Friday, May 29, 2015

I'm Back!!!!!!!

WOW!!!! I can't believe it's been over a year since my last post! Life has been so busy, I've not had time to work on the layout. Well, yesterday and today, I found some time!!!

As I started working on scenery on the lower deck, I realized how messy it was. The thought of working on scenery on the upper deck over a finished scene on the lower deck concerned me. So, I stopped work on the lower and am concentrating on the upper deck! My main focus for now is Ackerman.
First up, I started working on a photo backdrop for the Georgia Pacific Chip Mill near Ackerman.I've got it held in place with some spray adhesive. I'll blend the edges with backdrop color paint next then add foreground structures and vegetation to hide the edges.

Next, I wanted to continue the pavement along Downtown Ackerman. I started with strips of Komatex for my road. I painted with some Ralph Lauren latex paint called Rock Chasm. It has a gritty texture to it. Here you can see a section of completed road next to newly painted road. After the paint dries, I'll lightly sand the road then paint on the stripping. After that, it gets an India Ink airbrush wash and that's it!
This next pic is of the scene with the old and new section of road in place. Turned out pretty good! As you can see, there is another new section of road temporarily in place awaiting stripes and weathering.
My roads have reached the end of the business row so before I can move much further with roads, I needed to complete my next business, a Gulf Service Station. This is a model originally built by Rich Cobb for me. I wanted to have more parking and side walks so I've added those. I don't have any paint to match the concrete Rich used so I'm waiting on the Postman to deliver it.
While waiting on the Postman, I decided to continue around the upper deck and get some more foam scenery base in. I've been needing to do this for a WHILE in case of a derailment on the upper deck. Long tumble to the floor!!!!!

Been a slow layout week...

I've had a slow week working on the layout as I got involved in a few DCC installs on some locomotives. One thing I've learned is DC...