Some 28mm stuff usable for 1:55 and the painting technique

I ordered some stuff last week from Perry Miniatures (http://www.perry-miniatures.com) for the project. The figures are all metal and lookes very good. The tents are plastic and also are good to use.

The stuff:

The metal guns and a set of Confederate Generals:

Loose assembled gun:

Together with a friend of mine who has a good painting technique we start painting these the 29th of September. We are in a group of modellers who will meet that day. This group has as a purpose to have fun in the hobby and to take it to the next (=higher) level. All have there specialties and I am one of the guys who does American modelling.

How we paint? Well, this way. These are 1:72 figures but the way to go is the same.

Basic black with first deails painted:

The colours on the uniform:

Left mine, right his painted example:

And another one to go:

It's not as hard as it seems. So I will go one with the bigger ones.

More to come!

Grtz, Ronald.

New start!

Hi all!

After a longer period some new things.

At this point I can't get enough information about Tenessee and its station.... therefore the subject is no longer available for a good modelled layout. What I'm looking for now is a subject that can be moddeled in the limits of 7 foot long and 1+ foot deep. I build myself 2 modules, one of them was already build in 2009 and was determined to get a same module with it. But for me it is important that a layout is buid for exhibition purpose and that it can be transported easaly. As I have a sedan there is not much room to get a layout stowed in. So what I did was that I made a shorter second module that fits in the trunk of the car and can be coupled to the first one.

The first one can rest on the back seats. On this picture its the left one. The right one is the new 2012 piece that fits nicely to the older 2009 piece:

The older one had a cornered background. Until that time I only modelled 90 degree cornered backgrounds and so I wanted to try new things. Unfortunatly it came in storage and wasn't used untill now because I needed something that would fit in a car and not only in a hanger or van (the idea of that is that I can travel "light":  one or two persons and a lyout. Perfect for 1 or 2-day trainshows and the smaller ones. Those have fewer money to organise so expenses are much lesser that when I have to travel to big trainshows where I need a van and 4 to 5 people to operate my layout on these intensive shows.)

The second one is this one:

And it fits in the trunk:

Here are both modules after we finished it with oak veneer and stained it:

Sorry, picture will not turn in blogspot....:

And the two with the first coat of blue background paint:

So, here is my base for a American Civil War roadshow in Europe. My plan is to follow a idea of the Englishman Iain Rice who worked out a concept with parts of a layout that can be exchanged with eachother. That means that you can put pieces with different syles of landscaping  in the layout during a exhibition. One example could be different time periodes but also different places.

Later more of it!

Grtz, Ronald.

Hello folks,

I'm hard ay work on another project of ours; a 5-module 0N30 layout with a Southern State appearance. It is called "Lake Louisa RR, John Hammond's swamp logging". Rail and turnouts are all handlaid code 80 on ties that are made of mouth sticks your doctor uses to look in your throat! Most buildings are made of wooden cofee stirsticks. I will show progress photo's in a few days.
Here some of the building. Me and my wife, she will do most of the scenery and the buildings:

Progress this week of the middle 3 modules:

Deadline is the last weekend of Februari where I will take it to Germany at the yearly show of the MEC Lahnstein-Koblenz in the village of Lahnstein. The week after that it will make it's official appearance at the OntraXS show (www.ontraxs.com) held 2, 3 and 4 March in the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht Netherlands.

After that show I will start with the building of the Civil War layout. Idea is still 2 modules with a staging yard. Above that I want a diorama in the same size as the modules. So that there is a distinctive feeling with the theme I'll show.
This layout will also have its premiere at the Ontraxs show in 2013. After that it will go home with me and will return to the museum in their yearly season exhibition. In the year 2013 it is a war theme with different real carriages and locos from around Europe. They also want to display some dioramas and my layout will be the focus point as layout/diorama that shows trains in wartime at a very early time in history.
I can tell you that I'm very proud that they asked me, also because there is still nothing build....

More to that later!

Some extra movies

Here the links to 2 extra movies after I digitalized the little one:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIOg6TFUKZ4

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZy_bRN-2uw

See how it crawls the track!

Making ties

Made a batch of ties today. I make them from sticks we use for meat etc. I can make 5 of 1,5 inch length out of 1 stick, there are 100 sticks in a bag so in half an hour I produce 500 ties!:

The legs

Today I made the legs. I still had a set of 3 from a previous project layout:

Me with the layout. Not looking amused, but that is not the case. I'm very happy with it. Maybe I am camera-shy....:

I made a mock-up from some cart material and a photo as reference:

And on the module:

I think the dimensions are pretty good. More in the coming days when I will make the other 2 buildings (the middel high one and the one with the locoshed attached to it).

More construction

Today I went on with the construction of the first module. The idea here is to make the "roof" with the lights removable for transport. That way I can "box" the two modules for transport.

Here the front bottom fascia is made. In two pieces, its made of left-over material from a previous project:

With background:

And the first roof-carrrier (not quit straight mounted yet):

All three of them, together with a mounting strip for a tube light:

I used temporary support for mounting the roof and for lining out the 3 carriers:

Twin bolts hold the carriers:

And ready with the roof straight over the module:

And it can taken off quickly:

The inside with the way how the tubes will be placed:

More in coming days!

Almost ready! / Bijna klaar!

I let speak the photo's for itself / Ik laat de foto's voor zichzelf spreken:

From this / Van dit:

To this / Naar dit:

Only some painting of the module and some stuff on it / Alleen nog wat schilderwerk aan de module en wat spul wat er op staat.

This module is to see on Euromodelbouw2011 in Genk Belgium, Europe coming weekend (8/9 Oct 2011) in the "Limburghallen" there..

Deze module is te zien komend weekeinde (8/9 Okt 2011) in Genk Belgie op Euromodelbouw 2011 in de Limburghallen aldaar.

Landscaping / landschap

Some pictures of what I did today / Wat foto's van de werkzaamheden vandaag:

Raised the building / gebouwen verhoogd:

Landscaping / Landschap:

What we are aiming for / Wat we uiteindelijk willen:

PS; in the photo's all is still wet / op de foto's is alles nog nat.

Meer / More

Did more today / Heb vandaag meer gedaan:

Painted the stub / wissel geschilderd:

And the rest / En de rest:

Layed some track / Nog een stuk spoor gelegd:

And made a switchrod / En een wisselstang gemaakt:

Later!

Grtz, Ronald.

More pictures from the California Railway museum

Zoals beloofd nog een aantal foto's er bij / As promised some other pictures added: