Northwest Short Line 18 ton HO scale Shay...again...

It just looks better here than it does sitting on some white paper...its empty eye socket now filled with an M.V. Products .166" light lens.

Woodland Scenics burns down...

...a well respected and long time manufacturer of various forms of scenic ground foam and kits.


---unknown photographer

Quite a loss to the hobby, I hope they fare well.

UPDATE: From Trains.com

"Dear all,

As you may have heard we have experienced a fire here at Woodland Scenics and there is good news and bad news. The good news is that no one was hurt during the fire or evacuation process. The bad news is that it took out a couple of our manufacturing buildings. However, and fortunately, there is more good news than bad.

We encompass multiple buildings that are spread out all over the town of Linn Creek. We only lost two of those buildings and those two contained just a small portion of our manufacturing facilities. Our shipping department, warehouse and corporate offices were spared any damage, as were most of our manufacturing buildings, so it is business as usual.

Thanks for all your concerns.

Respectfully,

Gale Cousins
Director of Sales & Customer Service
Woodland Scenics"

Modeling water...

...in short, I hate it. I'm not too fond of any of the current techniques, each having their own compromises. One simply learns to live with the shortcomings of ones chosen technique, mine being varying shades of acrylic paints coated with many coats of clear gloss medium, interspersed with gloss coats that have been tinted with various shades of brown, green and blue.

The water where I live has a noticeable tea color from the cypress trees along the shore. I simulate this with a couple drops of brown craft paint to tint the gloss coat. Ditto for one coat of green for algae and one coat of blue for reflected sky. The effects are much more subtle than the camera gives justice. A nice touch is the ripple effect in the simulated sand bottom created by the tinted water settling in the styrofoam beads that is very noticeable near the ends of the bridge...




The acrylic, like most products, has an unsightly edge creep that needs dressing up...not as bad as most but foliage patiently applied works very well here.

The girl is Frankensteined together from 3 different Plasticville figures. I made a putty out of styrene sprues dissolved in liquid plastic cement. Once applied and hardened, it carves easily to any shape, in this case, the hair and contouring her body to be more feminine (she started out life as a brakeman, mail carrier and male pedestrian).

The pier is cobbled from scraps in the junk box with some wood dowel for pilings, then aged and weathered.

Scenicking the Procrastenatan River...

...4 1/2 years after I put the shell down...sigh...

My technique is fairly simple...buy lots of cheap half-full bags of Woodland Scenics ground foam at train shows for pennies on the dollar. Paint the shell with a generous coat of equally cheap Wally World craft paint...then coat it liberally with various shades and coarseness of ground foams while the paint is still wet. Over spray it all with a mist of water with a bit of alcohol in it to help drying time, then dribble a 50/50 water and acrylic matte medium solution over it all...touch up as needed.

From the, "I will build this someday" files...

...this neat roadside garage/warehouse made using a standard 50' boxcar found near one of my complexes...







Details to note would be the lone window, the small T-111 sided shed to the right, roll-off dumpster, the roll up doors and mismatched siding...no doubt from some recent storm damage. It's also far from any trackage and there is no evidence of any roadbed near enough to cover the era of the car.

Daze end...

Been awhile since I posted some model scenery...

September 1973 Model Railroader cover...

...quite possibly the single most influential photograph in terms of jump-starting me into scale model railroading. Irv Shultz made magic on a 18" wide shelf around the room, and used things common to a beginner such as Code 100 brass rail, Atlas turntables and every day kits modified and rearranged to suit his purposes. The mine rig was especially praiseworthy in that he didn't used a lot of expensive nut/bolt/washer castings, making that particular structure an easy reach for a kid with very little spending money (never mind the lack of skills) at the time.

I first saw this when in the ninth grade at Deer Park Junior High's model railroading club in 1974. Mr. Rhoades earned no less than the Congressional Medal of Honor for his patience with 15 (that's what it seemed like at the time) teen-aged boys in an orange/white VW Westfalia, running around on 695 in the greater Baltimore metro area from hobby shop to museum to hobby shop, even forking over extra coin to those of us who fell short of our dream purchases.



Here's to you Mr. Rhoades, wherever you are...

A covered bridge to model...

...a little artistic license would be needed to cut an entry and exit point...and maybe move an interior wall or two...or three.

MRC Dual Throttle pack install...

Back when I first built the frame for my layout, I under-guesstimated the room needed to operate the throttles on my MRC pack. I rectified it this weekend by cutting an 1 1/2" out of the upper frame. This allows my mitts to go where they never could before...





