Ok, this is my first time posting a picture so I hope this works...my 7 yr old son pretty much designed this layout on his own (mom provided the cash of course!). The tunnel/mountain was our first real attempt at making our scenery. It turned out ok for the first try, thanks to advice from members of this forum! We are still waiting for some lights to arrive that we ordered off of ebay, along with the final area 51 car and we will be done until we move the setup into the garage. I know it's not as fancy and detailed as others but he's extremely proud of it and it's something he can still play with. I figure that when we have a larger room, then I can have my layout as well as his! In the mean time, we'll just play with his!
Ok, I've tried 2 different ways to post according to the directions at the top of the forum--I've also tried using the image icon in the message area...can somebody please help me out?
Neat layout! I would've given my right leg to play with that at his age.
Roland
P.S. had a little bit of extra "code" in your picture link...
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa107/mistyk11/?action=view¤t=P5030078.jpg
I just removed the Bold red from your link
USNRol wrote: Neat layout! I would've given my right leg to play with that at his age. RolandP.S. had a little bit of extra "code" in your picture link...http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa107/mistyk11/?action=view¤t=P5030078.jpgI just removed the Bold red from your link
Roland, thanks for helping me out with that! I edited my post so I could get it to post...now I see why it wouldn't work..thanks again!
As far as the layout, he's got a great imagination and loves anything military (as you can tell by the walls of his room) and trains....
Misty, looks great! Not a bad set up at all. If you go to a local hobby shop, you may get some older CTT, OGR or other magazines and let him look and get ideas. Not sure if your local library will have any train books, but also a great resource. I only have one question, Would you adopt me? I only wish someone else would by my trains for me.
Dennis
TCA#09-63805
Cool, glad to return the same favor that was recently done for me here.
Maybe next layout you and your son build will be of a NAVAL theme? That'd be even neater!
AKA: USN Rol
Cool! Nice job. The walls in that room are really neat. The Area 51 stuff is one of my favorites that Lionel has done in the last few years. Heres a pic of my son playing army with his trains. Very temporary layout being on the floor.
dwiemer wrote: Misty, looks great! Not a bad set up at all. If you go to a local hobby shop, you may get some older CTT, OGR or other magazines and let him look and get ideas. Not sure if your local library will have any train books, but also a great resource. I only have one question, Would you adopt me? I only wish someone else would by my trains for me.Dennis
Dennis, I blame the whole train thing on my sister-she bought him his Target/Lionel set for his birthday...she definitely got off with the cheap end of it! I keep telling my son he has to save his money for anything else he wants for it...he's now decided to save up for the Harry Potter Hogwart's set that is coming out in the fall. Of course, I'll probably kick in a little bit of $$ for it!
As for the hobby shops.. the only local one deals mainly in HO and the last time we were there, they didn't have a whole lot of magazines to choose from. We get a lot of our ideas from websites on the internet and the CTT magazines.
Roland: I'm sure he would love to do a Naval set up...he'd probably expect me to try to make up a seascape for him....I'm not quite ready for that one yet!!
Paul: Thanks for the comments...his dad painted that room. Took him forever but my son just loves it! I love your son's layout...it's all about the imagination for them and the fact that they are doing something he enjoys.
Very nice layout for the kids Misty & Paul !! Always great to see the kids getting creative !! Magazines on trains can help encourage them to read, too !!
Thanks, John
Misty, I have an idea you may want to try. If you can find some of the "Rope Lighting" that is popular around Christmas time, it comes in several colors, but a good green would look real neat with the "Area 51" theme. Also, right now, they are doing the "early buy" for the Hogwarts trains, so you probably should order one. If they follow the success of the Polar Express, the dealers will be on backorder before you know it. Also, the Early Buy saves some money and that is a good thing. I know The Train-Station.com is advertising the Early buy for this, but I am sure the other dealers are too. The other option is tell your sister to buy it for him I think the price I saw was about $230 for the early buy.
dwiemer wrote: Misty, I have an idea you may want to try. If you can find some of the "Rope Lighting" that is popular around Christmas time, it comes in several colors, but a good green would look real neat with the "Area 51" theme. Also, right now, they are doing the "early buy" for the Hogwarts trains, so you probably should order one. If they follow the success of the Polar Express, the dealers will be on backorder before you know it. Also, the Early Buy saves some money and that is a good thing. I know The Train-Station.com is advertising the Early buy for this, but I am sure the other dealers are too. The other option is tell your sister to buy it for him I think the price I saw was about $230 for the early buy.Dennis
And Dennis, I like the idea of the green rope lighting...we were looking for something to help the layout "glow"-I bought some of the fluorescent paint to try to paint something up but I like the idea of the the lights even better.
Misty, you've succeeded as a Mom. It really doesn't matter how it looks compared to anything else - in his eyes, he has excelled. And, I'll second the other comments - you've treated him very well by helping out $$$-wise.
His layout will grow with him as he matures. He'll change it, add to it, and try out different things. That's all that matters.
It's kind of like the parents buying their kid the super-wiz-bang contraption, when the kid is wetting his pants just to play with the box!
Carl
1688torpedo wrote: Hello Misty- Your son can use G-R-I-T-S to make Mountains with! They will be hard as a Rock & last forever. Just contact Laz. I think he used his Grits from the Harrisburg invasion to build some Mountains. Take Care.
Yes I did, hard as the real thing.
laz57
Always with the negative waves moriarti, always with the negative waves.........
Misty, had another idea, since you have the flourescent paint, you could put a black light above the layout and turn off the regular lights, the paint will really show up. Or, just go with the green rope light like I mentioned earlier. And don't pay attention to the mad man from Ohio, the 1688 suffers from Grit envy (he really is a good guy, but we don't want him to get a swollen head).
dennis
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
My wife wants me to repaint our bedroom. I'm going to do it in camo like your sons!!!
Jim
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
dwiemer wrote: Always with the negative waves moriarti, always with the negative waves.........dennis
Oh man, that one cracks me up.
dwiemer wrote: 1688torpedo wrote: Hello Misty- Your son can use G-R-I-T-S to make Mountains with! They will be hard as a Rock & last forever. Just contact Laz. I think he used his Grits from the Harrisburg invasion to build some Mountains. Take Care.Always with the negative waves moriarti, always with the negative waves.........Misty, had another idea, since you have the flourescent paint, you could put a black light above the layout and turn off the regular lights, the paint will really show up. Or, just go with the green rope light like I mentioned earlier. And don't pay attention to the mad man from Ohio, the 1688 suffers from Grit envy (he really is a good guy, but we don't want him to get a swollen head).dennis
I like the black light idea....I'm also going to look at the green lights-perhaps to outline the landing strip for the mother ship. He wants to take a piece of wood and paint a picture of an alien head to match our billboard that has a picture of an alien with the warning that trespassers will be shot. Between the paint, black light and rope lighting, it should really stand out. Keep the ideas coming!
jaabat wrote: My wife wants me to repaint our bedroom. I'm going to do it in camo like your sons!!!Jim
Jim, it's actually pretty easy to do (easy for me to say, my husband did most of the work). The hardest part was making the different colored blotches NOT look like actual pictures...he didn't want to just paint circles but you could tell he was running out of different shapes to paint. Some of them started actually looking like creatures and other things......It definitely turned out better than I originally thought it would. Plus, it's what he always wanted his room to look like. Now if he would just keep it clean....
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