Pola N210 - Lokschuppen - Happy With the Outcome

I still have some details and "fine tuning" I want to address, but I'm really happy with the progress.
Some of the items worked out really well. The Cat weathering, crane weathering and the detail weathering on the fence and wheels by the doors really helped to set the scene.
In retrospect, I think a dirt brown would have been a better base ballast than the iron red. I may go in and try to address that somehow.

Now...where to put it? :)

MORE IMAGES HERE:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157627277283970/

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Selling finished scenes - what do YOU think?

I was just sitting here thinking - "What if I were to build these scenes out, then sell them? Would people buy them?"

It's an interesting idea. If I could fuel my own hobby interests, it would be fantastic! The hobby could pay for itself AND I wouldn't have the items laying all over the house once they were finished. However, they'd have to sell in order for that plan to work. My mother makes jewelry and loves it. The idea was to make it, sell it, then buy more jewels and the like to make more. However, the buying and making come nowhere close to the selling part and now she has a lot of "inventory" left over. I don't want to be in THAT spot.

I figure the key points are:
• Would anyone want to buy this stuff?
Maybe people with little to no time, but a desire to have a little building at work to stare at?

• Would people pay a price that would cover the materials used?
This scene has a lot of little items in it - the buildings, fire escapes, cars, trees and people, plus the base and foam core. Let's call it an even $120 in materials. Without adding for my time and effort, that's still a lot of cash for a scene. If I were to add say...$30 for "craft", we're at $150.


So, what do YOU think? Drop me a line in the comments and give your two cents! :)

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Pola N210 - Lokschuppen on base

I have the building on the base and the ballast down. (The excess is still on) I think this will work nicely.

You can see the tracks leading into the building are up and out of the scene at the moment. I plan to do some heavy blending with additional ballast and paint to push it into the scene more.

The small scoop Caterpillar may stay as part of the scene. I like it. I'll also add additional trucks around the building - I figure the workers I'm planning to add will either drive their own trucks or carpool, but I need more than ONE truck in the scene! :)

Next steps:
• More weathering to the building
• The addition of a fence and/or shrubs to blend the building base into the ballast area
• Blending the tracks into the scene
• Adding weathered train cars - I have a crane car that will be awesome in this scene!
• Adding the workers and their cars

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Building Complete

Well, the first phase of the building is done. I've done a first round of weathering on the whole thing, but I'll go back once it's mounted up and do another pass.

One of the things I'll have to see about is the blending of the base that comes with the building and the base I'm going to have it sit on. I'll do some blending or use a fence and/or shrubs to push it in a bit.

Fantastic kit! (Pola Lokschuppen)


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Pola N210 - Lokschuppen

I started work on the Pola Lokschuppen or roundhouse kit and knew it was going to be fantastic to build right off the bat.
The pieces went together really well with little to no tweaking needed. Some of the parts had some extra mold snips needed, but that was rather minor.
The base had some nice details built into it as well - some small rocks and logs - that will add to the overall scene once I paint them up.

Loving it.

While this kit doesn't really go with my other looks and feels for Briddon (the fictitious town and city I see all my train stuff living in) I figure it would be easy to play off as some throw back architecture that someone liked long ago and built up. Either that or this is simply not part of the Briddon area at all. That would work as well. :)

the overall idea for this is taking time and adding some details to the overall scene. Folks working, some weathered train cars, weathering the building itself, and plants and vegetation around the scene. Should be fun!

2011 NE Prototype Modelers Meet

Some FANTASTIC work going on here! I can see that I'll have to keep working on my details - these folks keep the bar pretty high!

http://www.pbase.com/tom_murray/2011_ne_prototype_modelers_meet&page=all

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Garden Rail Tours

Another impressive series of layouts! Oh, to have the space and cash for G scale!

Large Garden Rail

Pretty amazing layout. I love the bridges!

Station Project - 95% complete

I still want to add some details, but I like how it turned out!



More images here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157627072380183/with/5938675408/



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Station Project - Ballast Madness

Overall, I'm happy with the way this is turning out, but I need to learn a little more about laying down ballast. It's MADNESS.

My process was to lay everything out, block out where I wanted things with pencil, then start building up from the pieces to the foliage. However, working with ballast was difficult (and messy!) in the space I have. I got a little ahead of myself as well, dropping in some trees before the glue was dry. (SEE: "I need to take more time with projects" :) )

Then I tried to be smart and do the ballast application outside. However, I found that high winds and ballast make more MESS than PROJECT. hehehe Moving back inside, I finished up and added round one of foliage.

The board I used had a WICKED bend in it after all that project glue was applied, but today when I looked, the problem fixed itself and the board is now laying flat.

In theory, I'll be able to take this whole section and transfer it to the future, "When we get a bigger place" layout - connecting it and building out a little more platform area.

More progress shots later.






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Hmph....someone here says to mix the glue and ballast beforehand and use it as a combo paste. Interesting. I'll have to look into that.

Station Project - GO!

I've finally started work on my Station Project. It's going to be a fun one!

It's pretty basic - I'll be building the station with two lines coming into it and a dummy train. The base is a piece of board. I'll be building up the scene with figures, additional station buildings and pathways. I'll top it all off with fences, trees and grass sections. The station will also feature a small bus stop.

Again, the idea is to take my time with the whole of it, but I'm excited to see it come together. I'm painting figures for the first time as well. I got a set by PREISER that has 125 figures. The set cost me $32 where a set of WOODLAND SCENIC people costs anywhere from $10 to $15 for about four figures. While it's a better deal...it's hard, man! heheheh It's taking a lot to paint the figures so they look right. I'm leaning towards using them as "background" figures within buildings and shops so you can't look them over at too close a range. :)

The additional station buidlings are by KATO - the Platform Accessory Set 23-118. Awesome, as usual.

Stay tuned for progress pictures.

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