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How about a layout party? Everyone post a photo or three of what you've been doing on the layout this month, and plan to do in the next couple of weeks. Let's get caught back up on where everyone is on their railroad empires.

For me, I've been doing some ballasting and dirtwork lately. Eventually I'll get around to the greenery, but I am holding off on that until I get the rest of the terrain carved into the blue foam - don't want the little "staticky" particles getting all in the scenery. I am using a mix of woodland Scenics ballast, light gray, dark gray, buff, and a touch of black and brown. For the dirt, I have been using fine sifted dirt from the unpaved roads in the area. I've got several different colors, light gray, light tan, light brown, and dark gray/black. Also sifted some tiny pebbles that I add in here and there for some contrast to the fine stuff.

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Added some culverts here and there:

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Put in a little housing addition and a road, the mock-up houses are made from 2x4s. I don't know that I am happy with the arrangement of the road and houses. Funny, since I have been building from the prototype, I am second guessing all my freelance stuff. I mean, I know the prototype stuff is how it would really be, but don't know about the stuff I create. This photo also shows more culverts and drain pipes.

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And another shot of the neighborhood. The house on the right is one that Kurt sent me. I'll build some more similar to that, and add garages and fences sometime in the future.

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Gary S Wrote:Put in a little housing addition and a road, the mock-up houses are made from 2x4s. I don't know that I am happy with the arrangement of the road and houses. Funny, since I have been building from the prototype, I am second guessing all my freelance stuff. I mean, I know the prototype stuff is how it would really be, but don't know about the stuff I create. This photo also shows more culverts and drain pipes.

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I really like the way your ditches and culverts and roads make a natural looking whole for this scene - they connect and flow naturally, and even the house mock-ups look good enough to make this a very plausible looking neighborhood. Great work!

Smile,
Stein
Gary, you needn't model the prototype in every way, but the deal about freelanceing, especially when freelancing based on a prototype is to emulate the prototype. There's no need to take it as far as my club is going, where the neighborhood in San Bernardino near the Depot is all structures built from plans of the actual houses.

But if you build your freelance houses using a similar architectural style, similar colors and landscape plantings, the layout observer will be comfortable that they know where they are, because everything they see is familiar to them. In other words, if your scenery was like in one of California's valleys but the houses look like they've been plucked from a West (By God) Virginia Coal Company Town, the look would be troubling to the viewer, sending a mixed message.

That's why your bank scene is so successful, it is "familiar.

So once again, observation is key! Look at and see the houses in the area where you are modeling. They may be very similar to your own, or not very much like yours at all. Discover the flavor of the houses where the rail line that you are emulating runs and sketch up a rough diagram of what makes them look the way they do, and those will be the elements to include in your houses. Steeply pitched or relatively flat roofs? Gabled or hip roof styles? Wooden, brick or stucco construction? Large or small windows, single or paired ... those are all the types of things that will make your little neighborhood "feel like home."

Now ... have at it!
Gary S Wrote:How about a layout party? Everyone post a photo or three of what you've been doing on the layout this month, and plan to do in the next couple of weeks. Let's get caught back up on where everyone is on their railroad empires.

gonna have to get on that! to much stuff to do! Too many locomotives, to many cars, not enough room. going to have to fix that...

Quote:Put in a little housing addition and a road, the mock-up houses are made from 2x4s. I don't know that I am happy with the arrangement of the road and houses. Funny, since I have been building from the prototype, I am second guessing all my freelance stuff. I mean, I know the prototype stuff is how it would really be, but don't know about the stuff I create. This photo also shows more culverts and drain pipes.

I think i can see what you mean. Those tracks look like they cut awfully close to the back of those houses. I thought that other structures need to be about 15' from track center (though this may be PRR electrified territory spacing) It looks like your houses on the left are VERY close to the tracks, and those people would have no back yards. Perhaps shifting them forward slightly would give a better feel?

You say its prototype, do you have pictures? if they are that close, then its just a weird thing.

I do like the culverts! That is one thing that makes me mad that i built straight onto plywood, since now everything is perfectly flat!
Okay, a bit late , but here's what I've done this month in regards to my layout.
- Some base scenery put down.
- Some track ballasted
- 3 Manual turnout mechanisms installed and tested, including microswitches for the frog polarity.
- A little further with my locomotive service facility , the building is finished in it's basic form, now needs loads of details...

Piccie below :-) More on the construction and some of my other railroad modeling antics can be found on my blog, see link on bottom of my post.

Koos
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steinjr Wrote:I really like the way your ditches and culverts and roads make a natural looking whole for this scene - they connect and flow naturally, and even the house mock-ups look good enough to make this a very plausible looking neighborhood. Great work!

