Here is one projects I am working on this weekend. This is a MDC/Roundhouse covered hopper that I painted about a year ago. I just never got around to decaling it. The decaling has begun. The decals are from Herald King.
I've been having some fun with aerial shots of my layout. Because it's multi-decked, it's really hard to get high enough above a scene to stitch images together. So here's a shot from an N scale 400 feet above my roundhouse: It would take many hundreds of shots like this to map the whole layout--usually I'd be at 200 scale feet! [ May 21, 2005, 09:14 PM: Message edited by: Pete Nolan ]
BTW, that's natural weathering on the roof of the 18-stall portion of the roundhouse. It's about 25 years of natural dust and grime. You can see where I had to replace two skylights about 2 years ago. They'll weather fine.
N scale Intermountain SD45T2s arrived yesterday. here is a little detailing and some of my new Bragdon chalk weathering. I used acrylics, too, but no airbrush yet on the weathering. I sure do like these engines. [ May 21, 2005, 10:10 PM: Message edited by: sapacif ]
Pete, As I see it, the 2 new skylights give it more of a true-life feel... as maybe they got busted and had to be replaced.
Now THAT is an aerial shot! This is an interesting concept. In the other thread, I have seen a lot of nice track plans for good operation.
Flash - the wooden thing next to the bridge is my 'snowshed/rock slide shed".. saw the plans in one of the older N-Scale magazines so had to have one.
Just finished my weekend project. This is the highest numbered SSW GP60 on the property. Pretty much stock Athern GP60. I added the airconditioner, plow, and moved the horn to the cab. Antenna plate, too. That Tamiya masking tape works great! Thanks, Jason!
Well, I have all of these photos sitting around from when I had LOTS of time to kill living down in Pittsburgh. I scanned in a couple of them (got a new scanner today, was on sale at OfficeMax. For as much as I scan things, its a cheapo... $5 after rebates). I also dug up a few from a box of pictures I found in the closet that I wanted to share... one you should all recognize, I posted a color version a weekend or two ago. Look familiar? More images will be added here: http://dynomite.ath.cx:8080/gallery/1-1scale
And here is a kit I am still working on. One of these years I should finish. It will some day be an Nn3 locomotive. Still needs side rods and valve gear among other things like paint and decals.
Thanks, Flash. I'm still trying to make an aerial map of the whole layout. But my straight-down views are limited by a 15-inch (or less) separation between decks. This shot was taken from 30 inches high, because I eliminated the second deck on that part of the layout. I do know how to stitch images together. But if I use a very wide angle lens, such as 12 mm, I get some barrel distortion, which is correctable, and a lot of perspective problems, which are not so easily corrected. A tall building at the left end of the frame #1 will lean outward to the left. The same building, at the right end of frame #2, will lean outward to the right. Photomerge makes a complete mess of this. This perspective problem can be corrected with a longer lens. But then the field of view is limited, and I'd end up taking literally thousand of images. That's what the spy satellites (or aircraft) do. And the government has the software and supercomputers to align all these images. I could build a rail system on which to mount the camera. That might take more effort than building the railroad itself. I've found that flash photography is probably the best way to go. The wide angles have considerable depth of field even wide open and, when shooting straight down, this should be adequate in most case. Of course, I have skyscrapers supporting the second deck, in which case it won't be adequate, especially when I consider the perspective problem. In all, I'm still thinking about how to do it.
You know, Pete, you could get these aerial photographs and then stitch the railroad together in linear fashion. Do it in some way that the decks are unfolded and it is more like a real railroad all stretched out. I will have to think about this some more, too. Would this be possible? I have an aerial map of San Antonio. I could make a similar one of my layout?
The problem is really field of view. In many places, at 15 inches (or 200 scale feet) altitude, the field of view might encompass less than a square foot of layout. I've estimated that I have more than 300 square feet of layout. I think the top deck would be a relative piece of cake, as I can get more than three feet above it. But shooting at 200 scale feet high means I have some rather extreme perspective problems. I haven't tried a really extreme "spherize" or "pinch" filter yet. So I'm still thinking on it.
