Trying out a micro layout (or close to one).

[Smudge617]

I’m not planning on adding any lighting to my structures. Thought about it during the design phase of my layout but decided against it.

I assume your putting in crossing and street lights tho'?

 

[Guilford Railman]

I assume your putting in crossing and street lights tho'?

No street lights planned at the moment but I would like to have operational crossing bucks. Unfortunately, the ones I want from NJ International aren’t available.

 

[Smudge617]

No street lights planned at the moment but I would like to have operational crossing bucks. Unfortunately, the ones I want from NJ International aren’t available.

Have you thought about maybe scratch building them?

 

[Guilford Railman]

Have you thought about maybe scratch building them?

I was planning on scratch building some nonfunctional ones for now. Still need to come up with an electrical design for functional cross bucks.

 

[Guilford Railman]

I decided to attempt some weathering on the retaining walls. I utilized a few different colors of weathering powders to create the effects. I will probably add a few more details here and there over the next day or two and then I’ll seal it with some matte clear coat.

On a different note…I accidentally peeled up some of the road coating and markings on Main St after having left some painting tape on too long for touching up the cross walk, so….I had to call the town and have them pave the road with a fresh coat.

 

[Guilford Railman]

I’ve been working on the storefronts for the Merchant’s Row III kit some more the last few days. I painted, weathered, and adhered door ways to the main wall section as well as the cornice. I then went ahead and glued the window material and decals to the storefronts to finalize the look.

I also managed to begin gluing the main structure component’s together and will most likely finish that step tomorrow. After that, all that’s needed is some smaller detail parts and any necessary touchups.

 

[Guilford Railman]

Just about wrapped up on the Merchant’s Row III kit. I glued the roof down today and once that’s dry, I’ll glue down the chimneys. The only things left to prime/paint are the back staircase and downspouts. I’ll also be ordering the Walther’s Rooftop Details kit to add some details to this structure and the others as well.

One thing that is new to me is working with plastic cement. I made a few models here and there when I was real young but it’s been a while since using this stuff. I had forgotten how “dangerous” it could be and ended up accidentally spreading some onto the corner of the structure which ate away at the weathering/paint.

While unfortunate, I think I can mask the damage with some DIY vines using Woodland Scenics Polyfiber painted brown and covered with Noch Dark Green Leaves. I found this technique on Youtube.

 

[Guilford Railman]

I’ve moved on to my Merchant’s Row II kit. It has been painted and weathered and I’ve spent the last hour gluing in the window pieces. I still need to paint/weather the storefront doors which I’m hoping to get to this weekend.

I’ve also finally painted and weathered the smoke stacks for the mattress factory. I painted them black and followed that up with some rusty brown weathering powder and matte clear coat.

Lastly, I took some time to redo the crosswalks and street markings on the section of repaved road in the city block portion of the layout. I still need to create the parallel parking lines but before I do, I want to make sure they are of accurate size. The last ones I did seemed to be a bit too large.

 

[Guilford Railman]

So…while working on my Merchant’s Row II kit, I accidentally got some plastic cement on the window panes for the corner of the building. Before I could remove it all, a lot of it dried and left some ugly marks. I had to get creative so I decided to make the clear panes into frosted window panes. I did this by sanding off the glue using a medium grit sand block and creating the frosted look with a fine sanding block.

I still haven’t glued the window in as I need to paint this section, but I’m hoping to be able to do that tomorrow after work.

 

[Guilford Railman]

Finally got the back staircase painted and glued onto the Merchant’s Row III kit! I did however make a tiny mistake while removing the pieces with the sprue nippers before building it. I accidentally cut too much material off from the pieces
which made two of the supports a little on the shorter side. Not really an issue but I’ll try and come up with some creative solution to mask the problem.

On a different note, I received my N scale Walthers Roof Details in the mail today

Can’t wait to add these to the structures!

 

[Guilford Railman]

Merchant’s Row II is well underway! Few touchups need to be made as always but it’s coming along.

I learned something new about model building from this kit so far, and it is the fact that older kits can be more difficult to work with! Some of the parts are warped slightly making the assembly a little more difficult.

