The next area on the layout set for scenery is the town of East Dubuque.  It's definitely the "wrong side of the tracks".  Adult entertainments and beverages are the main items the town has to offer.  This is true in real life as well, though less so today than years ago.  I need to build the FOS "Red Light District" for this, but that seemed to large a build to do now.  So I'm building one of Doug's "Freebies".  No instructions, just stripwood, walls, windows, signs, roofing material, and a store front. 


Jeff

Over the years I've accumulated a LOT of scenery materials from various manufacturers.  If I use all of them I think it will be overpowering.  However, I remember Mr. Frary saying he adds layer after layer after layer, and his scenery looks pretty good.    These two pics show the same area, the one is a little dark, the second with the flash a little too bright, the colors are actually in between.  Is this not enough or too many combos of stuff?  And I still need to get/make   some trees. 


Jeff

Another morning at Miller and Kemp. 

Finally finishing the Hilltown build, some of you may have noticed there's a gap between the two dioramas on my layout.  I needed a structure to put in there, and Carolina Craftsman Kits Miller and Kemp Millwork will fit well ( I hope).  There's a sheet in the kit which has the footprint of the structure and it seems to work out, so here goes.   The pic of the "usual stuff" in the box.  Stripwood, walls, instructions, windows, etc.


Jeff

The dioramas are finished except for trees (which I don't have) and bushes, etc.  This will be done when the "middle building" gets built and planted.  Here's a before and after pic of the layout where they go.  Where am I gonna pile stuff now?     This "only"  took me 6 months to complete.    Thanks again to Raymo for the challenge!

It's been experimentation week here at The Empire.  First I tried Durham's water putty for an asphalt parking area.  It didn't offer any advantages over my usual spackle, and it was much harder to sand smooth.  Next up was ground cover.  I've not done much scenery except on dioramas.  The medical term is sceneryphobia.    I'd used Woodland Scenics ground foam on one of their demonstration kits years ago, and it looked OK.  Since the new static grasses came out, I've use them exclusively.  But the static grass looks too uniform.  You can try adding other layers over it, but the layers look "stuck on".  Tom has showed us his techniques on his new layout, and I must admit, though I've "looked down on" the Woodland Scenics ground foams since the static grasses came out, it looks great!  He uses WS earth as a base, I wondered how it would look with my "dirt" a product from Scenic Express.  In the front of this picture, you can see the WS dirt on the right and the SE dirt on the left.  I think either looks good, but like the SE dirt better. 

Jeff

I'm going to build the SRMW kit Hilltown Entrepreneurs for the building challenge.  I chose this because I have the perfect spot for it on the layout.  Whenever I leave the "man cave" this is the view I get.  Every time I clean it off, stuff magically reaccumulates within minutes.  Must be layout gnomes!  I'm a slow builder, but since I'm only working 3 or 4 day weeks at the new job, I think I can get at least one of the buildings done (it's a two building kit).   


Jeff

I'm finally working on some landforms for the layout.  I've worked with the foam once, for the original forum's first contest.  Now I need to do much larger areas.  When looking up which forum board to put this on we had a discussion of the hot wire cutters early last year.  I've been using (per the picture)a large serrated knife, a small serrated knife, the extendable blade cutter, a large surform and a smaller surform and a hot blade cutter.  I have a wire cutter which is broken  as well.  The wire cutter and the blade make horrible stinky fumes, which I can't have as there's really not a lot of ventilation down here.  I'm cutting small pieces with the blade in the airbrush booth.  The knives are OK for the vertical cuts, not so great for "forming".  The surform tools (especially the big one) work great but much a large amount of small styrofoam bits.  Fortunately, with the whole house vac, I can clean these up relatively quickly.  I used Great Stuff in the can (expanding foam) to glue the pieces together (the top two pieces are still loose), and it worked well and filled in gaps.  It's easily cut/sanded like the foam.  I had a tube of Liquid Nails for projects to try for this, but I've had it many years and it dried out, even though the tube was never opened.  The top is floral foam which Mike Rose and Mike Confalone use.  It seems easier to cut than the solid foam, but it's kinda pricey and not available in huge sheets.  Everything still needs some work, just wondering what you guys and gals do for foam landforms. 


