May Progress

I've been thinking, and tinkering, and dithering, and I finally finished off a couple tasks that have been in the works.

First, the parking lot for the Dunkin Donuts as well as the signage for the small plaza building.  I'm amazed at how much room you need for roads.  And especially for parking lots.  This is just enough for a few spaces, a run around for the drive through, and some space between the buildings.  For the signage, to keep it in a suburban Boston theme, I have a Greek pizza place (all those are called a "House of Pizza") and a package store (where you buy beer, liquor, and wine).  

Secondly - I didn't have room for the Walthers Blower House to connect at the end of the blast furnace.  I built that general "steel mill" type building out of the Walthers Metro Power Plant.  I wanted a way to connect one of the pipes from the blast furnace to there.  I had to create a pipe - that was done with some Plastruct pipe which I just taped together with masking tape and spray painted.  I needed something to hold the pipe up - so I created some pieces with extra plastic sprues from old kits.  Good enough to look alright back there.  It doesn't have to be technically correct, it just needs to look the part.  I also took the chance to secure down some of those buildings - the blower house, the coke ovens, and the rolling mill.  I try to use nails if I can, but that one part of the coke oven I had to glue down, I couldn't reach. 

Also, I should point out that now that temperature and humidity is into spring/summer mode, those kinks in the tracks have morphed back into a normal shape.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that in the fall/winter.  From what I've been told it's because the homasote and the wood are expanding/contracting at a different rate than the rails.  Maybe I need to take out a screw or two around there from the fascia, to let things move a little more.

Lessons learned:
1. I've said it before, I'll say it again: save extra parts from previous kits, you may need them for something.  
2. I still don't know how to use that plastic weld stuff.  As opposed to just Testors glue from a tube.  The weld stuff STINKS.

What's next:
1. Ground cover around the steel mill area. 
2. Ground cover around the Dunkin Donuts. I feel like I need something more - like a little forest behind there, to transition toward the bridges.  
3. I would love to get some Super Trees. But they've been out of stock from the manufacturer for some time now.  Maybe I'll get a couple really nice stand-alone trees for the suburbs, and leave the Super Trees for more dense wooded areas around.  

4. It's time to figure out some ground cover and stuff for the brewery and printing company.

5. Backdrops for that area, plus the river channel scene.