jeff train

laugardagur, 14. júní 2014

Spring Cleaning�.again?

Spending the day clearing all the stuff out of the workshop area - I'm tired of tripping over boxes of old phone cords, bags of styrofoam peanuts and a box with my sons old Citadel shoes (from the looks of them it's a wonder he ever passed inspection of any sort�) And that doesn't begin to cover the various kits and other model railroad parts I have still stashed away.
In the meantime my new milling machine is still sitting in the box since I "don't have the room to set it up right now!"
Regular readers will recall I started this back in Mach and made great progress, until we had the leaky pipe issue. That meant everything in the storage room ended up in the workshop and layout area�. and frankly I lost a lot of steam after dealing with the mess and repairs.
There's op sessions the next two weekends, and some of the guys are coming over for a short work session tomorrow, so it's the perfect day to (finally) get the junk out of here and to the curb where it belongs.

föstudagur, 13. júní 2014

Sky Blue Paint

Tore, and a few other blog readers have asked me about the sky blue paint I've used for the layout room and the peninsula backdrop. Readers in the US simply have to walk into a Home Depot and ask for Behr's "Silver Strand."
For those who don't have access to the brand name of the paint, the mixture labels on the two cans I've used over the years are shown here. A paint store should be able to match the formula. Although the numbers are slightly different I've never been able to ascertain any difference in the color between these two cans that's worth worrying about.

fimmtudagur, 12. júní 2014

Distant mountains behind Waterbury

I added some distant hillsides and mountains to the wall behind Waterbury last night. I need to leave this backdrop somewhat unfinished for now. I plan to spend my layout time this evening finishing up some areas that need static grass - specifically around the underpass and north bank of Williams Creek. Then I need to start clearing off the layout, including putting away the scenery materials and backdrop paints, in preparation for my operating sessions on the 21st and 28th.
I also have a few of the usual suspects coming over for a small work session this coming Sunday.

miðvikudagur, 11. júní 2014

Wordless Wednesday #50

Drew Daniels Granite Shed #2, Waterbury, Vt., ca. 1910.

For an interesting multi-page brochure A Plant and Its Product, Drew Daniels Granite Company, see this web page:

http://quarriesandbeyond.org/article_list.html

þriðjudagur, 10. júní 2014

"Not a Cloud in the Sky�."

With all due respect to Karen Carpenter that's not quite the case anymore.
I painted the basement walls sky blue before starting construction, but it looked exactly like what it was - a plain blue wall.

A vast expanse of blue wall behind the peninsula needs a few clouds to liven things up a bit.

Tonight I decided to add some horizon line clouds and a line of clouds slightly higher in the sky. I'll come back tomorrow and add some distant hills.
While it's not exactly going to put anyone "On Top of the World" I think it does look better.

I painted these using tips I picked up from video series on MR Video Plus and from Chris Lyon's four-part series on TrainMasters TV.

miðvikudagur, 4. júní 2014

Wordless Wednesday #49

mánudagur, 2. júní 2014

Grassing up the creamery area

Overall view of the creamery scene.

Spent some this evening adding the basic layer of static grass to the area around the creamery. I also added a row of trees to separate the creamery scene from the pasture area. As time permits I'll add some additional textures, various weeds and small bushes to break up the surface of the grass.

New tree line between creamery scene and pasture.

The next view is a close up look at the tree line with some of the various textures/static grasses in place. As an aside, the more I take photos of this area of the layout, the more I'm convinced the east wall of the basement needs to be painted "sky blue" and not tan!

I also added some static grass in an effort to blend the road into the backdrop photo.