T.J. said:In reply to kazoospec :
As long as you don't make her live on the wrong side of them, things should be ok.
That and as long as some crazy engineer doesn't try to crash a train into her she shed.
T.J. said:In reply to kazoospec :
As long as you don't make her live on the wrong side of them, things should be ok.
That and as long as some crazy engineer doesn't try to crash a train into her she shed.
In reply to 7rx :
Today: More "site work" on "Grandma's house". 
Also got grandma's "Sheshed" done.
"Grandmas" is pretty close to ready to install on the layout. Just need to add a few details, add a few trees and plunk it down on the layout.
Finished Grandma's tree today. Made from twisted wire and chopped up foam.
Has Grandma seen it yet?
What did you use to shape the foam? Looks like you got smooth contours.
In reply to T.J. :
The "rough shaping" was done with a small handsaw and Xacto knives. The "finish work" was done with various grits of sandpaper. The foam shapes pretty quickly and easily with rough grit (80 IIRC) paper and lesser grits leave you with a nice, smooth finish. I still coated it with colored, sanded grout to give it some "texture", then WS grass was added after the grout was dried. Each "layer" (grout and grass) were added after the surface was painted with slightly diluted white glue. Then after the grout and "grass" were added, significantly diluted white glue (5 or 6 to one) with a drop of dish soap added is "dripped" in with an eyedropper.
Grandma's been keeping up via Facebook, and I believe we have the official "Grandma Seal of Approval", especially since we added the "she shed".
Tonight's project will be to try to "scratch build" a lawn tractor for Grandpa to "drive" on the lawn.
Tonight, I made the world's smallest Grandpa, riding the world's smallest mower.
Sitting on a penny for scale. It's SMALL!!!
In reply to kazoospec :
That's incredible!
Installed the Grandmas/Grandpas module on the layout tonight. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I still need to "blend" the base into the surrounding foam and landscape to the edge of the tracks. Otherwise, it's done.
Trees tip: spray paint or dye cheap furnace filters dark green. Paint tooth picks or squewers dark grey (seriously, trees are mostly grey) Cut various sized circles out of the filter. Slide the circles in descending order on the tooth pick. Secure it with with glue, if nessesary.
Use as is. Or roll the outer edges in a shallow tray of diluted white glue and sprinkle on ground foam if you want them fuller.
In reply to Appleseed :
Yeah, I actually looked for some of that when I was at Meijer last week. Unfortunately, they don't have the right kind of filter in stock. The trees on this module are a mixture of "twisted wire" and chopped/ground foam trees and trees made out of shaped/cut foam. I'm not 100% happy with either, but we're doing the best we can with what we have around the house. We've been slowly tearing apparent an old seat cushion for our foam and coloring it with diluted craft paint. None of it is ideal, but it's been kind of fun to try to figure out ways to keep going without feeding the Amazon machine.
When its safe to wonder outside again, take a look at weeds. I'm shocked at how many need little prep to become trees.
No updates in a few days, but I've been busy. Almost done with basic assembly for our tunnel/mountain setup on one end of the layout. I also did my first bit of ballasting for the parts that would be covered by, but visible with the tunnels. I started out making "modules" for each side of the two tunnels and the center section between them. They looked like this when roughed in.
I kind of forgot to take pictures for a day or two. This is our current status. It actually looks better in person than in pictures.
Next up will be blending the base with some Sculptamold, painting the top half, weathering the rock, and putting down a base layer on the mountain. Then I'll probably take a break from landscaping and build a cabin to go on the plateau above the bridge.
Took a break from landscaping today to build some trees. These were made out of toothpicks (smaller trees) and BBQ skewers, a green synthetic "steel wool" sanding pad, some white glue, some leftover WS "grass" and cheap hair spray. Not really the "official method", but we're still pretty much stuck with the supplies at hand. I painted the toothpicks/skewers dark gray using a "dry brush" technique, so that some of the underlying brown shows through. Then the sanding pad was cut into small squares. The various layers of the pad were pulled apart, a dab of glue added and then they were slid onto the "trunk". (All this sounds easier than it is). Cutting smaller "squares" for each layer gives the tree a tapered look. This wasn't really an attempt at "mass production", more experimenting with various densities of the pad material. For some, I also did the additional step of spraying the outside with cheap "high hold" hairspray and rolling the tree in WS "grass". This gives the tree a greener look and makes it appear ticker around the outside and thinner in the center, much like a lot of cedar trees. I couldn't replicate anything close to Appleseed's second photo. With the pad material spaced out, the trees tended to look like "growth rings" typical of a larger white/red pine. With the layers closer together, kind of like a fir tree. I ended up making a few of each just to sort of try things out. We are almost out of supplies at this point, but honestly, I like them all for different applications.
"Planting" them on the layout is inherently satisfying.
There is absolutely no official right way. You think the first guy to try ceiling tile rock had any idea if it would work? As long as it looks good to you and you're satisfied with it, that's the only test it has to pass.
Except broccoli. Yeah, it looks like trees. But it rots. That's defiantly the wrong way. 
Started work on "Grandpa's cabin", a fictional mountainside cabin for Kazookid2's other grandpa. Another "scratch build".
Given the amount of time it took to "sheet" the outside with toothpicks, it's a really good thing I've got nothin' but time right now.
I haven't (yet) used toothpicks for wall sheathing, but I recently spent some quality time applying shingles, so I can relate to tedious work that fits in well with being stuck at home.
Here are two of the 6 main roof sections. The 'shingles' are laser cut strips of paper glued on row by row. Part of a sheet of them can be seen in the top left of the above picture. I did these two first because they were the easy two without valleys or dormers or a chimney. I learned from doing these two to draw horizontal guide lines on the roof to help get the rows of shingles on straight. I trimmed the edges when I was finished. They look pretty good on the building. Got the dormers figured out, just have to make four of them in plastic.
Future layout location:
In reply to kazoospec :
Nice!
Today, I finished painting the "scenic overlook". Also added guardrails, signs and a trash bin. I'm eventually going to add a "scenic overlook" highway sign, but I need to name it first.
Trees: I hate making trees like many modelers. When I belonged to the N-trak club we actually had 'tree demerits' we used as faux punishment for member transgressions. Knock a guy's train over? 10 tree demerits! We all hated making trees so much nobody ever actually paid their fine but it became quite the running joke.
"You put a Penn Central caboose behind a UP steam loco? 500 tree demerits!"
This whole thing is very impressive.
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