Office Layout Revised

I've revised my office layout yet again. It keeps me out of trouble and manages to get me a little model rail hobby in. It seems to be the only time I get these days, honestly.

I followed through on my plan to bring my Kato Unitram to work, take out all the tan roadbed parts, and keep the gray Unitram look going at work. I now have the mega layout at work, taking up the whole utility table i have it set up on right now.

I have two more large buildings that I'll bring back to work (I took them home to detail them, but just don't make time for it) and once they are here I'll do one last bit of arrangement to make everything visible and interesting.

As always, I'm faced with the issue that I want to be able to see everything from the front, so it tends to have a somewhat unnatural feel to the whole of it. You just don't tend to see nothing but the fronts of buildings unless you're at someplace like Disneyland. :) However, I'm sure I'll be able to come up with some arrangement that works for me.

Now, to take the tan road plates home and reset my Old Town layout!

Some additional photos can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157626200891263/

Work Layout Reshuffle

Well, I moved into an office at work. Fantastic! I love having more space.

Now, I have taken both sections of my office sections and combined them on a table. Let the reshuffle begin!

Here's the first pass. It needs a reorg, however. I don't like the look.

I have more room for additional pieces, but I'm going to limit them. I don't want to do the sprawl, but i may get additional roadbed parts to fill in the space on the right. Currently, I have both the KATO Unitram gray pieces and the KATO road plate tan pieces. The gray is what I'm leaning towards - the look and layout is better, I feel.

I have more space for additional buildings as well. Dangerous. :)

I may do something crazy and bring my Unitram and the roadbed it has into the office, then keep all the gray parts here and ship the tan home and use them for the Old Town layout pieces there. If anything, it will keep things uniform and might be a nice change. I'm just not sure I have enough of the tan pieces to contain all the Old Town buildings I have going at home.

I think I'll give it a go, however. It's been a while since I've made any major changes.

N•Rail - Temple Ad

BATMOBILE custom!

I had it in mind to make a Batmobile for the set after seeing someone else that purchased a TARDIS for his set. I thought it would make a nice little "Easter egg" - a Batmobile chasing someone down in the streets of Briddon. :)

I wanted to just bash a Batmobile and had to search out a good base. I remembered that I kept a horrid, shell of a car that came with the burger stand and thought the shape and make of the car was perfect. The Burton Batmobile used a corvette as a base, so this would work well.




I made fins from styrene, painted it up and used a pencil to put in some detail and paint highlights.









Then, of course, Batman needed someone to chase down. I whipped up a Joker Mobile for Joker's people to use to do crimes. :)

Check out more custom detail work on my FLICKR site.

Hospital - Details

Part of the model railroad process for me right now is going back in on buildings that I already own to add weathering and details. This cuts WAY down on spending and - seeing as I was rapidly running out of space to show items - it allows for some hobby work without adding to the overall footprint of the sections I have going currently.

Many of the buildings I purchase are pre-built, but the majority don't actually come with internal details. Some don't even have floors within them, leaving them looking like hollow boxes when placed in the scene.

This hospital did have floors, but it didn't have figures. So, this was a rather simple internal fix. I added figures, some walls and some desk details and it really helped with the overall look of the building. It looks like there's something going on inside now.

The weathering was the next step. The first layer of weathering got a little heavy handed. (Note: Best not to weather a building after drinking a bit of whiskey....) :) I had REALLY over-weathered the building and it just looked far too dirty for an active hospital. This was easy to fix, however. I just tossed a little turpentine onto a Q-Tip® and started removing some the the paint. The effect was actually exactly what I wanted, so I may use this as my go to weathering method from now on!

The final result:









































Kato 23-310 "Industrial Building" http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10003187

Another Briddon Downtown building ready to go! :)

Check out more custom detail work on my FLICKR site.
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My Appearance on MODEL RAIL RADIO!

Whew! I think I sounded like I knew what I was talking about, thank goodness.
With the exception of saying "whatnot" FAR too many times, I dig how this went! :)

Model Rail Radio is not only packed with amazing content, but the participants and hosts are friendly and knowledgeable. It's a wondrous show with something for everyone.

http://www.modelrailradio.com/archive.html#44

It's a REALLY long show this time. I'm at the 2:49:00 mark and manage to go on for 40 minutes or so. Check out the whole show, however!

See More

Model Rail Radio #44: Layout Planning and Figures and Bears! Oh My! [September 10, 2011]

www.modelrailradio.com

An Internet Radio Show about the Model Railroad Hobby

Happy Birthday, MiWu!

Miniatur Wunderland has been open since 2001. Happy Birthday! :)

This MiWu News Segment talks about the celebration. (Make sure you click the CC for English)