Mark,
You're doing great! Trust me, I know what you're feeling. But it's a marathon, not a sprint. 
George
Thank you, Peter, George!
Here is a photograph of the surviving stained glass window with the backlight on at night. All these years, I didn't realize the case was even lit. I think the colors are more uniform than the daytime photograph. I will size it up and see if it looks any better in the building.
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That window looks beautiful Mark! Can’t wait to see them all in place!
Mike
Thank you, Mike!
Here are two in place. The left window is the one taken with daylight and interior lighting. The one on the right is the one taken at night with the interior lighting off and only the backlight on. See which you think looks better anyone. 
I should state that the glass window itself has a spade shaped top with the point pointing towards the ceiling. I was thinking of blocking light from shining through the two concave sections of white which is actually part of the wooden frame painted white.
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Mark color seems better with the right side window. I would black out all the edges to show only the glass curve. Nice job. Jeff
Hi Mark, I am with Jeff on this one, the right one with its color and lighting seems to give more to detail!
The right one looks far more natural, go for it.
All RIGHT Now! 
@Mark Boyce posted:Thank you, Mike!
Here are two in place. The left window is the one taken with daylight and interior lighting. The one on the right is the one taken at night with the interior lighting off and only the backlight on. See which you think looks better anyone.
I should state that the glass window itself has a spade shaped top with the point pointing towards the ceiling. I was thinking of blocking light from shining through the two concave sections of white which is actually part of the wooden frame painted white.
Mark, I like the right one, and I would block the light on the white portion as well. The curved top portion will look great when lit at night.
Mike
I like the one on the Right also.
The right one also Mark, the colors seem clearer and more pronounced.
Gene
All RIGHT everyone! Thank you for helping me get it RIGHT! 😃
I agree, I like the one on the right also!
Thank you, Jeff, Mike, Dave, Bob, Mike, Dave, Gene for your participation! 😊
It has been a few days, and I have cut out all the walls for the church. Some won't have any windows like the back wall and the back of the tower, so I glued the brick siding to the lauan. I got carried away and glued some of the siding on walls that will have windows anyway. Oops! Well, it is easy to slide a knife blade in to separate them to install the windows after painting. Here are two photographs showing what I have now. None of this really took very long, but I did all of it in 15 to 30 minute sessions.
Someone on a Facebook group was writing that his current train room was small at 13' x 20'. I took these photographs to show him mine in 11' x 11'. I told him I do get claustrophobic in this room from time to time.
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Things are looking good and the Boyce train room! I think you're doing a wonderful job on the church and even more that you can hold yourself together in such a small train room! LOL Just kidding Mark I think everything looks great!
Mark, I have driven passed here numerous times and the light bulb finally came on. This church is on route 322 in Campbelltown, PA; about 15” east of Hershey. I thought it looked very similar to yours.
Jay
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Thank you, Mike and Jay!
Jay, that church does resemble mine. I wonder if the white section between the top and bottom sections of stained glass is there because there is a balcony there. I don't have a good idea of how the right side windows looked with the balcony inside on my prototype. I haven't found anyone with a good memory, though I thought of one fellow who I haven't talked to yet. If I don't find out, I'll just ad lib.
Mike, the small room came up several times yesterday. I went over to Altoona, a 2-hour drive away, for a train show. This was a strictly N-scale show. Yes, I know; I'll explain. The Altoona Train club has both an HO scale and an N scale layout, and offers open houses. I have thought of going to the open house, but never have. Last week I saw on Facebook that a former co-worker was listed as interested in a special N-scale event; modular layouts, vendors, layout tour. I knew he was an N-scale collector when I worked with him, so I wasn't surprised. I messaged him about the event and he encouraged me to go. He introduced me to a friend, who has the premier N-scale hobby shop in Pittsburgh, as a former N-scale guy who is cramming an O-gauge layout in an N-scale sized room! Spot on!! The hobby shop friend said I had gone over to the dark side! It was a great event for anyone who likes trains. There were some masterfully done N-scale layouts and modules.
I finished the mortar on all my wall sections using the spackle method. It was really easy since there were no molded window frames. Sorry I forgot to take any photographs. I was also looking for suitable doors online from Grandt Line and others. I didn’t find any that were a close match, so I may make my own.
I posted on the "What did you do on your layout today" thread that I cleaned up the open space in the layout room and put a lot of things in a chest of drawers a neighbor was giving away. The chest fits right beside the workbench. I don't feel claustrophobic in the train room anymore. Now I can get back to the scratchbuilt church and planning the town.
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The clock is ticking on how long it stays that way Mark.
@Mark Boyce posted:I posted on the "What did you do on your layout today" thread that I cleaned up the open space in the layout room and put a lot of things in a chest of drawers a neighbor was giving away. The chest fits right beside the workbench. I don't feel claustrophobic in the train room anymore. Now I can get back to the scratchbuilt church and planning the town.
Can never have too much storage space Mark. I like the loop of N scale too. Will prevent the top from collecting junk.
Bob
@Mark Boyce, hi Mark, it’s been awhile since I’ve visited your thread and Wow, you have accomplished a lot. The new cabinet is a God send and is a handy way to store your miscellaneous things. Your area looks really nice. Going back to the church, it’s great. Keeping our train rooms in some sense of order is tough, but your are looks so tidy clean… I’ll go back and review what you’ve done in a few minutes. Thanks for being such a great Ambassador of our hobby. Your friend in Tennessee.
@Mark Boyce posted:I posted on the "What did you do on your layout today" thread that I cleaned up the open space in the layout room and put a lot of things in a chest of drawers a neighbor was giving away. The chest fits right beside the workbench. I don't feel claustrophobic in the train room anymore. Now I can get back to the scratchbuilt church and planning the town.
