EZday's layout party
- Thread starter ezdays
- Start date
Overall, I like with the way things came out. What I’m most pleased with is the red rocks on Sedona Mountain. If you’ve ever been to Sedona you might agree that I got reasonably close to the color and look of some of the formations there, well, as best I could at 1:160 scale. What I don’t like mostly is the way the cobblestone and wooden sidewalks down Main St. turned out. I tried to replicate an old western street. I guess I can always pave over it with blacktop or concrete if I get to upset with it.
If anyone’s interested, here are a few things I did during the construction of the town:
The thing I liked doing the least was building the Bar Mills snack stand. I love working in N scale, but at 1” x 1” x 1”, that really was a bit difficult. The thing I enjoyed doing the most was finding suitable homes for all those LGM and their life partners, those LGGs (Little Green Girls).
If anyone’s interested, here are a few things I did during the construction of the town:
- The street curbing is .030 styrene glued in place.
- The sidewalks are cut from two layers of cardboard that were painted and the lines and cracks were added with a pencil. Joint compound was used to pave the sloping driveways.
- Both train platforms are made from strips of balsa wood glued together and distresses with a wire brush, then weathered with acrylic paint and an ink wash.
- The trimmed bushes in front of the gas station and train depot were made from green Scotch Pads soaked in diluted white glue and dipped in W/S light turf.
- The cobblestone street and wooden sidewalks were printed on my computer.
- The mountain is made from strips of blue foam covered in paper towels soaked in plaster, then detailed using joint compound and a putty knife. The rock spires are simply balsa wood strips pushed into holes punched in the plaster, then covered with the joint compound.
- The weed grass on the backside of the hill is some furry cloth that I found at the Wal-Mart fabric dept. I tried some of Harold’s Faux Fur, but it doesn’t look right at N scale.
- My friend and fellow Gauger Jim Currie made the tree in the Train Park and the one behind the gas station. I am delighted to have them on my layout.
- All of the businesses in Santa Maria except the hotel are named after family members. The hotel and the town itself are named for a very special lady that we hold in high regard.
- And for those of you that asked, I got the town hall building to float off the ground by placing it on a cylinder of clear acetate; the same with the flying saucer floating over the gas station.
The thing I liked doing the least was building the Bar Mills snack stand. I love working in N scale, but at 1” x 1” x 1”, that really was a bit difficult. The thing I enjoyed doing the most was finding suitable homes for all those LGM and their life partners, those LGGs (Little Green Girls).
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You've done a really great job there, Don!
Santa Maria looks like a very busy little town...(it's nice that the town progress hasn't been detered by the inter-planetary presence!
)
You've totally left me eating your dust with this layout party! You've made some amazing progress!
btw...those night scenes are quite stunning!
:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
Santa Maria looks like a very busy little town...(it's nice that the town progress hasn't been detered by the inter-planetary presence!
)You've totally left me eating your dust with this layout party! You've made some amazing progress!
btw...those night scenes are quite stunning!
:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
Thanks for the complements, it was a lot of work, but I'm pleased with how it turned out, well, almost.
I've just got one big concern, I'm not too happy with the way those LGM did the cobblestone street and wooden sidewalks on Main St. I need some honest feedback, does it look hokey or is it just my imagination?ops: ops: I'm almost to the point of tearing them both out and just having them match the rest of the sidewalks and streets. After you've worked on something for a while it's hard to tell, so I need some objective opinions please.
I've just got one big concern, I'm not too happy with the way those LGM did the cobblestone street and wooden sidewalks on Main St.
I need some honest feedback, does it look hokey or is it just my imagination?ops: ops: I'm almost to the point of tearing them both out and just having them match the rest of the sidewalks and streets. After you've worked on something for a while it's hard to tell, so I need some objective opinions please. Exactly what is it that you don't like about it, Don?
Is it something you could change with some weathering, or paint? Or do you just not like the whole look of it?
Personally, I kind of like it because it's unusual...most model RR's have similar paved streets & concrete sidewalks, I guess because that's very common in the real world...
I have a feeling you've run up against that old model railroader's paradox that by the time you finish something, you're already tired of it, & ready to try something else...keep in mind that nothing we do is "carved in stone"...if you don't like something, change it!
I'm sure I'm not being much help to you...I'm just letting you know that I can be just as ambivalent as you!
