Killashandra - Irish Nn3

[Missaberoad]

IMHO, you're young and have many years of modeling ahead, go for it!

As long as you realize that spreading your efforts around will slow progress on all of them I fail to see the harm...
Just realize the cause and effect and don't allow it to effect your mental health, it is a hobby after all!

I like the look of some of the DPRK stuff...

[VonRyan]

Cody, with friendly intention but without mincing words, you really need to focus your energies. You've got six very different modeling interests and you're trying to fire up a company. If you ever want to see a project through to fruition, you have to be willing to say no to something that seems attractive at the time. With everything that you're juggling, it's hard to be sympathetic when you tell us that you've got money troubles or not enough hours in the day.

My Soviet, Chinese, and DPRK modeling is just stock. No layouts. Just trains for running at shows.
The Soviet and now the Chinese stuff only requires effort to track it down and buy it.
The DPRK stuff isn't meant to be anything extremely accurate. Just close enough.

In terms of where most of my physical efforts go, at current the two top contenders are the company and my Nn3 layout. The company already has been guaranteed the majority of my money. My federal and state tax returns are for all intents and purposes invested into the company.

Now that college is done for the semester, I have a bit more time, so I can devide it between company business every day, and rotating what I do with a couple extra hours each day. That way I keep things moving and I get some wind-down time from trying to figure out the spacing of the cross-members for the FM class flatcar. As soon as I get a car, I'm trying to work out a drive to Altoona to go measure the real thing. I don't like guesstimating, and the original tracing only has certain dimensions.

IMHO, you're young and have many years of modeling ahead, go for it!

As long as you realize that spreading your efforts around will slow progress on all of them I fail to see the harm...
Just realize the cause and effect and don't allow it to effect your mental health, it is a hobby after all!

I like the look of some of the DPRK stuff...

That photo is one of my primary inspirations. The paint-scheme is pretty cool.
I don't so much spread my efforts around as much as I do find more things to pick up the slack when I can't get motivated on other projects. If I stuck with one thing, my A5 kitbash for example, I'd still be staring at the same hunks of metal, unable to properly cut them as needed.
Plus, I know of no one else doing any modeling of the DPRK in any scale. Hermit-modeling the "Hermit Kingdom".

Heck, having my Nn3 layout always at hand keeps me thinking about it. Currently the biggest nagging thing is what to use for the stone culvert. Part of me wants to just say screw it and use the Peco stuff, but the sensible half of me says this needs to be done right.
I really want to get all the track ballasted, so keeping that in mind and in view keeps me thinking about what needs to be done to get to that point.

[VonRyan]

I've begun building the cattle dock.
I decided to use some of the Peco styrene sheet since I have it already on hand.
I painted it a base coat of Duncan "Slate Grey" and used a Tamiya light-grey and Duncan "Steel Grey" to highlight some individual stones. I probably will dullcote it and highlight the lines with India ink to give it that dry stone wall look. Then when that is glued down I can fill in behind it and finish up the landscape around it.

I also painted the landscape Duncan "Medium Brown" again to see how everything looks so far. The verdict is that it is coming together nicely.

So, other than touch-up spackling around a few things, the only things left to be done before I can complete the ballasting are: capstones on the bridge abutments and make the stone culvert.

I took a couple quick cellphone pictures again. I'll post those as soon as I have time to sit down at my laptop.

[VonRyan]

As promised, here are the photos.

First, the start of the cattle dock:



Next, an overall of the layout showing how the cattle dock works into the scheme of things:




And lastly a photo of a piece of the Peco styrene I cut to fit the area for the culvert to show how it would look. The slate look doesn't really work here, so I'm open to alternatives for what to use for this stone culvert. I plan on digging around eBay.uk to see what options I can dig up there as well.





-Cody F.

[VonRyan]

The issue of what to use for the small stone bridge has been solved.
I just ordered myself one of these: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=380241131439
Yes, it may be intended for OO, but it's small size makes it perfect for my needs. Only thing I shall have to do is find some thin stone-pattern styrene to make the interior.

On other fronts, I got the cattle dock filled in and some more ballasting done.

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[VonRyan]

I forgot to distract you all with a bit of comparison...

7mm standard-gauge and 2mm narrow gauge:

[VonRyan]

Right... So the Wills cattle-creep is useless for my layout.
Why I allowed myself to be convinced that a OO-gauge kit would work for an N-gauge narrow-gauge layout, I'll never know. So I'm back to the hunt for a solution.



Cheers!

[Chris333]

What is a cattle creep? 

[VonRyan]

Well in my case it was a waste of $12.

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[packers#1]

Well in my case it was a waste of $12.

(Attachment Link)

So it's basically a glorified culvert to allow cattle to pass under the tracks? Why not see if a Woodland Scenics HO scale culvert would scale correctly?

[VonRyan]

So it's basically a glorified culvert to allow cattle to pass under the tracks? Why not see if a Woodland Scenics HO scale culvert would scale correctly?

Pretty much.
I'll see if I can take a look at one of the WS culverts without actually commiting to buying one.
I've been trying to avoid thick plaster castings as it makes the tiny bridge look bigger than it needs to be.
Pretty much what I need is just two small stone arches. One for each side.
I know I don't have anything like that in my pathetic scrap-box.
I probably will have to hunt far and wide to find something useful, which will push back getting the ballasting completed till who knows when.

[davefoxx]

Why not take a look at the Atlas Viaduct?  For reference, check out Dave Vollmer's Juniata Division.  He used the viaduct on his layout, so you can get a feel for its proportions from the pictures posted in his thread in the Layout Engineering Forum.  And, the price is right; it's dirt cheap!

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Atlas-N-2826-Viaduct-Kit-p/atl-2826.htm

Hope this helps,
DFF

[Dave V]

Wouldn't be hard at all to scratch build from Plastruct stone sheet.

[VonRyan]

Why not take a look at the Atlas Viaduct?  For reference, check out Dave Vollmer's Juniata Division.  He used the viaduct on his layout, so you can get a feel for its proportions from the pictures posted in his thread in the Layout Engineering Forum.  And, the price is right; it's dirt cheap!

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Atlas-N-2826-Viaduct-Kit-p/atl-2826.htm

Hope this helps,
DFF

The Atlas viaduct is even bigger than the cattle creep. I have one lying around and that was my first thought, but that wasn't going to work at all. The space is only 15mm high and like 30mm wide.

Wouldn't be hard at all to scratch build from Plastruct stone sheet.

Except for the arch and the keystone. That would be hard.
Thin stone-pattern styrene sheet from Slaters was the plan for the inside of the bridge when I still thought the cattle-creep was going to work.
Of course, stone sheet from Slaters may still be the order of the day for whatever I end up using, but it's all a matter of coming across something that fits the bill.
Heck, I'm even starting to look at arched window openings.

[Dave V]

Except for the arch and the keystone. That would be hard.