Those who can't do, blog

Those who can't do, blog. :)

And, they barely do that. I started this post a few weeks ago and uploaded images, then more things came up and I dropped it yet again. I managed to get 20 minutes of painting in last night and it was grand. LOL  It's been a crazy couple of weeks with work and home items jumping me at every turn. So, I sit and glance at my layout on meetings and think about what my next steps will be when time frees up a bit. (Might even be MONDAY! WHOOT! PTO!)

Things were moving rather well there for a while. Yes, it's not a race, but it was nice to see some of the larger items come together. Some of the little scenes and things are nice to glance over.

Once more people are introduced, I'll be really happy. However, I want to do several more layers before even thinking about the people on 70% of my layout.  I'm looking at sidewalk production and more Shizuka shifting around to accommodate some ideas I have brewing.

Soyokaze Hill (below) and the area around it will be a lot of fun to detail out. I want to add a lot of scenery details and people strolling around doing various tasks. 

Small details like this rooftop will be hidden throughout the layout.

Soyokaze Harbor will be fun to detail as well. I want to paint the track and have lots of action with vehicles and people all over the scene. Street details will be another interesting challenge layout wide - making sure I have the right signs in place for the right areas.

More more more! I love these scenes! :)

My daughter is a sweetheart. She loves the train because I love the train. I don't push it on her at all, but she'll come and play with the layout I have for her under my layout and will move trains and cars and buildings around like some giant. It's cute. I don't know if she'll want to help in the same way some of the other MODEL RAIL RADIO kids are helping their parents, but the fact that she'll let me hold her and point out what I'm doing on the layout - rapt attention and real listening going on - is a huge thing for me. No one else in my family can do that for me for very long without their eyes going glassy and rolling up into their skulls! hehehehe  :::sigh::::

I'm spending some time thinking through the Soyokaze Town area. It's the thing I'm least happy with at the moment. I think - as I've said before - that I need to look at more reference material to sort out the layout of the town. I like the station area (below). I think that's working for the most part save the addition of more details and people.

The work I put in on the lower part of Soyokaze Hill makes me happy. :)

Devil's in the details. TomyTec and Tomix make the detailing a bit easier! :)

I've finally managed to chill out on my bus obsession. At least for now. :)  I need more standard autos and specially, Japanese items like three wheelers now. I have a little tax money that I've gotten for something special, but I'm not sure if I'll get more people and autos for later or try to make my subway section a reality. I'm leaning towards the subway.....

SUBWAY QUESTION:

The subway is a bit of a head scratcher.  I want to have it run under the current layout through some sort of suspended architecture that I don't need to destroy my current progress to install. I thought about just cutting another piece of plywood (like I used for the deck) and just mounting it under the current setup using some sort of hardware bolted under the current framing. But, then I thought that having 2x4-like runners under it would be a bit less clunky.

QUESTION for the readers:  Is there something I'm overlooking here that already exists that I can make use of? Or, an example of this sort of second deck I can pull from? Comments more than welcome! I'm not a builder, I'm a lover...of structures and scenes. :)   There are no motors or wires under the layout, so I have space to play around under there.

Well...that's my time for today! Back to the grinder! :)

Cheers, All!