Touching Up a Painted Backdrop

I made a 20 minute-long video showing a technique for touching up a painted backdrop.This technique is a bit unique in that I use matte medium to blend progressively darker layers of color together on the backdrop itself. It can be a bit messy, but mistakes become your friend with this technique. I'm pretty pleased with the results!

A Couple of Update Videos

Here are a couple of update videos detailing what I've accomplished over the past year and my plans moving forward. The first video is one I recorded back in January of 2015 where I show off the progress I've made on my cement factory.  These are really the very first plastic kits I've successfully assembled in my lifetime and I am pleased at how they are turning out!

The second video I recorded last night and details a few simple projects I'd like to accomplish quickly to add a layer of fit and finish to the layout and encourage myself as I work towards that ever elusive goal of "completion". (Of course we all know that no model railroad is ever complete!)

What the heck happened here!?

Let me take a moment and quote myself from January of last year:

"It's a brand new year and a chance for a renewed focus on model railroading! 2015 will be the year of the railroad.  I plan on getting a lot of work done on the railroad this year and I plan to update this blog quite often with all of my latest efforts.

 That didn't happen. I had good intentions, but like a squirrel with ADD, I found myself distracted by all the pretty, shiny objects around me. I started and quit a webcomic. (That didn't work out.) Then summer came and The Witcher 3 got released and I put about 300 hours into that game. (My girlfriend did not appreciate that one.) Finally I discovered RC multi-rotors and airplanes in the fall. (That one got expensive quick.) The entire time my layout sat lonely in the basement with no one to give it the love it deserves. Something should be done about that.
Yesterday I turned the layout on  and surprisingly everything runs fairly well.  A good cleaning would be helpful for sure.  I think my next steps are going to be getting stay-alive capacitors installed in my locos and continuing work on the scenery. I hope to have some new stuff to show on a timely and regular basis. With that, I'll leave you with the immortal words of Bart Simpson:

"I can't promise I'll try... but I'll try to try."

Shedding a Light on Operations

I've been fascinated for a while now at how layout owners and operators handle large ops sessions requiring many people to work together to simulate a days worth real-world operations.  I'll admit it's a part of the hobby that remains largely beyond my understanding. (Though I'd love to take part in a large ops session one day) That said, watching nearly two hours worth of operations unfold on Mike Confalone's Allagash Railway does a lot to shed light on how a well designed operation session unfolds.  Here is a link to a free preview of the video.

If this captures your interest, I highly recommend you subscribe to Trainmasters.tv. It's full of fun videos like this and the production is outstanding.

Layout Progress Video #5

It's a brand new year and a chance for a renewed focus on model railroading! 2015 will be the year of the railroad.  I plan on getting a lot of work done on the railroad this year and I plan to update this blog quite often with all of my latest efforts.  I also plan on updating my Youtube channel regularly with video content as well.

To start the year out, let's take a look at what I've accomplished during 2014 (SPOILER: Not a lot.) as well as a look at what needs to be done in 2015.

Snow Shed

I'm back and I have something new to share finally! I've decided to scenic the hole in the right side of the layout with a snow shed instead of building the mountain side up more and placing a tunnel there. I've chosen this route for two major reasons.

First, I am attempting a faithfull (though admittedly compressed) version of the real box canyon bridge location and although there are a number of tunnels located on the real-world line, none of them are close enough to the Box Canyon scene to warrant inclusion. However, looking at the geography of the area, I could imagine how a snowshed might be useful.

Secondly, when was the last time you've seen a snow shed on a model railroad? They are out there and they are always very well modeled, but seeing one is a rare treat.

So, I've started things off by mocking up a cardboard version of the snow shed so I can get an idea for the size and shape it should be.

There are a HUGE variety of snow sheds out there.  Each one seems to have been custom engineered for that specific location. This makes choosing which way to go with my own snowshed has been very difficult. Having mocked this one up, I may decide to go with a squared off roof line instead. More like something found in some of these images.

Have any thoughts or suggestions?  Let me know!

Trees! Finally!

I haven't done much over the past few months, however I did get around to placing a few trees on my layout. These beauties come from Canyon Creek Scenics and are probably the best looking model pines I've ever seen! I purchased 13 of them ranging in size from 6" to 9" for my layout and I like them so much I think I'm going to purchase another 15 or so.  (It's amazing how just how many trees are needed to fill out a small layout.)

Having placed these trees temporarily on my layout, I find myself inspired to finally get around to finishing out my scenery.  Or, at least laying down some proper ground cover.

If you are looking for great looking model pines, I highly recommend checking out Canyon Creek Scenics.