April is going fast, kind of like a manifest freight, time for Weekend Modeling Plans! After spending a few weeks away from trains due to work and family obligations, I finally get a weekend to play trains. My club is setting up T-Trak modules at the Decatur Train Fair this weekend so starting tonight I will be 100% involved with trains. I'm also looking forward in picking up my Kato CB&Q Zephyr set I ordered last fall from one of my not so local hobby shops. I've got a shopping list of other things I need for my layout and rolling stock as well that I plan to pick up. Today I'll finish my B&M GP7 that I'll run all weekend as well as get train sets ready to run on the modules. This should be a fun and relaxing weekend of running trains, talking with old friends and doing some train shopping. So how about you? What plans do you have this weekend? Do you have any shows to attend or set up at? How about club open houses? Track work, scenery or general maintenance, whatever you plan to do this weekend, let us know. We'll come back on Monday the 15th and see how we all did. Until next time, have a happy and safe weekend and... High Greens!
Beware the Ides of March, but fear the Ides of April. Monday is tax day, remember. But, I've already started this most odious of processes, so hopefully it won't consume my entire post-ski-season weekend. I spent a couple of hours last night squinting at tweezer parts as I applied them to the Tichy flat cars that will serve as the idler flats for the carfloat. The Big Outdoor Paint Booth should be in good shape this weekend, so I hope to get the primer on them. I've got to print up some decals for the flats, too. The vertical alignment for the carfloat apron didn't turn out quite right. I think the wye turnout leading into it lifted and got some ballast underneath it, so I'm planning to take the turnout up again and re-position it. That's the one that I made the mistake of gluing directly to the pink foam, forgetting to paint first, so I tried to cover the pink with a wash of brown paint and loosened the white glue and ballast. Sometimes, it's better not to try to cover up your mistakes.
Paint (and reconstructive surgery) on horses so I can put roof on livery stable in my movie lot western town. I got some N scale pewter horses with saddles and bridles which will be good for being hitched at the rail in front of the saloon and the café, but the horses looking out from the livery stable ought to be unsaddled. I have a set of Bachmann plastic horses but they are either trotting or sitting down. Legs in wrong position to be standing at edge of stall looking out. I tried heating them up and bending legs. Legs broke. I drilled holes in body, cemented fine wire to use as legs. Need to build up material for legs, shape, paint, etc.
More work on my T-Trak modules. I ordered a couple more signals to install on the modules but they probably won't arrive until sometime next week. Yard work outside must begin too.
Lots of work left to do on the Superior Paper Mill. I've been trying out a technique found online of using flour to simulate mortar between bricks. You can see the one section I tried it on in the photo
I've tried a number of different mortar techniques. The one that works best for me is using a thin wash of very light gray acrylic paint. It works best if I first spray the walls with primer, so I've got a selection of reddish browns for my brick structures.
