This afternoon, I invited a bunch of good friends, Andrew, Scott, Ken, Julian as well as Margot and Patty over to help install the layout in the basement. I wasn’t quite as ready as I’d hoped to be, but with so many helpers, we managed to get it installed all the same. When we finished, we toasted ourselves with a little prosecco, and enjoyed a … Continue reading Installation Day!
Most of my railroad time this week was spent on painting the clouds. Like everything else, I got better at this as I went along, and so, I kind of did it about one and a half times. I roughed the clouds in on Sunday with some plain white paint, and they looked pretty flat and lifeless. So, through the week, I added shadows to … Continue reading Clouds
Tonight I painted a base layer for the clouds. They’re definitely going to take a second layer before the white covers over that hideous not-quite-gradient of blue that I put up there. As this is only the base layer, I didn’t bother with any shadows, and so, the clouds have no form yet. So, it looks even worse than it is, which isn’t very good … Continue reading Constable it Ain’t
This week, I made the face frames for the base cabinets, and I just finished staining them. I must say, despite Andrew’s warnings that it would not go well, I am impressed with the results. Here they are drying, or setting or whatever stain does: The stain is Old Masters Red Mahogany gel stain. I applied it mostly with a rag, but worked into corners … Continue reading Base Cabinets Stained
Andrew and I got together the other day and finished up the switch stands for the north section. This resulted in yet more refinements to the design, as well as some creative problem-solving. The first refinement was Andrew’s suggestion to not tap the hole in the throw rod extension, but rather to use two nuts, visible on the image below of the south switch of … Continue reading More Switch Stand Refinements
Can you believe that I was so cocky as to claim that I thought I knew what I was doing when it came to painting a gradient on the sky? Yeah, me neither. Tonight I painted the second coat. It only really needed it because there were some thin areas up near the corners, and because there were a few very non-sky-like patterns. However, even … Continue reading Well Now it Just Looks Like a Crappy Paint Job
Yesterday, I made the trip from Ottawa up to Pembroke to capture some measurements I didn’t get the last time I was there. The whole family (including my sister and her daughters) came for a trip to the Bonnechere Caves, which was a pretty cool cave system, guided by a theatrical and informative local boy, called Liam. Then, we stopped off at East Side Marios, … Continue reading Field Trip to Pembroke
