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Messages - SteveCuster

#436
Kit Building / Re: Pile Driver FSM #105
March 11, 2018, 09:41:51 PM
Great start Karl. Some of these older kits are real cool and they go for a pretty affordable price.

I picked one up for cheap and built it a couple years ago. I modified mine a bit to be more similar to the jewel series one.

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=47108

This is the thread if you want to check it out.

-Steve
#437
Kit Building / Re: Interior tips
March 01, 2018, 11:01:00 PM
I build scale studs out of 4x4s. It's beefy enough to keep everything from warping. You really only have to stud the parts that will be visible, same thing goes for details. Just fill in the areas that will be visible and don't use your best castings.

Buy some LEDs from Slim and light it up.

That's how I did this one.



-Steve
#438
Dioramas / Re: Baxter's Final Photos:
January 04, 2018, 08:48:09 PM
Nice work Karl.
#439
Kit Building / Re: Adding track to diorama for future use
November 25, 2017, 04:19:27 PM
Hi Mac,

I run the track right up to the edge of the diorama but I remove a few ties so I can add the joiners later. I build all my major structures as dioramas and install them on the later after. It's so much easier to detail at the bench for me.

-Steve

#440
The 2017 ALTOONA PA EXPO / Re: Great times at the expo!
November 06, 2017, 10:20:27 PM
It was nice meeting you Eric. Great job on the waterfront scene, lots of really cool details.

-Steve
#441
I'll be there Thursday morning.

-Steve
#442
Layout Tours / Re: Cypress Creek Railroad
September 08, 2017, 09:39:37 PM
Thanks guys.

I chipped away a bit at some of the background items in the rear of the layout over the last couple days. I was waiting for some rock molds to come from Bragdon so I can start making the mountain on the right front of the layout. The molds came in on Wednesday, they are really big with great detail.


In the last post I showed my cardboard strip frame for the mountain. I covered in in woodland scenic plaster gauze, I thought I took a photo of that stage but I must not have. The technique is nothing new but I prefer the gauze over paper towels dipped in plaster. I think it's a bit cleaner though nothing to do with plaster is very clean.


I cast all my rocks on a flat surface then I usually break a few and tie them together like a jigsaw puzzle. I use a heavy coating of plaster to "glue" them to the mountain frame. I'm using Hydrocal for all the rock castings. I bought 100 lbs of Hydrocal and 50 lbs of Ultracal. I found the Ultracal doesn't take coloring very well, it tends to get blotchy so I will add some brown paint to it and cover the whole mountain with it. The plaster gauze alone doesn't have much strength.


I installed this bridge on the right rear area of the layout. It's a Campbell's Howe Truss Bridge. I built it a few months ago, they are great kits that can be bought for pretty cheap, I think I paid $20.00 for it. While I was mocking it in place I dropped it on the concrete floor and it broke in about 50 pieces. This photo is after I repaired the damage.


This is a better photo of it's placement on the layout.


I assembled this kit from Railway Design Associates. It's called Freeman Manufacturing Co. These are nice kits especially for the price. The stonework is very good and they assemble easily. I think this whole kit took me a few hours. I'm not a fan of pre-molded roofing but this kit will sit pretty far back from the front of the layout and it will have a whole town of craftsman kits in front of it so it won't be noticeable. I'm trying to make a conscious effort to shortcut some of the details if they won't be seen. I can really get bogged down with the small stuff and I'd like to get this layout done in my lifetime.






I colored the kit using some pretty basic methods. I spray all the walls with gray automotive primer. After that dried overnight I added a wash of a dark slate gray craft paint thinned with water. I painted all the windows and doors with olive camouflage spray paint. The walls were drybrushed with off-white. The roof was painted with dark gray spray paint and dusted with chalks.


This little shed came with the kit. I still need to add some details to the roof.


This will sit in the very back corner of the layout. I'm excited to work my way forward and build this town.

Thanks for checking in. I have some more rock castings setting right now. I'll add those over the weekend and start coloring the mountain.

-Steve





#443
Very cool. It looks like it comes to around $162 USD.
#444
Layout Tours / Re: Cypress Creek Railroad
August 20, 2017, 11:10:11 PM
Thanks for the great comments everyone.

I finished another building for the rear town area over the weekend. It's my first brick structure I've built in a very long time. The kit was from ITLA, it's the D.V Ross building. I picked up 2 kits from the expo last time and I decided to combine them. It was a very easy kit to assemble, all laser cut wood. I colored it using only Krylon orange/red auto primer, Krylon gray primer for the trim, Apple Barrel Khaki for the mortar, a couple washes of A&I followed by some chalk weathering. The whole kit only took me a few hours to assemble. I'll be checking out some more of their kits in the future.


I named the building after Frank Baker - Erieman on the forum. Thanks for the steam crane Frank.






