Good morning all. Joe, I'll have a large bowl of hot oatmeal and black coffee this morning. Thanks.
MrB, How are the stockyards comming? Knowing you they are looking really good.
Sue, I am sorry about all the flooding and your kin got cought up in it. You can send the rain that you don't need to Okla, We could really use some now.
We are in for another major cold front this weekend, freezing rain, snow, and sleet, and anything elece the weather man wants to throw in. MrB You might be able to come to SW Okla and do your skiing. Give me a hollar when you get here and we will swap some stories, LOL
I am about finished painting my autos for now until I get some more. I have moved up to some rolling stock, I have 5 open coal hoppers that I have painted several times, and am re-painting them again. I am removing all the old paint with 91% alochol and sometimes a sandblaster is handy. I paint them black and got my BN white decals in the mail yesterday and will be putting decals on this morning. I also have a few boxcars that I will paint BN green when I get my paint in, probley Monday. Those ready made decals really look good on a black coal hopper.
I guess you can tell I am really liking my airbrush. I am even experminting at doing some weathering with it. I love painting with it, looks so much better than a rattle can!
I am going to eat my oatmeal while it it still hot, See you all later, Mike
Happy Friday morning! I'll have some virtual coffee and a virtual poppy-seed bagel with virtual cream cheese, since that's what's in front of me in the real world right now.
I probably won't have a lot of modelling time, Sue, so you won't see too many pictures for a while. I'm still around, though. I take my laptop home from work on ski weekends, and drag it up to the hotel with me. It lets Annie get her homework done when she needs something online, and I can keep in touch here and other places.
No, Sunday River doesn't have wireless Internet on the chairlifts and slopes yet. I've got to stay down at the base in the hotel for that. They do have pretty good cellphone coverage on-mountain, though. It's much more reliable than the old walkie-talkies were just a few years back. Believe it or not, you can use your cell phone to call for pizza, and they will deliver it on the mountain. I'll never forget the first time I was going up the White Heat chair, which runs up a double-black bump run where they were doing a competition, and I saw a pizza guy skiing down, holding one of those pizza-warming containers aloft as he deftly bounced down the mountain through the mogul field.
Mike, I love that pickup with the mis-matched hood, too. That's a modelling detail I've never seen before, although there are enough of them in 1:1. As the Guinness boys, say, "Brilliant!"
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Thanks, JB. They are wet, discouraged, and tired, but it is just stuff. I went out there to look, and there were so many people there working, that it felt in the way so I came home.
Mike, I like the PU with the primered hood.
MrB, If you are skiing and not working on the layout, does that mean that we won't see as much of you?
Amtrack is running again, so our Christmas trip is on.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Sorry to hear of the flooding out in WA Sue! That has to hard for everybody. Hope your family is all safe and sound! Even though it's only 7 above a snowing here this morning....I'll take it.
At some point early this morning my fever broke and I do have to say that I'm feeling MUCH better....Still a ways to go with sore throat thing, but that horrible achy feeling is gone. And just in time too...We have a dress rehearsal for the Nutcracker this evening and we're opening the show tomorrow evening.
Mike, really nice work with the autos and trucks. Do you like your new airbrush? Pros and Cons? What type of paints did you use?
I had better throw another log on the fire and then head out to the Trainroom....I'm going to continue my recuperation out there all day today!
Morning all. Joe, I'll have the breakfast special this morning, with coffee. Thanks.
Sorry for not comming in lately, been working on painting some of my autos, I guess you seen my post on the subject. In case you missed it here a a few you might like looking at.
This one has been in the body shop and still awaits the painting on the hood & fender.
A group shot of the cars. notice the headlights, they are hell to put backin, some of them were lost due to slipping out of my tweezers and flying into never never land.
Cody's Recovery car hauler. I noticed a giant leave in the background.
I also got my tourist train painted and on the layout, A couple of problems though, The long cars do not like some of my curves and don't like some of the turnouts, so the passenger train will sit on the layout for now. I will be able to run it on part of the layout when I get some replacement wheels.
I have another Dr. appt in the morning. Hopefully he will be able to tell me something, I am really getting tired of not being able to anything and continously in pain.
