Another weekend has ended and is in the books. How did you fare? I hope all of our friends on the East Coast of the United States are doing ok as Hurricane Sandy bears down upon you. Stay safe! I got more done on the prototype modeling end of things on Saturday. The Monticello Railway Museum was running their annual "Ghost Train" and was using their MLW Alco PA-1 to pull the train. I was tasked to get pictures of all sides for a future modeling project. Originally, I had an appointment last Monday but got rained out. Fortunately, Saturday was full sun and during the course of the day, I was able to get all the prototype shots as well as a few "artsy" shots. Sunday was filled with soccer. So how about you? Did you get everything done you set out to do? Let us know, better yet, shows us! We'll come back on Friday, November 2nd and do it all again. Until next time... ​High Greens!
Saturday I had to get my house ready for Sandy to make her appearance. Cleaned the drains, cleaned out the gutters and leaders and put away anything that the wind could move. Sunday I went to my Brothers house to wire up his generator that he bought after the October storm Last year. I did get to my not so local hobby shop that is a mile from my brothers home to purchase some scenic materials for my module.
I painted my backdrop on Thursday night, so that is pretty much done. I added Kadee scale couplers to 25 of my best cars, the old #5's off those cars helped completely convert 100% of my rolling stock to KD's. I also reassembled an old Walthers kit that had been broken down by a friend while packing for a move. Reassembled as a background building, no pics. I am at work 3 hours from home again this week, right in the middle of where Hurricane / Tropical Storm/ Depress/PITA Sandy will be tracking after hitting DC today and tomorrow. Expecting some snow back home, but the higher elevations of WV could get 2-3 feet. Ski resorts expecting 45-50" and opening trails this week.
Battened down a few hatches, but we're well inland and we won't get coastal effects of the storm here. We had more pesky "social engagements," but I did get the decals on those diesels, finally. The weather didn't cooperate, though, so I postponed spraying them with satin spray to seal the decals. I loosely wired up the resistor, capacitor and one Adlake lamp for the caboose, and it seemed to work OK. Voltages were as predicted. Since I couldn't paint outside, I hand-painted a few figures on my bench to put in the cabeese.
Two Microtrains heavyweight observation cars were in a box on my porch when I got home from my excursion to Virginia and North Carolina. Slipped out of there before the weather closed in. I guess I have to make all my usual modifications to the MT cars to get them to close couple and all. I did get to explore most of the hiking trails on a preserve near my in-laws place in Virginia. They are getting snow there now.
cleaned gutters and the yard in advance of Sandy. I also got the first part of the track on layout section 2 laid, but it came up short of the planned length. Need to get a track stretcher I guess. May do more today since we're shut down for the hurricane at work.
Did a test run of my new (and very inexpensive) airbrush by lightly weathering an old AHM hopper. Not bad. It looks dirtier, and with a shot of Dullcote over that, it doesn't look shiny anymore. And prepared my "sinners repent" signs in advance of Sandy... we're getting a piece of her over the next few days, including 55 mph winds tonight.
Not good news from here. Finished stripping all the trees and as much of the low ground cover from the layout as possible. Most buildings, cars and trucks, figures have been moved onto one space for easier packing and only the trackwork is still in place. Can salvage the turnouts but will have to probably scrap a lot of the C.55/70/83 rail. That still leaves a coupla hundred pieces of rolling stock that need to be carefully packed.
Well I found my box of chalk and got this trailer done, not sure If I like the way it turned out. first was coat of Flat Finish , then a coat of aged concrete mixed with a touch of testors rust and thined a little and brushed on. allowed that to dry then dry brushed chalk mix of white-pink-blue-green ground down on some 220 sandpaper ... may have to experiment with different colors when the models color is not black . Not sure how to set the chalk, I need to experiment using the Flat Finish to seal it up .
