The Windlenook layout, unfinished as it is, has been out to a number of different places this year: a few library shows, an NMRA-sponsored 4H event, and even a birthday party. The electronics haven’t changed since last winter, but I have made progress on structures.
Progress on the Bickles Foods building for Susquehannock Industrial Park has been moving at a snail’s pace. (Actually, The whole Susquehannock project has been slow.) I’m happy to announce that I’ve reached a milestone: the roof is done. Whew. (more…)
Over the winter, I made the leap into laser-cut structure kits. I’ve had The N Scale Architect’s Greendel Tower kit for years, thinking that it would look good on my Susquehannock Industrial Park module, if ever it reached the structure stage. The kit contains parts to build two towers, and the new crossover module I’ve been building needs a tower. It was time to bust into the kit.
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about the Susquehannock Industrial Park project, mainly because I haven’t made much progress. I have done some work on the Bickles Foods factory since I got the walls assembled. The roof is finally coming together.
You may recall that I “wanted the rooflines a little less chaotic” than Art Curren’s original kitbashed structure, which combined original kit roof panels with a variety of scrapbox parts for a very interesting roof. I don’t want my roof to be particularly interesting, which means that it’s going to take more effort. Go figure.
So, the roof panels are cut to shape and (mostly) fitted together, but there’s still much to do. I had to do some splicing work, because the structure is longer than the styrene sheet I used, but the joints went together evenly, and should look great once everything is complete and painted. Watch this space for further updates!
This hobby does many good things for me. It’s a channel for creative expression, an entre into new fields of learning, a doorway to social settings. But a means of relaxation? Um, not really. I can be a terrible perfectionist at times. (more…)
The Bickles Foods factory exemplifies the fits-n-starts pace of progress on my projects. This particular structure is based upon an Art Curren article in the October 1985 Model Railroader, an HO scale kitbash of two Con-Cor (now Heljan) Superior Bakery kits, but I’m doing some things differently. I didn’t want to lower the main walls the way Curren did, and I wanted the rooflines a little less chaotic. These decisions, and some differences between the HO and N scale versions of the kit, left me with two short walls that couldn’t be fashioned from the kit parts. (more…)
Furniture Railroads 