Got to go for now, I will try not to be absent here for so long at a time. MrB, You can keep all the snow and cold up north, I haven't ordered any of it. Later, Mike
Are you sure the Beer Barn is the right place to be talking about breweries? Seriously, thanks for the heads up. I'm not much of a TV watcher, but I'll keep an eye out for that one. Ice reefers are one of my favorite types of car. I've got the Walthers icing platform down in the workroom in my "waiting to be built" pile.
Cold here in the Northeast, too. Teens this morning, and the temperatures aren't going to get out of the 30's for a while. We had a few inches of snow Sunday night into Monday. I picked up a bit of my wife's cold that she brought back from Florida, so I just called in sick Monday and did basically nothing, but that knocked it out and now I'm back to life. Ski season has started, so I probably will have very little train time for a while.
I'm halfway through putting together another Jordan vehicle, a Railway Express Agency truck this time. Anyone who's ever built one of these knows why I'm only halfway through. Somewhere along the line, I lost the dashboard, so I made up a piece of styrene to replace it, and printed a dashboard on the computer for detail. It's a bit big, so I'll have to re-scale it, but now I can get on with the job. Thanks to not knowing what was in my "to-be-built" pile, I ended up with 2 of these trucks, so the other will be re-badged for the Strumpet Brewery.
Stay warm and dry, everyone!
Ryan, The formula is similar to what you are using. It is the formula that Lou Sassi recommended it his article it 11-05 MR.
1 part Celluclay
1 part Permascene ( Vermiculite but I used Perilite )
1 part dirt colored latex paint
3/4 part Elmers glue ( I used wood glue since we had a gallon )
A splash of Lysol to prevent mold
I prepaint my hardshell or plaster cloth first with the same paint color.
Good morning all:
I'll have a tall glass of ice water and aspirin for breakfast. I really got hit with a bug and it's just about got me down to a crawl. Very sore throat, bad head ache and a fever that is making all the normal aches and pains worst and creating new one too! And ...I supposed to be dancing??!!??
Chuck we don't get the history channel either (actually we're lucky to get any channel) but ironically I just read about the Busch reefers in a great book that has been loaned to me. It's "Ambitious Brew" (The Story of American Beer) By Maureen Ogle. It really is a good read.
I gotta' get back to bed and see if I can sleep this off.
Howdy folks!
Is it time for a Hot Toddy, or too early yet?
Oh what the heck, set me up with a Hot Toddy!
Hey Sue - what ground goop formula do you use?
The one I am using is the formula that Joe Fugate developed; Portland cement, patching plaster, and vermiculite, mixed with enough cool water to make it the consistency of thick cake batter.
Cheers,
Ryan
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
Your timing is ok for us but we don't get the history channel. Thanks for the beer.
All this flooding out here is making me crazy. There is a 20 mile section of I-5 that is closed. There is 10 feet of water over a section that flooded in 1996. Larry's mom and her husband had 18 inches of water in their home. They are hoping that the water will recede so they can start the cleanup. We can't even get there from here. I feel for all the truckers who are stuck up here away from home.
I managed to get some ground goop done this weekend. I will try to get some photos next week.
Howdy, folks!
Joe, a round of Budweiser for the house - in honor of the company that pioneered ice reefers (and their infrastructure) on America's railroads.
Yup, Anheuser-Busch actually founded the first company that built refrigerated rail cars, to keep Budweiser cold while it was enroute from St Louis to wherever in the late 19th century. That little item, including some views of the first Bud reefers and the locos that pulled them, was part of a Modern Marvels segment on breweries in the U.S. Unfortunately, since I'm in the Pacific time zone I'm way too late to give anyone else a heads-up on this one.
Just another bit of history, from The History Channel.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Good morning: I had better have an Irish Coffee with breakfast this morning as winter has hit the Northland.
We got at least 9 - 10" of snow over the weekend and the temp. is holding at 0 this morning. Needless to say, I've been kept pretty busy with snow removal and bringing in firewood so far today!
I did spend a little time in the Trainroom and got a bit more mud on the hillsides and some additional track wiring done at Cascade Junction....But that's it!!
With teaching three classes, working the CPO shift and the Nutcracker rehearsals, the Trainroom has taken a back seat again.
