Your Layout Vignettes

Rip,

I too have never been in an arid place, but I like your scenes.  From what I see, your philosophy is "Less is more"  I think what you are doing is great!  Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Mark. That viewpoint is going to stay with me - it says a lot. Approval (and disapproval) counts with me. (Cheerleaders only boost; they don't help a player's skills grow, IMHO) The opinions expressed on this forum, concerning my modeling and that of others, helps me decide if I am on the right track. In fact, I have always encouraged my wife's participation in that regard concerning the layout and have felt all the better for it, all along. There have been times I have completely eliminated a modeling project due to her lukewarm or tepid reaction to it.

Thanks, again for your comments to my postings.

FrankM

Frank,

You are very welcome!  I too like feedback from others, positive and negative.  I think one learns best when someone give honest, caring constructive criticism.  I think this forum is great for that.  From what I have seen from your postings, I can't find any fault.  Yours are an inspiration, just like the back yard scene.  So simple, takes little space, but tells an interesting story.

A little road side stand....

Peachy's Produce!  I like it.  Lots of good looking fruits and vegetables! How did you get the weathered look of the board and batten siding on the structure?

Ok, Peachy is actually the name of an Amish family that was a neighbor in PA that had a roadside stand.  Structure is entirely board by board construction and the hinged doors are functional.

That paint techique is a bit complicated.  The wood is 1st sealed with MinWax.  Aftera few days, it gets a coat of one of the Floquil Gloss colors - yes, there were ~6-8 gloss colors that were made by Floquil.  Before that gloss paint isf 100% dry, i.e. really good & tacky, a coat of Polly Scale (not sure which grey....) was applied. 

Go have lunch or a nice hot cup of tea; other activities are permitted and encouraged. 

Come back and it's all nicely crackled and aged.  Depending on the gloss color under which Polly Scale color is on top, different color effects and degrees of crackling are possible.

mwb,

That is certainly a new technique to me.  The results are very effective!  Thanks!

It's something that I've published a few times in OST.  I understand that keaving out that MinWax step leads to failure.

Even did a On3 car with it once......

One more:

- walt

MR. MOONSON,

I appreciate your generous praise of my Vignette and my layout in general!

Thank You!

I do not impugn or disparage any of the members' Vignettes...if I did, then I would include mine as well!

But what really bugs me is seeing roller-coaster riders extending their arms during the scariest part of the ride...is this supposed to prove that they're brave?

It just looks stupid as well.

RIP TRACK

Well, now, there you and I are going to agree yet disagree. You see, when I was a youth growing up in the Pittsburgh area, we did exactly that when we rode the "Racer" and "The Jack Rabbit," even the "Pippin", in Kennywood Park. Some guys used to even try to stand-up when they reached the first hill on The Jack Rabbit, until a teenaged boy got pitched off and died from having done so. That cured all of us jack.... when we rode the Jack Rabbit. However, keepng our hands raised , esp. as we went around sharp bends and flew off hills into the coaster's dips, continued on forever. I have no idea why. Stupid? Yes! Brave? I dunno, probably just for the thrill - the "rush" as we call it nowadays.

I attribute it all, reflecting back over the decades, from the safety of this vantage point, that we had the reckless charm of unbridled youth when we were sure we were invulnerable. And speaking as a guy who survived polio and am still walking (even joined the wrestling and swim teams, later,) to tell about it, maybe we were protected by our own courageous approach to life. Some of us.

FrankM.

I still don't like to see that. 

I sometimes wish that I could get the bravest and most admired man in the world, one who is known to everyone, to ride a roller coaster and keep his hands tight on the safety bar, just to show those other idiots that what they're doing is dumb.

Rip Track

leaving the drama outside here is another vignette to show!

Fabulous, Andre, like a scene happening in a movie from the 50s.

FrankM

Readers Digest used to have a small 1 or 2 page section in their editions called "Vignettes of Life". 

RIP TRACK at MILEPOST 58

Harold

Thank you, Scott, and Thanks for the "Likes" to: Chugman; OGR Ad Man; Leavingtracks; TRK; TheBigCrabCake; PRR2818; TrainsRMe; WaltRapp; Tom Densel; Trainroomgary.

...and here's another of those layout moments of mine...

FrankM.

That is a wonderful scene, Moonson - very realistic, and it tells a story in its own way.  Nice.

The only thing similar I have is this gutted and cannabilzed Morgan alongside the English sports car shop on my layout.  Today a Morgan in this "good" of condition would be snapped up immediately, but this is the '50s, and right now no one cares . . .  

Oh, yes!  I also have this beat up pickup - a very different story than yours Moonson, at my tacky trailer park< its not really abandoned, but serving an essential service as a place to store high-value automotive parts . . . . 

Another

The Rapps get company

- walt

Ah Walt, one of the beautiful family homes, and it looks like they are getting company.  Good railfanning from that house too!  Very nice!!

Delivery of the new piano....

MWB,

The delivery of the new piano to the church is a great idea!  We have two pianos in our home.  My wife would take a fit if we had to use a wagon on a dirt road to transport them, but that was all you could do at one time.

HEY MARK,

Let's see pictures of your Pianofortes!

Here's mine:

It's a 6-foot Parlor Grand by Kawai, the 4th best piano manufacturer in the world, after Bosendorfer, Yamaha, and Steinway, in that order.

