On Deck: Water!

Soyokaze's pond is going to be in production this week...at some point.
I have the game plan and the WOODLAND SCENICS water test going today with some WATER EFFECTS ready to roll, so I'll be setting that into place and working out the boat rental spot and the boats on the water. Very exciting!

I'm going for the olive green water look as shown in the photo above. There's a small "lake" in Golden Gate Park that we visit and it has the same look. It holds something near and dear to my heart. My daughter and I took MANY early morning walks around it when her sleep schedule had her waking up at 5am or 6am. They had swan boats as well and I ended up folding them into a grand set of stories that I tell her at night about a huge Swan Boat with a crew of all of her stuffed animals. All of it came from our walks and the cool, morning walks that we took around that lovely green lake.

That's my target for this small part of the Soyokaze Lake project. Photos to follow!

Soyokaze Update: Base painting!

Soyokaze progress has been made finally!

I managed to get the base painted finally and I'm really pleased with the outcome. Now, I can go back in and start laying in some of the finer details. Whew! And, all it needed was a commitment to move forward on the project. I left wires behind and kept things moving and I'm really happy about it!

Now...what to tackle first. I think it's my water area.

And, I'm not sure my vendors are going to fit now! hehehe  I might have some choices to make in the near future.

Steam Train Dream

I had a dream the other night that the family was going to take a vacation together. My in-laws, Mother, wife, kids brother-in-law, sister-in-law....the works.

We were packed and ready to travel with suitcases, food and supplies. And what was our mode of transportation? A steam train! The train had two passenger cars attached and a caboose. It was steamed up and ready to go. I actually moved it up a few feet to gain access to something, then I realized that the plan was for US to drive the thing!

All of a sudden, I realized that we didn't know how to drive a train. We didn't know train rules. We had not made plans to avoid other trains on the track, nor did we understand how to to it. It was classic. Here we were, all standing around this steam train and thinking, "We're supposed to leave for vacation right now on this thing." 

Good stuff. :)

Some nice Woodland Scenics N Scale pieces

I was flipping through N SCALE Magazine and saw that there are some nice pieces coming out soon from Woodland Scenics.  While it's ideal to craft your own stuff if you're into it, WOODLAND is great when you want to add a little pep to your layout, but don't have the time or desire to do it yourself. And, these make a nice addition even if you prefer to hand craft items. They are just nice pieces.  You can find additional items on their COMING SOON page. 

(( I've taken the liberty of snagging their descriptions from their site - I don't think they'll mind. :)  ))

J.W. Cobbler - N Scale    BR4931

You can almost hear the door-bell jingle and smell the leather. You can just imagine the village shoemaker sitting hunched over his cluttered workbench topstitching some new boots or re-soling a pair of shoes.

 

Misc. Freight - N Scale    A2216

Tons of freight move daily through every part of America. You’ll find it stacked on industrial loading docks, aside packing houses, on harbor docks or at train depots. This figure set includes an assortment of colorful, highly detailed crates, boxes, bags and sacks of varying shapes and sizes. 

Tim Burr Logging - N Scale    AS5343

Tim shouts last-minute instructions to his driver who takes the lumbering load of logs to the sawmill.

Bad Boy Bikers - N Scale    AS5344

Three bad-boys, complete with do-rags, tattoos and pony-tails, set ready-to-ride on their custom choppers. 

 

Bridge Planning and the Corner

I've decided to forget the lighting for now. It's just...not where my mind is right now. I do plan on  slipping wires into the buildings for FUTURE lights, however. Then, I'll move on.

SOYOKAZE

I plan to move forward on Soyokaze, building a footbridge to span between the two hills and dropping a larger water area in between them. This will allow for the duck boats to be in the center and for the Tomytec fishing boats I have to be towards the back in deeper water. If I do it correctly, it should be a very nice scene.  I have the Woodland Scenics water effects kit and plan to experiment with it to see what I can manage. Seeing as it's more on the "creative" side and not on the electronics side, I have faith that I can be somewhat successful. :)

I'm thinking of something like this for the bridge.

