Franksville Wisconsin N-scale modutrak module buildout

[wm3798]

My nails, as well as my hair, are both fully natural...  My gut, however, is a beer implant... ;D

Years ago there was a Herman cartoon where the lady's sitting at her vanity with a torch and a face mask... you guessed it... "Lee Weld On Nails"...  I still have that stuck to a bulletin board somewhere...
Lee

[lashedup]

Quick Friday night update - The Masonite sides are all glued on. I reinforced it with nail braids on the 3/4" birch center joint and end plates as well. Since most of this module will be relatively flat due to the town, there will be more minimal contouring, so I went ahead and glued the foam down. I also put down a coat of earth colored paint to cover the pink foam - just makes things feel like they are a little further along when I don't have to look at pink foam all the time:



I drilled one set of turnout controls in the front fascia on the left-hand side and have the drill template taped up on the right-hand side. I'll take detail shots of that install later. What will be flush mounted there are RCA jacks that enable you to operate the Tortoise machines to throw a turnout by using a male RCA plug end. This way the public can't throw a switch when you don't want them to. I'll go through it all in detail later.

Looking it over, I think I'll start sketching in building locations, streets and other features so I get an idea of where everything will go. Grade crossings will probably be put in first followed by streets. I like to get the streets in place first, so I can run scenery material right up over the edges and such. We'll see, I have to give it more thought. I always get to this point and then stand there looking at the whole thing trying to decide what I'm going to do first in regards to scenery. Sketching it in will help I think. Once I start rolling along with structures, everything will start to fall into place quickly.

I also discovered some new scenery material that I'm excited about - I'll save those details for later. ;D

Have a good weekend everyone. 

-jamie

[diezmon]

Quick Friday night update - The Masonite sides are all glued on. I reinforced it with nail braids on the 3/4" birch center joint and end plates as well. Since most of this module will be relatively flat due to the town, there will be more minimal contouring, so I went ahead and glued the foam down. I also put down a coat of earth colored paint to cover the pink foam - just makes things feel like they are a little further along when I don't have to look at pink foam all the time:



I drilled one set of turnout controls in the front fascia on the left-hand side and have the drill template taped up on the right-hand side. I'll take detail shots of that install later. What will be flush mounted there are RCA jacks that enable you to operate the Tortoise machines to throw a turnout by using a male RCA plug end. This way the public can't throw a switch when you don't want them to. I'll go through it all in detail later.

Looking it over, I think I'll start sketching in building locations, streets and other features so I get an idea of where everything will go. Grade crossings will probably be put in first followed by streets. I like to get the streets in place first, so I can run scenery material right up over the edges and such. We'll see, I have to give it more thought. I always get to this point and then stand there looking at the whole thing trying to decide what I'm going to do first in regards to scenery. Sketching it in will help I think. Once I start rolling along with structures, everything will start to fall into place quickly.

I also discovered some new scenery material that I'm excited about - I'll save those details for later. ;D

Have a good weekend everyone. 

-jamie

oh man, I just noticed  DeWalt and Ryobi in the same room.. for shame jamie!   LOL  What's the effects pedal there on the left? looks like an EQ maybe?

[lashedup]

Most of the power stuff I have is DeWalt mostly because I got the drill as a gift and just kept buying stuff to match it. However, I got the Ryobi sander on the cheap  - how else can I pay for the expensive scenery crap?  ;D

As far as an effects pedal - I'm not sure what you see there, but there isn't any music equipment in this room.  There are some car and motorcycle tools buried on the lower level of the "morgue" table. Trains to get through winter and car and bikes to get through summer!

[diezmon]

As far as an effects pedal - I'm not sure what you see there, but there isn't any music equipment in this room. 

OHHH.. that's your digitrax throttle, isn't it.. LOL

[lashedup]

Old DT300.

It kinda looks like an effects pedal, but those little buttons would be awfully hard to press with your foot!

