I haven’t had a lot of time to work on the layout but I have started to do some ballast.

I started with painting the track with a mix of Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna.

After the track was painted I used half light gray and half gray with just a touch of cinders to ballast the track.

After the ballast dried I painted the center of the track to make it dirty and well used. I used a tarnished black wash through out the center of the track. Then a light rust wash on the nail heads of the track. Then I used a eye dropper with a black wash down the middle of the track to look like oil streaks.

River update and Custom Painting

I haven’t done a lot of work on the layout as of late but I though I would post some new photos. I have added some trees to my river bank and have added a neon sign to my hotel.

I still need to flock some of the trees but I just noticed I only have one colour of grown cover mixed to I will need to get more.

The sign needs to be raised up a little.

I have also had some time to do some painting. Here are some photos of some new stuff.

the start of a river.

I have started to work on some scenery. On the inside of the U part of my layout I am going to have a river, well it is more of a river bank with just a little water here and there as it winds along the track.

This was easy for me to do because I have a layer of 1½ “ foam on top of my bench work so all I needed to do was cut the corner of the foam off making it easy to contour. After a layer of plaster cloth I applied a layer of plaster to make sure the foam would not come in contact with the woodlands realistic water causing it to bubble.

 After a coating of Woodland slate gray paint I started to apply talus rock in fine and medium gray. To do this on the slop I painted a layer of white glue to hole the talus rock in place. After the glue dried, over night I put a layer of white glue and water mixed over the talus rock to seal it.

I also started to weather and ballast a small section of track. I Started by air brushing everything with rail tie brown. Then I painted some odd ties with a lighter colour of brown to make them look older. After I had the track painted the way I wanted it I added the ballast and used a stiff paint brush to move it around so it looked just as I wanted it. With an eye dropper I put 70% alcohol in between the rails. Once the middle of the track was wet I added the same glue mix. When you add the glue mix in between the rails after the alcohol it flows easy. It also pushes the alcohol out the sides covering all the ballast. I find that if you use to much alcohol it just get pushed out the sides by the glue and makes the surrounding all wet.

After the ballast dried, over night again, I added some fine ground cover to make it look like dead and alive grass. I don’t know if I like the way it looks but we can always pick it off with a knife.

Start of the yard

This week I added the yard lead and started the 3 arrival and departure tracks.

I have started the station platform but had to stop because I ran out of tenaX.

This is the start of my diesel shops.

Here is the start of my lumber yard.

I have also built a grain elevator but I don’t know if I will be using it on this part of the layout. I might keep it for future expansion

First Runing Trains

I stayed up late last night and got the track laid and with a quick wire job i have trains running. I know it isn’t much to look at yet but I am on my way. It is funny my main road I model is CP but yet the first 2 trains are the Northstar and BNSF.

I do model 3 different roads, First is CP second is BNSF and 3rd is Norfolk Southern. I model modern day, when I do custom paint jobs I try and find the most current roster photos I can so I can paint and weather my locos.

Here is my new workbench with a DPM building I have just started. Lots of work to be done.

 

Here are some pics of a few custom paint jobs i have done is the past.

It all begins

New Home Layout Construction

Well it has been some time since I have had a home layout but after getting married this summer my wife has let me start in the spare bedroom. So I started planning and after 4 months of planning I have come up with a track plan.

 The guys at the club helped me build the bench work. Some helped more than others.

After putting everything together I had to take it all apart to get it home in my little Civic. So after 5 more hours at home I have the bench work already to go.

Now I am waiting for the contact cement to dry so I can put down cork. Hope to get the outside main line and station track laid this weekend.

Cork is laid, sanded and contact cement applied. If it dries tonight then I will start to lay some track.