What did you do on your layout today?

WOW !!!    them clouds are awesome !!   very cool !

briansilvermustang posted:

WOW !!!    them clouds are awesome !!   very cool !

Thank you, clouds are buffalo snow with $.99 cent cans of grey and flat black spray painted on. Did the grey first, then followed by the black. Hot glue gun to the wall to cover the LED lightning strips from the Broadway Limited kit. 

Pete,

Now I see how this is intended to work!  Very good, and I agree the clouds look great!  Excellent effects!!

snmerr posted:

Not much detail, but getting the plywood covered.  New field, gravel lot, and hill.

The town is looking great!!  What do you have planned for the field and hill?

Just finished. 

DL&W Pete posted:

Storm clouds painted and in place, lightning strips in place.

Very cool effect. I'm guessing that the barking dog heard in the background doesn't like thunder.

Alan Rogers posted:

Just finished. 

Lookin Good Alan! Question is that from molds or did you carve it?

Small things done today. Worked on another wood chip hopper kit, glued down the turf I put down before, hung another LED shop light and got the opening for the washer dryer branch cut. Pics...........Paul

Managed to get the timber retaining walls in, the mine track roadbed weathered and the scenery up there pretty far along, as well as started the main road into the mining complex....   Getting closer,  plan to install lighting tonight and build one more staircase and railing (the last one, of each  !).  

Looks like a lot of work there Paul, but your coming right along! Question what are you going to do above the washer? Does the door open up or out the front?

mike g. posted:

Alan Rogers posted:

Just finished. 

Lookin Good Alan! Question is that from molds or did you carve it?

Hello Mike!

Here are some pictures of the process. I used rock molds over a foam base. 

Looks very nice Alan, I hope you don't mind me asking where you got the rock molds from!

chris a posted:

Managed to get the timber retaining walls in, the mine track roadbed weathered and the scenery up there pretty far along, as well as started the main road into the mining complex....   Getting closer,  plan to install lighting tonight and build one more staircase and railing (the last one, of each  !).  

WOW Chris your a man on a mission! Great  looking work there!

mike g. posted:

Looks very nice Alan, I hope you don't mind me asking where you got the rock molds from!

Happy to, Mike

i got mine from EBay. They are made by Woodland Scenics. You might have a local hobby shop that carries them. I used lightweight Hydrocal for the medium and airbrushed acrylic paint. 

Mike G.  Thanks.  Yes I was starting to feel like I was getting lost in the corn field scratch building mine track trestles, timber walls and mining entrances... But I have never taken on this much building from scratch and this module slides in a narrow space behind the layout up against the back drop, so once it is in, its not going to be easy to get to... plus I figured this was a perfect place to try some new skills.  

If it didn't turn out just right,  it's five feet back from the front edge and about 45 inches from the floor, so any learning curve errors wouldn't be too noticeable...  Anyway it's been a lesson in perseverance  but well worth it. Can't stop now, I have come too far.    The good news is that now I realize there's alot neat detail work I can accomplish and not have to worry about the final build quality.  

MIKE g, that is the dryer and it is a front load. The table going next to the dryer will be 7' X 20". I will be coming across at an angle to connect with the other table and it will be a lift out section..........Paul

RSJB18 posted:

DL&W Pete posted:

Storm clouds painted and in place, lightning strips in place.

Very cool effect. I'm guessing that the barking dog heard in the background doesn't like thunder.

The barking dog is part of the sounds from the kit.

From this...

To the track laid out on the layout.

Now to trace the out line of the track to lay down the woodland scenic track bed.

chris a posted:

Managed to get the timber retaining walls in, the mine track roadbed weathered and the scenery up there pretty far along, as well as started the main road into the mining complex....   Getting closer,  plan to install lighting tonight and build one more staircase and railing (the last one, of each  !).  

Very nice! Mine is not as detailed as yours and is still a work in progress.

