Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Curt, hope the cyst surgery goes well.

TomO, sounds like Terry's surgery went well, here's hoping she gets to get home soon.

Tom, hope you and the doctor can come to an "understanding" on Thursday.

Rick, have fun at the camera club tonight.

Larry, have fun at the bench.

Current weather is 9c (48f) with blue skies.  It was 7:20PM when I finally got home last night and after I ate, I was too tired to do anything, so I read for a bit and went to bed.  Today should be a "normal" day so we shall see what tonight brings.

Have a great day everyone

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Rick, looks like you have a very busy day lined up.

TomO, hope the procedure goes well for Terry and it's all good news, will keep you both in our prayers.

Mike, hope the garage reorganizing goes well.

Current weather is 9c (48f) and sunny.  Good day for a road trip.  I have a site visit today at 1:00PM (2-1/2 hrs from Ottawa)  and I should get back the normal time (around 6:00PM).  No modeling yesterday, with getting ready for the open house and all the visitors on Saturday, I just didn't feel like it.  We shall see how tonight goes.

Have a great day everyone.   

Bob,

Great start, I'm assuming patience is required for this build.  Even i O scale, that cigar box is tiny.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Rick, nothing wrong with a slow day, enjoy it.

Larry, hope you make it to the bench today.

Curt, congratulations in the ribbons, the only thing I hate about Sculptamold is it's drying time.  Here it takes about a week.

Tom, glad to hear they you have slowing getting back into modeling.

Jerry, glad you made it to the bench yesterday and made some progress.

TomO, Will be interesting to see how the AI project schedule works out.

Mike, hope the 1:1 doesn't keep you from making it upstairs.

Terry, hope you master the engraver quickly, have a great day.

Current weather is 4c (39f) with the sun shining. Yesterdays open house was a success with 21 people showing up to see the layout.  Mostly positive results and the railroad ran flawlessly.

Not sure what today will bring beside grocery shopping.

Have a great day everyone.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Curt.  Congrats on the new vehicle, with only 8000 miles, I bet it still has that new car smell.

Larry, hope the new order of details for the boat comes quickly.

Mike, have fun at the Piedmont Pilgrimage sounds like a fun event.

Rick, another great fall picture.

Dave, hope the car repair was reasonable.

TomO, enjoy your nap.

Jerry, with the rain, I hope you make it to the bench today.

Current temperature is 7c (44f) and raining.  It's a good day to work inside.  Well, I attended my 2 meetings that were scheduled this morning (online) so the rest of the day is mine.   After spending time last night trying to find the short on the turnout by making sure that all the PC ties had the proper gaps and adding additional gaps I still could not find the short, so I've given up looking for the short for now and will be replacing the turnout.  The new turnout is built and will be installed right after I finish this post.  Then it is on to cleaning the track and hanging the skirting, I'm in great shape for the open house tomorrow. 

Have a great day everyone.

Dave, Sounds like you are finally on the mend, hope the modeling will start soon. Best wishes that the recovery continues to progress with no further setbacks.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Mike and Larry.

Mike, glad you finally made it upstairs and made some progress.  Enjoy lunch with your daughter.

Larry, I have bought a few Bar Mill kits and assembled them in N scale, HO scale and O scale.  They go together well and the instructions are pretty good.  They are not too complicated and I would recommend them.

Rick, I am loving those fall pictures.  It's nice to get a bill that is already paid, just file it as paperwork.

Curt, sounds like you van gets a lot of use, enjoy dinner tonight.

Karl, Have a great day.

Jim, I've run into the "it's good enough" to meet a deadline and have never been happy with the finished product, so I have dropped that approach.  Now it gets done when it gets done.

Philip, Have a great day.

Current weather here is 8c (46f) and mostly sunny.  Well, I finally found the intermittent short on the layout.  Turns out it was the turnout that I installed that leads to the staging yard.  Not sure why it's intermittent, it's the first turnout that I built that has experienced this problem.   I have removed it from the layout and it is currently on the workbench.  A quick inspections shows that all the gaps are there.  Tonight I will spend some time trying to figure out why.  If I can't find it in a short time, I'll just build another one.   I need to get the layout running by Saturday's open house.  Nothing like a very close deadline to make things interesting. 

Have a great day everyone.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfasts Larry and Rick.

I'm loving all the fall pictures, leaves are finally turning here.

Curt, hope the VA appointment goes well.

Tom, nice find.

Karl, congrats on the milestone the car is now officially broken in.

Current weather here is 7c (44f) and raining.  Had an interesting day on the layout yesterday, cleaned the track, ran a train threw some switches then Poof, a short.   Thankfully my layout is divided into 4 districts so I was able to narrow it down to the town of Mara.  I have a sneaky suspicion that the short is caused by the new switch I installed to the staging yard.  Will investigate tonight.

Have a great day everyone.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Rick, I think RB finally figured things out. 😊  The "Great American/British/Canadian Baking Show is one show that I actually have watched.

Larry, hope you make it to the bench.  You know that leaf mulching is a never ending battle. 
 
Mike, enjoy breakfast with Sharon.

Curt, thanks for the "Happy Thanksgiving", Good news is, I get it off this year, it's one of the perks of not traveling for work anymore.  Hope you feel better soon.

Dave, I'm hoping that visits to the body shop is not a regular occurrence.  Sounds like you made great progress on the layout yesterday.

TomO, even though there was a change of plans, sounds like the trip was a great success.

James, hope you get the rest of the storm windows installed today.

