layout progress

wickman

Member
TruckLover said:
WOW, you have made A TON of progress on that Waterfall. It looks GREAT, AWSOME Job and keep it up :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

That bridge looks AMAZING!!!!! Nicly done. O and I like the track too, it looks good, I need to weather my track, one of these days, lol
Thanks Josh ballasting and weathering the track seemed to go on forever. Then of couses there was the question should I ballast in the switches or no and of course I did and have been working on the switches ever since:cry:
 

Nazgul

Active Member
Lynn
Can I offer some constructive criticism?








I hope you take this the right way...








Here goes......












POST MORE OFTEN!!!....IT JUST AIN'T RIGHT TO KEEP US ALL WAITING FOR PROGRESS ON YOUR AWESOME LAYOUT!!!!sign1
THAT IS SOME GREAT STUFF!!!:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
I'm sorry but it had to be said..........LOL
 
Its amazing! I really admire your ability to put everything together. We are just getting started in the hobby and I have learned a TON just from reading this thread! Please keep posting! Great, fabulous, wonderful, and so on!!!!!!!
 

Dashdriver

New Member
Pardon my newbie ignorance.....what are those green boxes haanging beneath the bench on that one pic (Tortoise)?

Looks AWESOME so far!!! :thumb:
 

wickman

Member
I've been working on the 4 single lane old wooden bridges. I just put them in place to run the plaster up to the ends then I'll start applying the road dirt.




As well as I decided to reroute the road a bit to cut out one bridge across the creek. I figured while I was at it I might as well try out the new weathered brick wall molds.

before the molds added and more road plaster contouring

I think my next step will be devided between building a kit and working the roadways a bit , maybe get the ground goop mixed up.
 

dogfeet

New Member
Not too bad for a starter layout. I'm sure you'll find ways to improve it as time goes on. If I may make one suggestion, I think it would look a lot cooler with "real" water. Go ahead, give it a try.
 

wickman

Member
I appreciate your suggestion unfortunatelly with the amount of track I have on this layout I have a hard enough time keeping up to track maintenance:wave:
 

dogfeet

New Member
Actually I'm glad you mentioned the track, because there was something else I was going to suggest about your track. I notice you run HO scale. What you could do is set up a mountain tunnel with HO track running into one end of the tunnel and Z track coming out of the other end. You could have 2 identical trains, on in HO and one in Z. That way it would look like your train shrunk in the tunnel. You could have the two tracks trade places again behind a building or something. If you did that, you would be cool.
 

Nazgul

Active Member
Right..................................
Anyway,
Lynn...Looking great as usual:thumb: :thumb: I really love the overall "personality" of your layout...It is very apparent that it was and is extremely well thought out.:thumb: :thumb:
Right now though....I'm interested in the dirt roads you're making...If I may ask: what do you use for road dirt? I would love to see how you do one...hint hint:D
Keep up the great work and.......KEEP POSTING:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
 

cnw1961

Member
WOW, Lynn, you are doing a fantastic job on your lyout. Your rocks are awesome. I hope, you keep the picutres coming – I love to see your progress. I especially like the overall pic on page three of this thread. :thumb: :thumb:
 

wickman

Member
Thanks guys the compliments really give me a boost
For the z scale idea well I can't see it happening seeing as 90% of the track work is already down.
As far as thinking out the layout basicly it took me one day to dismantle the old layout and 3 month's to design the new track plan ( with alot of help ), even then as I went ahead with it I steadily made changes adding tunnels removeing spurs etc. It is very operational for switching sessions as well as a good continous run or both at the same time if wanted. The below deck staging yard was one of the main things I wanted on the new layout as it holds the trains loaded and ready to go for op sessions , basicly a train coming from out side of the area.
For the roads I'm venturing into many different methods ,what you see on previous post were just plaster paint brushed on to make the general contour but now I'm really trying out different methods. I've tried adding sifted baseball diamond sand and cementing it with water/glue mix this gives a good base then I've tried in different areas with first brushing the width of the road with laytest paint then sifting the same sand and adding several more layers of the same paint and sand but I'm finding it to course looking unless you go along with your finger to break up the top layer , this looks good. Now I've tried one other top layer which is take the same sifted sand and now put it in a yogurt style plastic container with a panty hose screen ( hope the wife doesn't read this) and shaking this on the paint layer.

Here's some pics I took as I went along
My paint is just some white paint I had left over and I added some brown dollar store paint to give it an earth tone color


This is how I sifted the gravel for the finer sifter


The sifter with panty hose screen


This is how the road looked after the previous coat I gave of paint and sand well at least the road on opposite side of bridge


the opposite side of bridge I just painted on wide enough for road and shook on the roadway with sifter

Using the shaker to add the dirt it comes out more like a dust then anything heavy

I then give the fresh roadway some ruts with the wooden end of a small paint brush

I finish by giving the raod another layer this fills in the ruts
 

The Royal Blue

New Member
Crikey Lynn, I hope that when I finally get around to starting my layout that I have the patience that you have, I have been watching this thread closely since becoming a member on this forum and your progress is outstanding. I am still in the research stages of my layout and I want to have a great deal of items purchased before I start the layout. I have decided on my theme (coal) and I will be baseing the layout on the local area's rail network.
Mate keep up the great work it is inspiring.
Paul
 

wickman

Member
Paul you can never do to much research . Just don't make the mistake I did and buy all kinds of builds that won't fit into your ideal theme. I got a wack of stuff I have to sell off on ebay because that was the mistake I made.sign1
 

viperman

Active Member
Hey Lynn, everytime I read this thread I tell myself to post, but never seem to. I like the progress you are making, and thank you for the many pics! But have to say, those dirt roads kick butt
 

jr switch

Member
Looking very good, and thanks for the demonstration on roadbuilding. I had been wondering how to do that and have it look realistic and it looks like you have the answer.
------------John R
 

wickman

Member
Thanks guys for the kind works.
There's many ways to do a dirt road I'm just trying this in this area I may try a different technique else where.:wave:
 

Pitchwife

Dreamer
wickman said:
Paul you can never do to much research . Just don't make the mistake I did and buy all kinds of builds that won't fit into your ideal theme. I got a wack of stuff I have to sell off on ebay because that was the mistake I made.sign1
You might want to hold off selling all of those "builds that won't fit". A little piece of this one, a wall from that one, some accessories from another and you've got the perfect piece to go onto that space that was cryin' out for something but you just weren't quite sure what. :D :D
 
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