DL&W Pete posted:

Storm clouds painted and in place, lightning strips in place.

Ha! That works too! lol. Sometimes you just gotta like being jealous

  Chris, who makes that On30 ore car. I ended up making a few crude ones but i'm always looking at new options.    I assume it isn't always statically open, closing when going flat too...? 

Last night I caught one one of my favorite Twilightzones "It's a good life". And that led to remembering another. Then I couldn't bring myself to finish putting fresh engines and cars on the track for "The Fourth".

  Instead, I rerailed for turn of the century again, and I will enjoy the tranquility of a few more "Stops at Willoughby", while thinking of those tiny town squares I miss so much being in the city. The quiet, too often forgotten about, "perfect" slices of American pie.

Enjoy yours.

I found the On30 dump car from Bachmann, item # 29801  I think....  I found this set new on eBay for $45.00 plus shipping....  That's for a 3 car set.... They are really nice, die cast, tons of detail, chains etc....   A steal for 3 of them.....  i think the orig list was around $95 or $100 for the 3 car set.... I couldn't justify trying to scratch build them at this price...

Gandydancer,  thanks,  I like the coal mine set up you put together, similar idea with the tipple in the back... the storage/silos to the right look good....  I wanted to have either a coal dust reclaimer, or a loader for waste ore & slate, but ran out of real estate.... Chose to have the power house on the left end, and I wanted the main store front, and two "company houses"....   it's all about making choices and selective compression... 

chris a posted:

Working on completing my coal mine scene...  The kit bashing of the coal tipple with the Lionel Coal mine kit plus more hours than I care to admit to build the scratchbuilt trestle so that the On30 coal dump cars can reach the new hopper got completed last night....  Now back to the rest of the module....   Took some photos out on the deck this AM as the sun was shining.  Happy July 4th.  

 

 

 

That is some tastic work, It looks like a Lionel coal station.....

Chris, you sure do good work! I cant wait to see whats next!

Paul, I just thought the washer was next to the dryer! LOL Silly me. I am looking forward to see the benches in the laundry room!

Alan Rogers posted:

mike g. posted:

Looks very nice Alan, I hope you don't mind me asking where you got the rock molds from!

Happy to, Mike

 

i got mine from EBay. They are made by Woodland Scenics. You might have a local hobby shop that carries them. I used lightweight Hydrocal for the medium and airbrushed acrylic paint. 

Alan, thank you for the information, I will have to check the next time I go to the big city! LOL

chris a posted:

Gandydancer,  thanks,  I like the coal mine set up you put together, similar idea with the tipple in the back... the storage/silos to the right look good....  I wanted to have either a coal dust reclaimer, or a loader for waste ore & slate, but ran out of real estate.... Chose to have the power house on the left end, and I wanted the main store front, and two "company houses"....   it's all about making choices and selective compression... 

Thanks Chris, I know very little about the coal industry so I just went for a convincing perception.....

Thank Chris. That is just the first time I saw one dumped. I didnt realise they tipped and opened.  With my style, I can easily live with crude and smile; but function gives me a bigger, toothy, grin, and they ARE usually priced nice.   (your doing  right, what I had to cram into 2ft. lol)

mike g. posted:

Alan Rogers posted:

mike g. posted:

Looks very nice Alan, I hope you don't mind me asking where you got the rock molds from!

Happy to, Mike

 

i got mine from EBay. They are made by Woodland Scenics. You might have a local hobby shop that carries them. I used lightweight Hydrocal for the medium and airbrushed acrylic paint. 

Alan, thank you for the information, I will have to check the next time I go to the big city! LOL

Hey again Mike. This is Purgatory Springs at night....

Thanks Chris. I still managed to sneak in a few company houses and a rural gas station. I call this place Coalwood, taken from the movie October Sky.

gandydancer1950 posted:

Thanks Chris. I still managed to sneak in a few company houses and a rural gas station. I call this place Coalwood, taken from the movie October Sky.