I'm going to be crafting it from scratch out of styrene and foam board. The overall look will be wood - maybe with the traditional red paint, but I'm leaning towards straight wood look and feel.

Bridge look

Bridge location - where the white strip is

SHIZUKA

Sadly, Shizuka is packed up and away. It will resurface in 6 weeks or so in our new office, but will remained packed while I work from home. :(

OTHER: The America's

I'm still working on the new American module. I'm looking into lighting it with a small light kit I picked up a year or so ago.  

 

I think it will do the job.  I'm also looking into streets and various details to make the project last longer. Something like an empty lot, parking area and the like. This will allow for a little American modeling. The buildings will have more of this internal buildup and figures, so it's a somewhat slow process. I have the internals set up for printing, but building the buildings and detailing will take a while. I'll post project pictures for those who are interested. 

I also need to refine my little Industrial area. Pep it up a bit and tune it. More projects.  :)

ONWARD! :)

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N-Rail Updates

Hello from the wonderful world of N scale hobbies! :)

I had a few updates for what's going on in the microverses of Soyokaze (formerly Old Town) and Shizuka (formerly Downtown) these days. There isn't a whole lot, but there is some news.

SOYOKAZE

Efforts to get a grip on LED lighting brought progress on Soyokaze to a halt. I had everything ready to set, paint and detail, but the issue of lighting the buildings stopped me from doing anything until I figured out what I wanted to do lighting wise.

I set out to learn about LED lights and the like and....well...got really frustrated. I'm an "artist" and have that mindset. Thoughts of power sources, current, electricity flow, voltage and watts made my head spin.  The small efforts I made didn't seem to work. At all. An LED that worked when touched to a battery failed to work when wired and soldered to one. So, I stopped.

I've gone through various stages of being ok with no lights this round. It is, after all, a little "practice" layout and, when I get my space I need in a new house, I'll be redoing the works. But, it would be nice to have lights now. I have almost a year before we move and we're still not sure I'll actually have room for a set once we do. So, I keep thinking. I might just run wires to the buildings now, then move on with details with the idea that I'll go back and add power and LEDs later. That's sounding like a good plan right now.

I continue taking pictures, too. Sad - it's the same shots over and over.

Station Area - Soyokaze

Temple Area - Soyokaze

Meanwhile, people continue to wait around for a place to sell their goods and shop. They sit atop my shelving unit and mill about aimlessly. However, some of them have managed to start dating which is nice. :)

First Date in Shelf Limbo

SHIZUKA

The office layout of Shizuka needs to be packed up and put away until we get our new offices set up. A sad day indeed. It'll be missed. but, the upside is that I'll be able to work out anther variation of it once the new office is set. The new layout will be smaller at first due to space constraints (not that I even know what my space looks like yet!) However, I'm told that that will change yet again in the coming months when someone leaves the company and an office space opens up again. Figures crossed, but my breath is NOT being held on THAT one. We'll see what happens.

For now, Shizuka is missing. It disappeared right off the face of the map!

Shizuka minus people and buildings. Twilight Zone

OTHER PROJECTS

The buildings behind the people in the FIRST DATE image above are going to be used in another, US based module. Plans are not set yet, but it will involve boats, water and a ship museum along with the brick buildings above. I needed something to move forward on while LED issues got resolved.

I'm also going to look at a rearranged setup for my US industrial shelf module. Not sure what's going to happen there, but something needs to change. I've been staring at it for far too long and taking the same pictures of it for months now.

All for now. Happy Hobby to ya! 

~Malco~

Miniatur Wunderland remodeling

There are some big happenings over at Miniatur Wunderland. They are revamping the layout of their offices and building including a new ticket system, larger eating area and new children play area. They are taking advantage of the renovation to make the stairway larger and add additional improvements that will make visitors more comfortable and happy.

It seems like they are also going to guided tours instead of a free form style, so that will be interesting. They are aiming to have the work done by July 1st, so of you're planning a trip, you may want to wait a bit. :)

Gerrit also talks about a recent accident with the plane system and the addition of a few new planes.

NOTE: There is a closed caption button at the bottom of the player - CC.