Latest Updates:

June 30, 2007

I had the house to myself today, so I thought I'd try my hand at weathering in between chores. I've weathered a couple of cars lightly, with decent results, so I went for something more heavily used this time. I dug out my box of cars which have been in storage since the move. The first boxcar I pulled out was Vermont Railways #441. I wasn't sure how to go about weathering a dark car, but I gave it a try.

The first step was to give it a spray with a matte sealer that I've used on other projects. Once that was dry, I washed the entire car in a watered down brownish-rust color (Bestial Brown, from Games Workshop). I started on the roof of the car, then pulled the brush down the sides in an attempt to simulate rain. By the time I was finished, the car was more rust than green. I let this dry, then gave it another spray of sealer.

I wasn't sure what to do next. Some of the rust was a bit much, so I found a nice dark green in my box of paints. I used this to dry-brush the car, covering some of the larger rust areas, and bringing out some of the details of the doors and grab irons.

My final step was to dry brush a bit of very light green over some of the more raised bits to bring out more detail. I added more white than I wanted, but it's not so much that I can't live with it.

I'm tempted to go back and wash the car with black or grey, to darken it up again, but I'm afraid of going overboard. For now, I'll leave it as it.

June 25, 2007

I began work on a new version of the Green Mountain & Rutland tonight. My old layout, a 3'x4' oval, had been packed away since my wife and I moved into our new house. I've been wanted to build a new layout since we moved, but I haven't taken the time to do it.

A couple of weeks ago, I was given ten years worth of old Model Railroader magazines. Reading through the old issues got me to thinking about building a layout again. I've been wanting to build the Green Mountain yard in North Walpole, New Hampshire, for some time, and the new house has the space to allow for it. About a year ago, I was told about a track plan for that yard. The plan was by Scott Whitney, Jr., and appeared in the December 1987 issue of Model Railroader.

The article about the Green Mountain yard actually contains three track plans. The smallest is about six feet long, which is perfect for the space that I have to work with. The plan shows a layout that is two feet wide on one end, tapering to one foot wide on the other end. For modeling purposes, the Walpole yard has everything. The yard is sandwiched between Fall Mountain on one side, and the Connecticut river on the other. The mountain is steep and rocky, with a good mixture of trees. Route 12 also runs along side the yard, which will allow for modeling of a nice paved road. In addition, the yard contains a small five bay roundhouse, and a 60' turntable.

To begin with, I've decided to work on just the southern end of the yard. This will give me some practice with track, trees, pavement, and water.

My first step was to find some raw material to work with. I've decided to use foam board as a base, just as I did with my last layout. Since I no longer need the old layout, I decided to recycle the base from that.

The next step was to remove the track and ballast from the old layout. I had used rubber cement to hold my Kato track down, so pulling it back up was not problem. The ballast, which I had put down with white glue, came up just as easily.

Next, I cut the foam board into the new shape that I required. I decided to expand on the plan in the magazine a bit, making it two feet wide for the entire length. This will give me some room to model Fall Mountain and the river.

After cutting out the basic rectangle, I put down an enlarged template, made from a computer scan of the magazine article, to determine where the road, track, and river would be. I slowly cut away at the foam with a knife to shape a rough form for the river.

With the river cut out, I used some more foam board to begin forming the mountain on the east side of the yard. I built this up in layers, cutting away sections with a knife. I then glued all of the sections together, then left them to dry.

January 25, 2007

Finished my first n-scale vehicle this afternoon. A few months ago I picked up a few GHQ metal vehicle kits. I finally got around to starting one of them earlier this week. I decided to start with a Chevy truck to go in my lumber yard. The first step was a couple of coats of red paint, then some touch up. After that, a quick wash of black brought out the grill and bed details. Once the paint was dry, it was time to glue on the wheels. Of course, at this point, I somehow managed to lose two of the wheels. I later found one of them, but the fourth wheel needed a replacement. I ended up creating one out of Sculpey clay, hardened with a hair-dryer, and painted to match the original wheels. Once the wheels were attached, I added the details to the truck's bed, then hit the entire thing with a coat of dullcoat to seal the pain.