Hi Ethan, Hope everything is going good for you! ALPS printers printed White, and there are a couple others but you gotta spend a lot of ca$$ now to get one. Robert is right for my experiences, just gotta make sure the back ground color is right for your application. Micro-Mark sells White decal paper, I'm sure others do too.
The ballast I'm using for the diorama is made by Woodland Scenics. I mixed four parts Fine Buff with one part Medium Brown, it seems to make the ballast look weathered somewhat. Will still add more weathering and paint to the ballast and tracks. I finished the stack up of foam and will carve out landscape tonight. If there is time will start adding ground foam too. Joe
February 12, 2019... It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Today, for the first time in about two decades, was The Day to commence with the bench work. The day started off easy enough: Move EVERYTHING on the left wall over to the right side of the building. EVERYTHING. Also, pack up my work station tools. That done, it was set up my new saw horses, throw the first piece of plywood thereon, get out the tools... Where's the box of tools and stuff? One hour later, I give up. It was NOT in my building, it was NOT in the garage, it was NOT in my computer room closet. It didn't exist. I DID find SOME of my tools, but I haven't a clue about what happened to the various tools that have disappeared to over the decades of disuse. SO, it was off to the hardware store, Walmart, along with running some other errands. Almost 2 hours later, I'm back and grab a late lunch. Then it's off to my out building, needed tools in hand. NOW maybe I can make some progress. Amid all the trips back to the house to find something I'd forgot, EVENTUALLY, I had a plum line snapped, and the L brackets for the lower stage in place: Over to the sheet of ply on the saw horses, mark the end dimensions for the lower shelf on the 4' ends of the plywood, and snap another chalk line. Presto: The first piece of ply (16" x 8') for the lower shelf is ready to cut. Time to dawn my ear plugs and rip the first piece of plywood. Of I go... the saw screaming... sawdust flying... I'm really, really building a layout!! Then... the blade starts turning slower... and slower. Sparks began to come out of the saw's vent... slower... the stops... smoke. Unbelievable. My saw just burned up its brushes. A quick look at the watch: IF I take off NOW, I can get to the hardware store before they close. Off I went. Long story short: For some reason they don't stock brushes for 30 year old Skil circular saws. Imagine that. SO, several $$ lighter I'm walking out the door with a brand new Porter Cable circular. I finish ripping the ply with my new saw, then slap the shelf against the wall. It is now tacked in place. At long last, there's now TANGIBLE evidence that I'm truly on my way. May not look like much now... but I was SO GLAD to finally have all the needed items replaced that allowed me to accomplish this little bit before time to go in for supper. What SHOULD have taken MAYBE an hour or so... pretty much consumed the entire afternoon. After supper I went back out to my room, and decided to place a TOC19 train on the bare plywood to get an idea of size relation. Whoa... Even though this is only PART of the stage... what stage is there swallows up the little TOC19 train. To give you an idea of how much more stage is going in, here's this view... There will be SEVEN stage tracks almost the entire length of that wall! You see, since I decided to go diesels, the elements had to be totally redesigned, and increased, to accommodate the longer trains diesel modeling requires. Almost all of the 7 stage tracks will accommodate a 10' train or longer. I think there will be enough staging for my TOC19 era! Alas, though, until I make much more progress on bench work, I'm done being able to use my work station. AND, the right side of the room shows the strain of having to also accommodate the additional stuff that was on the left wall: SO, it was a precarious start, but the essential tools/items are on hand now, so I should do better, time wise. However, I need to remind myself that this isn't a race. I need to calm down and try to enjoy the journey on this, possibly my last, layout. All fer now! Andre
Hi Steve! Me too! LOT'S of chin scratchin' today. Also, a LOT of piddly diddly stuff that takes time, but you don't really see substantial visible progress. However, by the end of the session I had the remaining portion of the lower stage, as well as the reverse loop area, tacked in place. I will make it final Friday. I also need to radius the reverse loop edge, too, but that will wait until the bench work for the lower town is in place so the two can be cut at one time. Here's a pic of today's accomplishments: See that little yellow speck over against the wall toward the loop area? That's a Mantua Rogers 10 wheeler (handiest at the moment). It's sitting approximately at the clearance point of the "main" in the stage area. If desired, there could be train behind it all the way past the left edge of the picture! Need to wrap this up, church beckons. Going motorcycle riding tomorrow, so doubt there will be any progress to speak of on the layout. All fer now! Andre
General Foods service car (I hope), with Kadee ASF-3 trucks I purchased from Ken W. Still have to adjust coupler heights, but... declaring victory this week.
Last night I finished carving foam on the diorama. Next step is to make rock castings from rubber molds and paint the ground and rocks. Another project would be to weather the tracks and ballast. Joe
Andre and Joe, work is really looking good. Over the past week, the weather has been poor, keeping me from dragging out the saws to work on the remaining module for the Crawford and Cherokee (and more legs). I did get in some more casters (only about a million blue wheels now). Decided instead to work on weathering some cars. I have acquired about 10 36ft Accurail boxcars from their recent releases. Over the past few days, I was able to start renumbering a few where I have duplicates, and used the airbrush for the initial fade/grime coats. Tonight, started the follow-up with some pan pastels and have three in reasonably presentable shape. 36ft-Accurail-weathered-1 by rjthomas909 posted Feb 13, 2019 at 10:27 PM These need a bit more follow-up, but I hope to get the collection to at least this level before going for more detail. For example, if you look closely, you can see the decal edge from renumbering the MoPac car. The decals seem to often be too delicate and need a clear coat before taking from the sheet. Also, the pan pastel fades a bit once you spray over a dullcoat to seal the car. Also, while stuck inside over the weekend, worked on the only built-up section that did not have the track painted. This module was pretty much a flat, brown-painted foam, so started working on some terra-forming: Cherokee-Diamond-ground-work by rjthomas909 posted Feb 13, 2019 at 10:32 PM and added some sculptamold as a shell--which takes forever to dry on a cold, drizzly day: Cherokee-Diamond-track-painted by rjthomas909 posted Feb 13, 2019 at 10:32 PM Track is painted, but not yet weathered for non-uniform tie colors, etc. Also added cork for the area where the station will sit. Hopefully, will get to some ground cover and grass for this module over the weekend, and if the weather permits, module construction. More to come..... Happy Valentines Day, -Bob T.
Didn't spend any time working on the layout today. Instead, spent time out in the Ouachita mountains on my dual sport motorcycle. Once back home, I spent a bit of time out in my building cogitating my next moves: How I want to frame it. While there, decided to slap down some switches to see how the compound ladder is going to match my 1.5"/1' scale drawing: Nailed it! All fer now! Andre
This project didn't turn out like I wanted and is not finished. This kit is a Builders in Scale. Does anyone know of a good lighthouse kit ? Thanks
Bill, coincidentally I was thumbing through a 25-year old copy of MR this morning when I came across a product review for Precision Lasercraft's "Sparrow Point Lighthouse." The only ones I could find by searching online were via ebay.
Thanks I will look at these suggestions, the kit I made was a real buger !!! Not spelled right but who cares.
Finally got supplies in and just enough time this weekend to try my (unsteady) hand at decaling. Not great but not terrible, had a lot of trouble getting the 5 and 0 to cooperate. To me the numbers look a little small. I took a picture comparing to a factory tender from bachmann.
Well, this is the best that I can do for now: Decapod-at-Cherokee-36ft-Accurail-Boxcars by rjthomas909 posted Feb 18, 2019 at 6:42 PM Decapod At Cherokee With Boxcars by rjthomas909 posted Feb 18, 2019 at 6:45 PM