Canadian Rocky Mountains

[Wiredup]

it's been a while, and fundings been a bit shorter than usual... but I got some decent progress in... photos to come later.

I've laid down a good amount of land forms.

First step was one I was told not to do because it would cause cracks ad it dried, but I did it anyways because I had a plan. I picked up a big pail of drywall plaster and went to town using it like clay to build up banks for my river and of course cover those seems. After drying for a week, sure enough it cracked and shrunk, but I was able to go over it with a cover of plaster of paris to smooth things out and get rid of those nasty cracks.

The next step was the hills and mountains, which were done the wood-land scenics way of newspaper and plaster cloth. While in a local craft store to pickup the tub of plaster of paris I saw that they also had plaster cloth, and while more expensive (read 40% more expensive) they were having a 50% off sale which made it a bit cheaper, so I picked a few rolls up. I like it better than the woodland scenics stuff as it has a tighter weave and is a bit thicker. Instead of puttng the cloth in water first and then draping it over the newspaper and foam, I did it the other way and put it over the layout and then took my trusty spray bottle to wet it. I was then able to move it around a bit to cure.

I've decided my river is a lot larger than I anticipated, but until I can seal it off and get some resin I'm going to have to proceed with other things....


then news...big news given to me today.

I was about to start doing the yard when my wife looks at me and goes "I think I gotta pickup a pregnancy test today". So right now construction has been halted as we only got two bedrooms in our condo, and the train room is bedroom #2... so before I get too far ahead... I have to wait for the answer.

Now we only plan on being in this house for another 2.5 years anyways (mortgage renewal time! lol) which means if we are moving onto that next step in our life the child will be coming on two by the time we move.

What would the recommendation being to still use 2 walls of the room for a smaller layout (I'm thinking just a small terminal scene with a hidden staging loop... just to give me operations and hone my skills) along with raising a child in the same room for a year? I would be using a 2.5ft reach along the two walls. in a 10x10 foot room. it would really be two 7ft sections because of the doors to the closet and the hall, but should give me enough for basic operations. Believe it or not, this is the wifes recommendation.

The other plan of attack is just to packup the track and focus on acquiring more rolling stock, building structures, and kitbashing/painting the locos until we have space for the layout. There is a lot of wicked n-scale stuff coming out in the near future that I don't wanna pass up, and not having to spend money on landforms and track would ease the pocket book up slightly....