Also got a possible logo done. Thoughts?
In reply to noddaz :
Complete with this guy?
I'm actually still plotting out ways to try to give the illusion of depth. I think it will end up being a mixture of "stitched" panorama photos of the "skyline" at the actual location we're modeling (if I can figure out how to do that), 3D building facades (like the Ralston Building from a few pages ago) and "2D" buildings of various scales to give the impression some are farther away than others. I've also got to decide whether I'm ever going to want to finish the surrounding room before I finalize the background details.
I'll probably end up using something like your photo above to give the illusion that one of the roads and the river next to it continue on over the horizon.
I just stumbled across this post and it reminded me of my dad.
We had an HO scale railroad setup when we were kids. It was on a single 4x8 piece of plywood and eventually made its way into storage in the late 60's.
After my 3 sisters, 4 brothers and I had all moved out, my dad took the board out and started to fix it up. He used one of the 5 now empty bedrooms.
it wasn't long before he grafted a second sheet of plywood to the original and expanded the layout. After the third sheet was added he out grew the bedroom.
So he moved to the basement which was 50x20 feet and built a custom track around perimeter of the room with a walkway in the middle. You had to sit in an old office chair roll under the track and pop up in the middle. It had mountains, marinas, cities, everything.
He built that system over the next 20 years until he passed in 2010.
When we sold the house, the new owners got one hell of a train room.
In reply to kazoospec :
I'm telling you the mirror trick works, especially if you put a truck heading towards the "hole." Angle it just right and hid the seams with a bridge, or lichen and ground foam and blow minds.
In reply to Appleseed :
I'm definitely going to play around with that on the one section where it might work. I'm not 100% sure how/if it would work, but a craft store mirror is cheap. This is the only picture I currently have of that area. It's got a road and a river section, so it might be tricky to make it work for both.
Got a package of "bulk cars" in the mail. There are only 3 or 4 different types of cars, but what was cool is that one of those types is a pretty decent replica of a Porsche Cayman. There are, however, no Saudi princes in our prototype city of Battle Creek.
Out with the old:
In with the new:
I touched up the black paint blops after the photo. They weren't very visible in person, but really jumped out in the photo.
Lights are working. Oddly enough, the circuit board that controls them is supposed to work off from AC or DC, but off the AC power system, all the lights would do was flash red. Switched over to a 9v battery and everything worked as advertised. At some point, I may address the "light bleed" out of the back of the housings, but for now I'm just happy to have them working.
Got the speed shop done today too. It has a few "famous customers". Since it's customary to decorate a speed shop with past trophies, the walls are decorated with really small T Shirts, which our club (The Furrin Group) gives out as autocross "trophies". There's also a working "welder" under the #24. (Wish I could figure out how to upload video)
Today, we replaced the 924 in our parking lot violator scene with a much more likely/believable 3 series.
Not really ready to start another big project, so I dealt with a minor irritation instead. Empty cars are boring . . .
Scratched out some rolled steel out of polystyrene and a load of ties from balsa wood.
Small addition tonight, but Mrs. Kazoo got me a trailer for the semi tractor we got a while ago. Got it painted up tonight.
This is so cool! I've seen your posts on Facebook but didn't realize you had such a detailed build posted here. I guess I should look at the off-topic discussion more often. I usually just go to the main board and build threads.
Tonight marked my third day of cutting windows and carving brick walls. . . I hate cutting windows and carving brick walls . . . but the next project is roughed in. It will be the Battle Creek Canadian National yard tower.
So, for the second time in this build, a stranger has done something pretty cool for me. Kazookid2 mentioned the other day that he wants to add "us" railfanning on our layout. For that to "work" for him, we'd need to be able to add one of our vehicles. (ASD is strange like that sometimes) I posted a question on an N Scale vehicle FB group asking if anyone knew where I could find either an N Scale Miata or an N Scale Yaris. A couple group members connected me with another member who sells N Scale cars on Shapeways. He sent me a couple "proofs" a few minutes ago. When the final versions are posted on Shapeways, I'll probably buy a bunch of them, and post the link here, 'cuz every model railroad needs a couple Miatas.
Proofs:
EDIT: I should mention, these weren't existing models, he did them for us.
Adult children get excited and warm-fuzzy when a kid is interested in their hobbies. It often leads to interesting things. How else would this kid be allowed to poke around a B-25, unescorted?
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