With the Fall tree colors, maybe there is a need to also do the cattails in that time as well. When they've gone to seed with their fluffed out white heads.
Too labor and time intensive considering I am extracting each little horsehair, sticking it to scotch tape, then applying Mod Podge. and after it dries then paint. Was about a three hour process just to assemble to 15 or so I did.
My experience with them has been they are still looking like a brown drum beater in the fall and winter. Not until very late winter and early spring have I seen them in their exploded fluff ball state.
And the fluff ball state would probably be a logistical nightmare and I have my hands full trying to come up with feral Hogs, Beavers, Sasquatches, and a decent representation of an Eagle somehow. Might have to peruse HO scale fowl for a start for that.
Might be less labor intensive than now. Consider a tiny wispy piece of cotton secured to the horsehair with a dab of white glue. I doubt if even the most ardent rivet counter could determine that your 160:1 seed parasol was inaccurate while still within a 0.025" fluffy white cluster, and shame on you for letting that crass person in the door in the first place.
I always warn folks that while they're leaning over to look and nitpick, they are also offering a wonderful target for my boot.....
Still the fluffy cattails don't fit into my early fall timeline. I did find a set of wild birds that did have some raptors in in the set that look like they would work, however they are out of stock, so that will be on the very back burner. Spent the rest of my day working around filling in the bridge abutment gaps and leveling some roadbed.
I would just say, "See that eagle there on the bluff? No? I guess your eyesight is just not to N scale standards." Doug
Mark Watson had a pretty nice eagle on a dead tree on his old layout....which he has dimantled. If you can get ahold of him ( He posts on that other model railroad forum)...he may still have the eagle in a parts box somewhere and maybe you can talk him out of it ;-)
I will just wait for the wild birds to come back in stock again since it has a number of birds I can use in future sections. But the photo did give me an idea as what to use rather than the tree armature I was going to use. Installed the single lane road bridge in and the rest of the roadway using a half strip of HO scale roadbed and painted same. Then I ballasted the main into the tunnel and the remaining track on the left up to the bridge. I also added some earth colored scenic material between the track and the road and will later add some vegetation in there. Standing on the outside of the road and looking in one is in the Pacific Ocean. So this is a coastal road hugging the shore line as are the tracks. I also added a bit more vegetation in some spots and got tired of some light spots showing in the camera and went at the area around the tunnel with my India Ink solution with a vengeance. Also cast a few more water falls this time using the new Water Effects and some wax paper. I am not sure where it was a working party assembling to hurry up and get the minnie meeces running or my sardine and peanut butter and egg sandwich. But I turned around from the puter this AM to catch site of the collection at the workbench.
The lightest of those big guys is 12 pounds while the heaviest in the back is almost 20 pounds. They regularly knock over a 3.5 foot scratching post on a wide base and the Big Guy has knocked over a 6 foot tall multi platform cat tree, again on a wide base with a single leap to the top. Is there a scale larger than LGB?
Sardine, Peanut Butter, and Egg...interesting combination not aware of. I think I'll try it tomorrow, what bread and spread? My favorite is Banana, Peanut Butter, and Miracle Whip on Pumpernickel. Though Pass Christian (MS) oysters on Ritz with a Ketchup, Horseradish, and Worcestershire dipping sauce is a very close second. Your feline tribe is extraordinary, and remembrances of 50+ years of cats, though generally confined to litter mate M&F pairs. Do yours have outside access? We found the lack of outside access a problem with Jack and Jill, our most recent pair. My train room is secluded from Jack-n-Jill, though other parts of the house are fair game....oh well, only cat people understand. <gr> Sorry, didn't mean to sidetrack your wonderful thread, but your feline household is fascinating, and definitely part of Hog Waller's creation. How do you plan to protect HWJ from your feline critics (and modifiers) once it's complete and unsecured in the viewing area of your home?
Only Deekus manages to escape outside from time to time but She always comes back in an hours or so. I can simply close the room door when I need to and have started to do it at night when the layout or room is going to be unattended. The older ones don't seem to bother it anymore but the younger brood has that curiosity that only cats can have.
Spent yesterday on domestic diva chores and assembling a new smoker that I had purchased to replace my old one thus no layout work. Today I looked at the right hand waterfall and still did not like what I saw. Violated all the wacky and wonderful laws of Newton and gravity. By all rights it should be washing away the roadbed and right approach to the trestle. So I cast another rock and have set it in to properly channel the water flow. Big white and tan blob on the right of the photo. And I started working on the left side waterfalls setting in two layers of water castings in the falls and rapids areas. When and if ever it finally dries I hope to have a slight blue tint coming through some areas where some small veins of Moly ore have been exposed.
