November progress

It's been a long time since my last update.  A lot of that has to do with fiddling with plaster and spackle.  Seriously, the next time I build a layout I want to figure out how to just use styrene for roads and sidewalks.  I had a free day today that allowed me to concentrate and make a LOT of progress on this scene.  I've been thinking about this scene, and touching up sidewalks and driveways, and getting different options for backdrops, and today I thought of Jerry Seinfeld saying, "JUST DOOO IT!"  At some point, there's nothing left to think about, you realize you've done all the pondering there is to do and all that's left is to do the thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6E65iutAGI

Since this is supposed to be suburban Boston, I printed some pictures off of Google Street View and pieced some together that seemed to fit.  I even managed to get a couple that made it look like the street extends beyond the layout.  I used some spray adhesive and glued those to the backdrop.  I felt like I was on a roll, so I kept going and "secured" the buildings.  I used quotes because I used old track nails in the corners of the insides of the houses (in some cases, I had to drill holes in the bottom), so they're not glued down.  I can move them if necessary, especially if at some point I want to install lights.  The garages are glued down however - I figured, those driveways aren't going anywhere, so I might as well.  

Lessons learned:

1. Do your backdrop from one end to the other.  I did the two pieces with the roads first, which meant I had to get a little creative in between with what could fit/make sense.
2. While using some little nails to provide a set of 4 corners for the buildings to sit on seems like a good idea, it's tough to do in practice.  You think you measured correctly, but it doesn't take much for it to be off just a bit and doesn't fit.  It took a lot of playing around to get them set.
3. Like the interstate highway, when you design a street scene you eventually realize you're short on space. I wish I had a little more room for trees between the street and the sidewalk.  I kinda think I packed one too many houses into this scene, but we'll see what it looks like later on.

This scene is by no means complete.  I still need to put down grass around everything, install fences, and eventually trees.  And along the road, I need a couple commercial buildings, like a Dunkin Donuts and a package store.  The former is something I'm going to have to try to scratchbuild.  

Word on the street is that my MBTA commuter rail cars are inbound soon.

More houses

 I've completed two more houses - the Lionel HO Kee house (light green) and the Walthers Tillman house (grey).  I don't know if these are the final places I'll put these, but I think I have enough for the scene.  There's not a lot more lessons learned from these that I haven't found out from all the other houses already.  I kinda wonder if I'm fitting these too close to each other.  If so, there's more room on the other side of the street.  

Next up: sidewalks and driveways.  Then fences around each yard.  I'd like to pour plaster for the commuter train stop, but Rapido STILL hasn't shipped the commuter rail cars I put a deposit on last summer.  It would be nice to know how they'll fit there.

June progress

 I have some little pieces of progress to report at this point

 1. Highway embankment - I finished the remaining sections of guardrails as well as grass and ground cover for the slopes.  These are done, for now, until I get to more details (road signs, lights, etc)

 2. Steel mill and track bumpers - what they don't tell you when you build the Walthers blast furnace is that eventually, you're going to have to build parts of it again.  It's nearly impossible to keep all those pipes from coming loose at some point.  I left this until I had it in place on the layout.  It's not easy fitting some of these together, but I feel like I've achieved a balance of solidity (sections secured firmly together and to the layout) and flexibility (the ability for some to move if I bump into them).  I still want to add more piping around the scene but this is good progress.  I also added some track bumpers to the ends of the sidings.

3. ANOTHER house - I still have room for more houses!  And I feel like I'm not packing them together like one would in a very urban setting (it's supposed to be suburban, hence a little more space around each).  This one is the Miller house by Lionel.  Lionel started making some HO scale stuff, supposedly they bought out the old Model Power line.  This was a nice kit, the parts fit together well, it's a little toy-ish but I painted all the parts to tone it down a bit.  With a few more details they'd be at the level of a Walthers kit.  But a nice, classic colonial style house for the neighborhood.  I have room for at least one more.  In the first photo you can also see the 2-bay Norfolk Southern hopper car I added to the fleet.  It's a Walthers Mainline model, which I find to be a good mix of detail and affordability.

What's next - securing buildings around the steel mill and putting down more ground cover.  Buying and building another house, which hopefully will be enough for me to finally start planning out sidewalks and driveways.  And I should probably start thinking about more photo backdrops for these scenes.

A little scenery

 Two little spots of progress.

1. Roads around the rolling mill - I laid down some blacktop areas on either side of the rolling mill.  I figured a complex like this is going to need some staging areas for all the trucks going in and out, forklifts, and rolled steel waiting for shipment.  I needed that to connect to something, so I managed to find a tiny spot in between switches and feeder wires for a crossing.  It's only one lane wide but it just needs to look the part.  As I did before, I painted the plaster with Woodland Scenics asphalt colored paint then sprayed with a matte finish.  The road ends where it does simply because I don't the plan for what's going to happen past there.  I keep thinking I need to fill in some of those spaces in between with more buildings, but on the other hand, I want to be able to reach into those switches if necessary.  I feel like I can add all kinds of details someday - fences, power lines, workers, etc.

