Sunday Scenic Showcase February 22,2025

My GR&I water tower that stands in Ravenna MI on the Musketawa Trail is mostly complete. I still need to make a ladder and a water gauge for it at some point. I only really built it to see if I could make the concrete arched legs with my printer. The base is mostly correct I think but I never did get out to measure it until a few months ago. The tank, roof, and spout hardware are pretty well freestyled as the current tank is decorative.

Made progress on my girder bridge diorama. I painted the girders with a silver acrylic and weathered with a dark gray powder. Since this won't get handled too much, I'm not going to clear-coat it. I've done powders before and the spray eats them up.
The signal and 153IR are ready to go. I'll get them wired up today.

This will be the front- sorry Lionel but no free advertising on this railroad.

Once the wiring is done I can start ballast and ground cover.

Bob

Triple header drifting through Toano early morning this with clean stacks:

Inspired by Pete's progress shared on this thread, I've started on my own Korber build with paint and blocking in where it will fit into the Boston skyline.  Also have been adding more details like street lights and fire hydrants.

Also the above photo shows my process a bit of first mocking up buildings in cardboard to make sure they achieve the visual I am looking for and also allow enough clearance for the trains to run through the city.  I'll eventually make custom builds of the buildings in cardboard...

Knickerbocker Transfer:

Installation of the diesel service pad onto the layout was accomplished over the week. It is mated to its twin which contains the locomotive storage tracks and yard ladder.

Progress can now finely be seen on the service building itself. The exterior and interior of all the walls are painted. The exterior wall that is partially painted an interior color is where the side shop is located.

Grouting of the mortar lines was done using spackling compound tinted with acrylic paint. The key here is to first spray the surface with a high gloss finish. This allows the compound to wipe off cleanly leaving no film behind. Spray with Dullcote when finished. The results are outstanding when used on Altoona's epoxy castings.

Testing the fit before epoxying everything together.

Great work everyone.

See you next week.

Great work everyone so far!

Last off last week here:

Moving right along:

Where I ended this week:

Hope to finish this week ansd then I'll stop while the basement is finished off (rug and furniture arrive).....

Peter

@Alan Graziano, looks just like the real thing.  No surprise there.

@Norm Charbonneau,  with 3D printing there is no limit for you now.

@Thirdrail600v, excellent! The only thing is the inside walls look too clean.  The shop must've just gotten it's 25 year          re-paint.

To coach joe:

Your absolutely right. My story is that back in the day these types of facilities were pretty grungy looking. But that dosen't seem to be the case now days. Just look at the shop area at any new car dealer and it dosen't look anything like they looked years ago.

And now for the real reason:

I haven't quite mastered the weathering technique yet. For me it's very uncontrollable and my results are either a hit or miss. I didn't need a miss on this size of a build.

Great work everybody. Lots of nice things to look at from all of you.