On a different note, you can see in the photo below the obvious difference between the frosted window panes and the normal ones. I would have never thought about frosted panes if I hadn’t gotten glue on the windows by mistake so for what it’s worth, this mistake turned out to be no issue at all

 

[logandsawman]

Merchant’s Row II is well underway! Few touchups need to be made as always but it’s coming along.

I learned something new about model building from this kit so far, and it is the fact that older kits can be more difficult to work with! Some of the parts are warped slightly making the assembly a little more difficult.

On a different note, you can see in the photo below the obvious difference between the frosted window panes and the normal ones. I would have never thought about frosted panes if I hadn’t gotten glue on the windows by mistake so for what it’s worth, this mistake turned out to be no issue at all

View attachment 146708

To your comment about warping, on several occasions I have glued a stiffner beam somewhere inside the building, to alleviate this issue. I like to put floors into my multi story buildings, and often incorporate the beams into the floor locations.

I like the appearance of this build, clever about the frosted glass!

Dave

 

[Guilford Railman]

To your comment about warping, on several occasions I have glued a stiffner beam somewhere inside the building, to alleviate this issue. I like to put floors into my multi story buildings, and often incorporate the beams into the floor locations.

I like the appearance of this build, clever about the frosted glass!

Dave

That’s a good idea! I’ll have to try that.

And thanks! It’s coming along better than anticipated. Only the third building I’ve ever made so can’t complain.

 

[Guilford Railman]

Received another item today. Never tried this brand before but I ordered two crossing signal kits with the optional crossing gates from Osborn Models. I liked the look of these kits a lot and figured I’d give them a try.

 

[Guilford Railman]

Still working on finishing up the Merchant’s Row II kit but I decided I’d also spend some time today tackling a side project.

I had purchased two cylindrical tanks for product storage at the bakery complex and while I liked the shape, I didn’t like the color. I decided I wanted to paint them white and weather them to a rusty finish using a dry brushing technique.

I realized however that there were some odd molding defects on each tank that had to be tackled first, so I went ahead and sanded them down using a file and a medium/light grit sanding block.

You can see a defect on the right tank in the top picture. I had already removed the other defect from the left tank prior to the photo but you get the idea. I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll have time to prime these and get them ready for painting.

 

[Guilford Railman]

I’m wrapping up construction on the Merchant’s Row II kit. I still need to install the provided down spouts which are in the process of being painted/weathered.

The building has turned out much nicer than I anticipated except for the fact that good ole Capillary Action decided to alter the final results a bit. I used some super glue to install diy black construction paper backgrounds in the windows and by doing so, the glue soaked up further into the paper creating darker spots in some of the windows. Not the worst thing but still annoying to look at.

My plan is to utilize a few detailing items such as plywood covering the windows and posters/advertisements to cover other spots.

Also, due to the fact that this kit is a bit older and some of the parts were warped, I had to reshape the roof panels a bit to make everything fit. I may or may not keep the “tar” roof look or go with a gravel covering.

 

[Guilford Railman]

I’ve begun some more work on the bakery complex, formerly known as the Sicken Tire Co. I opted to make this structure stand out more from the others to add variety, so I decided to paint the doors red. I’ll be weathering these down similar to the Merchant’s Row kits recently completed to dull the bright red to a more soothing color on the eyes. Still need to finish touching up around the doors a bit as the painters tape only helps so much but I should be wrapping that portion up today.

I’ve also painted the bulk storage tanks white and the included ladders a metallic/silver color. I’ll be applying the dry brushing weathering effects shortly to both before finalizing them with some dirt/grime using my weathering powders.

 

[Guilford Railman]

Received another order today I had to get creative to hide some of the glue spots on my Merchant’s Row II kit so I decided to try some downtown business decals from Gold Medal Models.

I also liked the idea of ordering N scale plywood sheets to cover some of the windows entirely simulating either broken windows or a business under construction.

Lastly, I needed a truck to haul loads in and out of Goodnight Mattress Co., so I ordered this Ford LNT 9000 tractor.

 

[OleSmokey]

Those ladders look way out of scale. I like the rest of it!

 

[Guilford Railman]

Those ladders look way out of scale. I like the rest of it!

Yeah, that was the only thing I didn’t care for when I found these tanks online. At some point in the future I’ll see if I can find some ladders that are more realistic.