I like Coalwood, though I don't know the movie.

"Coalwood" is fabulous, Gandydancer. Very real and pleasant. Beautiful, actually.

FrankM

Alan Rogers posted:

mike g. posted:

Alan Rogers posted:

mike g. posted:

Looks very nice Alan, I hope you don't mind me asking where you got the rock molds from!

Happy to, Mike

 

i got mine from EBay. They are made by Woodland Scenics. You might have a local hobby shop that carries them. I used lightweight Hydrocal for the medium and airbrushed acrylic paint. 

Alan, thank you for the information, I will have to check the next time I go to the big city! LOL

Hey again Mike. This is Purgatory Springs at night....

Nice Alan!

Mark Boyce posted:

snmerr posted:

Not much detail, but getting the plywood covered.  New field, gravel lot, and hill.

The town is looking great!!  What do you have planned for the field and hill?

Thanks Mark!  Hill will just be tree, bushes...not sure about the field yet.  Thinking cow pasture maybe.

Mark Boyce posted:

gandydancer1950 posted:

Thanks Chris. I still managed to sneak in a few company houses and a rural gas station. I call this place Coalwood, taken from the movie October Sky.

I like Coalwood, though I don't know the movie.

It's a good movie Mark. A true story of a boy in the 1950's that lives in a coal town,"Coalwood", where the only future for most boys is working in the mines. Much to his father's displeasure this boy wants a better future and studies rocketry. He wins a national contest, goes on to college and ends up working for NASA. You may like it......October Sky.

Mike G.... You asked about rock molds.... I would also take a look at Sterling Models Rock Molds...   I used about 4 molds from Woodland Scenics that I had for a number of years,  and 2 molds from Sterling Models (Rock Mold #1 & #2) to build the mountain pictured below....  The sterling molds are the deep cut rocks lower left hand corner of the photo below. 

The sterling molds are more expensive, but with the 2 different ones noted above, they have really deep depressions and can be broken into several pieces and moved around so you won't notice the repeating pattern..  The quality and  flexibility of the Sterling Molds is clearly superior in my opinion..   The Sterling rock mold link is attached........  http://sterlingmodels.com/rock-molds/

Chris A

Been doing several things this week end besides a lot of running them. Finished ballasting track on the bridge ans lettering bridge sides. Clean track all over for better operation. Did some wiring under the layout trying to search for a small problem that keeps popping up. Planted some grass and weeds around the layout. Planning on more scenery work tomorrow. picked up new control panel this week end.

DL&W Pete posted:

RSJB18 posted:

DL&W Pete posted:

Storm clouds painted and in place, lightning strips in place.

Very cool effect. I'm guessing that the barking dog heard in the background doesn't like thunder.

The barking dog is part of the sounds from the kit.

LOL- well it fooled me

Well done!

snmerr posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

snmerr posted:

Not much detail, but getting the plywood covered.  New field, gravel lot, and hill.

The town is looking great!!  What do you have planned for the field and hill?

Thanks Mark!  Hill will just be tree, bushes...not sure about the field yet.  Thinking cow pasture maybe.

That's nice!  Some open countryside!

gandydancer1950 posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

gandydancer1950 posted:

Thanks Chris. I still managed to sneak in a few company houses and a rural gas station. I call this place Coalwood, taken from the movie October Sky.

I like Coalwood, though I don't know the movie.

It's a good movie Mark. A true story of a boy in the 1950's that lives in a coal town,"Coalwood", where the only future for most boys is working in the mines. Much to his father's displeasure this boy wants a better future and studies rocketry. He wins a national contest, goes on to college and ends up working for NASA. You may like it......October Sky.

Sounds like my uncle, now in his mid 80s.  He ended up with Boeing aerospace engineering, worked at Cape Canaveral for a while.  Rubbed shoulders with Werner von Braun.  Thank you for the tip.