Good morning. 

Sunny and 50 F to start the day.  The fog hasn't completely burned off, and everything is wet from the weekend's rain.  Looks like we'll have a couple dry days before rain returns Wednesday.  No specific plans for the day other than to spend at least part of it outside.  

Jan, I'm glad you're feeling better after the visit to the hospital.  our hobby takes many forms, who said building a Lego locomotive isn't modeling?

I hope everyone has a great day!

 

Good morning.

Pretty quiet here, still working on some freight cars.  Progress has been much slower than I had planned.  It has been raining here for the past couple days with showers and possibly some snow flurries in the forecast through the weekend.  Planning to take advantage of this "modeling weather" for as long as it lasts.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Good morning.

Sunny day here for a change.  Those days seem to be few and far between lately.

Working on my second cup of coffee while I enjoy the sunshine.  Not sure what I'll get up to today...

I hope everyone has a great day!

Good morning. 

Marty,  I'd gladly trade you a cinnamon bun for some sunshine, if I had a cinnamon bun.  Then again, to be completely honest, if I had a cinnamon bun I'd eat it....

Windy rainy start to the day here.  Waiting for my new freezer to be delivered.  The old one is on its last legs, but thankfully managed to hold on until today. 

That's as exciting as it gets here.  I hope everyone has a great day!

Apparently today's greeting is "Morning all."

I thought Greg had patented it, but with everyone else using it I think I'll be safe from any kind of patent infringement.

Rainy and very windy here, flood watch until Thursday evening.

I'll be working on a boxcar build or two today. Long way to go before either one is ready for the paint shop.  Having a couple on the bench means I have one to work on while the glue dries on the other one.

I hope everyone has a great day (and Jeff gets his sump pump replaced).

Good morning.

Coffee and blueberry muffins today.  All out of peanut butter cookies, sorry guys.

I'm taking a break from working on the layout and working on a Toledo & Ohio Central (NYC lines) boxcar.

I hope everyone has a safe and rewarding day.

Good morning.

That's it from me...

Good morning.

Heading to my friend Jim's today for dinner.  I'll get to check out his latest issue of RMC, and we'll spend some time discussing model railroading. 

I hope everyone has an amazing day!

Good morning.

The coffee is fresh, the door is open, where is everybody?  Blueberry muffins and some peanut butter cookies await.

Sunny day here, planning to get out and enjoy it.

I hope everyone has an awesome day!

As I mentioned before, when using individual backdrop photos I think the biggest challenge is getting them to fit together seamlessly. If you have purchased a lengthy one piece backdrop this is not going to be a problem you will need to address. If you are using photos that have already been stitched together by a computer, you may not face this issue, depending on the size of your layout in comparison to the length of the available photos.


However, if you are attempting to use more than one set or group of photos, blending the photos together is a challenge. In that case when planning the backdrop care must be taken to see that the colors match as closely as possible. The physical features also need to be constant, i.e., the height of the terrain and any trees or other features. I found matching colors to be the most difficult, as it is possible to raise and lower the hills or mountains to adjust the different heights of those land forms.


The photos I have chose to post show some of the places where I changed from one group of photos to another. As you can easily see, there are some pretty dramatic changes between photos. Just as a note, some groups of photos that are stitched together also show a color shift. I believe these are caused by both the lighting, as well as whether the photographer is able to shoot straight on, or at an angle to the landscape.


My plan from the beginning was to try to locate adjacent photos that experienced a color shift in a place where they could be camouflaged to some extent. One such location will be behind a church that sits on a slight rise, and has a large tree beside it. When the viewer's looking directly at the church, the color change between the two photos should be barely noticeable. But should the viewer peek behind the church, or even stand at an angle to the church, busted! I have similar partial view blocks planned for the other places where the photos don't match well. How successful will I be with this technique? Only time will tell.


Now, I'm going to give everyone reading this a trick I wish I had known before I embarked on designing and building this layout. I was watching a video of the late Jim Heidt's Norwood and St. Lawrence Railroad. It was immediately obvious to me that many of his backdrop scenes had been printed from some of the Larc Products discs. Jim was explained that if a viewer could see a train travel the length of the basement, it would seem that the train didn't travel very far. This is quite well known to the modeling fraternity. It is what he did to break up the distance using the landscape as view blocks that resulted in my "AHA" moment. He used a rock cut where the hill was the same height as the backdrop hills. On one side of the cut was the complete series of stitched together photos from the Larc disc. On the other side of the cut was a similar but different set of Larc backdrop photos. No worries about trying to blend the backdrop landscape from different sets of photos.


Why didn't I think of that. I have no idea. Can I do that now? Not really, as the track is too close to the backdrop to pull it off successfully. I would have to rip up at least fifteen feet of track, and probably closer to twenty feet. Then for it to work effectively, I would have to print and replace two thirds to three quarters of my existing backdrop photos. Doing that would damage the Masonite, so I would probably have to replace the existing backdrop. It is just something I have to live with and one of many things on my layout where I wish I had a "do-over".

Quote from: nycjeff on March 26, 2024, 03:54:51 PMHello Jerry, I hope that by catching up, as you say, with some stuff you did while the forum was down, now you can make some steady progress on your layout. This hobby is a place to relax and get away from the real world and spend some time in our own "little worlds". Looking forward to more of your work.

Jeff,

I'm moving forward, though more slowly than I would like.  After spending a lot of time contemplating the best approach, I'm starting to address the scenery in front of the backdrop.  Right now I'm roughing in some land forms, with a very long way to go, even on my small layout. 

Good morning.

The coffee pot is on and I had a cup "just to be sure it is drinkable".  Otherwise count me in for Bob's breakfast.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Good morning.

Where is everyone? The coffee pot has been on for hours.  Guess I should make a fresh pot and put out some cookies to see if anyone will venture through the door. 

I hope everyone has a great day (filled with coffee and treats).

Good morning,

I'm heading out the door in a few to run some errands and get the oil changed in my car.  No significant progress on the layout yesterday, though I did work on a boxcar last evening.  Probably not a lot of modeling today, either.

I hope everyone has as awesome day!

Quote from: Jerry on March 26, 2024, 09:49:41 AMSo good to see you back at this.  I'll be following along.

I think we all get to that point of no work on the RR.  But when it comes back it's kind of like a new day has stated again.

Jerry

Jerry,

Thanks for looking in.  Most of what I've posted are the few photos I did take while the forum was down.  Once I finish posting them I won't have as much material to share.