 

2. I have some Woodland Scenics ground foam in Earth and Green Grass colors.  I put down some of this on one side of the interstate embankment to see how it would work.  I used a fresh coat of latex paint as a base to stick to.  I'm not totally unhappy with how it turned out but not totally pleased either.  Since it's at an angle, it was tough for a lot of the foam to stick to it.  I like how you can layer the colors to create a more nuanced, natural look.  I'd like to get some more colors to work with and see what else I can do.

Up next: Obtaining some more highway guardrails for I-190; some more houses, because there seems to be no limit to what I can fit into that suburban scene; some ground cover around the steel mill area. Once I have all the houses I can plan out sidewalks and driveways. And whenever Rapido manages to deliver the MBTA commuter train passenger cars I ordered last year, I can figure out exactly how long the commuter stop will be.

Another house, and some guardrails

I completed yet another house for the suburbs, another Walthers two-story frame house.  These are nice models that give you some latitude in terms of details.  I also completed a couple of single-car garages for existing houses, for the workers who won't be taking the commuter rail to work.  I've built six houses so far, and there's still room for 2-3 more.  Once I've built them all, I will plan and create driveways and sidewalks.

I also built and installed some of the Walthers guardrails on the highway embankment.  I gave these some silver paint, then used a push-pin to start some holes and placed them into the foam and plaster base.  One thing I wish Walthers had done was to just give us longer pieces of guardrail.  If you want to use shorter sections you could cut them as needed.  Instead they give you these smaller lengths, which are tough to line up when you want to make one continuous stretch.  I need another kit to finish off the guardrails on this highway stretch.  I built more jersey barriers for the rest of the center area.  It also made me realize how many details are along interstates.  Not just guardrails and exit signs - you've got signs on the side that indicate what road you're on; mile markers; regular reflectors; speed limit signs. 

Next up: ground cover on the highway embankment.  Some plaster roadwork around the steel mill area.

More suburbs - Stafford house

The next kit I've built is the Laser Art Structures Stafford House.  I got this off ebay, and like the last one, I think it's been sitting around for quite some time.  I was in the middle of painting a room at my house and instead of buying another can of spray-paint, I figured I'd just use some of the latex paint I had.  The only issue with that was it warped the walls a little.  I was able to set everything correctly with some painter's tape however.  Like the last one of these I built, the tabs fit together well and it was easy to put together...until you got to the detailed stuff at the end.  They're way too optimistic about some of these pieces supporting weight or being able to withstand any sort of push to fit into where they're supposed to go.  So I didn't build the front portico or use of the side porch supports.  Whatever, it looks fine in the end.  I've built five houses for the suburban scene so far and it appears I still need one or two more.  

More suburbs - Sears Catalog house

Ebay allows a modeler in this age to acquire a lot of things that are out of production.  I found this one, a Bachmann "Master Craftsman Series" Sears Catalog house.  Remember how I said the last one, the Laser Art Oxford house, was one of the best kits I've built?  This was probably the worst.  I'm convinced Bachmann called these "Master Craftsman" because that's what you need to be to build this successfully.  I'll even look past the fact that some parts broke because they were brittle, I'll allow that the kit is old and I won't expect them to be perfect after all these years.  But a lot of the parts don't fit; some, especially the roof pieces, require you to hold them together for some time so they'll stay; the instructions told you to cut off some foundation parts that it later showed being in place.  You get to the end, and the steps are difficult to secure to the porches, and both these and the brick supports don't extend all the way to the ground!  The attic windows were tough to fit and stay in place; the porch railings wouldn't stay, I quickly gave up on those.  In the end, it's another house for the neighborhood.  I actually have room for a few more.

More suburbs - Oxford house

 This suburban project is going to go on for quite some time.  This installment: a Laser Art Structures kit, #617 Oxford House.  As far as I can tell, they don't make these anymore, so you have to hunt around a little.  They're laser-cut wood kits.  As you can see, the final product is very nice.  The pieces fit together with tabs, (very precisely - I hope you're paying attention, Walthers) and all you need is some Elmer's white glue to put it together.  Some of the trim parts, as well as the windows, have a sticky backing.  You do have to paint the pieces but I was able to just use spray paint (water based paints may warp the wood).  This was a really nice kit to put together, until you got to some of the smaller details.  That front awning was scary - you have to bend it, but if you bend too far and break it, there's no going back.  The roofs are paper shingles that you cut and glue strip by strip, which is tedious but comes out nice.  The windows have several layers to them, one on top of the next.  All in all, it's probably not a kit for a beginner (though the walls fit together so nicely that it sometimes feels like it).  

One little issue at the end - I trust the people at Laser Art Structures, and I trust the people at Walthers and Atlas.  But when I put this house next to the previous two I've built so far, it looks off.  Like this one is too small, or the other two are too big.  Someone's off with their scaling.  What I may have to do in the end is place the smaller ones in back, to give a sense of distance and perspective.  

I have a couple more houses coming in from ebay, which should be enough.  I have a couple other ideas past that to complete the scene, plus it's going to take a LOT of details - trees, lawns, sidewalks, driveways, fences, streetlights, fire hydrants, etc - to complete this.  As I said in the beginning, it's going to go on for a long time.