I see the light

Trying out some new lighting.  A double strip of florescent's.  The fixture itself will be covered by the 2nd deck.  It's pretty bright.  But it also makes the details pop out more.

Ore Dock Development

It's been a while since I've been active on here as well as on the layout.  Too much real life to deal with...  : - (
But alas, I have started to work on the Ore dock.  I've never claimed to understand or even be good at track laying and when I first built the elevated track line that runs across part of the city and to the ore dock itself it  I've never put any track onto it.  I love the way ore docks look, but was disappointed to find that there isn't and hasn't been one made in N-scale.  (Like many things!)  I'm not adventurous enough to try the stick building process so I needed to come up with some sort cool looking support structure below it.  I suppose I could have bought more of the Imagine that elevated line kits and used those, but I already used 10 of those kits for the run up to the dock and they just don't have the structural dynamics I was looking for.  Then I looked at the Kato truss bridges, flipped one upside down and walla!  That's the type of trussing I was looking for.  Attach those to some gator foam core board and I just might be on to something here!

Looking down the existing elevated
line to the ore dock Note the lack
of track on it!  : - (

A look from the opposite
direction.  You can see the edge
of the gator board and 2 different
colored Kato bridges.

A view of the west side of the dock.
I'll need to fill the gaps between the
Kato bridges.  It will take 4 single truss
Bridges to complete the dock understructure.

A view from the east side of the dock.
Don't look too close at the dusty water,
with the cat footprints on it.  I haven't decided
if I'm going to make the dock dump from both
sides or only from one.  I'm not sure how realistic that
will or will not be. 

Here's one last view looking to the north. I will cover about
1/3 of the dock with corregated  sheets and then make some
ore dumping chutes.  I was also going to fashion some type
of a crank wheel that in theory would have been hooked onto the ore cars with a cable and as they got dumped they would
then get pulled onto the east side track so an empty load of
cars could get pulled away from the dock.

C.A. Gotts Fish Finished

Well C. A. Gotts Wholesale Fish is open for business.  As you can tell they've been around for a while.  Like the sign says, "Quality Seafood, known as the best"!  They should maybe invest in some newer delivery trucks I think.

An aerial view.  The pavement is 1/4" poster board.  It was
1st spray painted with an oil base paint, to prevent warping,
then I etched the the paving lines into it and followed with

a couple coats of Woodland Scenics concrete and an alcohol

and India ink wash.

A mini-metals ice delivery truck was
converted into their seafood delivery truck.
I actually made 2 of them.  I stripped off the
factory applied graphics with some 70%
isopropyl alcohol and then added some
smaller sized signs like those on the building.

The larger loading dock roof is some textured
paper that I did some dry brushing of pumpkin,
pigskin, and burnt sienna acrylic paints.  The decking
has a red wine vinegar and steel wool stain.

The foundation for the smaller is a strip
of Chooch products flexible walls, that's
stained and dry brushed.  The grass is a
bit of flocking from the grass-master and
some strips of tufts that I rip off of rolls
of the Heki long grass mats. Underneath
all of the grass is a fine layer of real sifted
dirt.

Just an opposing side view.  You can see the
sign on the truck and some figures thrown in
for activity.  I lifted up the smaller building with
the stone foundation so it has a larger loading dock
in the front.  You can also see the manhole cover
just to the side of the truck.  It's a simple printed one
that I kind of smushed into the pavement so it's edges
don't stand up.

C.A. Gotts Fish #2

Things are moving along in the fish business...Here's an update of the progress.  Next a little diorama of the scene.

Pre-rolled roofing on the 2 story newer structure

Blue painters tape on all the joints and
you can see the over hang roof rafter
detail.

I spread the rolled roofing with
a coat of Elmers extra strength
glue stick glue.  It's very easy to
apply with your finger.

As you can see the glue starts
out blue, but it dries clear.  It also
rubs right off your finger.

I add more blue painters tape over the
ridge and down the valleys on the roof
I paint over the tape with shades of gray and
metallic's, to simulate a metal ridge cap and
valleys.

I dry brush the rolled roofing with flat black
and white paint.  The sign framing is just scrap
wood and all the raw wood is stained using a
red wine vinegar and steel wool stain.

C. A. Gotts Wholesale Fish Part I

2 Posts in 1 day?  Whew...... Here's a project I've been working on, among many.  It's not really a kit bash per say, but a joining of 2 wood structures to make 1 company, the C.A. Gotts Wholesale Fish company.

       

Kit 1 is the Rabbit Hash store.

It's an  Ok structure, but there's a big

 difference in the quality of the pieces

between the  2 kits.

Kit 2 is the tool and Die Company.  This kit

has better wood, thickness wise and

the instructions were much better.

  

Starting the Tool and Die, using the

Micro-mark framing jig.

Rabbit Hash was the one I did first.  The sign is

too dark.  The building is sitting on a pink foam

base and then I used the self-adhesive wall

material.  I left out the right side windows

because it's where the building's will adjoin.

Here's an overhead shot with weathered and non-weathered rolled roofing material.  I use extra strength Elmers "Blue" glue stix to attach the roofing material (which is just the dark gray construction paper included in the kits).  It's really easy to use.  Simply slide the roofing strip along the face of the paper and lay it down on the roof.  It's really tacky and can be moved around if the placement isn't right. It goes on blue so you can see that you have covered the entire piece of paper, but it dries clear and is paintable.  I dry brushed the roofing after it was all laid out.

More to come.....

