new layout progress

[wickman]

Thanks, won't be much going on in the summer I have a 2 wheel hobby to tend to as well.

[Palpatine001]

Heck all mighty Took me a few attempts to load your pages with even my wireless crashing out twice End of the day it was worth the wait as boy that is some impressive layout and even gave me a few ideas as I reach Scene Two of my layout under construction Be watching this layout with keen interest

[wickman]

Thanks for the interest, I beleive the wicked wandas structure I used floquil paint and a wash of alchohol/india 

[ChevelleSSguy]

What are you using to stain the wood for those great looking structures?

[wickman]

Here's a little something I had been working on for the new hill area. I did a bit of mockup in ps with what I'd like to acheive, and completed the Wicked Wandas business except for a few missing details.

 

[wickman]

I finally got around to roughing in the backdrop , it still needs alot of work but the trees will take some time and I plan on experimenting a bit more. Pics are from the right and around, please excuse the mess as I didn't want to destroy any bridges or buildings. 

[wickman]

Checked on the envirotex this morning and was quite happy with the results although there will need to be some current added as it is just like glass. The details come through quite nicely. I don't think I would be any further ahead giving the river another pour although I beleive I could add more details into the river and repour without a problem, I think I got at least 1/8" if not more for dep I also took a few pics of the old waterfall and creek area, all I did here before pouring the small lake uptop which I simply cleaned off the base and poured till it overflowed to run down the falls and then at the base I just cleaned the surface of the WS surface I poured last year , added a bit of sand and gravel, taped off the fascia opening and did the pour, this was also a good 1/8" or more.

[wickman]

After alot of work with wedges and big crow bar and level finally got the river bottom leveled ( could have swore I checked the river for level before) I checked the levelness by pouring water in the river and got acceptable results.Scenery for banks also pretty much done, I'll add msc bushes and trees later. Also got the sawmill put in place and most of ground work put in or at least enough so I could prefare the river to be poured.

[wickman]

 I still have to place the junk pieces next to the sawmill, paint some people, I've just started on  a jordan 1922 Stake Bed truck that will be backed up to the mill floor entrance,need some logs, a sawdust pile, the road has to be detailed a bit more,wood strewn around, I'm also thinking of buiding a sawdust burner kit I have.

[wickman]

The rafters all done and roofing done well except for the 3 barrels to be installed on the peak. I tried to beat it up a bit. The castings I have left are mostly for the ground around the sawmill.
As you can see I made the whole a bit bigger to fit the dioramma, I think once I reshape the river next to the sawmill it should look pretty good.

 

[wickman]

Here's a few pictures of the sawmill. This is a very slow going build but I'm enjoying it.
Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[wickman]

And so I got a start on the sawmill.

[wickman]

So I then decided I needed another river but before I could condemn myself to digging a river I realized the sawmill had to go next to the river.
So here's how far I got with the river. I will have to narrow down the area by the bridge since I realized the sawmill will need a bit more area.

[wickman]

Ok so lets see if I can bring this thread upto speed, I have a few things on the go, its one of those things where you work on one area and realize something else has to be modified first and so the battle goes.
So starting in the rear I decided I wanted to add a couple more bridges and an area built up for a few shops.
This was my idea, well kinda

So I removed a couple hills and rerouted the rail and started with a couple styro blocks and a piece of thin plywood

I had one long bridge already that was bridging over the falls so I recommisioned it  and I built a couple more , one for the falls short span and one for the short span on the new hill

 

[CSXDixieLine]

Wow...great project you have going here! The roads look fantastic. Jamie

[wickman]

Here's a bit of an update starting with the wharf deck and peers, entire deck is one board at a time nailed down.This was originally where I had a hill. I also will be adding ywo more bridges behind the warf area.

 

 

Wharf in place, I'm going to give a stone wall effect and the grounds around the building and upto the wharf edges will get a ground goop effect.

[wickman]

On the base of the TT I put a real thin coat of ground goop then a lite coat of sifted baseball diamond dirt then a coat of green ground fall. I tried some Bragdon powders around the walls of the TT but they didn't seem to take very well but it is dirtier looking. I also put down some ground goop between the tracks leading out to the TT and sifted some black sand blasting sand. Still more to do in this area one thing for sure this TT works well.

[wickman]

Thanks Paul , I just dirtied up the engine service yard and turntable. I'm think of maybe deleting some of the older construction pics as I think it may be kinda slow for opening the thread.

