dangit now I wanna go get our tree tomorrow! we cut ours at a local tree farm. We went to the same place for almost 20 years, old farmer had them, $10 for years. They would last a long time. We all like the tree and decorations, and the Mrs likes me in the living room playing with the trains instead of downstairs, so we would leave the tree up until it started to dry out. One year me made it to Easter....people give you funny looks when you have Christmas stuff that late. And I love the Ju-52. I have most of the WWll airplane models I built growing up hangind downstairs, but I don't think I'd be allowed to put screws in the living room cieling to hand a few 1/48 scale B-17s and a B-29, plus the escorts!
Dave
It's a TOY, A child's PLAYTHING!!! (Woody from Toy Story)
Just to tantalize you...
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
I...am...just...stunned...
I'm in the presence of greatness!
Here's the Standard Gauge layout I put together a couple of months ago:
Owing to occasional puddles down in the basement, I needed space in this room to move stuff to higher ground. So, I cut down the layout to a simple oval and erected a tree in the corner where the boxes had been:
Back in Plasticville, I really wanted to bring back the viaduct this year:
It's a great place to show off a train or trolley.
So is a windowsill.
Betcha can't guess where this is headed...
The snow is flying and with "sleigh ride" stuck in my head it's time for a few quick pics!
Finished this layout yesterday.
Besides all the new figures I painted over the summer, like "Mr. Blue Kazoo" by the station flag in the pic above and these two air personnel in the photo below, I made a few improvements to the layout and vicinity.
Since I now have ground crew, I decided to land the Ju-52:
You can see it here in 2017 hanging from the ceiling which is where it's been for years:
It's 1:48 scale and while still small compared to the 1:32 54mm figures I'm using it's a better fit than an N(?) scale DC-3 I used in the past. (Although with New Ray planes the scale is "fits in this size box". )
For some reason my MTH radar antenna runs poorly when it's hooked up to my layout's 14v power grid. So, I decided to install a switch at the front corner of the airfield. Unfortunately, this module is made on a sheet of foamcore board which is too light to hang onto while you're trying to hold it up with your head (or more acurately your ponytail) so you can connect wires underneath because if you lay it face down you'll damage the non-removable lighting but it doesn't matter anyways when a gust of wind knocks it off your head and breaks some in-series light bulbs so now you'll have to replace the runway lighting and returf the field.
Oh well. I made lemonade! The new string of lights has 15 more bulbs than the old one and with 3 coats of Tamiya clear blue acrylic they look better than their predecessors. The airport needed another coat of grass anyways so I did that and the original lychen bushes by the admin building had decayed almost to dust, so I replaced them with loofah.
Down on the floor (the airport is on top of a dresser) I also decided to finally take the plunge and replace my mountain panels. The originals were just green posterboard as you can see in this 2018 pic:
I washed my walls over the summer and they had to go. The new ones are acrylic on illustration board.
Trust me, this is a painfully simple technique and quite frankly no one is more surprised than me that it worked! All I did was cut out the board with a utility knife using the prior mountains as a template and then I went after them with craft paint. I made streaks of my primary shade of green with a brush and then immediately hit them with water from the same brush over and over until I had a good blend. The other colors I used were a light terra cotta and a sandstone color.
I allowed each "attempt" to dry before moving on. (A nearby fan made that much faster than "sitting and watching paint dry". ) I made each "layer" of hills darker working from top to bottom but when I put the first panel down near the layout I discovered all of it was too light. So, I did several washes of water thinned green till I was happy with the look.
By the way, I was using Lionel Scenic Railway background panels as my model:
Thank you "Lionel Trains: Best Layouts & Store Displays" Kalmbach Publishing 2015 for providing the excellent photos I worked from! Mine are not exact replicas, but they're A LOT better than green posterboard! BTW, this layout doubles for southeast asia in the summer so I didn't want any snowcaps. Lower down I simply filled a paint cup with two shades of green, hacked off a bit of sponge, and went at it:
When the cup went empty I just swirled together some more paint. If an area looked too dark, I added more light green. It's fun and surprisingly effective!
A note of caution: I noticed that as these panels dried they tended to "cup" toward the front face so I flipped them and misted them with "wet water" on the back sides to help them shrink back the other way. When dry the panels were flexible enough to straighten them. I attached them to the wall with 3M Command Adhesive Poster Strips for easy removal.
Today I installed a small tree on a table in the room next door so the Standard Gauge layout is officially ready now too!
More to come!
Hmm, I wonder if it's made it to the local Walmart here in Virginia?
I've got a mission now...
Now I'm thirsty.
Thanks.
That's fun! Thanks Becky!
Regards, Roy
Yum!
that looks like a dark, tasty ale. Perfect after a hard day of track laying,
and Gandy Dancing !
Paul
wrmcclellan Bummer - no pic showing, just a little blue square...what is the brand?
Bummer - no pic showing, just a little blue square...what is the brand?
Great Lakes Brewery Christmas Ale. Let's see if this one shows up for you:
https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/christmas-ale
Disclaimer: Please drink responsibly.
Penny...Great Lakes Brewing is one of the best! We need a Great Lakes boxcar to be built. Have you ever dined at the brewery? The Christmas Ale goes well with Roast duck, spiced desserts, and ugly Christmas sweaters.
Celebrating 18 years on the CTT Forum.
Buckeye Riveter......... OTTS Charter Member, a Roseyville Raider and a member of the CTT Forum since 2004..
Jelloway Creek, OH - ELV 1,100 - Home of the Baltimore, Ohio & Wabash RR
TCA 09-64284
How cool is that?
You know, this return to local craft breweries is a wonderful throwback to the old pre-Prohibition days when just about every big city neighborhood had it's own brewery. Not a big Anheuser-Busch type, mind you, but small and catering to the needs of local bars and restaurants. Prohibition killed them off of course, they just didn't have the capital to switch to other products like the big boys did.
As the song says, "Everything old is new again!"
Looks like it's going to be a fun Christmas in Cleveland!
I'm not a beer drinker, but I DO look forward to cases of this particular ale showing up in local stores:
You gotta love a company that uses a Lionel 512 gondola as a logo!
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month