Sunday Scenic Showcase March 5, 2023

First attempt at painting stone walls.  Used Scenic Express flexi-wall.  Installing the columns today to cover the seams.  Before painting and after pic:

Alan,

She’s quite the ship. Talk about a layout centerpiece! Always enjoy seeing your past work.

Last weekend I started building a coaling trestle using some 1/4 and 1/8 inch balsa. I used some slightly damaged atlas track, grandt line tie plates, and white metal bolts as well.

After I finish models they’re packed up due to limited space. As a party trick, this model folds flat. It assembles via embedded magnets hidden in drilled out portions of the wood piers. Everything snaps together and is surprisingly steady!

Below is the current state of the project. My mistake was not finishing the wood before assembly. Ideally I’d like to blend the trestle with the remaining Atlas ties but am curious to folks thoughts. I’m not sure normal stain will take well to balsa. Perhaps I try some kind of paint/ink wash?

@Alan Graziano posted:

Good Morning Everyone,

I will start with something from the past. Lets see what you have been working on. I had to pit this one up since I heard the song on the radio yesterday.

Alan,

That is a beautiful model. Did you build it from scratch or a kit? Did you work from plans or photographs? And - how many hours did it take?

MELGAR

Alan, what did you use to construct the hull?  I was thinking wood but I seam the seams where steel plates are joined together.

Alex that's an incredible model and collapsible as well.  Great planning and execution.

These are views of a scene at the front corner of my 12'-by-8' layout - a few structures in a small space to look like a downtown area by the tracks.

MELGAR

Mostly finished. Since the roof come off and the building is removable. I'll finish the lighting later.....but, it clearly need lighting.

Roof detail finished. Sunny and low 60s with a nice breeze......some weathering (ivory black oil paint with turpenoid wash) done outside.

Some final dry-brushing inside......

Putting over the track and mounting the floor between the rails.....

Interesting......it didn't come with doors?

Have a great Sunday folks!

Peter

Nice job on the Fitz Alan; Very realistic painting on those walls jstraw, and nice work on that coal trestle Alex. Nice scene Melgar and awesome construction Peter. Thanks for the weekly inspiration!

A couple of my friends who have been helping me with layout construction were over recently to help on my scenery behind where my oil terminal (built by Alan) will be located. You can see the oil terminal moved aside to the left; it will reside in the open space between the backdrop and tracks. The idea is to blend a hillside into the painted backdrop. The hillside will be covered in scenery clumps with some trees and a few rock overhangs visible.
First we cut/sculpted and glued pieces of styrofoam insulation to form the slope of the hillside, then painted brown.

Next I hot-glued some rock outcrops, then added some real dirt at the base of the hill and glued in place  with matte medium  

now I’m making dozens of scenery clumps that I will glue in place over the styrofoam.

I hope to post progress next week.

Anthony K,

It's great to have friends and even better when they are train friends. Looks like things are coming along nicely. What are the dimensions of the layout?

Dave

SINCLAIR LIVES ON...

A big thanks to Alan Graziano for his consultation on oil pipes, tanks and related supporting items!

More oil to follow in April upon module completion.

beautiful work everyone.

The freight side of my layout.  

@jstraw124 posted:

First attempt at painting stone walls.  Used Scenic Express flexi-wall.  Installing the columns today to cover the seams.  Before painting and after pic:

Looks great!  What is your painting technique?

Great work everyone. Thank you filling up the showcase with some cool stuff.

Mel/Coach,

The customer supplied the hull. It was made by a carpenter friend who was working on his layout. It was constructed of one inch thick MDF pieces glued together. I cut the front of the hull to look more like the Fitz. The rest I scratch built starting with gluing a sheet of styrene across the top of the deck. I worked from pictures and sketches I made. I cannot tell you the man hours because I did not keep track of it.

@EmpireBuilderDave posted:

Looks great!  What is your painting technique?

Thanks.  I followed the process from a couple of different videos online.  Painting 1/4 of the stones darker grey, 1/4 burnt umber, 1/4 yellow ochre, 1/4 left alone.  Then followed with a tan dry brush and a light tan wash.  Final step was a cream colored dry brush and a dark green wash along the bottom to simulate mildew.

these are the columns to hide the seam painted the same method. They will be trimmed to correct height with the concrete tops and bottoms removed, leaving only stones on the columns.

I am working on a Stone Mill Models Monarch Machine Works kit. I was hunting for it for years and finally found it last December. It will be near the front of the layout and sport a full interior. I am good enough to be dangerous with my printers now and used my FDM printer to make the interlocking roof beams and supports. Ifyou notice they are slotted and pre-holed to host my LED lighting that will get put in at some point. I used my resin printer to make those rather stylized lathes. I am getting into making more intricate parts for my projects. I also experimented with decal paper to do the painted brick signage. I learned to spray the decals with flat clear before use and also found that white will not print so I had to paint a white stripe to lay the decals over. I also made my own camelback wall coping tiles in resin, something I always wanted on my buildings.

Norm, my one time local hobby shop was in Seekonk, MA. .  The owner of Stone Mills Models frequented the shop as he lived nearby. They always had stock of his kits. The kits were reasonably priced and very well detailed as far as the brick carving.  Even though they were resin. The walls were pretty straight. He seemed to produce a new kit at that time every few months. In about a year they just disappeared.
  Looking forward to seeing the finished kit with the interior.

Norm, looks like a fantastic start!  The 3d printers have opened up the world to superdetailing interiors like never before.
Did you design those machine tools or did you find a model online? 

Dave C, he was in Rehoboth right? He was selling his kits for a while on eBay. I bought his namesake stone mill from him on there, also got his cigar shop. He made a really nice factory wall I would love to find.

EB, I got those Bridgeports and a smaller lathe .stl file from Grabcad. I rescaled the Bridgeports and used some of the parts from the lathe for my own design, which was based on a white metal one I have in my collection. I am also working on a hydraulic press from a photo I took at the Age of Steam roundhouse:

Rehoboth is correct. It’s next to Seekonk where there was a great hobby shop back in the day. I have the factory wall. In fact. 2 of them one on top of the other to create a large flat. I did the cigar store and the oil house. For brickwork now a days it’s mostly laser cut. I still don’t think you can beat resin for brick castings. They have subtle details you can only achieve by hand carving.

Another maker of great detail castings is Crow River. He use to frequent the shop also as he was in the next town over.

More great stuff in the showcase.

Thank you Norm and thank you all.

@luvindemtrains posted:

Anthony K,

It's great to have friends and even better when they are train friends. Looks like things are coming along nicely. What are the dimensions of the layout?

Dave

You're absolutely right Dave.  I have three or four friends that have been helping me - and pushing me forward for the past few years.  BTW the layout is in sort of a "J" shape and is 45' x 26'.  My wife actually wrote an article about it in OGR back in 2017.

@SIRT posted:

SINCLAIR LIVES ON...

A big thanks to Alan Graziano for his consultation on oil pipes, tanks and related supporting items!

More oil to follow in April upon module completion.

Wow Steve, this is just some spectacular modeling!

Thank you.