Looking at my last post, I had just attended the Temple Train Show in September. Fast forward 6 months, and I haven’t made all that much progress.
Funding remains my primary issue. I estimate I need at least 4 more turnouts to get the inner loop laid out and operational. At $14 a turnout, that’s rather expensive.
In the meantime, I’ve been working on buildings. I now have four buildings and a water tower pretty much “complete” (save for weathering/detailing). I’ve discovered that I really enjoy building wooden laser-cut kits—Somehow they just look more real than the plastic buildings (at least, if the building is meant to be made of wood).
Here’s my latest project that I finished. It’s a Northeastern Scale Models kit called “Valley Hardware and Plumbing.” Personally, it looks a bit big for a hardware store, so I’m not sure what it will be on my layout yet.
Anyway, it went together easily enough. I painted it a light grey, then when I went to paint another coat I used a darker grey by mistake. I was going to just sand it off, but I realized that by sanding lightly I let the lighter grey shine through, and it gave nice “aging paint” effect.
The shingles provided was just a graphic on a piece of light grey paper, and I wasn’t sure how to color it and preserve the shingles. I asked the folks on Trainboard, and they said to use chalk, so I broke out the chalks for the first time in a LONG while. I’ve forgotten how messy it is. Probably shouldn’t be doing it over carpet, either, but oh well!
I also found these great new paint brushes called “microbrushes,” which are basically one-time use brushes meant for tiny detail work—like the white cornerposts on the model here.
Building these wood kits takes lots of time and patience, but I think the end result is worthwhile.
Now my problem is that I’m almost out of structures to build. Oops? Guess I need to buy some more!
I’ve got a new locomotive on the way, so hopefully there will be another post soon. If not, see you in 6 months.
Great work on the wood structures, Talley. That's something I've been meaning to tackle, but have never quite felt ready to pull the trigger.
ReplyDeleteI can totally identify with the "on a budget" thing, too. I've been very fortunate to be able to do some locomotive work for people which has helped my hobby more or less pay for itself over the last few years.
You might find a niche building and weathering structure kits!
Great work and welcome to the Railwire.