Well here is the 99% done yard spotter. A few little touch-ups. I still have to add the Freightliner emblem on the front. I have one but it needs to be modified. Anyway, enough talk how about some pictures, right?
Wow! I can't imagine there being a better truck at that contest. Knocked her outta' the park, there Steve!! Andre
Thanks Andre. I’m glad you enjoyed this project and the end product. Time to search for another project now. Well, or finish one of the other 100 here. Ha thanks again, Steve
Someone just looking at the pictures would be pretty hard pressed to identify that as a model, or the rest of the fleet that is pictured.
Of all the excellent models I have seen, Steve's truck models are the ones that best look totally like the real thing. Very hard to tell they are models. Outstanding work! Frisco.org certainly can boast about our excellent modelers! The little detail work really adds to the realism. K ps: Steve - How long does it take you to create one of these models, start to finish?
Happy Wednesday All, Managed some progress on the Crawford and Cherokee this past week. I was able to get the track down for the new brickyard section in south Weir City. It has a pair of spur tracks that will hold about 6 cars. The goal for this section is to improve operations, having another reason to run a train on the branch line, and a longer switch lead for the town of Weir. I received some switch machines and feeder wire in the mail this week, so I should have power to test this section by the end of the weekend. Here is the end view: Weir-Brickyard-track_down-1-sm by rjthomas909 posted Feb 19, 2020 at 8:01 PM I again used the GapMasters PC board ties at the interface. These turned out pretty well, I think: Weir-Brickyard-track_down-2-sm by rjthomas909 posted Feb 19, 2020 at 8:03 PM Once tested, I will get the track painted and a little landforming done. I will bring the ground up around the spur tracks, such that it is more even with the rail. The new Lightning Creek Mine sections needed additional turnouts, so I have put together three FastTracks turnouts to finish up needed track: FastTracks-RH-Turnouts-1sm by rjthomas909 posted Feb 19, 2020 at 8:03 PM Still need to gap the frogs on these and get the ties glued down. Not too bad. My re-watching of the tutorials on YouTube for these helped me with a few fine points. The track layout is represented by the roadbed on the sections, and here you see me test fitting the turnouts. I had to break down and use a Peco curved turnout in order to make the curve in from the South Cherokee section work out and allow enough room to run around without fouling the main line: New-Lightning-Creek-Mine-1sm by rjthomas909 posted Feb 19, 2020 at 8:05 PM Will start laying the track as soon as I get the plywood trackbed in at the interfaces and the new turnouts are prepped. I hope all in Frisco Land are having a good week. Will probably miss next week, due to a trip up Steve's way for work. Take Care All, -Bob T.
Looks great Bob. You seem to make steady progress on this. Hit me up if you are free on evening. I owe you at least a meal!!
Thanks Keith! As you'd guess that is always my goal for a model, but its not easy to pull off for sure.Just as much as you want that perfect sound coming out! Glad you enjoyed this thing. Hopefully you all liked watching it come together the last few months. Thanks Ken, I agree this is not the biggest group of guys but the knowledge and level of modelers here is sure tough to beat!! I'm not sure on exact hours on this one, I really did not keep much track but Id guess 300 or so. I started in September on this. But I work on other paint projects at the same time. The white MKT Cline truck was over 800 and took about 11 months with almost no other projects just the truck. You may have seen a blue log truck I built a while back, it was 12 months and I never touched another model in between. I was working to get it done for a show and as it got closer I would take vacation days from work so I could model 24 hours at a time. Not doing that anymore. HA I also built a 1/16th scale dumptruck that was about 2 years of virtually every night. Thats just too much. Its tough to not get burnt out when it seems like progress is slow. Like I have said here before though. I am lucky that with my wifes schedule I have most evenings to myself once the kids are in bed, so I have the free time to model without ignoring my other half. I try to finish one major project a year. Thanks Sherrel, it is 1/25th scale. I'll post a pic with objects so you can get an idea of the size if you want. Thanks guys, I have a few ideas for next big project but have not really settled on on one. Back to Mike Condrens site to hunt for ideas right?
Thanks, Steve. I have a Bachman "G" set that I place around the Christmas tree, so that gives me a fair comparison as to the size. (But I cannot remember if the Bachman is 1/22 or (what) 1/29th ?) I can certainly see that you have to be more precise in your detail work for the details to be realistic. Putting in those kind of hours has me wondering how you have maintained your sanity? I remember back in the early 70's I was "roped" into building doll houses and built a dozen during the last three months of one year; 1/2 of them were scratch and the others were bought kits. All of them had the finest details of parkay flooring, wallpaper, baseboards, crown moulding and scratch built double hung working windows along with electrical tape under the wallpaper for plugins I still have a shoebox full of windows, I used to carry the makings with me and assemble them in the hotel room on layovers. Sorry to get off track, but I about swore off modeling after all that! YES, put a photo next to an HO boxcar or something? Love to see it!
Will do Sherrel. Funny, I think that is actually how I keep my sanity. Its my little escape from the real life work and general life pressure. I've never tried a dollhouse. But I can see it getting out of hand quick!
After fighting with a Tsunami 2 for the 4162, I finally got the damned thing programmed and working right. After a couple of Maker's Marks to settle down, I'll install it in the engine tomorrow. I know the fellow I'm building this for will be glad.