[tom mann]

oh man, I just noticed  DeWalt and Ryobi in the same room..

hey, some of my worst tools are Ryobi...

[lashedup]

Got a few more things done...

RCA turnout controls one the south Franksville module are installed. First I drilled holes in the fascia using a template:



Once they are drilled I sanded everything smooth, counter sunk the screw mounting holes, used a black permanent market on the inside of each hole and then installed the RCA jack from behind the fascia. They look like this from the front:



I still need to wire them up and I'll cover that another time.

I painted the fascia on both north and south Franksville modules. We use a generic green on all the modules with black skirting to hide the legs. I'll still have to touch them up with more green paint later after scenery messes, but it was easy to paint now before I mounted the RCA jacks.

Here are some overall views of both the north and south Franksville modules to date:





It is always amazing how long it takes just to get to the point that you can start working on scenery. I still have more turnout controls to mount and wire up and have to paint the tracks on the north module industry siding, but I'm finally getting close. A little less than three weeks till our next show, so we'll see what I can get done between now and then!

[lashedup]

Got busy with work again and didn't get much done last week (ok I installed a Tsunami micro diesel decoder), but I've started working on structures and other miscellaneous things for the modules again...

First I finished putting the American Model Builders diamond shingles on the depot. Once I put the roof and chimney in place permanently I'll add the peak flashing and other miscellaneous roof support pieces. Meanwhile I've started working on the foundation that will support the wood plank floor inside and the brick platform between the depot and the tracks.

Here is a rough view of where the depot will be located:



So I cut and measured the platform and foundation area and built it up with 1/16th cork that I got at Hobby Lobby (comes in rolls):



Here is a side view:



Next thing will be painting the brick and staining the interior "wood" (styrene). I plan to leave the one loading door open with material visible inside - that's why it is getting flooring. I ended up using some HO wood boxcar sheet styrene for the wood planking/flooring. Once I get it stained/painted and photographed it will make more sense.

More later...

- jamie

[lashedup]

Got the platform brick painted. I first primed with Kilz  2 Latex, then painted it with Oxide Red Pollyscale paint and then weathered it a bit with AIM grey and white powders brushed on and then rubbed in with my fingers.

The wood flooring is styrene box car siding that I roughed up with fine sandpaper (pulling across in the same direction as the planks), then primed with Kilz 2 and then applied washes of Roof Brown and Grimey Black.

It turned out ok and I'll be doing some touch up later:



Here is how it looks with the depot in place:



I also added a strip of wood on the leading edge of the platform as well to clean it up. The surrounding sides will have parking lot to the north and scenery butting up against the brick.

Slowly but surely...

[Erik W]

Got the platform brick painted. I first primed with Kilz  2 Latex, then painted it with Oxide Red Pollyscale paint and then weathered it a bit with AIM grey and white powders brushed on and then rubbed in with my fingers.

Looks good.  Do you seal the white powders with something or just leave as is?

Erik

[lashedup]

I usually just leave it as is since I haven't had any issues with it getting disturbed all that much. I was going to try a technique using flour that I saw on another forum, but forget and fell back on the old standby.

I'm going to try (maybe in vain) to add some weed vegetation in the cracks at the ends of the platform and such. I got the two roof halves put together, the chimney painted, weathered and in place and did some basic weathering to the depot and roof pieces. I also added the interior divider wall and painted it up. I also attached and wired in the second industry spur and finished airbrushing the last two sections of track.

No pics yet. I'll post some later (I know... this thread is worthless without pics).

[lashedup]

Quick update:



I still have a lot to do, but I got the roof pieces glued together and added the chimney. I need to add flashing around the chimney base, the ridgeline shingles, signage, doors and a few other odds and ends.

[Chris333]

This "Kilz 2" Is that in a spray?  Only Kilz I know of is a very thick brush on paint.

[Zox]

This "Kilz 2" Is that in a spray?  Only Kilz I know of is a very thick brush on paint.

They have a spray-can version; I've used it to cover water damage on a ceiling.