This week is Tech week (rehearsals everyday) with the show opening on Fri. and closing on Sun. Soooo.....Next week is the start of every day in the Trainroom season!
Ryan, nice to hear that you have done some fund raiser cooking shows too. Yes! It was a lot of fun and now that I've done one (providing I'm ever asked to do another) I wouldn't mind doing more and perhaps do even a better job at it. Not that it was bad....I just wasn't paying enough attention to the floor director and kind of ran short of time for myself and long on time for the segment. It all worked out though.
Gotta' run. Much to do, and little time to do it....
I'll have a cold tap Joe...And a round for house on me too, if you please.
Even though it is only 1 degree F up here in the Northland at the moment, a real tall real cold tap would really hit the spot. Just got home from teaching three hours of a Lifeguard class and four hours working my CPO shift, so a little winding down is certainly in order.
Mr. Beasley, once again I have to agree with Mike......... those pigs sure do look a lot better!
And Mike, really glad to hear that you are getting the hang of the airbrush. They do have a bit of learning curve, but are really pretty simple to get good results with, once you reach that comfort zone.
I've been out of town for a few days playing with my friend Larry at Whispering Wings. This time chasing white tail deer with a black powder rifle. I didn't have the opportunity to shoot, but we did have some great fun!
Then yesterday I had the honor of being on a cooking show. I had submitted a couple of recipes for a fund drive cook book to our local PBS TV station and was chosen to cook on air....What a blast that was!
And regarding recipes Sue: We / I have shared some here on the forum, but for the most part there is now an email sub-group that does some sharing outside of the forum. I guess we really could just use the forum (what do you think Ryan, Chris, Bruce, Holly?), but not everybody that frequents the Beer Barn is interested...Which is why we did the email thing. So for now anyway, if you want to be added to the Dining Car group, just sent me an email address and I'll add your name.
I'd better finish up my beer and head on home before I turn into a squash!
Bump. I rescued this from page 7. I have been busy getting ready for a wreath making party this weekend and have spent little time at the forum.
MrB, Great improvement on the stockyard critters. They look very natural.
JB, When are you sharing your recipes with us?
Mike, Let's see those weathered PU's.
Howdy all. Joe I'll have a class of Ice Water, need to take a pill and lay down for a spell.
MrB, the pigs and pen are much better! I can see them now without my sunglasses.Looks like the real thing, you can still add a few more in the pen would not hurt anything, but look grear as they are.
I got my UP Armor Yellow paint and some depressed flat cars from Hobbylink this morning and have been painting my old time passenger cars. I have 2 coats of paint on them and they are looking very well, although I will need to go to Hobby Lobby soon and get some more Gloss Coat befor I can add the decals. One question, should the tourist train be gloss or flat in the finished product? I am starting to like the new airbrush, I wish I had more painting to do.
I have disassembled 16 of my autos and re-painted and weathered them, I did this because I had 9 of the black '72 Cheve PUs and did not like them all the same color, and I wanted some practice using the airbrush befor I started on the Passenger cars. I will post a pic or two later.
I have also been weathering my flat cars on my Cat train, I am not very good at it yet but at least they do not all look like they just came off the assemble line. When I get all my Cats loaded on the weathered flat cars, I will have 14 (I think) Cats loaded on flat cars behind my locos.
Guess it is nap time, I hear my mommy calling, See you all later, maybe stop in for a beer later. Mike
Well, now it's beer time on Saturday afternoon. Pretty quiet around here the last few days - I guess everyone is celebrating.
Well, here's another shot of "the other white meat." In our last episode, knowledgeable folks advised that straw wouldn't be found in that stockyard, and the piggies wouldn't be quite so pristine. So, out came the Dul-Cote, weathering powders, earthy paints and turf.
I'd agree, they look more realistic than the other shot above. I was inspired to finish up the ground cover and ballast around the pen, too. Then, it was off to do some coupler upgrades. Out with the horn-hooks, in with knuckles!
Hope you all had a fine Holiday, too!
Happy Turkey Day, everyone! (Well, except our Canadian friends, who celebrate this particular type of feast earlier in the year, and others who don't attach any significance to the day at all. Does that cover everyone?) And Happy Birthday to you, too, Mike.
