You need to jump on this. Rediculus Amount of Kato track.
You need to jump on this. Rediculus Amount of Kato track.
In reply to Appleseed :
Unfortunately, we need more benchwork before we can use more track.
Keep going back and adding things. Added a dock and boat to the cottage.
Today, I got "Crazy White Dog's Pizza and Subs" (another family inside joke) roughed in. 
Painted up, windows and lights in. Working on the lot, signs and landscape.
Finished the sign yesterday. The uncle we're building this one for is sort of a lovable curmudgeon, hence the slogan.
Got the restaurant put down on the layout today. I also found a REALLY small white dog in my spares box, so Crazy White Dog's now has a mascot too.
Waiting for the sculptamold to dry, we did a "cheap hobbist" project tonight. Lumber load for flatcars go for $10-15 for the "cheap ones". Rather than spend on that, we bought a 1/4" X 1" X 4' strip of balsa for about $4. (It will make 3 or 4 cars worth if I stop cutting it wrong). I downloaded a lumber company logo, shrunk it down to the right size and copies it multiple times. I printed it on copy paper, drew in the lines and straps with a pencil and pen, cut it out and glued it to the balsa wood. Took about 30-40 minutes. If I "mass produced" them, the per copy would probably be 10-15 minutes. Results:
Got the groundwork around "Crazy White Dog's" done today. 
Current lighting situation "downtown". We're in need of some streetlights.
In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :
My son would LOVE one of those. If they made the Amtrak sign free standing, I would have placed an order already.
In reply to kazoospec :
Don't show him this:
In reply to Appleseed :
Yeah, that's the one I REALLY wish was a stand alone. Unfortunately, our train station is sealed up and planted on the layout, so we couldn't add it now if we wanted to.
Today, I got most of the groundwork between the train station/water park done. I also ballasted that section of track and built and added some destination signs (which actually read, "Battle Creek, MI" is SUPER small print) and some piles of railroad ties. Our prototype section currently has them and they help break up the monotony of that section. There really aren't any buildings or anything interesting in that stretch on the prototype, so it's pretty much done.
Today's addition: We added a food truck, a portable BBQ joint fictionally run my KazooJr and his cousin, which is confrontationally parked across the street from his uncle's Pizza/Sub joint. The truck was a fun little one day project and adds another family joke to the layout. 
In reply to kazoospec :
The line for the food truck contrasting with the uncle across the street made me laugh. Nicely played.
It's probably best that he doesn't get into the signs. I've ended up with about a dozen of them so far.
Tonight's addition: Fencing. I added the perimeter fence around the water park. I couldn't find anything in N scale that looked like the fence I was trying to simulate, didn't cost and arm and a leg and wasn't photoetched metal, which I HATE working with. After looking for a week or so it hit me. The fence I'm trying to replicate is about 7 or 8 feet tall. HO scale is roughly double the scale size of N scale, so a 4 foot HO fence would be about the right size in N scale. I found some decent looking stuff, made out of plastic instead of metal for about $12 instead of the $40 or so more N scale fence would have cost. The "pickets" may be slightly heavy, but it was easy to work with, cheap and gave the impression I was after. 
Probably gonna be a hot second before anything that looks impressive gets done. I'm currently working on a "2D" model for the back wall. It won't truely be 2D, but I'm only really modeling the rear wall of the building I'm working on. Here's three LONG evenings worth of work:
Cutting brick and cutting windows are both extremely time consuming. This has both in spades. Yes, there is brick sheeting available, but it's generally facing only, so I'd still have to cut everything out to back it, its VERY expensive and given the multiple layers on this building, I'd need a lot of it. So this baby will be hand crafted. Here's what I'm shooting for:
My goal is to have it done by the end of the summer. I'll probably mix in quicker/more fun projects so I don't stall out.
Took a bit of a break from the "Kelloggs Project". This one goes on the layout next to "grandpa's cabin". Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way it came out, but next to the Jeep, the scaling looks a little off (although the cab of a AA is smaller than you would think). Scale variation seems to be kind of an issue in N scale products more so than other scales. This truck was a "must have" because my dad previously owned a 1:1 scale version. Unfortunately, his health failed him before he could finish it.
The Prototype:
The model:
On the layout:
Tonight was fun. Painted lots of little cars to add some "life" to the layout. 
Still plugging away at the "Kelloggs" buildings. I've now got 3 of the 4 "roughed in". It's been a TON of work, but I'm happy with the results.
In reply to kazoospec :
You should see about convincing Kazookid to install an in-progress autocross...
Rough in is almost done, just an overhang and some pipes and railings to install, then it's time to start paint. Got about 10-12 nights at 2-3 hours/night into it so far.
Recon1342 said:In reply to kazoospec :
You should see about convincing Kazookid to install an in-progress autocross...
Actually, that's also in my vision for my post-retirement model RR I want to build.
Duke said:Recon1342 said:In reply to kazoospec :
You should see about convincing Kazookid to install an in-progress autocross...
Actually, that's also in my vision for my post-retirement model RR I want to build.
It is tempting, one of my favorite venues (MSU Student Lot in Lansing, MI) used to have trains running by it when we were racing. Sadly, don't really have enough open space on the current benchwork. Maybe if we end up doing an expansion later on.
Pic:
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