Superior & Seattle Railroad Build

[S&S RR]

Today I added the plaster over the foam underlayment on the back side of Mt. Aiden.  You will also notice that I removed a number of trees from the mountainside to gain access to the overhead ceiling light fixture.  I wanted to install LED light bulbs into this fixture before the final scenery was in place.  I also want to add another area of aspen trees to this scene so removing the pines trees served two purposes. Tomorrow I will paint the plaster and add the ground cover.  Then it will be time to plant more trees and finish the mountain scenery.

[S&S RR]

I also started another project today - the reconditioning, and preparation for installation, of the sawmill scene from my old layout.  This scene consists of three FSM kits.  I built this about 10 or 15 years ago before static grass and some of the new scenery materials so it's back on my workbench for refurbishing before I install it. I also needed to change the track plan and make the base smaller.  So I used the George Sellios method of getting out the saw and cutting the base on a finished diorama.  This was not easy for me to do but it went very well.  Only a few casting shook loose so only a few minutes of repair glueing and it will be good as new with a smaller base.  Now for the refurbishing.







Before the saw.





After the saw.





After some cleanup.

[EricQuebec]

Just fantastic.... I' m always amaze by your layout John, can't wait to see more
Eric Québec city

[cuse]

I'm so happy to hear that Mr. Sellios approves. I have an FSM depot, built by Reading Bob, gifted by ACL Tom... The whole time I was trimming the base to fit, all I could think was "they will never talk to me again if they could see how violently I am attacking this jewel". I honestly questioned my worthiness in their brotherhood of craftsman kits.I switched tools a dozen times trying to find the least damaging method to trimming the base. There's just no other way to do it...Thanks for the comforting words John (and George).


John

[S&S RR]

Just fantastic.... I' m always amaze by your layout John, can't wait to see more
Eric Québec city

Thanks for the kind works Eric and thanks for following the thread. I hope to make considerable progress during the next few weeks. 

[S&S RR]

I'm so happy to hear that Mr. Sellios approves. I have an FSM depot, built by Reading Bob, gifted by ACL Tom... The whole time I was trimming the base to fit, all I could think was "they will never talk to me again if they could see how violently I am attacking this jewel". I honestly questioned my worthiness in their brotherhood of craftsman kits.I switched tools a dozen times trying to find the least damaging method to trimming the base. There's just no other way to do it...Thanks for the comforting words John (and George).


John

John
The thought of this process was much worse than actually doing it. I think there are about 3 castings that need to be reglued and now it will work in it's new home on this layout. The key was the right saw blade to minimize the vibration.  I also clamped it to the work bench that has rocks and hydrocal on the lower shelves to help with damping the vibration.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Well done, John - and nice to see you back working on the layout.

I'm guilty of using an electric planner to 'thin' plaster wall castings!  It worked and was amazingly quick and easy - but I wouldn't recommended it!

Cheers, Mark.

[S&S RR]

Well done, John - and nice to see you back working on the layout.

I'm guilty of using an electric planner to 'thin' plaster wall castings!  It worked and was amazingly quick and easy - but I wouldn't recommended it!

Cheers, Mark.

Mark


Thanks - It's great to be back working on the layout.


I hope you were outside when you thinned the plaster castings.

[S&S RR]

Today the plaster on the back side of Mt. Aiden was painted green, and then covered with ground foam.

I also got a good start on adding the trees.  Wayne Olson is coming over tomorrow to be my eyes on the ground to help locate just the right position for each of the trees. I will either run out of trees or complete the forest on Mt. Aiden.








The aspen trees will be yellow at the higher elevations and green as we work our way down the mountain.

[S&S RR]

As I work my way down the Mountain side, I plan to paint the remaining rocks and then build a trestle (only about 2 feet long this time).  After those tasks are complete the bridge that I'm crawling on will be removed.  I'm looking forward to seeing a steam engine cross the two trestles with the mountain in the background.

[S&S RR]

The white foam in the foreground of the second picture above, complete fooled my iPhone and turned the area behind them very dark.  The lighting really isn't that bad in this area.  I will take some pictures tomorrow and see if the problem goes away.  Maybe I will need to add some lighting?

[S&S RR]

Well today I ran out of trees before I ran out of Mountain but progress was made.  Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

[S&S RR]

I removed the bridge I was working on to make some modifications.  I will be putting it back in place to do the finish work behind the trestle, paint the rock castings, and build the trestle. It sure is nice to be making progress on the layout again.  Those 1:1 projects were getting very old.

[S&S RR]

I started some work on the sawmill complex today.  Here is a picture of what I was starting with.





I wanted to add sawdust that was more to scale.  The chips were to large that I used 15 years ago.  I also want to add static grass in place of the ground foam.

[S&S RR]

Here are a couple pictures of the work in progress - I added the static grass - this is the late summer blend - little too green so I will be adding more brown.  The sawdust that I added is much finer.  It is also new so the camera decided to make it much brighter and lighter in color.  I believe some A&I will take care of that.


Here is where I left off for the evening.


The pictures are very helpful in getting the colors right.  A camera exaggerates the light and dark contrasts.