Just a quick one before I start cooking. We have an "orphans' Thanksgiving" tradition. A bunch of my college friends started doing this back in school, when many people just didn't have the time to travel home for this short holiday. After my folks were gone, we found that going down to Penny's parents place in Florida was just a bit too much, so this has become our feast, too. It will be the first Thanksgiving without our daughter Annie around. She's joined her boyfriend for their big-family dinner.
Still, I've got a couple of vegetable dishes to prepare before we head over - Sweet Potatoes with banana, and the traditional creamed onions. This is a great co-operative effort (sort of like a train club) but we also end up with leftovers.
I did get a bit of train stuff in over the past couple of days. It's been raining, so I haven't been able to go outside and spray paint. That means my pigs are still looking pink and fresh from the hog-wash. On the other hand, I spent my time instead working on my Bowser PCC car. It had electrical problems, with power from the front truck being intermittent at best. I soldered in some jumpers, but then I had to spend a lot of time filing off the excess solder so all the parts would mesh. Finally got it running again last night, and I had some fun peeking into the subway tunnels to watch it rounding the curves.
Well, a happy holiday to you all!
Mike. Hope you have a great one.
An Irish Coffee this morning Joe....It's a bit on the cool side this morning! Oh, I'd better have some potatoes and a ham steak to go with that coffee too.
Nice work on the roundhouse floor Ryan! Is it styrene?
I've got the early afternoon to play in the Trainroom today and plan on giving the new landforms another coat of mud. Then work on getting some track down, coming into the turntable at Whyte Junction.
Ryan, yes the stuffing recipe will be welcome here at Dad's Kitchen. I have a new recipe that I tried out at Deer Camp a few weeks ago that I had planed on sharing at the Dining Car. I'll send it out and you can just hit "reply all" with yours.
You all have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
Latter.
Sorry I didn't drop in yesterday, Mike. Almost missed saying . Well, better late than never.
Add my Happy Thanksgiving to Ryan's, with a fervent wish that every one has plenty to be thankful for.
Thanksgiving is going to be somewhat Spartan for this resident of the Dessicated Desert. Can't see doing a bird for all one of me. More likely a TV dinner zapped in the microwave! (Note - this is NOT a complaint. I'm hoping to use the temporary absence of my gourmet chef as an opportunity to shed some excess flab. So far it's starting to work.)
Nice work on the roundhouse, Ryan; but that really clean concrete just screams, "new construction." Can't wait to see how you weather it.
I've been following the byplay with Chip (Spacemouse) about his brick street project. Sue, you are awesome! (Now all we have to do is figure out how to lure him over for a brew or two.)
Speaking of a brew - Joe, a round for the house. Make mine Ballantine.
Happy Belated Birthday Mike!
You all have a Happy Thanksgiving!
I'm trying out a new Harvest Stuffing recipe for the bird tomorrow! If you want the recipe let me know.
This is my latest work on the roundhouse project, got the concrete floor done:
Later on,
Congrats Mike....Let my buy you an "August Meininger Brewing" German Style All Malt. And a round or two for the house too!
Nothing new to report from here today. Cut, split and stacked (I now just throw it into the woodshed) fire wood for most of the day, before heading to town to teach a class and pull my CPO shift.
Gotta' get up early....So, I'd better finish the brew and head home.
Morning all, Joe, a cup of your best coffee this morning, Thanks
Mr. B. another thing I might add is there could be a lot more ham in that pen, after all they are on the last leg of their journey thru life.
Oh, Joe, add some Ham and eggs to my order, I agree with Mr B, That ham sounds pretty good this morning. If the weather forcast is right we are in for a cold spell the middle of the week, Have any of you got it yet? We haven't even had a frost yet this year in SW Okla.
Best go and have some of Mr. B's pig.
Edit, I forgot to mention, Guess who turned 50 years young today, Mike
Coffee and some eggs, Joe. With bacon. And sausage. And ham. All this pork-talk is working up a hankerin' for that sort of stuff.
OK, I've got some rework to do. The straw has to go. I can put in Gypsolite, and mud the area up. I'll add a couple of depressions for mud, too. I think I'll hit the pink pigs up with gray primer, and then use weathering powders, and maybe some white acrylic before that. But, I've got to get that pink covered up first.