Jeff

After FINALLY finishing the CCK Metcalf's build.  It's time to start a new project.  On the layout, I'm going to start adding the sidings, since the main line is finished.  For a structure, I have a multitude of options.  I'm going to try to "populate" one area of structures.  This is the area I'm going to work on, as I have some structures finished and have others "in the stack" for this spot.  This is a stylized "East Dubuque, Illinois" where the CB&Q ran on the east edge of the Mississippi river on the Chicago/Minneapolis main line.  E. Dubuque is pretty much bars/strip joints, so  I thought of starting the Red Light District by FOS, as Bob B. has an excellent build tutorial on it going, but I wanted something smaller I could finish quickly, as the CCK build took over a year  .  I also received my FOS REA express building that Karl has been building recently, but it's pretty big too.  It has a place reserved in the next room.  So I recently acquire a Bar Mills' O'Doul's Flop House, and I think if I put it on a slight rise behind the Metcalf's, it will help block the "hole in the wall" where the rails come thru from the other room.  I had planned a large structure here (the white mock up in the picture), but I think it's too big and doesn't fit the area.  The background will be short bluffs, common along the river, so the town is sort of self contained.  The  FOS 'Red Light District' will probably be on the back or side street, but I'll have to see how it fits as I build it.  But first up is O'Doul's.  Here's the kit contents.  Clapboards, stripwood, plastic windows, a few detail parts, pretty detailed instructions, a nice scale ruler with some scale conversion stuff on the back, and (HUZZAH!) laser cut windows. 


Jeff

As my other build is on temporary hiatus, I decided to start a Monster Modelworks kit.  The "starter structure" 3 story storefront.  I've not built one of these before and was interested on how the bricks would finish as they are wood instead of plaster/resin.  They look pretty good on the walls.  There's basically 4 walls, some corner trim, arched lintels and a multi-piece lower front.  I cut and glued the lintels on the front and back walls.   The sides have them lasered onto the wood.  I may wedge this in between two other structures and wanted no added width.  The windows are lasered and include laser cut window material!  I may not build any other kits ever again as much as I hate cutting the windows.     Even the bracing is pre-cut!  I braced the structure and sprayed the inside flat black.   I sanded the sides to may sure they and the corner pieces were square as the instructions state so you won't have a gap.  I had some minor gaps.   


Jeff

As I've been working on the Empire, I haven't built anything in 1:87 for awhile.  I actually started this kit back in April, thinking I'd work on it between layout construction sessions.  I got so involved with the layout work that it's sat on the workbench since then.  The first pic shows the kit contents.  I braced the walls and sprayed the backs black, then used the Micro Mark stain on the sides.  Next I painted them white using the drybrush technique I'd used on the SRM feed mill.  Dry brushing parallel to the boards and then more splotching and side to side motion.  After painting them white, they sat for 8 months.  Yesterday I painted the green lower boards and painted the windows/doors.  Though Mr. Grove states he puts the windows together and then paints them, I thought this would be easier.  I started the nail holes yesterday and that's where we're at today.


Jeff

After a year hiatus, I'm getting back to building the layout.  The original thread is here at kitforums   http://kitforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=7382       When I last posted, I had broken thru the wall into the next room.  Here's some pictures of the room and how things are planned.  Please note I had NOTHING to do with the colors/decoration of the room.      The trains come thru the hole in the wall and will basically follow the walls around to a turnback loop over the TV area.   I will be using a short backdrop behind the benchwork.  I'll just be using the room lighting, no valences here.  Between the curtains, you can see the electrical box which needs to be accessible, which will lead to problems later in design. 


Jeff

For those of you that frequent the kitforums.com site, you'll remember I started this kit last year.  The link to all the trials and tribulations is   http://kitforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9841   After a three month "hiatus" for mostly "work stuff", I've been back at it for the last couple of weeks.  I have the roofs finished and trimmed out.  It's time to weather the shingles before adding the dormers.


Jeff