My adventures in Ho Scale.


cajon said:
Back in the day, all helper consists had C&E crews These days helper locos are called DPUs & are controlled electronically from the headend. So if anyone is riding them they are probably hobos. ~}
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Andy...yeah I knew they were electronically controlled but thought maybe they had at least one person actually monitoring systems, especially on a 4-unit helper lashup like in the video.
 
Nope. The whole point for DPUs is to reduce employee costs & let electronics do ALL the work. If the RRs could get away with it they'd get rid of ALL C&Es!
 
Last night I stepped outside my comfort zone, and tried my hand at painting a small section of the backdrop. I did about 3FT or so. This is the first layout ive done a backdrop. I got a little braver, and tried a few clouds. Here was the result. It will probably look all out of Scale as the building is N Scale, and the train is Ho. It’s all I had laying around. The pines are trees i attempted to make a while back.
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migalyto said:
Last night I stepped outside my comfort zone, and tried my hand at painting a small section of the backdrop. I did about 3FT or so. This is the first layout ive done a backdrop. I got a little braver, and tried a few clouds. Here was the result. It will probably look all out of Scale as the building is N Scale, and the train is Ho. It’s all I had laying around. The pines are trees i attempted to make a while back.
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It's all a matter of perspective.
no... literally! Having the smaller buildings behind the bigger trains make it look like the buildings are just much further back. At least in the photo. I saw a great layout once with mixed scales. O scale up close, HO behind that and N the furthest away. It was only about 3 feet deep, but it mafde it feel like 6!

As for the clouds, not too bad at all. :) General rule of thumb for clouds is darker on the bottom and whiter on the top. Cumulus clouds, like you've painted, have all kinds of bulbous, rolly-polly dips and valleys and light and dark spots. Makes them fun to paint.
 
migalyto said:
Last night I stepped outside my comfort zone, and tried my hand at painting a small section of the backdrop. I did about 3FT or so. This is the first layout ive done a backdrop. I got a little braver, and tried a few clouds. Here was the result. It will probably look all out of Scale as the building is N Scale, and the train is Ho. It’s all I had laying around. The pines are trees i attempted to make a while back. View attachment 30197
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If those tank cars are carrying flammable loads, there needs to be a buffer car between them & locos.
 
I finished getting the basic lue painted on my backdrop today. Not alot of progress, it’s something.
 

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After a half dozen attempts to paint clouds, I accepted the fact that I didn't have the knack to make them look convincing. I figured a photo backdrop was probably the way to go, but with 80Ft of backdrop it was going to be rather expensive to do. Then I discovered a place in the U.K. that had very attractive prices on them, and last night I decided to give 20Ft a try, and see if they were any good. This is what I chose for the 17Ft second in the above post first photo.

https://www.ajmrailways.com/model-railways/IDBackscenes-Industrial-239A-239A_Premier.html

https://www.ajmrailways.com/model-railways/IDBackscenes-Industrial-239B-239B_Premier.html

With the AUD to USD exchange rate, I ended up paying $52.00 shipped for both sets from the U.K.
 
I finally received the backdrops from the U.k. They are very nice quality, and fairly cost effective. I purchased 20 feet at first to test them out. Heres the first 5 feet mounted. I originally purchased the 15 inch scenes, but decided to go with the 24 inch, as it goes all the way to the top of the Masonite. They are peel and stick. Only 70 more feet to go!

37AEC04A-1DA1-415A-BBE1-D41C51DEFF1D.jpeg
 
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