RIP TRACK

Thanks!  Decent little laser cut kit for the piano, but the wagon assembly was a challenge.  I am in awe of the HO modelers that can assemble such kits w/o breaking parts, drilling holes that I can not see with drills that I can barely secure in a collet, threading brass wire through those holes that's finer than hair, etc.  O scale is just about the lower limits in size that I can work in any more.

Rip,

I will have to get some pictures.  The newest is a Kawai about like yours.  We got it about a year ago from the Pittsburgh Opera as a one-year old used piano.  It replaced my the Wurletzer spinet my wife had for almost 50 years that was beyond servicing.  The other is an upright that is over 100 years old that my wife bought about 15 years ago and refinished herself.  I do not recall the brand name. I will try to make it a point to get the photos this weekend.

My wife and daughter who is a vocalist love the Kawai!  My ears aren't very good, but it sounds beautiful to me too.

Frank,
The quality here is so good it makes me a little uncomfortable. As a kid growing up on the east coast the attraction of an abandoned vehicle in an empty lot just like that one was too great to ignore. So we inevitably had to go poking around in it. What we usually found -- in Florida anyway -- was a nest of angry yellow jackets! Not sure how you would model that but if you had two kids running away from the truck I would know immediately what they were running from. Incredible work on the trees by the way.

MWB,

What amazes me is that I used to build kits and scratchbuild in N-scale.  I have a scratchbuilt N-scale Boyce Homestead where I grew up and where my elderly parents still live.  Aging eyesight, arthritis, and a second bout with carpal tunnel syndrom have taken their toll on my skills, but I still have fun with trains!!

Mark Boyce that is fantastic stuff, and great detail, particularly for N scale.

it is fun to model your actual homes, etc.  I did something similar: on my N gauge layout I had a subdivision of every home I lived it my entire life, everyone that my parents ever lived in, my grandparents' houses, my uncles' and the houses that my three boys owned at the time.  46 houses in all.  Most were not quite as detailed as yours since they were back about four feet off the layout edge I figured it wasn't worth the trouble to do real details, but on the other hand I had a Faller car system garbage truck that ran around the neighborhood streets, stopping and pausing every so often as if to collect trash, so it was fun.  

Sorry about the photo quality - these were taken with a .6 mega pixel camera many, many years ago!

No, I never lived in a trailer park (to the right) but the Tacky Trailer Park on my layout now is not the first I have built - that is the original one below, just as much fun and just as tacky as the present one.  

That's a great vista; I especially appreciate and applaud the way you crafted the gentle slope of that backyard. That takes an especially careful eye and skilled hands. Congratulations on your myriad skills!

FrankM.

OMG - you master-crafted an entire neighborhood! All those homes and the way they are situated are masterful. Wow. And another Wow!

...little moments, here-n-there...

FrankM.

Another silly one

- walt

Here is our heavy equipment sales operation with a couple of lookers on hand...

Lee,

This is the first I have read that you modeled in N scale at one time.  For all the guys on this forum who have only been in O gauge since the Christmas gift train when they were wee small, there are some of us who have been in one or more of the smaller scales.

The n scale subdivision of family member homes is great!!  Do you still have any of it?

Frank,

Thank you for the compliments.  I tried to make it look as close to real as I could in N scale.  The backyard hill goes down at a steeper grade from the end of the diorama to a very small crick, then back up again.  I would like to point out the buildings and trees look as I remember from the early to mid '60s.  Little has changed except many of the trees were cut down and others are starting to reach maturity.  The small frame building to the right of the house from the rear has the pump in the basement and a workshop in the upper level.  It was originally built as a summer kitchen before the rear half of the house was built on during the '20s.  Also behind the tree on the very right is the brick outhouse that still is serviceable in 2014.  It can be seen better in the front view photo.

**One thing I would like to note to those who would like to read on.  I consider this diorama as a tribute to my dad, Jim Boyce, who will be 84 in 3 weeks.  He has lived in this house since his birth except for two years in the Army and about a year and a half when first married.  Dad still maintains these buildings almost single handedly and mows about 2 to 2 1/2 acres with a 60-year old walk behind Gravely and a self propelled Lawn Boy.  When I ask if he needs help, he always says, "You have your own work you have to do."  Dad taught me right from wrong, how to be a good Christian, citizen, employee, husband and father.  Now by example, he is teaching me how to live into old age.  Stay busy and have a hobby.  His is fly fishing and fly tying.  Thanks, Dad!

Frank,

These are great!

Rip Track,

Here you go.  My wife says hers is a 5 1/2 foot model.  The piano tuner loved it!

HEY MARK,

That's a nice lookin' "eighty-eight", man!  Kawai is the way to fly! 

Who plays Mozart...you or your wife?

I don't read music at all...just chord progressions.  I play Broadway tunes, Evergreen Standards ("Stardust", etc), and some Jazz classics, like "Misty", "Satin Doll", etc.

Thanks for the Pics!

RIP TRACK

Thanks.  My wife was tickled pink with it, and I was glad we could do it at the time.  My wife plays Mozart.  She plays some of those you mentioned and is pretty good.  Both daughters play as well, with the youngest also playing the harp and singing soprano. 

Me?  The only instrument I can play is the transistor radio.  I took violin lessons in school, but quit when the teacher told me he wasn't going to keep tuning it for me.  I could not equate the tones from the pitch pipe with anything on the violin, so I quit fiddling around and dropped it.