With the weather being nice the last few days I got some time to go out in THERR RV and get some work done. I finished the ballasting on the entire left side of the aisle. Everything from the bridge at the top right...around and over the 'flyover'...around and down to where the 'eight ball' water tower is is now done ! Cleaned track and vacuumed the layout on this side. I also 'gleaned' the track on this side. We just have some touch up work to do on the scenery around the mainlines. We will get to that this spring/summer. I then did some work under the layout where the electronics are. I redid the DC/DCC switch and set sights on the wiring rats nest... I found my plastic 'wire wrap' this morning and things look a lot better now. My DC 'Tech II' sets in the drawer above the DCC system. OH...and I have been running trains for a few hours a day this week. .
Some nice progress there George. A great layout getting even better. I like what you did with the wire wrap although I wouldn't really call it a rat's nest before. Then there's running trains, that's the real fun.
Well...we had some decent weather yesterday so I went out and decided to repair the rock scenery that go torn up doing the new ballasting. I dug out my acrylic paints and set to work. The worst area was out by the 'horse ranch'. This is where I had to remove the last of the AZ rock ballast and apply my own ballast. This was the most damaged area ! BEFORE..... AFTER... While I had the paints out I noticed a lot of 'chipped' rock areas after 10+ years of layout use. So I just went ahead and touched up all the rock faces around the entire layout... Scenery work should now be done ! After the work was done I also got to run some trains for about an hour before I had to go in and make dinner !
I really like the looks of the rock faces in front of the "high line" tracks in the back. I will have a similar situation on my layout. I'll have to go back through this wonderful thread to find out how you did it, and I'm sure to find many other jewels while I'm looking!
Nice work George! It's like a refresh to the area and it's looking really neat after all that rework. Cool that you got some run time in as well. How's that Kato SD70ACe doing for you? BTW, you didn't mention what was for dinner though?
Thnxs... The SD70 ACe is running great. The new Scale trains GE ET44C4 Tier 4 GEVo, BNSF/Heritage III is running great. I just have to do some speed table work on both. BTW...we had homemade Fajitas. The wife makes the best Fajitas...yummmmmmmmm .
You got to love the look of your repairs, very well done my friend! ANd the Scale Trains GEVO is pretty neat moving around on the layout too! If you want some speed table samples that I use on my Gevo's and SD70ACE's let me know.
Today while running some trains it dawned on me that I really needed to fix the straight 1/8 inch Masonite piece I put in the back of the layout and in front of the back window. The plan was simple. Draw some mountains...get out the scroll saw...and fix it ! Today was that day !. It still needs paint and a few other things but for now...it aint a straight topped board no more... .
What? No OD Green mountain? That is going to look really nice when you paint them. It is already a big improvement just cutting the shapes.
Another hint - when that paint is all dry, take a cotton ball or similar, and dab in a few rock outcroppings just random here and there.....
As much or more than dark/light changes with apparent distance, color saturation diminishes with apparent distance due to atmospheric haze. So use progressively lighter and duller (more grayish) colors for the background layers.
