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.

Dunks

To accurately portray a suburban Boston scene, I had to figure out how to build a Dunkin Donuts.  Those things are within throwing distance of each other out there.  I thought about scratchbuilding this, but then I found the Walthers DQ Grill and Chill kit.  With a few modifications, and an accurate paint job, it more than fit the bill.  Most of these are similar but not completely standardized - so all I had to do was keep it within the prevalent style.  

I also built the Walthers Glover Park Hardware kit to be a small plaza building.  I installed a styrene partition down the center so I can divide it into two stores - a package store and something else. 

Two steps forward, one step back: we've had a really cold stretch of winter here, and my layout suffered more instances than usual of parts of flex track warping.  I read that it has to do with the temperature and humidity in the basement and how the wood and homasote shift.  I tried to build in some gaps when I laid the track but I guess it wasn't enough.  Rather than start cutting track, I'm going to see how soon it reverts back to shape.

Lessons learned:

1. Having some scrap styrene around is handy.  When you need to add something to a kit, like a partition, or a sign.
2. I have yet to figure out how to be careful enough while gluing windows.  I always get some glue on there and it's impossible to get off.  I tried Goo Gone and it did nothing.  

What's next: pouring more plaster (ick) for parking around these buildings; signage for the plaza building; some railings and a sign for the commuter platform; and hey, maybe it's time to plant some grass.

Commuter rail

I had this past week off and I was determined to finish something on the layout.  As you'll see, I finally received the MBTA Comet commuter cars from Rapido and I figured it was a good time to build somewhere for them to stop.  I didn't have much room, but it's just long enough for the end doors for all three cars to disgorge their passengers at once.  I modeled it a little on the Endicott station on the MBTA Franklin line, which isn't much more than a dozen parking spaces and a platform.  I started with a piece of cork roadbed, upside down, which I figured would bring it close to the level of the rails.  I cut a piece of styrene for the top (which overhangs the cork a little), and another thin one along the front, both installed with construction adhesive.  I cut two sets of stairs I had from a previous kit to size and installed those at the end, using a different kind of adhesive that would attach to plaster.

The passenger cars are SO cool.  They feature detailed interiors with alternating red and blue seats.  Plus they light up inside.  I don't have an MBTA engine yet - Rapido sold some but they were a very old paint scheme.  I'm glad I jumped on these and pre-ordered them, they're sold out everywhere now.

You'll also notice that I installed a bunch of the fences for the suburban neighborhood.  I glued them together, painted them, then drilled small holes in the homasote to place them.  

Lessons learned:

1. Don't throw out any spare parts from kits you've built.  Odds are that somewhere down the line, you'll be able to use something.  In this case, the stairs.
2. Not everything attaches to everything else with Liquid Nails Projects construction adhesive.  I had to use a clear one meant for other things to get anything to attach to the plaster.
3. I've said it before, I'll say it again - plaster sucks.  I ended up filling in holes and smoothing it out with the drywall spackle I've used before.
4. Like anything, the scene isn't totally "done" yet.  I need to add some railings along the back of the platform and some handrails on the stairs.

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.