Image by Jim Wiggin posted Jan 25, 2016 at 7:37 AM Illinois Central Paducah by Jim Wiggin posted Jan 4, 2016 at 6:40 AM Illinois Central Paducah by Jim Wiggin posted Jan 4, 2016 at 6:40 AM Image by Jim Wiggin posted Jan 25, 2016 at 7:37 AM Image by Jim Wiggin posted Jan 25, 2016 at 7:37 AM Just finished these two Paducah Geeps for fellow Trainboard member and friend, PPUIN. Lots of cutting and grafting but worth it in the end. Both have TCS decoders installed.
OK, I measured the car. It is 70 feet from bulk head to bulk head. 73'7" from coupler face to coupler face.
Well, there you have it! Using the new, foobie Micro Trains Horse car, it's possible to construct any of these unique ATSF baggage cars with end doors! For 1890, there will have to be some extension added to the roof. Bruce
I've finished my Blair Line Fred and Red's Café and decided to start on an old Walthers freight house kit that I've had for a while. 009 by WPZephyrFan posted Feb 7, 2016 at 4:09 PM
Not being much of a football fan and not wanting to venture out today as we are only a few miles from the location of today's super bowl game, I thought it would be a good time to start building a bridge kit for the layout. This is the third of these Central Valley kits that I have built. Below are the 1810 and 1815 which I built a few years ago. The current project is the 1820 which has walk ways. On all three I am shortening it from 4 sections to 3 to match prototype photos. Every enjoyable afternoon. Had one interruption when a number of military jets flew directly over my place. Think they had just done the flyover as they were trailing white smoke. Read later that they were the Blue Angles. If you have not tried one of these bridge kits, I do recommend them as they are not that hard and have much better detail then the other plastic bridges out there.
I'm not a huge fan of pre-assembled/pre-painted structures...I enjoy the modeling, and can put more detail, and weather to my taste, when building a structure from a kit, or scratchbuilding.... That being said, I needed a 'small town' theatre for my "Hutton" modules, and the old Heljan theatre is very tough to find, not to mention a little large for this particular application. I bit the bullet and purchased this Woodland Scenics pre-assembled/pre-painted theatre online and am really impressed with the assembly quality and the paint quality. It's also pre-lit with wiring compatible with the new WS "Just Plug-it" lighting system. [FONT=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/FONT]
Here's a few pics of a project I've been working on the last few weeks. The finished product isn't "rivet counter" perfect but I'm pretty happy with it as my eyesight aint' what it used to be and it saved me mucho bucks if I had to buy a manufactured one (if I could ever even find one). What I wanted: I screwed up by not buying the 4 car set Kato originally produced containing the dome car. So I set out to build one of my own Here's what I started with: After a short soak in alcohol this is what I ended up with: Quite happy the alcohol didn't destroy the clear plastic. I have an air brush but to be honest I haven't had a lot of luck with it. With the introduction of Tru-Color paints in the exact colors I needed I decided to give it one more try. I gotta tell you if you haven't tried this brand of paint you have to give it a try. Even a nubee like myself, I was able to get an even disbursement and total coverage with only one coat. I won't go back to another type of paint after this project!! after the first paint application: I did a crummy job of applying my tape. The lines were both too wide and not parallel. After another taping and touch up: Much better. A had a terrible time with my custom decals. Thread here describes the process. Thanks to those that responded: http://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/decal-glue.90897 After some experimentation I found an acceptable formula. Here's some finished photos of the project. I know it isn't the exact match for what Kato produces but its good enough for me. And it was fun to try some new tools products and techniques to complete the project. Brian
Brian, I think you did a great job there. I agree on Tru-Color, picked them up for the first time in 2012 and after spraying them, never went back to anything else. Tru-Color is my primary paint for my Custom Paint Shop.
On the General Store module, I decided to add another of the Showcase Miniatures transformer sets in place of a standard pole...great little kits that add a touch more realism.
Bruce, What you've done with the T-Trak modules has really piqued my interest ! I have a blank slate as I was gifted two small modules. Nice work.
Here's update on my PRR L1 project. The shell has space for a decoder which i dutifully installed in my locomotive. All I need to add is markers and compressed air cylinder up front.
The Art Deco bridge from Russell Higginbotham http://higginbothamgraphics.com/redrivermodels/ is almost ready for service in the SWARMTrak setups!
Beautiful bridge arbomambo. Looking forward to seeing a pic or 2 after you get it placed on the layout.