Thanks Stein, I appreciate the comments. I don't so much like carving the foam for the ditches and terrain because of all the mess it creates, but it is definitely fun to do the dirt and the ballast, and it feels like good things are being accomplished. So, I trudge along with my Stanley Surform tools and a shop vac while carving the ditches, and then perk up when it comes time to sift the dirt and ballast on. Smile
P5se Camelback Wrote:So once again, observation is key! Look at and see the houses in the area where you are modeling. They may be very similar to your own, or not very much like yours at all. Discover the flavor of the houses where the rail line that you are emulating runs and sketch up a rough diagram of what makes them look the way they do, and those will be the elements to include in your houses.

Very good advice, biL. I am going to look around my area in google earth for some dead end streets similar to what I have on the layout, then drive there and take some photos. Surely I can find a street like this, and then I will have a guide to making the layout area look plausible.

The two story house that Kurt built is very similar to something that would be seen in Houston's older neighborhoods, so it should fit right in.
Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:You say its prototype, do you have pictures? if they are that close, then its just a weird thing.

GEC, the neighborhood is completely freelanced so far. I agree, the houses are close to the tracks, and that is one reason I don't like what I have so far. I also think I made the road way too wide. Most of the older neighborhood roads are barely wide enough for two cars to squeeze by. I need to take some measurements of the real thing. As I mentioned to biL, some google earthing is in order!

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:I do like the culverts! That is one thing that makes me mad that i built straight onto plywood, since now everything is perfectly flat!

Thanks! The 2" foam definitely gives the ability to put in the ditches and other terrain that goes down. I've said it many times before, but in Houston, the significant terrain all goes down, not up.
Koos, thanks for contributing. Back on the old Gauge, we would do these layout parties every so often, and it sometimes gave us the nudge to get some things accomplished. I always enjoyed them, and hope they catch back on here.
i think it's a good idea, and it works , it gave me a kick up the backside! :-) I just went up to add a bit of board for an extension to the backdrop I'd been planning to do for ages, but didn't do till now as I wasted my time on forums... ;-)
So the board is up, the glue is drying, and I'm planning to give it a coat of base blue later on, ready to paint more clouds. :-)

Koos
I like this Idea Gary Thumbsup . Here is a few pics of what I'm up to on the old pike. I started to prep Easton PA. for scenery. It just about ready for ground cover, just want to install a few more switch machines first..[Image: 20110420192257.jpg]


I'm experimenting with making my own ground foam. I'm not to wild about the color, but that's an easy fix.[Image: 20110420192242.jpg] the whole mountain side will be covered with it once I get the results I'm looking for with the foam.
Hi Gary and others
I like the idea of this so I'll add what I'm upto at the moment. My camera isn't keen on the daylight bulbs used to light the layout, so they aren't particulalry great but they look much cleaner in real light.
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A few better looking photos:
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A lot to do I know but its getting there, need some better light in there. The buildings still need bedding in, detailing and dullcoating.
More in my thread
(NW 22nd St)
Dave
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Well, here's what I've been up to. Yep, that's me sitting there on that crate, 'resting my eyes'. Ha - I wish.

Inlaws visited and Easter is coming so family and work took priority for a while. Also my wife hosted a '31' party for selling designer bags so it was all hands on deck for cleaning the house. Eh - it was time for a good spring cleaning anyway.

Took this picture back in February so the video I posted in the BB&G HO box car thread is more current but really the layout hasn't changed since then. I still need to get the backdrop installed, lights figured out and installed, and the second layout section completed (where the arch bridge is going to reside) before I can proceed with any more trackwork or scenery or wiring.

Oh, and decals arrived...but that's another thread for another time...

Galen
It's not "on the layout ( new modules )" yet, but it is for the layout.
I took a Lindberg "Brig of War" kit ( hull, modified ), and I'm rebuilding it as a 32' lobster sloop. Only the hull is plastic. Deck, cabin,fittings,spars are all wood.
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The 12' X 16' shack is laminated card stock ( it was in an Evergreen Diamond tread package as backing for the plastic piece ), Trim is wood, and yes, "shingles", hand cut and hand applied, as I did on the boathouse, the window muntins were cut from some Grandt line windows. The lobster pots are micro plywood, and Strathmore ( samples from a design project that got shelved ).
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I have a dock assembly designed for the shack to sit on, and the sloop to moor to. These will go across from the "seaport", but not under the steel arch bridges, with a walkway back under the bridge, to land, at the base of one of the abutments.
I'm filling up five acres of water way too quickly !
Hello Everyone---with lots of help from my good friend Doctor Wayne,we've made lots of progress.Still a long way to go but we're getting there

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