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Allright! Got tons of odds and ends finished up, plus the sky is finished. All I need to do now is some minor clean-up in the room and then I'll start mounting shelf brackets... maybe move the existing layout in later this week? 
AC is in and working:
Touching up in the corner:
East side:
South side:
North side:
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The sky looks great, Gary, but how'd ya end up with that corner that's getting the touch-up?
Just my opinion, but I have a feeling that you're going to regret both the windows and the openings in the centre wall. 
Wayne
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GREEN WITH ENVY....... 
That looks sooo cool....Almost clinic-like... 
Gus (LC&P).
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doctorwayne Wrote:The sky looks great, Gary, but how'd ya end up with that corner that's getting the touch-up? Just my opinion, but I have a feeling that you're going to regret both the windows and the openings in the centre wall.
Wayne, that corner was up for considerable debate about coving. It is the "end of the line" for the point-to-point aspect of the layout, even though there will be a track there that curves onto a removable bridge across the door for continuous run. It just felt right to not cove that corner as it is behind the door to a certain extent and I wanted the layout to "feel" like it ended there at that corner. Another reason I didn't cove it is so that the "staging" interchange tracks can go all the way to the corner. At the time, I was thinking that the cove would shorten those tracks, meaning less cars, but really, they would only have been a few inches shorter. To sum it up, not coving that corner was based on emotion, not logic.  But hey, originally I wasn't going to have any coved corners... your advice led to five out of six being coved. And five out of six ain't bad! 
As for the windows and the center wall, again, all emotion. It just "felt right" to do it. Trust me, there have been plenty of times that I look at the windows and think "hmmm, the backdrop right there is rather short. But on the other hand, I'm still okay with what I did, and think I will be happy with it. Logically, there was no reason for the windows or the lower center wall... just a long series of compromises I'll have to live with.
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Thanks Gus, if you ever get up to Houston, you'll have to stop by and check it out.
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You bet I will....!! Hopefully some job will require a trip up that way, and I can travel on the company's ticket....
Gus (LC&P).
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Gary, What kind of paint are you using for the backdrop? I'm guessing it is slow drying so you have time to blend it, but I want to be sure because it looks so good.
I watched Bill Alexander on PBS for years painting wet on wet oil paint and thought the technique would be great for backdrops, but the expense of artists oil paint for a large area is quite a turn off.
Charlie
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Charlie, actually this was all water-based Glidden exterior house paint. I had HD mix 2 colors for me, the medium blue for the top, and a very pale blue for the bottom. I took those two colors and blended them in various proportions to make three more colors.
Colors:
Medium Blue
2 parts medium blue - 1 part pale blue
1 part medium blue - 1 part pale blue
1 part medium blue - 2 parts pale blue
Pale blue
I used a 9" wide 1/4" nap roller to paint a band (about 9 inches wide) of medium blue at the top. By the time I had gone around the entire room, the medium blue where I started was dry. Then I did a band of 2 medium blue/1pale blue color below the first band. I continued with each band, not worrying about trying to blend them at this time. At this point, I had 5 distinct bands of dry color on the walls.
Next, I took the 2 medium blue/1 pale blue and used a paint brush to apply the paint onto the roller (instead of a paint roller pan). I took the lightly loaded roller and gently rolled over the line where the two top colors met. In other words, I lightly rolled some of the lower color into the upper color. I used both horizontal and vertical rolling on this part, and took my time. The point was to leave some of the darker color showing through the lighter color I was rolling. I did this for each band. It was pretty tedious to be honest.
After this, there were still alot of places where the color bands could still be seen... obvious horizontal lines between the colors. So, to hide these, I mixed a batch of the upper color with the lower color at a 1 to 1 ratio and used that to roll over the line. I again used a paint brush to load paint onto the roller, and didn't cover the entire roller, only about 4 inches wide or so. I rolled very gently, not wanting complete coverage, but leaving some color underneath showing through. This pretty much did the trick. The blending is not perfect, but actually it looks pretty good... as if there are very hazy clouds lower in the sky, which is what I was looking for anyway. I may go back with some very light gray/white/pale blue and roll some on in the lowest color band to increase the feeling of a hazy horizon.
In retrospect, I would consider skipping the step of rolling the lighter color up over the darker color. Instead, I would just mix the two colors in a can and roll horizontally over the intersection of the bands, not going for complete coverage, but letting the dryed colors show through.
In all, I had nine colors - the original two, three more from mixing those, and then 4 more made from blending those together.
I'm very glad It is finished.
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Oh... a couple thoughts:
I used Glidden exterior flat because I figured it would be tougher than interior paint. The exterior paint was thicker than the interior paint I used for the base coats andthe ceiling. It may have been easier to use interior paint.
The paint color is much lighter when wet than when it dries. So, it is a bit scary when putting the wet paint onto the dried paint, as it looks way too light to blend well. But then as it dries, it blends in. This makes it imperative to keep track of all the colors that have been mixed, and use the right color for whatever band you are blending. Several times, when I was thinking "this color is too light to blend!" I would take a hair dry and speed the drying time just to make sure.
And... this took me the better part of three days to accomplish. :x As I said, I am VERY glad it is finished.
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Gary S Wrote:...... this took me the better part of three days to accomplish. As I said, I am VERY glad it is finished.
Well worth the effort, though, Gary. It looks excellent!
Wayne
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Gary S Wrote:AC is in and working... Just in time eh?!!!! I dunno 'bout you guys but we're already flirting with 90's here in Phoenix.
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Thanks DocWayne. It is raining today, so I have been dismantling some of the layout in the garage in preparation for the move.
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Gary, thanks for the instructions. as Wayne said, it was well worth the effort.
Charlie
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TrainNut Wrote:Just in time eh?!!!! I dunno 'bout you guys but we're already flirting with 90's here in Phoenix.
It's actually been very comfortable here in Houston so far this spring. We haven't even turned on the AC in the house yet. I think the highest we have had was 79 so far. Give it another month, and I'm sure we'll be in the 90s though.
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