Either way, you've done a heckuva lot of good work over the last few weeks! My hat is off to you, my friend! aussie
Is it something you could change with some weathering, or paint? Or do you just not like the whole look of it?
Personally, I kind of like it because it's unusual...most model RR's have similar paved streets & concrete sidewalks, I guess because that's very common in the real world...
I have a feeling you've run up against that old model railroader's paradox that by the time you finish something, you're already tired of it, & ready to try something else...keep in mind that nothing we do is "carved in stone"...if you don't like something, change it!
I'm sure I'm not being much help to you...I'm just letting you know that I can be just as ambivalent as you!
Either way, you've done a heckuva lot of good work over the last few weeks! My hat is off to you, my friend! aussie
Thank you Dick and Drew, what I "don't like", or am wondering about specifically is the look of the cobblestone and wood sidewalk. I guess I'm not impressed with what I did there because they both lack texture. I know at N scale there would be little texture, but on these, there's none. I realize that at that scale, the roughness of the stone would be somewhere under 5 mils, and the wood planks would have less than that. But still, I see texture in my station platforms, enough so that that looks like aged wood, whereas my sidewalks don't.
True, when someone works on something, like an artist on a painting, they are so familiar with it from working on it they don't know sometimes if they've created something good or not. That's why I'm asking...
True, when someone works on something, like an artist on a painting, they are so familiar with it from working on it they don't know sometimes if they've created something good or not. That's why I'm asking...
Looking good Don, I think it looks fine. BTW whatever you do don't drink any green beer the LGM's might make for St. Patty's Day, and positivily don't give them any.sign1
How about giving the cobble stones a wash of something to help outline the stones?? Maybe a faded red color. No thats not right for cobblestones.. How about a shade of grey slightly darker than the stones to outline the cracks and joints?
Maybe something similar with the wood sidewalks? But don't overdue it.
Maybe a faded red color. No thats not right for cobblestones.. How about a shade of grey slightly darker than the stones to outline the cracks and joints?Maybe something similar with the wood sidewalks? But don't overdue it.
Thanks, but that's the problem, they're printed and a wash just wouldn't work. No cracks, no mortar, no texture at all, just flat smooth surfaces...Clerk said:How about giving the cobble stones a wash of something to help outline the stones??
Maybe something similar with the wood sidewalks? But don't overdue it.
To be sure, I spilled something on them, and they stones just ran off the paper so I had to re-do them, but I used a fixative this time.I've got something I'm going to try. I just looked and found I have a couple of sheets of Plastruct random stone. They're 1:200 scale but they might give me the texture I'm looking for.
We took a spin around the town at night in the "Newshawk12" telecopter borrowed from our non-operational local TV station. Seems like they went out and bought a helicopter, but forgot to apply for the broadcast license.
Anyway, here are a few shots we took on the tour. The Feds have bought off the whole project with the exception of the Main St. paving and sidewalk. They are insisting we take out the cobblestone and replace it with brick and redo the sidwalk in real wood this time. We will keep you posted on this project, but the pressure is off for now since we now have power to all the buildings. If you note, we did opt for underground utilities at the insistance of the Feds.
Anyway, here are a few shots we took on the tour. The Feds have bought off the whole project with the exception of the Main St. paving and sidewalk. They are insisting we take out the cobblestone and replace it with brick and redo the sidwalk in real wood this time.
We will keep you posted on this project, but the pressure is off for now since we now have power to all the buildings. If you note, we did opt for underground utilities at the insistance of the Feds. Attachments
OK, I finally got the "texture" that I was looking for on Main St. I couldn't find what I was looking for at the LHS, I'd even have taken HO brick for my street paving, but had to settle for some "N scale, 1/200" brick that I bought a few years ago. They were very difficult to work with since the "bricks" were so small they did not dry-brush well, but at least you can tell there's some texture to it and is not flat-looking like the cobblestone. I also replaced the printed sidewalks with .032" balsa wood. I distressed it with a wire brush and some really course sandpaper, and "aged" it with acrylics and an ink wash. Using balsa allowed me to turn the corner and go to the end of the street instead of stopping before the corner. Fortunately, I was able to build the street up on the bench and just glued and dropped it in place when it was ready. I amazed myself that it fit the space as well as it did.
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The new "cobblestone" look is great. I like what it did to the overall appearance of the community.
That is a very neat scene, Don.
That is a very neat scene, Don.