Sandy Lake & Northern misc builds, etc.

[Rick]

Great looking scene.

[jbvb]

You've made a lot of progress since my last visit, Dave.  Apropos of your comment in today's Chat thread, you could use a half-barrel for the pigs' water, maybe hemmed in with biggish rocks so they don't push it around or dump it (yes, I've owned pigs).  The lazy alternative would say the fenced area includes a small stream out back.

[deemery]

You've made a lot of progress since my last visit, Dave.  Apropos of your comment in today's Chat thread, you could use a half-barrel for the pigs' water, maybe hemmed in with biggish rocks so they don't push it around or dump it (yes, I've owned pigs).  The lazy alternative would say the fenced area includes a small stream out back.

I can cut down one of those Grandt barrels I have somewhere, that would be appropriate.  The feed would just be tossed on the ground, no need for a separate feed container?

dave

[jbvb]

You've made a lot of progress since my last visit, Dave.  Apropos of your comment in today's Chat thread, you could use a half-barrel for the pigs' water, maybe hemmed in with biggish rocks so they don't push it around or dump it (yes, I've owned pigs).  The lazy alternative would say the fenced area includes a small stream out back.

I can cut down one of those Grandt barrels I have somewhere, that would be appropriate.  The feed would just be tossed on the ground, no need for a separate feed container?

Maybe the other half of the barrel, or a crude crib - pigs make mud for their own entertainment. While they aren't at all picky, they won't dig small stuff out of mud in my experience.

[deemery]

I painted the background rock cliffs.  This is the valley that will eventually have 3 bridges.  The one in the back, HOn30, is a wood truss.  The one in the middle, HO standard gauge, is stone arch.  The one in front, for a road, will probably be an iron truss.  But first, I'll have to finish the scenery in the gorge.

The primary texture is, of course, horizontal to represent sedimentary rocks, and that's highlighted with drybrushing on top of the texture in the rock substrate pieces.  The vertical lines (joints) in the rock add a bit of vertical texture, and it's always surprising to me how effective those few lines are.  A Pilot brand fine point marker works better than a Sharpie fine point marker...  (Test results from this morning's experiment... )


And here's the larger scene.  The farm is on the hill to the right, and to the left is Lamson & Goodnow, from a build challenge a couple years ago.

As you can see, A LOT of scenery to work on in this corner of the layout.  In the top left, there's the start of a forest.  The idea was good, but my execution was poor, so I'll need to redo that, and then probably work from the back down towards the front.  Doing the edge of the scenery to backdrop transition will take some work.

dave

[jbvb]

Nice rock strata.  A lot of progress overall since my last visit.

[deemery]

The Woodland Scenics rail fence kits arrived late yesterday.  They're quite nice, actually.  The gates are a different color from the rest of the wood, but that was easy to fix.  (The contrast between the gate and the rails was excessive.)  The idea is to use that to fence off the orchard, the open space between the dirt road and the cliff. 

I already have the apple trees, but I don't want to install them until I finish the scenery against the backdrop. 

The WS order also included some "Fine Leaf Foilage" kits. (https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/Fine-LeafFoliage/ )  These are flocked twigs, and will make good small trees/shrubs to fill in underneath the armatures and along the edge of the backdrop.  The only problem is the leaf color exactly matches the larger trees, but that's easily fixed with the airbrush...  A light tint of a different color will provide a bit of variation.

dave

[Rick]

Nice rock strata.  A lot of progress overall since my last visit.

Agreed.

[deemery]

Today I've been pondering lighting and valences.  The layout makes a nice U shaped curve, but the LED lighting strips I have don't curve at all in the dimension to follow the layout shape.  So I'll have to cut and construct segments of light strips, and connect them together.  Connectors for that project are on order.  

My neighbor owns a sign shop.  We were discussing valence materials, and he suggested 1mm PVC.  He'll get me a sheet and I'll cut the valances from that, after I get the LED lights installed.

Also, I've continued reading about DCC-EX and I2C connections.  I got parts for a simple project using that stuff, and I'll start experimenting with that, soon.  Before I do that, I'll have to clear out the stuff sitting on top of the workbench I use for electronics...

So if this inertia ("manic session") continues, I should make some visible progress on the layout.  

dave

[ACL1504]

Dave,

I like the rack strata, looks natural to me. The area is coming along nicely.

Tom

[deemery]

The parts to connect the LED strips arrived.  My plan is to use a combination of screw connectors and polarized plugs (rather than soldering the entire assembly together.)  This should make it much easier to install.  The solderless connectors for the light strips arrived today, and I've tested the combination, and cut the longest single light strip (almost 8', going along the back of the layout.)  I'll start installation probably Friday.  (First, though, our exterminator is coming tomorrow, and she'll want to see the farm scene.  Once she's gone, I'll remove the buildings from that part of the layout.)

But in the meantime, I spent a frustrating couple of hours looking for very specific LED strips.  I typed in what I wanted, and got all kinds of stuff that didn't match.  (12v, 4000k, 10mm wide, 60led/meter, high CRI).  Amazon's search was the worst by far, with Google second worst.  DuckDuckGo and eBay were better, but still displayed non-conforming results mixed in with what I asked for.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification  I finally found something that should work and ordered it.  

dave