You clearly organized and cleaned the area nicely Mark. The drawer chest came in handy, looks great.
Gene
Hi Mark, I agree with everyone else. Things look great, but aren't you a little worried you might forget where you put things? Atleast on the work bench your going to find it soon then later! LOL 😆
Next step is to build fascia boards and a curtain to hide it all. I've done the fascia boards, but not the curtains. I have plans for it, but have not pulled the trigger. May never pull the trigger. Depends on whether I get enough visitors to make it worth the effort.
Thank you, Jay, Bob, Larry, Gene, Mike, Myles!!
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:The clock is ticking on how long it stays that way Mark.
Jay, Isn't that the truth!
@RSJB18 posted:Can never have too much storage space Mark. I like the loop of N scale too. Will prevent the top from collecting junk.
Bob
Yes, and now there is less chance of collecting junk. I pulled out these N-scale buildings and diorama from over 30 years ago.
Larry, I'm glad you got a chance to check in! You have been busy reorganizing yourself. I went to Hobby Lobby to buy the Kato N scale track. They expanded into the next store front in that plaza. The store is twice as big as when you visited with me. The locomotive wall had to be moved to the far right of the new space. Keep trains rolling in Tennessee!
Gene, there is more to organize, but it is on the way.
Mike, actually I was able to find a few things I had forgotten about!
@Trainman2001 posted:Next step is to build fascia boards and a curtain to hide it all. I've done the fascia boards, but not the curtains. I have plans for it, but have not pulled the trigger. May never pull the trigger. Depends on whether I get enough visitors to make it worth the effort.
Myles, yes I have thought about the fascia and curtains. If nothing else it would make things look better in photographs.
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I finally got all the window openings cut and the first window assembled. Here it is on the section that will be the left side of the tower above the main door that is in the one story extension. I made the window out of a sandwich of printed paper, clear Evergreen stock, and .005” Evergreen styrene. I made the window openings a little wide.
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@Mark Boyce posted:I finally got all the window openings cut and the first window assembled. Here it is on the section that will be the left side of the tower above the main door that is in the one story extension. I made the window out of a sandwich of printed paper, clear Evergreen stock, and .005” Evergreen styrene. I made the window openings a little wide.
Looks great Mark, the design fits perfectly to the original. Your time and effort will be well worth it.
Gene
@Mark Boyce posted:Thank you, Peter, George!
Here is a photograph of the surviving stained glass window with the backlight on at night. All these years, I didn't realize the case was even lit. I think the colors are more uniform than the daytime photograph. I will size it up and see if it looks any better in the building.
That looks great Mark. I've got some for my MTH church but have yet to install them. Probably sometime next year to many projects right now,
Looks real nice, Mark.
Thank, Gene, Dave R, Dave D!
I tried several things, and this is what I came up with. I tried printing on velum but it jammed my ink jet printer. I didn’t want to pay for a professional, so I printed on regular printer paper. I think the effect works for me.
As for the white mask representing the window frame, I made a template out of thicker styrene. The curves at the top are tough even using the template. Now I have 16 more to do; and 3 on each side are extra tall.
I still haven’t worked on the two doors.
Dave R, the MTH church is a nice model.
Mark the windows lok great! I am sure the rest of them along with the doors 🚪 are going to be just fine! You always do a great job on details!
Mike, thank you! I got two more windows done last evening. Those were a little easier than the first one; as usually happens. 😃
On another note, I was test running an MTH Premier H9 Consolidation PS2 5-volt board that I had replaced blown bulbs a couple weeks ago. The cab and firebox lights went out along with the marker lights which hadn’t needed replacing. Opening the boiler, I saw none of the bulbs were blown. I checked connections and for pinched wires. Putting it back together, I saw the marker lights flicker when running smoke, which I normally keep off. I’m suspecting the board could be going bad. If so, it would be my first. I’ll run it, and if it quits, I’ll put it on the shelf. I’m not in a position to upgrade.
I finished more church windows. They are going faster now. I have enough of the white sections cut for the other 5 small windows. There are 6 large windows and 2 doors to do. You can really see the texture of the Plastruct brick material @chris a suggested. I like it.
The texture is there, but doesn't show up for the camera laying flat on the workbench.
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Beautiful work, Mark. You’re an inspiration in both your modeling and your perseverance.
Yet again, nothing but top-notch work from the workbench of @Mark Boyce! Looking forward to the final product!
Another masterpiece Mark!
Looks great Mark. The "expressed brick" (architectural term), on the walls looks great.
Can't wait to see all of the windows lit up.
Bob
Mark everyone is correct, you are doing an AMAZING job on the church! You should be proud of yourself for such wonderful work!
Thank you, Rubin, Tom, Bob G, Bob S, Mike!
I think perseverance can make for better modeling. As I worked on some more windows last evening, I was thinking the white inserts that simulate the frame would have made for a nice 3D printer job. They would all be uniform. However, they are close enough. I think the stained glass will take center stage, and I won’t even remember the flaws. That said, I am pleased with how it is working out so far.
”Expressed Bricks”. Thank you, Bob for that term. I never heard it before. See what I great education this hobby provides! 😃
@Mark Boyce posted:Thank you, Rubin, Tom, Bob G, Bob S, Mike!
I think perseverance can make for better modeling. As I worked on some more windows last evening, I was thinking the white inserts that simulate the frame would have made for a nice 3D printer job. They would all be uniform. However, they are close enough. I think the stained glass will take center stage, and I won’t even remember the flaws. That said, I am pleased with how it is working out so far.
”Expressed Bricks”. Thank you, Bob for that term. I never heard it before. See what I great education this hobby provides! 😃
Mark. Message sent
