FANTASTIC! painting the unitrack rail goes a LONG way to leave the look of preformed track behind...I love the Arizona Rock and Mineral product also... Great job and you are certainly inspiring others to 'get off their duff' and just build a railroad! Sincerely, ~Bruce
Defenitly going to give the Arizona stuff a try vs using fine sand. See which I like better. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Great work so far Noah. Very inspiring. By the way, if you're really gonna get rid of the pier, PM me and I'll take it. My building skills are meager at best!
Thank you guys for all of the great compliments! I feel like I've come a long way in the short 10 months since I've been back into model railroading. It's been incredibly fun, and I foresee this being a lifelong hobby. Boxcab & Flyguy- I believe the dimensions are 8.5" x 3" or it could be 8" x 3.5"? I'll let you guys know if I'm going to get rid of it for sure. In which case, I'd prefer to do a trade rather than take cash. I think I have $35 into it. And however long it took to build. But if anyone desperately wants it, then yeah, I'll let it go whenever. - - - - Okay, I suppose I have a few updates: Here is the little cache of structures and supplies for my wharf scene; which I hope to start building soon. This stash includes: MTL Hotel (built), MTL Cannery (unbuilt), Plastruct N-Scale Decking surface sheet, Model Tech Studies Jib Loading Crane/dinghy piles/dolphin pilings/a few pier retaining walls, and some more N-Scale wood decking sheets. After testing 5 different ballast color combos, and two different brands, I finally found my color! This is the Arizona Rock & Mineral UP/Silverton/WP Bold Gray. The color and texture are exactly what I was hoping for. Even though my layout is freelanced, I wanted my track to look similar to track/ballast you find here in Sacramento, California. I think it has turned out pretty close to that look. I finished painting all of my track using Neolube #2. At first, I wasn't painting the tops of the rails because I thought it'd look better to have the standard shiny rail tops. Neolube is a conductive graphite lubricant and won't affect the electrical operation of trains. Well, I changed my mind after seeing how it looked with the rail tops painted. I'm quite happy with the way my track looks now. Neolube is really easy to use, because it only blackens the metal -any that runs off onto the plastic (and plenty does) gives the railroad ties and road bed a metal grime/dust weathered look. I love the stuff! This weekend I went to the International Railfair in Roseville, CA. It was a great show with lots of layouts and vendors. And best of all: I scored an epic deal! My wife was browsing a booth and noticed the Long Valley Lumber Kit from N-Scale Architect. She said "didn't you want this??" I saw the price tag and it was only $65! I instantly said "I'll take it!!" Then my trusty sidekick pointed out that it was on the 50% OFF Shelf! So I got this $145.95 kit for $32.50 OUT THE DOOR!! Needless to say, I was/am beyond excited. I found this kit, and knew it'd be perfect for the center yard tracks of my layout. It's gonna be a long, and challenging build, but I'm very much looking forward to it! As you can see, I also picked up a $10 MTL Centex Centerbeam, and Bragdon weathering kit. I learned that Bragdon is based out of Georgetown, CA right outside of Sacramento. Very cool that they're local.
It's been a while since I updated. And truthfully, I haven't gotten much done because of travel, surgery, life, etc. I finally got some work done this past week. Unfortunately, the lighting sucks for these pics but you can get an idea of what the noob has been doing. I extended the tunnel for a few reasons. I had previously applied Woodland Scenics ballast here and wanted to cover it up. I also thought have a bit longer tunnel to hide trains for a tiny bit longer duration. Plus, it broadened the hill some. I still have to build retaining walls on both sides of this section of road. [img width=801 height=600]http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp200/csuskim/Model%20Railroading/AB4A598D-10B0-40C6-8677-099894ABB1DB.jpg[/img] I put down a coat darker brown, using cheap hobby paint. This will work as a better undercoat than the light brown earth tone I used for the interim. This pic was from last week before i finished painting everything. [img width=801 height=600]http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp200/csuskim/Model%20Railroading/758EFEC9-4EAF-4DAC-AF98-9A2E025534BF.jpg[/img] I got back to ballasting. And ballasting Unitrack sucks. I use Arizona Rock & Mineral UP/WP. My method of application for ballast is very time consuming -about a foot per hour. Maybe I'm OCD, but I clean off every tie with an 18/0 brush, and apply scenic cement one drop at a time using a small hobby eye dropper. [img width=600 height=801]http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp200/csuskim/Model%20Railroading/756E3F15-6A30-4F7B-9BB2-CE01D06F2605.jpg[/img] So these pics are