September 13th Update

The Shelf

The shelf layout is progressing nicely. I'm taking my time with it and chipping away at parts of it when time allows. This process is working mostly because there are no other options at the moment, so it HAS to work. :)

I'm taking a painterly approach to the overall look. I think it works well and it falls right in with the look and feel of my idol, Akihiro Morohoshi.  I love the look of his work. I'm working from the bottom up, taking passes at the rocks and dirt layers before moving to foliage and the gravel and soil layers that will be physical, not painted. Standard procedure, I believe.

I managed to mask the issues I was having with my water. I like it overall, but I tend to make it much rougher than it should be. I still like the look however.

Pacing myself like this is a good, zen-like exercise in patience. I only have so much time during the day, so I fit in what I can when time allows. It's working well and it allows for planning and moving forward in an organized way with no wasted moves.

More shots here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157635552874482/

The Layout

I got the switching bug! It's a lot of fun and I'm not even doing it on a major scale. I have three switches on the layout (only one is wired at the moment, which makes things interesting) One takes trains out to the harbor area of the layout and two function at the harbor to get things moving on that side. I've started to do SUPER SMALL switching puzzles involving the tram and the harbor work train. It's grand! :)

I've had a few accidents already, costing the people of Soyokaze loss of funds and time. :::grin:::  All involving switches. However, once things get properly wired, I think that the accident rate will drop.

I'm running a few things, but plan on taking one of them out of service for the time being. I have a little, chibi tram from KATO - N Pocket Line Street Car Set. Really cheap and, while it was a fun placeholder, it's seen it's final days until my daughter gets old enough to run trains.

I snagged the KATO N Pocket Line Electric Freight Train (in blue) for my harbor area and love it. It's working well for that area. A great size.

And lastly, I went with the MODEMO NT119 for my main tram and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I need to weather it a bit, but it runs well and fits within the overall style I was looking for. The red is grand in the landscape, too - really pops.

 


I'm not sure about my transition point between the village area of Soyokaze and the city area of Shizuka. I'm using the Unitram plates and it makes it difficult to sort out going from them to the bench work deck. I think it will just be a mixture of scenic and building materials.

Overall, I'm happy with the layout as it stands now. There is some separation between the Soyokaze Harbor, Soyokaze and Shizuka areas, but....you know...it's not as much as I would have liked overall. hehehe Always the case, right? I've thought about building out the layout so it goes down and around the corner. This would buy me about another 5' x 4' amount of space, but it means that I'd need more track and materials, so I think that will be on hold for now.

More to follow. Again, this update is going out days after it was started. I already have another one ready to go! I think the take away is: Shorter updates more often. Yup!

~~M~~