The lighting is bad, but you get the idea.... blank spots are for backordered industries (n-scale... what a pain!) and no, I have not fixed the god-awful yellow centerline yet!... This is only about 1/3 of my layout. The rest wraps around into an intermodal yard and a place for a small town. In all, it's about 11' x 11' L-shaped. This is my first attempt so any constructive criticism is appreciated!
"You show me a man with both feet on the ground and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants on." -anonymous
Heya,Nice pics. I dig your materials loading facility. Is the rest scenic'd or just this end?
I'm with you about the lack of n-scale stuff. The structure shelf at my LHS is about three feet long - compared to an entire wall for HO. I'm planning to scratch-build just about everything on my little urban shelf switcher. Should only take me about five years or so
That is some *tall* canary grass down by the stream I bought some similar stuff and had to cut it in half to work with 28mm wargaming figures - guess I'd have to quarter it for my n-scale layout (mostly pavement and gravel though, so I don't need but a strand or two).
Keep up the good work!M
[edit]Oh, and a couple more things. Those are some good looking rocks. Did you cast them or use found rocks? Nice work either way. Second, was wondering about the chain-link fence. Who's the manufacturer on that? Looks good and I'm in need of some fencing. Thanks![/edit]
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Excellent job - you should be very proud of what you have shown there. As for the yellow lines on the road - have you ever seen them perfect in real life ?
Wow... first layout? Damn! That looks killer dude; you just shot up my inspiration and enthusiasm for my first real layout (today was spent playing with bachmann eztrack and my turnouts trying to flesh out a final track plan)
what did you use to paint your rocks? I'd be really interested in seeing some pictures of the unscenicked parts of your layout also if thats cool
Have Fun.... Bob.
jkroft wrote: The lighting is bad, but you get the idea.... blank spots are for backordered industries (n-scale... what a pain!) and no, I have not fixed the god-awful yellow centerline yet!... This is only about 1/3 of my layout. The rest wraps around into an intermodal yard and a place for a small town. In all, it's about 11' x 11' L-shaped. This is my first attempt so any constructive criticism is appreciated!
Wow, That's your first attempt?
The only thing i'd suggest is some (more) weathering on your buildings, veichles, rolling stock and engines.
looking good. keep us updated on your layout!
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot Visit my blog! http://becomingawarriorpoet.blogspot.com
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
jkroft wrote:Yeah, I thought that the grass is a little tall... I'm gonna wait til the pond is fully dry to cut them a little.
Well, looks good in any case...and I'm sure you can find some 12 foot tall grass in real life. My neighbors have some decorative grass that gets at least 8' by the time they cut it back each fall.
jkroft wrote:The fence is made by Miller Engineering. They're a little expensive though... about $10 for two 10 inch-or-so lengths.
Thanks for the tip. It's a bit costly but 20" is plenty so I guess I can spare $10 to have a decent looking fence
jkroft wrote:Also, I found 3-packs of Nissan 300ZX and 350Z at a LHS in Pittsburgh. I bought one of each but I don't know who makes them. There was no marked packaging and apparently there is no serial # system either... I forgot to ask the owner about it. Anyone know?
I don't know who makes these but I'm finding that it's real hard to locate decent modernish autos for n-scale. Buildings I can scratchbuild...Detroit rolling-iron not so much. My LHS has only a few and the Walthers catalog is dissapointing to say the least. I found a Mercedes SLK at my LHS and, when they took it out of the cabinet, it was missing the wheels and tail light (consignment item). I bought it anyway (I think he might not have charged me though) - and will figure out something. I used to have one of these and miss it sorely so I've got to have one on my layout!
Looking forward to seeing more pics!M
"Rust, whats not to love?"
mearrin69 wrote: I'm with you about the lack of n-scale stuff. The structure shelf at my LHS is about three feet long - compared to an entire wall for HO. I'm planning to scratch-build just about everything on my little urban shelf switcher. Should only take me about five years or so
I'm not sure what you are talking about. I don't model N scale, but I have noticed that there are more and more N scale locomotives, rolling stock, track, structures, vehicles and scenery materials available every day for those who don't want to scratch-build or kit-bach but simply want a plug-and-play layout (that's not a criticism, I'm all for it, especially in N Scale). I'm envious of some of the vehicles available in N Scale. In some cases N scalers can get two nice vehicles for the price that us HO scalers pay for one. My guess is that about 20% of my LHS's space is devoted to N Scale, 60% to HO and 20% to O and G Scales. That's pretty good considering that N Scale takes up less space for the same merchandise.
Ray
I agree. There is, of course, more and more stuff but very little of it is modern era. My wife wants trucks but all I can find, cab-wise, looks 1950'ish. In o-scale I see a big lovely blue Volvo cab. She says switch to o-scale but won't authorize a move to an abandoned warehouse so I can have a layout. In the meantime I'm stuck with some nice modern trailers and no cabs. Something's gotta give I don't fancy scratching a Peterbuilt in n-scale.
I've had better luck with rolling stock and I have collected a few nice pieces. Plus my fictional modern MILW is still in financial straits so maybe they have a couple of boxcars with the roofwallks just cut off and the supports left to rust
Buildings, though, are few and far between. There are a lot of beautiful Walthers kits out there for HO but I don't see a lot for N. Again, I don't mind scratch-building this stuff, though, because I want what I want. I might use some of that modular wall stuff just to save time. Looks okay to me.
I would definitely like to see more modern n-scale. I also want sound...I know they can make it that small. Guess we're getting off the topic, though. Let's see some more layout pics!
M
Constructive criticism...hmm.
There are a few spots where the ballast looks a bit overdone. This is an all too common problem in the finer scales. A little more practice will likely clear this up. The color of the rock outcroppings are dead on, but I'd suggest a bit more shadow detail (maybe some diluted india ink wash). Perhaps this is just a trick of the lighting.
Some of the rocks seem to 'float' above the surface they are attached to. The vegetation does a good job of suppressing this, but the rocks still need to be worked into the overall shape of the land. By this I mean they should look like part of the scenery instead of being added to the scenery. This is a bit tricky. I solved this problem by attaching my 'rocks' first, then working the rest of the scenery in around it. Which, of course, is just the reverse of what most scenery books will tell you to do.
Now that we have that out of the way, let me just say: Holy Freakin' Moly! This is your first?! I do believe we may have a model railroading prodigy here. Keep it up.
K.
Wow, this is amazing, just as good as other layout pics we've seen.
Keep it up!