Z Scale suitcase layout

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Jim 68cuda said:
I love the Shasta trailer. Wouldn't mind having a vintage camping trailer myself.
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I like them a lot, too- and plan to acquire one some day. I passed one up this fall, a '62 compact that needed a LOT of work, but was only $250. I decided to play it safe and ask the wife, and of course by the time I got back it was long gone...

Nice cars at the Cruise-in. My Lake N Sea is a boat with some cool fins- http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae326/andgott/Lake N Sea/1100928ChFrst5_zps1c375ba0.jpg
http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae326/andgott/Lake N Sea/1080925Out_zpsbe4738ce.jpg, she's my latest restoration. You probably won't see too many other boats that color! It's a factory-correct color, though. Only a few of those left, and I was lucky to find one. I have many hundreds of hours in that one, including restoring the 1959 trailer complete with teardrop fenders and the 1959 Evinrude motor... It's a sickness :)

-Andrew
 
A long day! I drove down to Atlanta along with the wife and kid to check out the model train show. It was pretty interesting, although as expected virtually nothing for us 'Z' people. If you were in to O, HO, or N, it would have been heaven! Lots of stuff and some pretty good deals. I did pick up some scenery materials at about 1/2 price.

We stopped in at the big train store in Buford, GA. Nice place- and, they DID have some limited Z scale.

At the show, my wife saw how cool the buildings look when they're illuminated, so it was decided that I had to do that as well... I picked up a few small lamps, and did a quick install on the gas station-

0316StnLit_zps9e513121.jpg


I need to paint the inside of the styrene in a few spots so the light doesn't shine through the walls, but it looks pretty neat.

I have always been annoyed by the lack of good looking lighting, especially functional lighting, in Z scale. Most of it is either way out of scale, super tacky looking, VERY expensive, or a combination of those traits. I got to thinking about a way to make some lights, and came up with this 'prototype' tonight-

0316Unlit_zps25c22279.jpg


Not perfect, but a good start. It looks nice when lit up-

0316Lit_zps1b8445cc.jpg


And, though not exactly to scale, MUCH better than a lot of what's out there. I think a few of these would really add to the layout, especially at night!

-Andrew
 
Very good job!!! I hope to do half as good with my N scale projects. Could you give some details on your street light, please?
 


Are you kidding, an interior in a Z scale building??
And great work on the vehicles too!
My hat is off to you sir, very nice!
 
Burlington Bob said:
Very good job!!! I hope to do half as good with my N scale projects. Could you give some details on your street light, please?
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Thanks!

I'll take some photos as I go on the next street light. The problem with lighting is you have to get two wires up to the lamp for it to light up, and they really limit the size of the light post that you can use. So, I got to thinking- Why not use the wires themselves as the lamp post?

First, I just twisted them together, which was OK, but if you look close (and people tend to do that!), they still look like two twisted wires. So, I thought I'd try filling the area between the wires. I experimented a bit and found that Epoxy putty works. I roll the wires in it, then work it in as well as I can while the putty is still workable. Once it hardens, I used a variety of abrasive tools (tiny files and sandpaper) to work it down as small as I could. Then I added a styrene shade, and painted.

The nice thing is they are inexpensive- The lamp is about $1.40 and the epoxy putty is a few bucks for enough to do 100's of them. Probably about $2.00 worth of materials per lamp- But a LOT of tedious work. I guess that's the trade off ;)
 
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Rico said:
Are you kidding, an interior in a Z scale building??
And great work on the vehicles too!
My hat is off to you sir, very nice!
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Thanks... I found on the last small layout I built about 10 or so years ago that it was FUN to see the reactions when people got close and started really examining the details. Most people are surprised to see an interior!

-Andrew
 
After seeing how small the building you painted is, I will never complain about the size of N-Scale again. :-) Nice work. I look forward to seeing more as you continue.
 
I got a little done last night and today. It's starting to look better :)

0317Layout_zpsc4724264.jpg


The bridge abutments are in, as well as the bridge-

0317Bridge_zpsc4154798.jpg


The road bridge has been built and installed, and some of the painting done. I planted a few trees, too- To get an idea of how many more I am going to need.

I have the buildings temporarily in place to get an idea of what fits where... And so I can run the wiring to them as needed.

There are a few things that I'm not sure about yet- I need a few more buildings, but havent decided what to put where...
 
andgott said:
I got a little done last night and today. It's starting to look better :)
The bridge abutments are in, as well as the bridge-

The road bridge has been built and installed, and some of the painting done. I planted a few trees, too- To get an idea of how many more I am going to need.
I have the buildings temporarily in place to get an idea of what fits where... And so I can run the wiring to them as needed.

There are a few things that I'm not sure about yet- I need a few more buildings, but havent decided what to put where...
Click to expand...

I enjoy watching your progress. It looks great and yet you are progressing at incredible speed. I guess it helps that its so small.
You have a lot of options for additional buildings. A café, a country store, a bait and tackle shop, a post office, a park ranger station, a camping supply store, a boat and boating equipment dealer/repair shop, a canoe & innertube rental business, a riding stable, white water rafting excursion company, or maybe something to do with mountain climbing. There are so many options, and space is so limited even in the small scale, it will be hard to choose what to include and what to leave out.
 
I worked on some details today... I sculpted a COW, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's 0.4 inches long-

0318Cow_zps366405e2.jpg


In front of the cow, I've got a few other freshly sculpted details- A vintage style coke machine, a cash register for the gas station, and a camp fire for the camper scene I plan to include.

Working this small is leaving me cross eyed :)

-Andrew
 


You can paint a black pin stripe on a Z scale Coke machine to separate the red from the white? I can't do that on an HO scale Coke machine!
 
Andrew,
Your talent is absolutely insane! I wish I had 1/10th. of your talent as it would make my layout look awesome!
Thank you for letting us tag along as you build this!

I hope your recovery is going well! I just went through surgery myself and have done the same to pass the time.... Helps with the sanity!
 
A little more done... I got the docks in-

0320docks_zps4605676e.jpg


While that was drying, i decided I needed a steam shovel... Of course, none that I could find available in Z scale to buy, but what fun would that have been anyways? So, I decided to build one. I'm getting there-

0320shovel_zps9282b554.jpg


There is still a lot of detail to go... I hinged the joints on the shovel arm so that they can be moved, and it pivots on it's base as well. I still have to make the boiler, some internal parts, and then paint it before I can 'string' it up.
 
Amazing ... absolutely amazing! If you can do this with Z Scale, grief, what could you do with HO scale - the mind boggles!
 
I built another building... I decided I needed a farmhouse, so I built one! It is probably one of the most famous farm houses out there- I bet you've probably seen it at least once-

0320AmGoth_zps2e4aa7ca.jpg


I still have some touch up paint and weathering to do. I hope to start getting more installed on the layout this week- Especially the electrical wiring.
 


Burlington Bob said:
Regarding the farm house; Dorthy's house from The Wizard of Oz?
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Not a bad guess!

It is actually a replica of the house in the painting, American Gothic-

AmGothic_zps242ff2ec.jpg


I am nearing completion on the next project- A caboose. It's the first time I've tried to do any rolling stock. Here's a sneak preview-

0323Caboose_zps64909da7.jpg
 
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