[BNENGR]

Hello Lynn,

WOW!!! What a fantastic layout! You are doing a great job of it. Great buildings, track, scenery the whole nine yards. Your work is an inspiration to me. I'm building an HO scale layout based in 1985. The Burlington Northern hauling in Montana & Wyoming. I'm currently switching from DC to DCC and adding on a large yard to the layout also. As was previously mentioned, it's not WORK, IT'S FUN!!! Keep up the good work and the pics coming. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Paul

[wickman]

Thanks for the positive comment , I'm still not completely happy with it yet , its on my list of things to do to make them not quite so high , add some ridges and tree lines. Its all a learning process.

[aav]

             I'm not Van Gogh or anything but that mountain backdrop on the wall is nice. it's a nice backdrop for your good looking scenery.

[wickman]

Here we go the turntable is in place permanently , all the tracks in place and tested . This TT is awsome , it connected up in less than 5 minutes and is super easy to program for the rails. The controler you see will mount flush or in the facia. The TT has the built in circuitry for auto reverse. The TT motor is powered by a dc ( AC ) power supply where as the bridge rail is powered off the power district rails, which by the way I used the 3rd of 4 power district for the service are so as to take the load off the other 2 districts. I also swapped out the 5 amp power supply with a 10 amp.
I also got the ash pit cut out , I gotta see about getting some real ashes for the bottom and surrounding area. As you can see I also have to give the ground some kinda cover , probably start with some black or green paint, not sure as yet. Suggestions for scenicing up the rear hill and area is more than welcomed, although I believe this area should be fenced in for sure.

[wickman]

Here's a bit of whats been going on for past while as you can see most of the tree line has been planted along the ridge of the mountain.I've been trying to work from way back and come forward.

Here's a couple pics where I built the road and added a small scenery divider for Stuffies Brewery. For the hill I just stuck a piece of 2x4 down covered it with ground goop and earth and planted grass, I will be planting trees real soon to further devide up the scenery here as well as putting up a fence.

 

This pics a bit scarey its the shelf for the command station and I'm using the old DC power pack to power all the stationary decoders

 

So don't nobody say I haven't been doing nothing .   :D

[wickman]

Thanks Mike I've been trying to stick to as natural a products that I can for the scenery.

[mikelhh]

 Lots of character and interest in your layout. Your scenic work is impressive.

 Great job! 

   Mike

[wickman]

Here's as far as I've gotten around the room starting from the left side to around the corner and continueing onward. about 20 feet to go.

And here's an over all pic from a few steps back

I'm thinking maybe to not paint in trees for two reasons one is I stink at it and two as my wife suggested, I will be building up the tree line at the base of the mountains with small trees and secondary growth stuffage

[wickman]

Great stuff, this looks realy good! Who's make are the old looking buildings? I like the run down look of them, very atmospheric. Had a study of all your rocks, did you make them on your old layout by adding various rocks from WS molds? I guess on the new layout your using a lot of Brandon molds?

Thanks Gary I figured you might get a better idea of the rock work looking at what I accomplished.

On the old layout the rock work was entirely done with woodland scenic molds.

The old buildings were scratch built by a friend of mine from differnt fsm buildings as a guideline, I too like the run down look which is why I'm into the messy look of scenery and dirt roads. On the new layout the large rock walls are done with the Bragdon molds, one of the old mountains was salvaged from the old layout but I think it'll be getting a do over somewhat to incorporate a couple buildings and a couple old dirt roads. Most of the rock work you see now has been given a face lift and is now not so plain rock looking, one of these days when I get some trees planted I'll be taking some pics.

[Gary UK]

Great stuff, this looks realy good! Who's make are the old looking buildings? I like the run down look of them, very atmospheric. Had a study of all your rocks, did you make them on your old layout by adding various rocks from WS molds? I guess on the new layout your using a lot of Brandon molds?

[wickman]

I got a few new ideas for placing structures in the area stuffy's was located.

 

 I think Stuffey's is quite comfortable in its new location I will be laying down the track for it and then comes some ground goop.

Seafood emporium looks quite comfortable in this area over looking the river.

 

 

I did a bit of scenery work on the chemical factory , finally got the track installed and ballasted and  got a good start on the dirt road all the way behind Duffy's Coal. I have to make somemore trees up and add more ground fall junk.

I think I also got the Engine house figured out with a simple dual track leading to it.