Good morning,

Tom, thanks for opening, coffee, and eggs. Wishing you a fun session today.

Curt, sounds like a house full of critters.  Have fun at Tom's.

Karl, congratulations on the fast internet installation.  Mosquito bites, yikes. I just got over 11 bites I got while at my sister's place.  They itched for over two weeks.  

Ron, hope you git'er done today.

Larry, congrats on the delivery of the cars.  Wishing you a great time with your daughter.

Rick, safe travels.  I'm looking forward to your Sawtooth photos.

How is the rest of the crew?

It's a bright morning at 73F, headed to 91F.  Thank you for your condolences.  The funeral was a wonderful tribute to such a great man.  Bagpipes, silver taps, and a 911 call broadcasting his service and ending with "End of watch" made it a touching ceremony at the graveside.

Hope to continue scenery work upstairs.  Yesterday was good progress on the first layer of plaster wrap.

Have fun,
mike

Howdy folks,

Thanks for the comments, Curt, Philip, and Rick.  I plan on starting the Sculptamold next week.  My daughter is taking me on a surprise birthday Sunday and Monday trip, so it will be after that.  She does that every year, and it is usually railroad-related.  

I plan on working left to right, so the bridge area will get more plaster cloth before I start with Sculptamold.

Have fun,
mike 

Good afternoon, folks,

This morning, I was able to begin landscaping the layout.  I began with plaster cloth over foam as a base for later applied Sculptamold.  Here is a photo of the results.  



Have fun,
mike

Howdy folks,

Larry, thanks for opening, coffee, and breakfast.  Jacob's Landing newest structure look good with the roof.  Nice work.

Rick, the Sawtooths promise lots of fun hikes.  Safe travels.

Curt, glad the 1:1 chores are finished before the weekend.

Philip, I have a friend who is scratchbuilding a loco, and he used diamond decking, so I asked him for his source.

Dave, good luck to your geology profs.  My son works at a national lab in the AI area and said the budget cuts are tough.

TomACL, congrats on the great doctor reports. Enjoy the train shed.

Jerry, safe travels out there with the English.

Ron, congrats on the USB find.  Have fun with the prints.

Karl, good luck with the fiber.  I'm having my first experience with fiber here in Georgia and getting amazing speeds.

Andy's sessions are a lot of fun, in fact, the most fun I've had operating.

How is the rest of the crew?

It's a cloudy day with rain forecasted for this afternoon.  I worked on the layout this morning and got a base coat of plaster cloth on Mainstreet and the structure bases.  It's been years since I've done that, but the muscle (brain) memories made it easy.  Later this afternoon, I'm headed to the funeral of my friend.  He was a retired police lieutenant here and loved by all.  I understand there will be a police color guard performing their ceremony.

Have fun,
mike

Good morning,

Curt, thanks for the birthday wish, coffee, and yogurt. 

Rick, thanks for the birthday wish.  Looks like the trail was a busy one.

Philip, thanks for the birthday wish.  Excellent work on the camel back.

How goes the rest of the crew?

It's a bright morning at 73F, headed to a cooler 83F.  PT is on tap this morning, and visitation this evening for a lodge member who passed away. I finished the roadbed for Main Street and hope to start the next phase of work this afternoon.

Have fun,
mike

Howdy Jeff,

Congratulations!  The diorama looks amazing.  Everything is perfect from the dirt to the top of the water tower. There is so much to see that I keep going back to it for more eye candy.

Have fun,
mike

Good morning folks,

Coffee's on, assorted drinks, sourdough waffles, breakfast steaks, and all the fixins' are on the counter.  Help yourself.

Tom, hope Pam enjoyed the practice. Congrats on so much time at the bench.

Philip, interesting find on the TCS decoder.

Larry, congrats on the On18 purchases.

Dave, hope the doctor's appointment went well.

Karl, thanks for the cool photo of the Widgeon.  

Ron, congrats on the turnout installation.

Jerry, that's some Texas weather up there.  Stay cool.

How is the rest of the crew?

I think it is cloudy out and headed to 91F this afternoon.  Rain tonight.

Today is filled with more 1:1 stuff.  Oil change this morning, drop a package at UPS, wash Sharon's car and go to Daughter's for supper tonight. 

Have fun,
mike

Howdy Philip,

Thanks for the speaker photo and explanation.  The camel looks terrific, and I bet it runs well, too.

Have fun,
mike

Quote from: Philip on July 07, 2025, 06:01:39 PMDid the Amish move it for ya? 

Funny Philip, that would have been nice!  ~mike

Quote from: PRR Modeler on July 07, 2025, 03:46:27 PMThat's a lot of great progress Mike.

Thanks Curt.  I'm trying.  ~mike

Good morning folks,

Rick, congrats on the RV appointment.  Hope nobody was hurt in the collision.

Curt, stay cool with all those 1:1 activities.  Good luck with the boiler house. 

How is the rest of the crew?

It's another bright morning, but a cooler forecast for 92F.  Today will be consumed with 1:1 stuff, PT, washing wife's car, lodge, etc.  If the glue is dry on the road, perhaps I can start plaster cloth and Sculptamold tomorrow.

Have fun,
mie

Quote from: Rick on July 07, 2025, 06:10:28 PMMike, I like that you're now able to add more structures.
Will Fenimore Bros. still fit where it was in the first picture.
Looks like you've got the structures spaced pretty far apart.
Have you tried moving them closer together?

Howdy Rick,

Good questions.  Fenimore will go somewhere else, but next to the tracks for easy unloading. I just set it across the tracks to get it out of the way.

I'll add more structures to tighten the placement.  I was mostly trying to see how they fit between the caprock and the river.  The tannery will have vertical tanks on one side and a lean-to shed on the other.  The livery stable will have a small corral, too.  I hope to fit one more structure in the third module river level... maybe water works.  Still thinking about it.

Hope this addresses your comments.

Have fun,
mike

Quote from: Jerry on July 07, 2025, 09:48:59 AMMorning everyone

Mike interesting surform I've never seen one.

Jerry

Howdy Jerry,

Here is a photo of the surform planer.  These are convex versus flat on my other planer.



Have fun,
mike

Howdy folks,

Today I started to install the road, and just like Kyle, had a brainstorm to add even more space for the structures.  I wasn't happy with the spacing between structures.  Making the placement look realistic was becoming a problem, so...

I cut out even more of the lower layout.  Here are the before and after shots:

  

I'll need to extend the street in the front of the layout and fill in the walls.

From left to right, here are the modules in Phase I in their current state with proposed structures:

The main street (lower) in this module will get a Masonic Lodge, a hotel, a fire station, etc.


These structures are in their respective places on the center module.  A road will take up the front edge of the layout.


The right module structures are placed in their proposed location.  I'll have room for a barnyard, truck, and car parking.  Once again a road will follow the front of the layout.


That's it for now.  It's time to glue some road down.

Have fun,
mike

Howdy folks,

Rick, Jerry, Larry, and Philip, thanks for hanging in there.  Thanks too for your kind comments.

Have fun,
mike