Visiting Model Railroader Magazine

It's been a busy summer so far.  However, back in June I paid a quick visit to MRM and was graciously given a tour by Steven Otte.  One of the biggest surprise for me was the the MR&T, the staffs layout was on the 2nd floor.  Don't ask me why, maybe it comes from being so used to seeing folks layouts in their basements, but that's kind of where I expected to see it as well.  I was privileged to see the new project layout, which was just about done at the time of my visit.  Another surprise was that the work shop at MR was much smaller than I thought that it would be.  They really work efficiently within the space they have!  If you ever pay a visit to Kalmbach take full advantage of when they say that you can take pictures.  I could kick myself for not snapping away a lot more!!  It was all so very interesting and Steven was a great tour guide.  Cody was off this day because it was his anniversary with Kalmbach and they are given the day off for it (Nice) and I saw a lot of the other staff working around the place, but I didn't want to bother them as I felt they were alreay doing me a great favor by letting me nose around their world on their time.  Thank you to Steven and all at MRM for a nice visit!  Below are a couple of the far too few photos I took.  However, it does give me a very good excuse to make a return trip!  

   

A look at the new project layout
it's very inspirational to say the least
Kent Johnson is working on a
larger scale layout in the background.

      

This is a coal dump & the main line
run that can be connected to
another section & continue on.

The modelling as you can see
from even my amateur photo's
is exceptional!  Fantastic detailing!

Miners houses near the mine.
Really nice terrain and structures.

  

      

The inspiration for my current layout
"The Beer Line"
It looked even better in person!

Another view of the Beer Line.
This is where, for whatever reason I stopped
taking photos.  Big mistake, because right
around the corner of this hallway that the
beer line is in is the MR&T.

Saint James Landing is complete

It took a while, but it's done.  I like it!  It has the feel I was looking for.  I still need to add more people and cars and as the surrounding scenes get filled in I'm sure I'll tweek a thing or two, but this is the nature of the hobby.  Please leave me some comments as to what you think of it.

An aerial view of St. James Church, Cemetary, the parking lot
and the rutted and rundown dead end of Bisbee Ave.             

Looking to the east from Western Ave. you see Lucky's Bar
in the foreground, the pharmacy next door and the back of
Saint James church and Cemetary.                                           

A photo of the kids playing basketball in the church lot
in front of Abes Radio Repair.  (I hope they don't hit that
Woody with their basketball!)                                              

Business is good at Dixie's Diner as the cook waits outside for a
delivery.  The diner is perched overlooking the Santa Fe yard office
as well as the State road 57 tunnel.

The Western Ave Citgo Service Station, Mulders Pharmacy
and Lucky"s Bar are all on Western Ave.  In the background
you can see a tree fort over looking the Santa Fe mainline.

Lucky's Bar on Western Ave. is a dingy little dive with live music
on the weekends and cold Budweiser 7 days a week.  Its stucco walls
could use some patching as the bricks are showing through.

Looking down the dead end of Bisbee Ave behind the Deli
and St. James Cemetary.  This street has seen better days.

The apartments and homes along Bisbee Ave are full and the
all the truck traffic makes it a noisy place to live.

Another aerial view of St. James landing, looking to the west and the backs of the business on Western Ave.  The paint factory will be going in soon in the lower right hand corner along the tracks behind Abes Radio Repair.

Bisbee Ave takes shape

Bisbee Ave runs to the east from St. James landing.  It is slowly coming together.  I'm doing quite a bit of scratch / kit bash building along the way.

St. James Parish still isn't in its final
spot.  The dry cleaners is also under
construction.

Abes Radio repair has taken up its place
next to the dry cleaners.  The church and
cemetary isn't in place yet.

Looking west uphill on Bisbee Ave.

The backside of Abes Radio repair and the
townhouse on the north side of the avenue.

St. James is in its place and the cemetary
is taking shape, along with some nice
wrought iron fencing.

An aerial view of the cemetary yard and its
surrounding areas.  I thought it was kind of
interesting.

I sceniced the north side of Bisbee Ave.
I like how the pinkn foam carves so easily
and makes carving rock work and coloring
it.  The iron fence around the yard is by Atlas.
There are also some residences on the south side
of the avenue taking shape. 



An aerial view of Bisbee Ave.  The bar and
hotel was moved from across the street
where it used to be teamed up with the deli and
bakery.  So far so good!



A closer up shot and a better view of some of the
south side of Bisbee Ave.  The street is paved with
patching plaster.







Saint James Landing

The Development of St. James Landing is moving along.  The church (St. James) was moved from the harbor area and there are some new buildings being added, while others are being moved around.  I just purchased another Brachs building kit so I can finish off the scene divider in this area. I'm also kit bashing some DPM kits into more residential type structures that'll go down Bisbee St. (Structures on a hill always remind me of Bisbee AZ, where everything seems to be on a hill.)  I'm thinking I'll put a small cemetary next to the church, as that wouldn't be too uncommon.

I'm starting to add the Chooch flexible stone walls to the landing.



All the elevations aren't correct, but you can start
to get the idea of what's to come.



Looking at the landing from the east, prior to
Bisbee St. being added.  I'm also getting
some ideas on what buildings look right.








A DPM kitbash and the start of the
drycleaning business.

A closer look at the back of the
drycleaners as it's getting
finished up.



Looking to the east and the front of the
new drycleaning business.



A new residence is started on north side
of Bisbee St., another DPM kitbash.
I need to get to work on the south side of
the street.  I'm thinking a couple more residences?