It may sit behind the tracks in the rear section next to the last building I built. It's very shallow so it works well back there.


I need to finish a few more buildings for the back wall then I can start tying everything together and building forward.

I picked up a few RDA plastic kits I plan on kit bashing for this area as well.

Thanks for checking in.

-Steve





#445
Layout Tours / Re: Cypress Creek Railroad
July 31, 2017, 10:42:34 PM
Thanks everyone!

Tommy- I used some drylock and latex paint directly on the walls. I didn't stud and drywall the block walls. I added 1x2 strips only to support the background which I made from cheap Home Depot wood paneling. I used the smooth back as the front and painted it all a sky blue color.

Loren- Thanks for the compliment. George is a huge inspiration to me and the F&SM book is what got me into the hobby. I refer to his work often for ideas.

I completed the cardboard frame for my mountain today.


This mountain and the one in the back that's mostly complete are the only ones I will be constructing this way. I needed a hollow shell so I can get inside to fix derailments and clean the track. The rest of the layout will be stacked pieces of foam carved and covered with plaster.


The cardboard strips are held together with construction adhesive and clothes pins. Once everything dries I will start making the plaster shell using plaster gauze, probably tomorrow night.


I need to make a bunch of thin background structures for the rear of the layout near Fox Run. Last week I drew up a simple sketch and made this building. I bought a bunch of clapboard from George at the open house during the last expo. I used Tichy doors and windows, the billboard is Bar Mills.




This is about the area it will sit. I will probably adjust the elevation a bit and make it sit up higher than the track. I have a few other buildings in mind for this area, none can be more than 4" deep.



Thanks for checking in.

-Steve
#446
Layout Tours / Cypress Creek Railroad
July 30, 2017, 05:19:57 PM
Hello everyone. I wanted to start a thread to document my layout progress. I haven't taken real chronological photos of the work but I'll show what I have done and
try to start a trend of documenting the work I'm doing.

The room is about 18"x 24". I started working on the room about 3 years ago, I think I have a little more than 2 years on the actual layout. This is my first real attempt at building a layout, I've mostly done dioramas in the past.

My goal was to have a simple trackplan with a continuous loop. I added as many sidings as I could mostly so I can build and install all my favorite kits.


I created my trackplan by putting plywood on the benchwork and working out the sidings with blue tape. I tried to get measurements for any of the kits I had or planned on getting so I can work them in beforehand.


This was the room before I started any construction. It occupies the front half of my basement, the rear half has too many pipes to drywall the ceiling. I made the rear section my workshop.


I added a closet to house the water softener. I drywalled the ceiling and I installed many outlets in the ceiling, all my lighting is wired to plugs for ease of replacement down the road. The floor is Rust-Oleum Epoxy garage paint. I don't recall the technical term for this style of benchwork but I chose it because it was easy to assemble and install without any help.


The benchwork are basically 3 rectangles bolted together. I lifted them in place using a 2x4 cleat on the wall.




The first kit I built since returning to the hobby was FSM Fox Run Milling you can see in the background. The second kit was The Shipyard from SierraWest, I combined it with Foss Landing, also from SierraWest.








The latest diorama I built was O'Neills Fabrication/Quincy Salvage from SierraWest. This is the area I plan to install it, I won't install any of the front dioramas permanently till I complete the rear section.


The kit to the left is FSM Emporium Seafood. The pile driver is the old FSM original kit, I removed the "house" from it and scratchbuilt a corrugated metal roof covering similar to the new FSM Jewel Series Kit.






I recently finished this mountain. I used cardboard strips and Woodland Scenics plaster wrap for the shell. Most of the trees are SuperTrees from Scenic Express. The bridge is from Micro-Engineering.


The first structure permanently placed was Fox Run. I used Envirotex to make the little pond to the left.


My plan for the area to the right of Fox Run will be a densely populated town. I'm going to try to place as many structures as I can in this area.

I'm currently building some shallow background structures for the area behind the tracks up against the wall. I'll post an update as soon as I complete my first one.

Thanks for checking in.

-Steve

-Steve
#447
Thanks Tom
#448
Thanks Ed. I really appreciate it.
#449
Thanks Everyone. I'll check out those software recommendations.
#450
Hello Everyone,

I pretty much completed the bones of the kit over the long weekend minus the details. I also spent some time finding and adjusting it's home on the layout.














The alcove roof is left over roof material from another kit. I sprayed it with Rust-Oleum Flat Brown Primer, chewed the edges with some sharp scissors and dusted with several rust shades of chalk.

I'm waiting for the plaster road to set up on the area where this will sit on the layout. Once the area is complete I'll put it in place and start detailing around it.

Thanks for checking in. I'd like to make a thread detailing my layout, does anyone know of good free software I can make a image of the track plan?

-Steve
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