Thanks. After I discovered true potential of paper and cardboard, I am reluctant to look at anything else for my static models! Ah! well, I'm biased, and lazy...
Well, for being biased and lazy, you have raised the bar purty high for the rest of us! ! Really tho', it is looking better and better every time you post.
Crates, Boxes and Barrels Got back to the layout after 2 months - took a full day to clean the tracks and get rid of the dust deposit (though the dust is possibly the best weathering material I have ever seen!). Given everything that is going on with my life (change of job, relocation etc.), I decided to take baby steps in terms of model railroading. So this update is not really much of an update, but just to make me feel better that I am doing something! I started with painting the wooden crates, boxes and barrels - this was pending for a long time. And then I just spent some time clicking some of my favorite angles.
Just doing something does feel good. There have been many times for me where a small action gets my interest levels perked back up, and I'm rolling again.
I have seen your layout photos on Facebook. It is very nicely done. I am quite impressed with the extent of the details you have included. Best wishes.
It surely does! But the difficult task is to keep rolling, I think. That's been the most difficult challenge in this hobby for me, you see - being consistent in devoting time regularly, however small that is. I'm working on it though! Thanks. The level of details that I have in mind is going to take months (possibly years in my pace) to achieve - even for such a small layout! Stay tuned.
Your ships still impress. As does your concrete out of cardboard. Does your relocation give room for expansion?
Paper is absolutely great stuff for modeling in smaller scales, and often underrated for texture and strength. I use it all the time.
Thank you Philip. I am yet to decide a place in the new city that I am moving to, so don't really know what is in store yet. But not planning to expand anything at the moment, and rather focus on completing this layout with the very last detail. This layout is full of surprise and I had no idea how much detail you can think of for a harbor scene! If you ask me, the detailing is not even 50% complete! I will take time to make it perfect before I move to something else. Couldn't agree more Pete. The oil tanker is over 5 years old, the small Cargo ship and the cranes are over 4! And I had not built them with a long term vision, so I used medium quality cardboard. With good quality cardboard, good paint/print texture and quality varnish, you can build a model that can last for over a decade! Even at larger scales, paper can be better than plastic or styrene - the best example is Troels Kirk's Coast Line RR.
A Change, A Journey, A New City, A New Home April 7th, 2012 - that's when I posted the update to move to our new apartment in Calcutta - http://wrightsvilleport.blogspot.in/2012/04/new-and-hopefully-final-home-for.html As the title reads in that post, I really hoped that that apartment was a permanent home for Wrightsville Port - been lived in 2 places before that, I'm sure the tiny residents and workers of Wrightsville Port were a little apprehensive about another move... I myself was a little weary even to think about another move. It went pretty well for a year, and as it happens in my line of job, things started changing rather a little faster than I expected. And even before I could comprehend the length of the turns, I had a job offer that looked very promising - an opportunity to move up in life as they call it, but it also came with a condition - moving 1500 miles to another city - the city of Nawabs, called Hyderabad. As excited I was about a new opportunity, a new city, I was particularly concerned about Wrightsville Port. Although I have built this layout to suit this type of lifestyle, moving 1500 miles is definitely a tough, and may I call it, the final test of the robustness and agility of my design. Moving ahead, night of Dec 11th, 2013 I was busy making the final preparation to 'dispatch' Wrightsville Port the next day. As you can see, all buildings, ships and details were movable, so they were removed from the layout and packed in tough plastic containers (from Mouli's kitchen) and secured with packing peanuts. The rolling stocks and locos went back to their respective plastic boxes in which they had originally arrived from the US. By midnight, everything other than the layout was packed and wrapped. Then I removed the layout and took the opportunity to clean it thoroughly before the packing guys came the next day: Next day, the professional packers and movers did their tricks. Along with the rest of the house, the layout components were wrapped in protective covers. I wouldn't get into the details of the professional packing methods, here is just a shot of the layout after three layers of cardboard and specialized covers wrapped it nice, warm and cozy before it was put inside a wooden crate: Evening of Dec 13th, the layout started its journey in a 32ft container truck. We started on Dec 18th, and as you can very well imagine, in a train! It was a special train from Shalimar, a Satellite station of Howrah Railway station - one of the worlds biggest and busiest. The train itself looked awesome in its bright red color. I took the privilege of booking first class for this trip! It was a two person coup, so it was sort of a overnight stay in a tiny hotel room - we had all the space for ourselves without worrying about where we were putting our luggage and shoes. Here are some shots of the cabin: Now, travelling in train after 5 years, I couldn't help taking some pictures. However, since I cannot post all of them in here, you can read the whole entry in my blog, especially if you are interested in taking a sneak peek at some of the nice IR locomotives: http://wrightsvilleport.blogspot.in/2014/01/a-change-journey-new-home.html Finally Wrightsville Port, accompanied by its legs and the bookshelf-cum-staging yard, plus the rest of the house arrived on Dec 20th. Upon opening the protective packing layers, there she stood, unscathed and as pretty as ever: Today, I think I consider my greatest success as a model railroader is not being able to build exciting structures or ships, or making compelling model scenes, rather building a model railroad that has become my true companion - it goes wherever I go, it grows how I grow, it distracts me from disturbing thoughts and helps me stay focused in life... it is now a part of my small, but very dynamic and crazy family - that was the true intention of building Wrightsville Port, and I am glad that I succeeded in that - in gaining a friend in that 6X3 tiny model railroad!
