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.