Sorry to muddy the waters Boxcab. I'm learning this as I go along. The Minnesota Northern used to be owned by Rail America but from what I understand was sold into private ownership. The picture of the locomotive I posted a link to earlier in RA paint is now in service on the Otter Tail Valley still lettered for MNN...make sense? Anyway the MNN is still alive and well and in fact my Dad got a picture of one of their switchers in Warroad this summer. Notice the gopher playing hockey on the cab! Andrew Link to Info on the Minnesota Northern. [ December 30, 2005, 08:01 PM: Message edited by: hegstad1 ]
I took a break from scenery this past week to build a depot for the layout. I wanted something inexpensive and simple but not "off the shelf." I decided on the Atlas Suburban Station kit as a starter. As is, it is too ornate for my liking. To remedy this I built my own roof out of stryene, and modified the ends to fit. This acheived the more generic look I was going for. Next I needed to modify the doors and windows. The kit windows have very oversized mullions so I cut out some of the horizontal members and then filed the remaining ones thinner. At this point I added new corbels and a chimney from Period Mineatures. The paint scheme is Northern Pacific sand and brown with an adhesive shingle roof. I lightly weathered the structure with chalk and acrylic washes. I have not decided on a name for the "town" yet so I will add that later. I also have yet to figure out exactly where it will go on the layout so the picture I took is just on a simple diorama. Andrew
That is totally awesome. Those look so real, it's amazing. Congratulations. Would you mind offing a link to the video you mentioned. I'd love to take a look to learn this technique myself.
mopacfan, Thanks for the compliment. Here is a link to Allen Kellers web-site and the Cumberland Valley video. This is a great tape (I think it is only available in VHS) of one of the best N-scale layouts ever! Link to Allen Keller's videos Andrew
Even though I should probably be working on other things, I couldn't resist starting on some scenery. Part of the purpose of this layout is to experiment and thats what I'm doing here. I have used in this scene, just about every type of ground foam Woodland Scenics offers as well as their Fine Leaf Foliage product. Trees are a combination of WS armatures with fine leaf foliage, Super Trees from Scenic Express and weeds from the back yard. I have tried three different Silfor grass produces from Scenic Express, Noch, and Heiki for long grass. Ballast is from Arizona Rock and Mineral and WS. The river bed is crushed plaster, talus material and stone from WS. I will use Envirotex for the water. This is still in the "testing" phase and I may choose to redo things as I go along. More and better pictures to come. Andrew
Well, I haven't updated progress on the layout for awhile so here are some recent pictures (sorry for the quality.) First is an "overhead shot" to show the lay of the land. The farm structures are not in their final positions and I have yet to finalize what I will do in the lower left corner. Next is the depot and water tank. The making of the depot was described earlier and the water tank is a cheap Bachmann model. It should be mentioned that since I am making this layout with my (sometimes destructive) son, I am avoiding using expensive "craftsman" type kits and instead detailing and weathering flea market aquisitions and inexpensive structures. This next picture is an overhead shot of my "factory". This is a reconfigured Model Power structure and I have yet to decide what this Industry will be. Any suggestions? I obviously have to add details to these scenes but I will come back to that later. Finallly here are a couple of close up shots. Details are really lacking but as I said, it will be fun to add these later. Andrew [ March 28, 2006, 05:57 AM: Message edited by: hegstad1 ]
Andrew: Very nicely done. What did you use for the long grass on that old siding? Stay cool and run steam....
