. I used a small stiff brush, loaded it with the wash and shook most of it off. Then I took a dental pick to gently pull back the bristles and let them "Flick" some of the wash onto the surface. The cracks/tar lines were made using a fine tipped calligrapher’s pin, dipped in black India ink. Then it all received a coat of Dullcote to seal in everything place.




Now I can get it glued in place and wrap up the base scenery in this section. I'm also looking forward to adding a pair of the new Showcase Miniatures crossing gates to this scene!

I didn't use Georges stencil on this because it wasn't stretched, but upon looking at some actual crossings on Google Maps of crossings along the line, I have found several different designs of the crossing stencils, so I plan to make future roads by combining the both stencils.

 

Nicely done, sir.

 

Looking great!

 

The road looks fabulous, Allen!

 

Yup, the roads were certainly worth all your work!

 

When will we read the roads article in RMC?

 

Thanks for all the kind words from everyone.
Appreciate that.

Unfortunately Phil, you probably won't.
I'm not a big article person. I think I've done two?
The last one I did several years ago for a "FREE" magazine, got re-written and wound up in the "Pay For" version. I also did a how to video to go along with it which got edited JUST enough that it didn't qualify for payment, but they used it anyway. Plus I almost didn't get paid for any of it because it got published just about the time Covid hit and was told that they didn't have enough to hardly pay the employee's....

So the only place you find stuff from me is on my blog or a few forums.
I would rather share my stuff for free rather than have to deal with that HS again.

 

What does one need when a train is a coming?
Crossing signals of course.




It's been 3 weeks since I've done any work on the layout to speak of. This past week I just haven't had the ambition to go downstairs, which was bothering me a bit. I felt like was in a slump for sure. So Saturday after lunch I decided to go down and sit at the bench and see if I could find something to get me motivated. I decided to pull out the new Model 10 crossing signals I got from Showcase Miniatures and see if I could get them worked on so I could finish the highway crossing.

I had to have a few of them, thinking this would be an awesome addition to the layout? After getting the highway made and installed, I decided it was time to test my sanity.

These kits are fantastic. They come with everything you need along with a few options for signs, such as the number tracks and different length crossing arms. They even include a preprinted paper with signs and colored arms that you can cut out and apply to the proper items.

They are of course, a little tedious to assemble but frankly, quite easy. This is the first time for me assembling something like this and I didn't have much trouble. That said I didn't make it through the first one without loosing one small part.

Once assembled, I got it painted and then applied the paper cutouts for the signs.

I also had dreams of making them lit, well let's just say I'm still on the fence about that. I did manage to drill out the light cases so as to thread the wires through them, I picked up some Red 402 LED's and I was talking to a buddy who loves to make electronic controllers. So if I don't lose my mind before I'm finished, I should have these working as well. Which will be a first on my layout.

I opted not to use the crossarms for this location, the line does not see a lot of trains, so this should work just fine.

 

Looking good! That photo of the crossing signal caught me off guard. Recognized it from Joplin, MO.

 

Thanks Matt.
Is that where it's from? I just did a search on Google to find one similar to what I wanted for some ideas.