Not a whole lot of changes to the layout going on since the last update. I took a little break, finished up some painting of models (the sand towers, some tanks, the paper mill pipe rack, etc…), finished the roof details on the paper mill buildings, and built the 2nd of the three modular buildings in the Consolidated Dairy kit.

I did dabble a bit with structure placement on the Elmwood side of the layout. The blue foam piece represents the highway overpass.  Not to scale of course, but gave me an idea of what it would like it.

Today I also ordered several parts from Plastruct to use to scratch build that overpass.  Pikestuff has their highway kits but it would’ve cost about $100 for all the pieces needed for a 4-lane 300′ overpass.  A mix of plastruct and Pikestuff parts brought it down to about $30 or so.  Plus I’ll have left over bits and pieces for other stuff.  So you’ll see photos of that in 2-3 weeks.

Shaun General, Scenery

Here’s the 2nd sand tower I just finished assembling.

Once Mother Nature gives us a break from the rain (for spraying) I’ll get all the pieces of the kit (2 towers, sand bin, drying house) painted.

Shaun Scenery

In preparing for getting my cliffs/hills/mountains (I seem to call them 10 different things) permanently installed, I began ballasting my track inside the tunnels near the portals.  I’m following a method I saw on Model Railroader.  I’ll go into detail in the future with a video of ballasting, but here’s the basic idea:

1. Using slightly diluted white glue, I apply glue to the sides of the roadbed and sprinkle a light coating of ballast on top. Let dry for 24 hours.
2. Sprinkle ballast in the middle of the track, and brush into place between ties. I use my finger tip to get those last bits of ballasts of the tie tops.
3. Soak the middle ballast with a 25/75 mixture of water and 70% alchohol.  Let it soak for about 2 minutes and then repeat with matte medium glue. Let dry for 24 hours/
4. Sprinkle ballast on sides of the track and use a small foam paint brush to form your profile.  Repeat step 3 for gluing in place.

I’m currently at step 2 because I discovered I didn’t have any matte medium on hand and just placed an order. So that process is on hold for a few days, but here’s what it looks like at the halfway point.

If you’re wondering, the ballast I’m using is Woodland Scenics Fine Light Gray, will just a tiny bit of Gray added for a little contrast.

Shaun Scenery

A question you might ask yourself after assembling the first of two towers in the Walthers Sanding Towers kit.

There’s just an insanely amount of tiny parts.  And that wire there; That’s individual strand of wire pulled out of a RJ-11 telephone cable.

A dime for scale.

And there’s still on more tower to go! Eep!

Shaun Scenery