Layout Updates
These updates cover the last week of progress, and are presented in reverse chronological order (newest first).
9 April 2021. Didn't have the time to do any work today, but I did take inventory of the remaining tasks.
- add a few more vehicles
- add a bunch more figures
- add piles of rusty junk around the enginehouse, machine shop and tool shed
That's it? Yup, that's it.
8 April 2021. With the photo shoot for the article awaiting layout completion, I knocked off quite a few to-do items. First up, I created a layered, forced-perspective bank of trees to fill in the space to the right of the factory flats.
Next, the gravel works got some trucks and people.
The houses under construction got some construction detritus.
The freight crane got its hook and cable...
...and buildings got their signs.
Last but not least, the police car got its star.
7 April 2021. Spent most of the day finishing up the fascia.
6 April 2021. Work on my house temporarily interrupted layout progress. One of the first things I did after getting back into it was retrofit the passenger cars with flicker-free lighting circuits; see that page for details. On the layout, I continued mopping up loose ends, such as filling in the holes left by removed track nails, and adding more vehicles and figures.
But the big progress I made was running trains for the first time. Most of the work required to accomplish this was getting the rat's nest of wires in the tunnel under control to provide clearance over the track. The rest was a matter of cleaning rails and clearing flangeways. Stay tuned for a video. Meanwhile, I've just finished writing an article on the layout, which has been tentatively accepted for publication in N Scale magazine.
29 March 2021. The weather was very nice today, so I cut back on modeling time to get some outside work done. With the addition of the concrete road and lot for the freight depot, the scenery is now 99.9% finished—just a few more weeds and shrubs here and there will bring the scenery to 100%.
In other news, I added one more lighting effect—yes, I know I'm obsessed, but this is the very last one, I promise: I added a cool white flickering LED to the machine shop to simulate welding. (I'll have to make a video of it, since a still image is kind of useless.) With that, the wiring is now at 100%. Also, I've been working on the fascia, which is ⅛"-thick black sheet styrene. The fascia end parts are attached with the carrying handles. I just have the front part to do.
28 March 2021. Today was much like yesterday: hitting a few to-dos, while continuing with the police stop scene. The very last step in the station beautification project, refresh the platform gravel, was done today.
Below you'll see that the street in front of the houses under construction, as well as the terrain around them, have at long last been completed.
Then, not on the to-do list, the last two illuminated cars got installed and hooked up.
See the police stop page for a video of the effect.
27 March 2021. Finally knocking some stuff off the to-do list whilst continuing with the police stop scene. First up is the gravel works: I'd always thought that Pola overdid it with the roof holes. After all, the building is there to protect machinery, which I'm certain cost money. Why leave that investment out in the elements? So I patched the holes with black Washi tape. I actually think the roof is more interesting-looking with patches instead of holes.
Next up is the flower bed at the Newport passenger station. It actually hides a rather awkward-looking joint between the paved parking lot and the kit base.
And finally, most of the non-illuminated vehicles have been installed. This took most of the day due to the detail painting required, which included chrome bumpers courtesy of a Molotov chrome paint pen.
26 March 2021. The past couple of days have been spent, once again, on items not on the to-do list. What's occupied my time are lighting projects. The Mountain Vista Railroad was dominated by animation; the Newport & Rock Falls is becoming a hotbed of lighting effects. I'm working on several projects, including a "beautification program" for the Newport passenger station, which involves lighting the edge of the roofline. See that page for how it was done.
Next up is a sort-of-always-wanted-to project. I'd done it before for the White River & Northern IV: police cars with ski racks. Except that, back when I first did them (mid-1990s), micro-LEDs weren't available; all we had were 1.5 volt microbulbs, which of course were prone to burning out, not to mention enormous. I've been wanting to redo the project with LEDs ever since I was planning the aborted Black River & Western. Right now it's a work-in-progress:
All of the above (along with some more items) required five new controls, so I redesigned the artwork for the right half of the control panel to fit in the new switches. I replaced the old panel label with new artwork, and installed the new switches (roughly center, below).