crummy, but I did my first static grass on the layout. Woohoo! This is kind of a big deal for the kid If you ask me, scenery is a but tougher than some tutorials lead you to believe. That probably has to do with my complete lack of experience :ashat: [img width=801 height=600]http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp200/csuskim/Model%20Railroading/87D11573-664A-4279-9FB8-242C1DE7ABBB.jpg[/img] I planted one of my Fujiwara speaker wire oaks trees to see how it looked on the golden grass. This lighting doesn't do it justice, but I'm pretty happy with how it's going [img width=801 height=600]http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp200/csuskim/Model%20Railroading/AE12D392-41B3-4130-AACB-0C7495F125EF.jpg[/img] [img width=801 height=600]http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp200/csuskim/Model%20Railroading/2C355896-C73C-4D44-8D5B-6510BB9F226E.jpg[/img] I also started messing with my grade crossing for styrene roads. [img width=600 height=801]http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp200/csuskim/Model%20Railroading/8FAC4FF3-9147-44B3-AFDC-BBA46C973E3E.jpg[/img] So I know it wasn't much of an update, but hopefully the layout will see lots of progression over the next few weeks. I have 16 days off for Christmas Break so I hope to get a lot done! I have two short trips planned to Lake Tahoe and Santa Cruz. Cheers Noah
No idea. Not something we've done. Most likely they've set something in their control panel, which controls the way other sites can link in.
hmm, weird. I used the same links in two other forums and they worked fine. I'll try editing the post later.
We've not changed anything. We want folks to be able to share their photos, via other storage sites. I took one of your links, and tried embedding it. But all I could get is a red X. It is possible that another site might see a lot of activity from here, and perceive it as using up their bandwidth, so block us for hot linking. We have seeen it happen previously. It makes no sense as a URL to the same photo consumes essentially the same amount of bandwidth.
Apparently it was the hyperlinks. Meh, obviously user error :droll: Here they are again: Worked on this tunnel extension a couple weeks back Ballasted some w/ static grass First static grassing I'd ever done Different angles Oak tree is not permanently planted. This was my first tester tree that I plan to place behind other, better trees in the future Ballasting... Threw down a some darker brown paint as a base with intent to turf/static grass in the near future
Question about the Neo Lube on the track. Have you run any trains since painting the track? I was wondering if you have started to see any crud on the wheels after weathering the rails ? Seems to me that it will wear off and gunk up the wheels. Of course I may be totally wrong. Won't be the first time :wideeyes: . Nice job on the ballasting ! Did you use diluted white glue between the rails, or paint on full strength glue and sprinkle the ballast ?....Mike
Mike- You know, I haven't noticed it yet. But I also haven't run trains a ton. Probably a couple hours of total run time, and no crud build up. Not to say that it won't happen eventually. I will say that it doesn't improve conductivity, it actually makes it a little worse. I can still remove it with alcohol and a cue tip, but I like the look of the rail tops coated in Neolube. For ballasting adhesive, I use a homemade scenic cement. I take an extremely long time to ballast: first I pour the ballast onto the sides of the track using a medicine spoon. The reservoir handle saves trips back to the ballast container, and the flat edge of the spoon distributes the ballast evenly along the rails. Then I use three fingers to drop ballast in between ties. I run my finger up and down the center of the track to drop most of the ballast in between the ties. I use a 10/0 brush (or smaller) to clean of each individual tie. Finally, to glue, I use a small hobby shop liquid dropper. I squeeze out a drop halfway and then touch it to the ballast. It takes many more drops than just flooding it with a baby medicine dropper. But then I don't have to go back and clean much ballast off the ties. Aljo- Thank you!
Finally got my NCE Powercab -thanks to my great wife! It's all up and running, now I just need decoders for my other locos. Here is the Cab mounted next to my control panel: First decoder install for this newb; TCS K1D4 in a Kato Dash-9: I also got more ballasting done: Here's on overall shot of the layout since I haven't posted on in a while: Happy New Year! Noah
Looking more and more "complete" every time you post pics! You've created a very nice small layout and are gaining a ton of experience as you go. Absolutely love the compact panel, and once you get some more scenicking done on those mountains the layout will really look great. Keep up the fine work and I'm looking forward to what you do next!
Great work Noah, like the over layout shot great progress done. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
