Hey all. The girlfreind and I managed to do some scenery work this weekend. We tried using the woodland scenics road kit and then use used WS fine ballast ( cinders ) for the yard. As you can tell the main line is a different color. That is " pink lady" ballast. It is a Arz rock and mineral product. I thought about trying to lighten up the yard a bit with mixing some gray with it. Maybe in the futrue. Adios fer now, wyatt
Russ, In that Chantilly heat and humidity it must have been cotton. For an old desert rat, or should I say lizard, that humidity/heat was a killer. I had to stand in front of the winter module to cool down. Still lotsssssss of FUN !
Here in the Houston area we are fortunate to have a place that carries all kind of Evergreen and Plastructs stock and tons of detail parts. (G&G Models in University Village) They cater to the engineering and architecture students at Rice University and U of H. Papa Ben's and Houston Round House also carry a good selection.
I may have to wire you some money for you to pick me up a big batch of supplies - your stuff looks awesome!
Soo, I also decided on using small cinders for my yard to represent dark/black dirt in the yard. Here's some pictures: http://www.boche.net/trains/9-30-04/DSC00035.JPG http://www.boche.net/trains/9-30-04/DSC00036.JPG http://www.boche.net/trains/9-30-04/DSC00040.JPG I'm pretty happy with the choice so far. I had tried Woodland Scenics "soil" but for some reason their soil color is dark green (I dont' knwo why). I wanted black.
Here is my contribution. A 360 degree panoramic view of my train room. Windows users only. http://www.boche.net/trains/jasonbochetrainroom10-3-04.exe The creative juices were flowing today and on a whim, I decided to implement a golf course on my layout. Well, not the entire course, but a portion of a fairway, sand trap, and green near a set of railroad tracks. I was golfing a few weeks ago at a golf course with lots of train action very near the course and this was my inspiration.
Have you tried Railroad Hobbies in Roseville? They always seem well stocked... And Bruce's in Sacramento I've heard is good too.
Well I almost missed this post this weekend. Very impressive work and photos everyone! Here is my contribution a little late. Here are some of the MOW cars that I recently completed. These are all Athearn blue box kits. Baggage car RPO Tank car Gondola
Very nice. I like the background. Is that part of your layout or a photo diorama? I have a weakness for these kits. Maybe because that is where I got started kit bashing. After you put a few together, it is fun to get adventureous. Cars that ended up in MOW service tended to acquire all kinds of additional hardware bolted on to them. A typical one I have noticed are great big steps below the baggage car doors. These can be easily made from brass angle and wire. They would typically be the width of the door. Box cars used as tool cars usually had these too below the doors. A Long Island RR baggage car I saw was converted into a machine shop. It had a diesel generator hanging under it for power and a window air conditioning unit hanging on the side.
Derek, If I was in HO (or larger), I'd have tons of stuff available for scratchbuilding... but since I'm in N, just about nothing. Was just at Bruce's this weekend, and was in Rosevill about 2 weeks ago, so unless they had a UPS truck full of N scale stuff on back-order come in, I think I'm out of luck for LHS's having what I need.
Russell Thanks for the compliments and the suggestions. It never crossed my mind to add to them! The background is my Water Tower Diorama . Right now it is a stand alone piece used for photos. It is operational and is hooked into a temporary oval, so trains do run on it. I am hoping that someday it will be part of a layout.
WOW, Really great stuff this week everyone!!!! ATSF AZ.,John, fantastic work on those #boards .What did you use to blacken out the backround?
Much of what I use is not scale specific. The Evergreen corrugated sheet comes in a spacing small enough to pass in N scale and the rod, strips and shapes come in very small sizes. I use some HO brick stock that has very small brick and works well in N. Things like Grandt Line windows, ladder stock, street signs, fire hydrants etc., are tough to come by sometimes in shops that do not cater to the N scale customers.
Hi, SecretWeapon, I just disassemble the engine, remove the clear plastic number board piece, and paint the numberboard area (Scalecoat acrylic) grimy black. Two light coats will do it. Then I (carefully) cut out the Microscale decal numbers and apply them one by one. I've got two more Santa Fe Atlas/Kato GP30s with blank numberboards to do, if any folks would like me to take pictures while I do that, I'd be happy to. [ 05. October 2004, 20:40: Message edited by: atsf_arizona ]
So Bryant. Do you have a collection of photos of the High Plains to use as "photo shop" backgrounds for your photos? They look very convincing. I had to look at the zoomed in image on Railimages to detect what you did. Nice job. </font>[/QUOTE]Very nice job, Indeed!! I sure hope I can get those in N scale someday.