There was something of a caveat...I was too lazy to remove any rolling stock or scenery. The rolling stock and locos didn't budge...but...



...the same however, cannot be said for downtown Albertson...sigh

1:87 scale Ertl John Deere 310SE backhoe...

"Bring it down before it fouls the main..."

Ertl 1/87 John Deere 310SE Backhoe Loader...

...picked up at a local festival some time back. The torches are scratchbuilt from a hand truck, using carved sprues for tanks. Gauges were made from sliced styrene rod with levers made from lift rings and hoses from fine wire.

Malibu N scale Micron City Dept. of Corrections bus...

...well...almost N scale. My primary MOS when I was in the reserves was POW/Corrections security. Thankfully, as RTO, I saw little floor duty.

We sponsor a prisoner I've known now for over 20 years. He's an "uncle" to my kids and it's been a joy to watch him grow in Christ over the years. Because the prison system he is in does not provide basics like underwear, shoes and toiletries and he does not have any family, we've been trusted by God to take care of his needs over the years with what He blesses us with.

We normally send him pictures that the kids have drawn for him. This time around, I put a picture together for him from my model work---"Uncle Bud goes for a bus ride". You can almost hear Axle Foley belting out "Roxanne" in the background...



When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Here, there or in the air, buddy, it won't be long now.

Herod's Temple in 1:100 scale...

...Geoff Robinson Photography

Wow...

Model Railroading musta been a hoot...

...in 1955. From page 124-125 in the book "Model Railroading", written by Harry Zarchy, in the chapter "MAKING SCENERY", here's what is suggested for covering your window screen wire mountains...

"Ordinary asbestos furnace cement can also be used. Mix the powdered cement to a putty-like consistency, adding a little water at a time. Apply it to the screen with a putty knife, or your hands, modeling it at the same time as though it were clay. Do one small section at a time...Powdered asbestos is sometimes mixed with Portland cement or plaster of Paris to make a covering for wire screening."

Been a while since you could go down to your local hardware store and pick up a bag of asbestos powder...



Apparently it was a readily available and popular modeling medium back then. From a caption under a picture on page 26 in the book "Scenery for Model Railroads" by Bill McClanahan...

Andy _____ uses a mixture of 20 parts asbestos powder, 2 parts plaster of paris, 1 parts paper hanger's wheat paste, 9 parts water (all by volume) to make tacky plaster that he applied to screen with wet fingers...

Little Plastic Beings...

I tend to buy most of my figures as unpainted castings. This way I can modify them as I see fit so that there is no repetition in poses. The girl on the pier is a composite made from no less than three figures, the embracing couple is done with five. I make a plastic putty from the casting sprues by dissolving them in Testor's Plastic Glue. I apply lumps of it where I'd like to add hair or enhance features, allow it to harden about 24 hours, then carve it to shape and paint. My workbench can look like Frankenstein's lab at times...

2009 Favorite picture countdown, 5 and 6...

Though clearly the scenery is unfinished, this shot enhances the sun baked and worn look of my grade crossings and roads.



I like the disembodied look my old photo set made on this picture. It captures the look of the old engine builder photographs well. Alas, I sent the set down the river for lack of space.

Bachmann HO scale N&W Class "J" 4-8-4 circa 1985...

Hard to believe it's winding down to 2009. I'll wrap up with my favorite 10 pictures in no particular order...


I like the look of two guys just admiring a Class "J" from up close, free from the crowds something like this might draw in real life.

...and this shot of a mixed local on the Miracle Strip Model Railroad club layout.


For an inexpensive camera, the depth of field came out real well in this shot.

Miracle Strip Model Railroad Club Open House 11/02/08, Part II...

Miracle Strip Model Railroad Club Open House 11/02/08, Part I...

Mattel HO scale Mach 5...

Still reeling from the outstanding flop of his first major motion picture, Speed Racer takes up delivering pizzas for some part time coin, hoping the DVD sales will make up the rest. He's been spotted around Selbyville recently, hoping the economy hasn't hit the girls in the clothing store and Sternly Hardcase at his garage so hard that they can't cough up a good tip...





Now, while you Mattel folks are at it, how about making...

---"Batman Begins" Tumbler
---"Back to the Future" DeLorean
---Racer X's car (the real one, not that goober movie thingie)
---"Better Off Dead" '67 Camaro SS

All in 1/87 of course...I can think of more but this'll be a good start.