Thanks Flash! I'm flattered! Given I am getting slow(er) in finishing the layout, I just hope to keep the updates live for some more time.
Congratulations for your career advance! Sure is nice that you could move the whole project. Too many of us do not plan for these things, or do so inadequately. It is great the whole thing arrived intact. Shippers here in the USA are not always so reliable, or worse...
Thanks. They are not very reliable in India as well, its just that I paid extra money, arranged for special packaging and personally looked after loading and unloading, and if that's not enough, paid that non refundable lump sum to insure the whole thing! Yeah well, sometimes it pays to be paranoid!
Beginning of a new chapter Now that we are all somewhat settled in the new city and dealt with all the changes, it is time that we revisit Wrightsville Port and see where it stands. Overall there is not much of a difference in the overall appearance of the layout, however, I did take the advantage of this relocation to correct a few things: Get rid of the dust: as in case of most layouts, you generally do the dusting in prominent and easily accessible areas, and once you start detailing, it is not feasible to use the vacuum as effectively. So now that there are no models on the layout, I took the liberty to do the spring cleaning - not that the spring is very far away, so I'm good! There has been another initiative - I had to device a certain way to keep the dust off as much as possible. Given the shape of the layout is very unique (it's neither a shelf layout, nor a solid rectangle to use glass cubicles), a ready option was not really available. Till the time I figure out a better way, I made a temporary cover using transparent plastic sheets, cut along with edge of the layout. I need to play with it a little more to make it look better, but overall this serves the purpose for now: Organize wiring: Given the layout is meant to have extensive lighting effect, I have dedicated power lines in 3 voltage ranges - 1.5V, 3V, 6V, 12 V and a variable 6-12V (all DC) - each power lines divided into various phases to help short circuits and total blackouts. As you can understand, this means a lot of wires, and I never took the pain to arrange and label them properly owing to the fact that in order to do so, I had to dismantle the layout - till now. So wiring is revamped, categorized and more 'power hubs' created for future lights. Sorry, no photograph for this one (I am ashamed to say that it still looks pretty messy!) The background hill required more bushes and trees and required a smoother transition to the backdrop. I did order JTT foliage long back, but never managed to complete this task, until now: The dock scenes that I created remained static for quite some time, so I made some subtle changes. I used the same figures to 'move' scenes or make some minor changes for the sake of variation, and added a new one too: Finally, something that has been long due (really) - installing light in the tall hotel building. I also took the liberty to add a neon light (The previous Cafe sign being out of commission, I desperately 'needed' this animation): And to end with this post, here is a night time view of the port. Still requires a lot of work to be done to look life like, but nonetheless, this is quite beautiful to look at!
Lighthouse! The original plan was to animate the lighthouse with rotating lenses - just like a real lighthouse. I have placed the order for a slow motion motor (23 RPM) which I am expecting to receive by end of next week, but I could not wait to install the lights and make the lens housing. The details of the lighthouse animation will be covered later in a more descriptive manner, but for now, here are some photos of lighthouse with it's lamps lit and lens being static. I have installed light in the crew's quarter as well. Now that there is light in the two terminal structures - the hotel and the lighthouse, the layout now has a defined frame even during night time simulation. More to come, and hopefully soon.
Kaustav Congratulations on your new move and I hope that you enjoy the promotion. You posts are always interesting. Now I am going to check out your blog. I want to see more pictures of the first class train ride. Thank You
Thanks so much Joe! Hope you're doing well. Hope you like the sneak peek into Indian Railways. Just finished installing my 100% scratch-built n scale signals - just a couple of first draft photos before the battery died. Proper updates coming soon, with videos...