Current weather here is 13c (55f) and cloudy with a 70% chance of rain this afternoon.  Yesterday was enlightening.  I finished cleaning off the layout, put some buildings back in place repaired another switch machine and hot glue the clothes pegs to the inside of the benchwork to hang the skirting.  Did you know that hot glue is really hot!    I ran out of clothes pegs so, I ordered more and they should be here later today.  I can then finish gluing the clothes pegs, not my fingers, and finish hanging the skirting.  

I also finally turned on the power to the layout and was greeted with a bunch of steam sounds.   I tried running a locomotive, but it traveled down the track like a drunken sailor.   Looks like I need to clean the track, although I would have been shocked if I didn't need to clean track.  I just wanted to see if trains would run on the layout again.

Have a great day everyone.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Rick, enjoy your hike today.

Current temperature here is 10c (50f) and cloudy, but no rain in the forecast.  Didn't get much done on the layout yesterday as 1:1 stuff got in the way.  I did manage to clean off the layout, vacuum it and fix a faulty turnout control.  Today's plan is to clean the rail and see if a train will run.  It's been 13 years since a train has run on the layout.    Oh, and I plan to watch the F1 race from Singapore.

Have a great day everyone.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Rick.  I agree with Curt, I bet further investigation about the seat covers will reveal that the damage was caused by a rogue squirrel.   Enjoy your hike after your Costco visit.

Larry, I don't bother mulching leaves as Gracie like to play in them.

Curt, sounds like you are making great progress on the legs with a lot more work to go.

Dave, for a second there I thought you were building a shed for the laser.   I need to read more closely.   Enjoy scotch club.

Tom, enjoy the day at the antique center, hope you find some currency you like.

TomO, all the best to Terry.  That is a lot of hockey drama. 

Current weather is 0c (32f) and sunny with a high of 13c (55f) later today.  Haven't checked in the last couple of days as life got very busy all of a sudden at work.  Should be getting back to normal now so the rush is over.  No modeling lately but this weekend's plan in to get trains running again on the layout, do a final cleanup in the layout room and make the layout presentable for next weekend's open house, nothing like waiting till the last minute.

Have a great day everyone.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Larry, hope you make it to the bench today.

Rick, buying model railroad supplies? Only a matter of time now. 😊

Curt, hope the garage visit isn't too painful.

Mike, hope the motivation comes back today.

Dave, how you got back into modeling sounds like what I did every time I went to a new project.

Karl, hope you have a good day today.

Philip, good morning.

Current temperature is 9c (49f) and overcast, looks like a rainy day ahead.  No modeling last night as I watched the hockey game instead, they did not play well and lost.  Not sure what tonight will bring.

Have a great day everyone.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Mike, sorry to hear about Sharon's encounter with the deer, glad to hear she is OK.  I hit a deer once in Virginia, not a fun experience.

Tom, glad to hear that the eyesight is approving, have fun watching Pam bowl.

Rick, RB is improving, but to late to catch Kimi.  It's nice to see Max in a competitive car again.  Have fun at the camera club.  Any news on the camera repair?

Larry, bet you are glad that the wood is finally gone.

Karl, that is a good size buck. Have fun working on the layout.

TomO, hope the grass cutting goes well, sounds like a huge project.

Curt, hope the rib installation goes well.

Dave, glad the tire repairs were relatively inexpensive, hope you get the LightBurn problem resolved to your satisfaction.

Jerry, now that the leaves are gone, the million dollar question is?  Will you make it to the bench? 😊

Current weather here is 6c (43f) and sunny, needed a jacket this morning.  NO modeling last night, I had some running around to do last night as buy the time I got home, made and ate dinner, I didn't feel like doing anything.  We shall see what tonight brings.

Have a great day everyone.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Larry, hope the wood gets picked up soon.

TomO, hope the hobby shop owner's offer meets your approval.

Rick, the Malasia race is made for Red Bull so the result didn't surprise me, but Red Bull is getting better as the season wears on.  Kimi also padded his lead.  Only 7 races left.

Curt, hope the errands go well and you make it to the bench.

Dave, at least today should be better.

Karl, sorry your teams lost, the fish lost also, they are terrible this year.

Jerry, instead of raking leaves, spend some time at the bench. 😊

Current weather here is 10c (50f) and cloudy with a 30% chance of rain later today.  Manages some time downstairs yesterday and got the mountain roughed out.  Probably won't get back to it till next weekend.

Have a great day everyone.

Thanks for the comments and encouragement Curt, Mike, Larry, Rick and Rob.

Rick, the added depth will make things a little easier.

Rob, I only use AI as a tool.

Time for another update, this one is called. . . . . 

Building Minecraft mountains.

Why call it Minecraft mountains?  Because I will be using foam blocks to piece it together.




First Attempt.  Figured I would start at the tunnel portal and work to the right. I wasn't happy with this as I found the mountain too steep at the tunnel portal.




Second Attempt.  I cut the height down and was happier with this approach.



After wasting more foam that I care to admit too, I decided to go full Minecraft mode.  First I added a tunnel liner,  This was glued in place using 5-minute epoxy.  Past experience has shown me that the 5-minute epoxy does not attack the foam and it sticks really, really well.




Taking various thickness of 1/2", 1" and 2" foam I cut it into various sizes and pinned them in place.  It was at this point that I decided to make a steeper mountain.  I am modeling the Rocky Mountains.    Do you see why I call this the Minecraft method?    I got this far using the chopped up pieces from my previous attempts.




The completed mountain using more blocks.  This ends stage 1 of my mountain building method.

Now comes the harder part blending this all together.  This involves carving the foam to make it a more realistic mountain by getting rid of the current blocky nature.

Thanks for looking in.