"Shoo-Fly" Free-moN Module (2'x6')

[Guilford Guy]

Very nice MC! What type of rock/abutment are you trying to represent? I've had decent success carving abutments with a razor saw and #1 exacto blade, followed up with a primer, and gray wash. (Pardon the foam dust clinging to it)

[JSL]

Have you tried balsa foam. goggle it, if you haven't it is nice stuff to make abutments and walls from.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

The balsa foam idea sounds good.
I'll pick some up today.
Pink foam is just too soft, methinks.
Or I just don't have the patience for it right now.

David: thanks.
The camera and sunlight make that fallen oak look decent.
In real life it looks more like the piece of shriveled broccoli you find 5 years later behind the cupboard when you move out.
Thank goodness for sunlight and decent cameras

Here's some more picts because why not:







Thanks again for all the feedback and suggestions.
Will be finishing up the transport / storage crate today.
Woot.

[ednadolski]

That's just breathtaking -- really some of the finest modeling I've seen.     Any chance we can convince you to model Tehachapi?  Perhaps say Caliente, or Tunnel Two, or Walong?   

Ed

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Any chance we can convince you to model Tehachapi?  Perhaps say Caliente, or Tunnel Two, or Walong?   
Ed

Thanks, Ed.
Give me an empty basement, a kabillion cars, and some serious meds for the carple tunnel (two) I'll develop after twisting all those oaks, and I could do Tehachapi.
Otherwise I have a wa-long way to go 

But I'm happy to cheer you on from here 

[wm3798]

What rotten work... What a hatchet job!  I can't believe your work has fallen down like this.   

[M.C. Fujiwara]

What rotten work... What a hatchet job!  I can't believe your work has fallen down like this.   

Leave it to Lee to cut to the root of the matter.
Good thing the bark is worse than the bite.
I know it's rotten work: I thought I'd start with the 5-year-old dried-up broccoli and then, maybe one day, work up to puffball.
Got plenty of puff.
Just need the balls.
 

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Well, crews are starting to build the abutments as we speak!
 There'll probably be a finished concrete abutment on the hill side, with forms & rebar for the cow side abutment.
 Still figuring it all out.
 
But, (a but? ment?), that will have to wait as the show at the Hiller Aviation Museum will start tomorrow.
http://www.hiller.org/model_trains.shtml
 Got the transport box to the point it will serve it's function:
 


It's 37"x28"x24".
 At some point will put on a top.
 Loading the module into the box & into the car resulted in casualties (so far) counting one small tree and one fence post (the one near the edge).
 Nothing various glues can't fix.
 
But before I packed it up I was able to add some more details such as rails, ties, wood & drums around the service spur, as well as the module's first structure:
 




Hawthorne opens The Scarlet Letter noting that the first two structures early colonists inevitably erected were a prison and a graveyard.
 My first structure could be both, depending on the food, but nevertheless arguably more important than any other.
 
So off we go.
 To the show.
 I hope to get some more wiring done while there, and I'll probably be working on the old barn at home and then planting it while at the show, or start experimenting with vines for the vineyard.
 Or maybe I'll just be too busy running trains

Thanks for looking, and hope to see some of you at the show.

[dnhouston]

Great work, and lots of nice scenery ideas!  Thanks.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Fun times at the Hiller Aviation Museum Planes n' Trains Spring Break extravaganza.
 First time Free-moNing for me, so quite a learning experience!
 Will write a bit more on that later, for now just posting some picts to show the general Free-moN sprawl:
 




[Yes, our one turnback loop is wrapped around a pole]
 
I've been taking home some of the small 1'x2ish' 45 deg modules.
 They've been pinkfoam prairies since X2011 in Sacramento (where I first saw the Silicon Valley Free-moN group in action), so I thought I'd spruce 'em up a little;
 


Did two last night, but ran out of time at the show today to pour the water, so it came back home along with two other barren wastelands that will be given the Fujiwara Fertilizer Freshen-upper treatment:
 


We'll see how they turn out in the next two days (no show on Easter Sunday).
 We'll need them done-ish, as they're part of the mainline!
 
And, of course, a video!
 (Only two minutes: Woot!)
 

A bit shaky as no tripod.
 We'll be popping in to run trains and work on modules all week, so there should be a big difference (for better or worse) by Sunday.
 
Thanks for looking, and hope to see you there (like we saw John Sing today! Yeay!)

[John]

Looking really good ..

[GaryHinshaw]

The module looks Ab Fab now MC, and I'm sure you'll have the 45 deg modules shaped up in no time.  But you must explain why a long-hood forward Hustle Muscle is dragging a disabled passenger train backwards across Sonoma County.

[lashedup]

MC what static grass did you end up using? I've gotten the same fade of color and sheen from the Woodlands Scenic stuff. The Silflor static grass seems to hold up a bit better to mid-day sun.

Looks great! The rest of the details are really going to push it over the top!

-jamie

[sizemore]

Nice work! Taking good notes over here.

The S.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Long but fun week of running trains at the Free-moN show at the Hiller Aviation Museum.
 Haven't been posting because I've been working on a 10'-long staging yard module since last Sunday, but got that "done" and operational for the big group ops fun today.
 Will post picts & fancy videos later.
 For now, here's the shoofly:
 

Time for bed.
 Fun week of running long trains through fab scenery!
 Thanks for looking.