Well here we are, on the downward leg of February and as some of us have to go back to work, others have this Presidents Day off. I spent Saturday up in Potter Place, getting the last measurements for the B&M Freight House. I have every window, door and loading platform measured so I can scratch build this building. Sunday, I ropped in my Parents to come with me and explore the Northern Line from Potter Place all the way up to White River Junction VT. What an interesting trip! I was able to find locations in some of my B&M Historical Society books and take pictures of the same exact location some 40 to 60 years later. Most of the stations were still on the main line while a few were sadly no more. We finished the day at White River Junction VT and saw some New England Central and Green Mountain GP40-2's and GP38's. I have today off and plan to take Jess the Railfan Jeep out and follow Route 12 back up to White River Junction and catch Amtrak somewhere on the Conn River Line. So how about you? Do you have the day off? Going to get some more modeling done? Or maybe like me you plan to get some railfaining in. What ever your plans or accomplishments, submit them here and let us know what you did or are doing. We'll come back and do it again on Friday the 24th.
I don't have the day off, but I've been obliged to take it anyway thanks to an intestinal insurrection, a colonic conflict, a veritable Battle of the Bowl. Not a lot of fun, but I did do a little modeling. I'm still struggling with the last couple of track joints for that girder rail. They look good with the NMRA gauge, but I may have a vertical kink. Some cars make it through, while others do not. I did try putting the sections down with white glue rather than CA. Having some working time before the adhesive sets makes the whole thing much easier. Still, it's tricky stuff. Since we had some nice weather, I sprayed and glued together another simple DPM structure, one I need to lay out the cobblestone sheets that will form the roads for street-running. I cut one sheet, just to see how it would fit in. It's very thin stuff, and it's easy to shape to the curves with a bit of sanding, so that part of the job will probably go smoothly.
Well I cleaned up my work room and decided that I am going to stop procrastinating and start prepping it to build a "L" shaped layout. I need to clean it completely out and paint the walls and ceiling first and hope to have that phase done this weekend. I also tossed a C425 and C630M shell in stripper. They will get detailed and painted for my freelance road. This is more than I have done in months.
I guess the pics I posted over in the photo fun section should've gone here. cheap toy train buildings on way to being better.
Hi! I poured the swap at Hunter's corner. Ran out of envirotex so the 2nd pour will have to wait a bit: Terry in NW Wisconsin
A fine looking swamp already :thumbs_up: I cut and painted some card for concrete I sealed all the card faces and cut edges with PVA and/or Jo Sonjas All Purpose Sealer, and painted it with acrylics. There's a drop-off at the far end where I'll try to raise the road up to this level. Mike
Geeky, cool looking buildings. That stone surface has a real 3D look to it. Kits, Scratch built???? Terry, your swamp looks fantastic. love the underwater and shoreline detail. Envirotex is great stuff eh? Mike, As usual your modeling leaves my jaw resting table height. I like to use card stock for parking lots too but have never painted it before. Can u give some techniques as to how you got it to look so "used". Brian
Thanks Brian I didn't take any progress pics, but I do remember what I did, which is quite an achievment for me. After the sealer was dry I loosely mixed up a simple black and white grey that I brushed on haphazardly with a 1/2 inch flat brush and smudging it with my fingers. The brush was a bit small for the job but I think it helped in getting an uneven coat. I kept the mist-sprayer handy too to help blend some of the patches. When that was dry I decided it was too dark, so I went over it with mixes of Warm white, Charcoal, Linen [Jo Sonjas Background Acrylics] a hint of burnt sienna and even a hint of bright yellow. The yellow when mixed with Charcoal [black] gives a weak, dirty green and the burnt sienna helped to take away the neutral look of the basic grey and warmed it a bit. The soft white is a great colour and not as dazzling as pure white. Linen is a dirtyish greyish off-white that sometimes looks a bit greenish. A great colour! Obviously the top coat mixes were paler than the first, but the mixes were a bit tighter because I didn't think I could get away with too much yellow and burnt sienna, although thinking about it now, burnt sienna would make nice rust stains. For oily patches I tried all sorts of things like smearing black and water around with a Qtip and my fingers, blotting it back when it got too heavy. I also experimented by putting a blob of water on, then dipping some straight black into it to see how it might spread. Most of those little blobs worked out quite ok but some got mopped up because they were too black, leaving nice stains. I used the same 1/2 inch brush and fingers again. It was all a bit experimental, but fun, and I think it benefited from having the slightly darker undercoat. Maybe 25% of it still shows through. Mike
Nil, actually. Saturday I spent with a Sawzall in hand, ripping out shelves in the kitchen in preparation for new cabinets. Sunday I did pick up some N scale cork roadbed which I'll use under my HO scale track (this is a backwater of the Frisco I'm modeling, so no SD45s or QLA here). Besides, I had a playdate with a cute blonde- my 6-year-old granddaughter. Next weekend, I hope to tack down roadbed on the foam surface of the benchwork, and start laying track. The one thing slowing me down is lack of turnouts, but I'll be buying then a couple at a time.
They are kind of toy train prebuilts by hornby from the 80's I think. i am trying to make them less toy like. they do stand up to having pics taken though.
