Busy weekend for me. I spent it working on my UP Track Cleaning Train, and 2 fairly dilapidated grain elevators for my TTrak modules
This N scale monster: the 560' long by 85' wide Mobil Engineer coastal tanker (1972--1998), taking up fully one half of my production space.
That slab of mahogany is at least 100 years old. It was meant to be a hull, but it's so flat and stable, I use it to build the bigger hulls. I got a few slabs perhaps 40 years ago from an elderly cabinetmaker whose shop I had helped rebuild after a storm. They were originally slated for the swan's necks on a highboy, but I just couldn't cut them up.
Quite the treasure. As long as it is well kept, it'll be worth a good bit of money some day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
None of the slabs are intricately grained nor colorful like long-gone Honduras mahogany. They're just old and well-seasoned. I have a nephew who is keeping up the five-generation family tradition of hobby cabinetmaking and I'm sure he will appreciate them someday. But you are right: good wood is hard to find these days, and more expensive every day. One of my friends here is a wonderful cabinetmaker specializing in church fitments: he just bought an old sawmill to cut his own wood. I got most of my wood back in the 70s from small sawmills northwest of Boston--now also long gone.
More progress on the module: And a closer look at the track, with opinions solicited on the color used: The rail itself is painted Testors rubber...
I'm building a TOFC and MoW area. Here is the beginning of the paved area for the TOFC. I used spackling paste and I will paint it with artist acrylics later. There are a few cracks created as it dries. If they aren't too deep I use them for pavement cracks. Painters tape outlines the area. Spackle paste in place before peeling the painters tape when slightly dry. Total TOFC area in place before painting. More as I paint and weather.
Thanks for the peek Flash. It will be cool to see how it comes out. Mike PS what color is that facia?
I'm using a single ramp. You can see the outline of the old one in the first picture. I think I found that old one around 1969 at a hobby shop. It was a solid casting and much too wide. Grim. I just couldn't handle that so I decided to scratchbuild. I'm not sure what it will be but probably a wooden part for getting onto the flat car and the ramp up to that will be earth and pavement.
Good question and I don't have a good answer. My idea (from someone else, of course) was that the fascia should be the same color as the soil. That is the idea here and the color is supposed to match the caliche soil found around here in South Texas. It may be close. OTOH, if you cover it all with foam or roads, what difference does it make? Anyway, that is what it is supposed to be.
On the TOFC yard...after the spackle dries, I sand it fairly smooth. I want some variation in the surface. Here is the first coat of paint simulating asphalt. It may be a little shade light. If I just weather it with tire/oil streaks, it will probably be close. I'm undecided. You can always just do it and then paint over and try again. Train show in New Braunfels, Texas this weekend.
