Always impressive and outstanding work Robert! In the wire things the way you do make it much easier to work on and most likely if any problems easy to trace! Coming along faster them most modelers, not like me in turtle mode all the time! making guess all the time. thanks for sharing your work! not much to go by with the area photo not much there to see!
I really like the transition to the turntable. It’s a little thing but it really makes you forget you’re seeing a model. Those little really stand out to me and catch my eye….or rather it doesn’t…and that’s the point
I got the base scenery materials down: After that dried I removed the masking tape, vacuumed, added a little blending ground cover to smooth masked transitions, planted assorted trees, and placed the structures. I still need to make the trackplan sticker, mount turnout position LED's and switches.
Love these daily updates! What base scenery material do you use? Tiest Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I usually start with Expanding Foam, then Plaster Gauze wet with Earth Colored Water, then Yellow and Green Ground Foam, and Hay Colored Static Grass. I also sprinkle some Ballast and Dirt to transition edges. I am trying to get that dead grass look at the middle of Summer.
If you show up to the next Northern Pacific Historical Society Convention here in the Northwest, you just know the peeps will lose they're minds when they see this!!
Agree. Let me know when you do a showing and I would be tempted to fly out for it. I am in the Mid West (Denver area). Tiest Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Kurt, I don't know exactly what peeps are, but I feel pretty confidently that 'anyone' if they were to see any of Robert's work up personal and close would have a difficult time finding any fault whatsoever in any of Robert's work. I have had the pleasure of viewing much of Robert's work dating clear back to 2004 when I saw his first laser cut rolling stock kit in the Seattle NTS show. It's not cool to brag about one's own work, but it sure is fun to brag on another's excellent craftmanship. To the other larger scale modelers I say, "if you want a challenge, try Z scale." I see great work by many on this site. They are all great ambassadorzs for Z. Just yesterdy an 86 year old man and his wife visited my home to see about buying some Z cars and locos from me. I actually asked him if his eyes and hands were still good and he assured me he was able to accomplish his dreams of a small Z layout. With his positive attidute and excitemnt I have no doubt!
Excellent results Robert! Looks much more like the prototype photos you’ve shown me. Looking forward to seeing it person!
Today I started working on the far right module of the set, the former coal dock module. I spent the day working on the water tower and brick boiler house shed next to it. You can barely see some of it on the left side of this photo, with the water tower behind the brick shed and it's tall smokestack. Look at that dude running across the tracks, he almost looks like he's about to faceplant into the ballast! So things of note for the rework of this module; it has the water tower and boiler house, it has the diesel fuel tank, as the 2626 which has a fuel oil tender is getting fueled up and watered, there is another shed to the right of the boiler house painted in the 2 tone NP structure scheme, and there are residential structures along the foothills in the background: Here is a better shot looking straight on, and I just today noticed the residential homes in the background of this photo: So I looked for another photo, and I found this one taken a few yards to the right which shows some of the entrance side of the boiler house, as well as some more of the homes in the background. I guess I can go ahead and make those for the module too, since the more stuff you add, the more interest in the module you add. And in this photo you can kind of see that the windows on side of the boiler house were somewhat arched and had 3 panes across and 3 panes down, so that is how I made the windows. I will make the door arched too, in keeping with the style. Also, this photo shows the smoke stack, giving me an idea of how tall to make it. It is clear from this photo that the cold weather justifies having a boiler house, and it is required to keep the water liquid: So this is what I came up with. For fun and effect, I added an orange flicker LED inside the boiler house to simulate a heater:
Today I worked on the Fuel Oil Tank: I still have to print out a fuel level gauge to place to the right of the ladder on the tank: I had to extrapolate some detail from the Auburn WA tank, which is significantly taller, because I could find no closeups showing the base of the Lester tank, other than it seems to sit on the same 6 sided type pedestal, just shorter:
Fantastic! The weathering is so well done rust where there should be! So what I truly like is the way you step the photos. The true prototype photos…your prototype….then your finished work. Always great but your presentation makes me learn things. I don’t know if that makes sense but it really does
Rob, Excellent! Like the weathering. What did you use for the ladder, and what is the round portion of the tank made from? Scott
Today I worked on a rev2 of the fuel oil tank. I wanted a bit cleaner look, and I noticed there were fire boxes in front of both the fuel oil tank and across the first track from the water tank. So I made the fire boxes too: Yes, I think the fire box makes the look a little better:
Did some yard work today, it's 65 degrees! Afterwards I decided to draw up the revisions to the Lester Module Set to reflect the changes made recently. Here is the overall layout plan now: So I need 1 Firebox on the leftmost Hotel Module, 2 more sheds on the Depot / Roundhouse Module, 2 Fireboxes on the Coal Dock Module, and the whole rework of the Water / Fuel Module with track and turnouts, hillside homes, etc. I also had to draw up new trackplan diagrams for the fascia's to reflect the track and turnout changes. This means I will have to re-program all the turnouts to their new addresses:
Yeah weather here in Boulder, CO similarly exceptionally nice. Great to see these drawings. What I get out of these is that less is more! Thanks for this insight. Slowly but surely getting my grand plan together which will use TTZ modules. Looking to prototype the Moffat Tunnel (Rail and Water) West and East entrances. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
The Moffat Tunnel sounds like a fun project, and perfect for TTZ modules. I like the TTZ modules because they are small and very manageable. I can work on a module on my workbench and quickly place it back in the module set without much effort. I also found that it is more fun to try and match a prototype as much as possible, than to build a fantasy layout out of off the shelf model kits, because how can you tell you have a convincing scene if you are making it up. If you are following photos of something, at least you know what you have to try and duplicate to make a convincing scene.