Thanks for your help. We don't have a lot of stockyards up here in the Northeast.
I'll have a tall cold one Joe and a round for the house too....
I agree with Sue and Mike on dirtying up those pigs Mr. B. And Mike is right about having NO straw, black mud will do just fine. As a kid......In all of my years of sneaking away to watch rail operations at the Hormel plant in Austin MN. I never saw a lick of straw!
Regarding breeds of pigs: I am by far no expert, but have been around a few pigs. There are hundreds; maybe thousands of breeds of pigs around the world, but to the best of my knowledge there are only four breeds that are truly considered "American Breeds". They are:
1)) American Landrace. A long bodied white pig.
2)) American Yorkshire. A relatively Lg. white pig.
3) Poland China. A Lg. pig that is typically black in color, but can also have white patches.
4) Duroc. A Lg. framed, but Med. length red pig.
Some other breeds that I've seen are of British origin. These are:
1) British Saddleback (also known as Essex or Wessex). This is basically a black pig with a white saddle. Sort of a two tone, with a middle strip of white.
2) Berkshire. A black pig with a white blaze on the head, white feet and a white tail.
3) Gloucester Old Spot. A white pig with black spots.
And...With that two (or more) cents worth, I also have to add that I have never seen a pink. pig!
Evening all, Joe, you know what I want? Thanks
Mr B. I have to agree with Sue, Dirty up them pigs, they look like show pigs and there probly would not be any straw in a slaughter house pin, The opperators of that facility don't care about the comfort of the pigs. Even the pigs are going to be happier in a mud hole, that is what pigs do, wollar in a mud hole. As for the mixed breeds in one pin, there are no problems there. I have raised a few pigs in the past, Some for FFA in high school and a few for the bacon, and mixing them up is something I have done many times. The white ones are either a Chester White (Chester) or a Yorkshire (York) probly a York..
I have been trying my air brush today and am getting to where I can actually paint something and it comes out diescent and doesn't all run off, I can see that this is not something that you simply pick up and use, at least not for me.
Guess I'll go for now, see you all later, Mike
MrB,
The pink pigs definately need some weathering.
No new purchases at the train show. We did find latex street section for brick roads made from latex at www.kancali.com. The company is located in Puyallup. Shock. He recommended dry brushing with a sponge brush, brick red, darker red, and a finish layer of pink. They were $2.50 a sheet. You can't make molds for that. I will put that on the other thread.
Coffee and a jelly donut this fine Sunday morning, Joe. Thanks. Uh, raspberry.
Not much train work for me today, either. We've got some theater tickets (a live performance!) for 2 PM, so about all I'll get done is to Dul-Cote the pigs I got at the train show yesterday. I knew right where I'd find them - the vendors usually end up in the same spots from show to show. The "pig guy" always has a selection of animals, many from non-standard suppliers you can't find at Walthers.
I was looking for the Parkview Terrace background building, too, but nobody had it. It's out of stock at Walthers. One vendor said they had discontinued it, but they were bringing it back. The Walthers web site says early December, and I'm hoping they might even put it in the sale catalog. If not, I can wait until they do. Patience, Grasshopper.
Well, my pigs should be dull by now. See you all later. And if we don't meet again for a while, have a great Thanksgiving, OK?
Oops, back again faster than I thought. I need some advice. I've put my pigs in the yard, and I realize that my knowledge of our porcine friends is limited to marinades and barbeque sauces.
These look like 3 different types of pigs, as distinguished by the colors. Would they be mixed in a yard like that, or would they be segregated by species? And, would the pink ones be pink? I think they look like they might be razorbacks, from the spinal ridge, but the pink color throws me off. Does anyone know?
Well, guys, I am officially a blabbermouth with my 1000 posts.
Mike, Nice helper. I like the teething toy.
MrB, I won't get to the foam trials today. I have a train show. If by some chance that Joel has a booth, I will try to ask him what he suggests. Do you have the cast satin base too? A better question, did you get the whole kit? I know that the cast satin will give it more rigidity.
I need to my list for the show. I will try to check in tonight.