Baro's ApartmeNt layout

[primavw]

Made another one!

Bro... teach me

[Baronjutter]

What do you want to know? 
The thick portions are a material called Taskboard, a sort of thick heavy art cardboard.
The thin detail parts are a material called Polyback, a thin resin-impregnated cardboard used as water-resistant laminate flooring underlay.
I draw everything in a drafting program then take the drawings with me to a local Makerspace where I laser cut it.  I then come home and realize some of my pieces don't fit or broke because they are too thin and then I go back the next day and cut some more!

As long as you have access to a laser cutter it's a very simple system!  See if there's a makerspace in your area, they are spreading like weeds.  Mine is just $50 a month for unlimited access, a lot cheaper than the $3000 or so to get set up with your own.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Looks very groovy.
How much for materials?
What program you use to render?

Looks just like that great Canadian city on an island (Nomanisan?) in the Vancouver BC area that was settled by Central Europeans, engineered by the Dutch, and pimped out by the JapaNese.
Very excited to see you non-kit, non-bashed city!
Hope you're taking lots of "how to" photos for your expose article / book on modern urban N scale renewal.
Cheers!

[Scottl]

Hawtness.  Our makerspace has a 3D printer, but I never thought to ask about a laser cutter.

What is great about these buildings is how obviously original they are.  There are only so many ways to rework the existing body of building kits, but when something new is put on a layout, it is like the lights coming on.  It was like that when DKS was putting out buildings through NZT.  Great stuff.

[Baronjutter]

It's my plan to offer kits one day but so far I haven't made a building that's gone together well enough.  So far everything has been like scratch building just with a laser, rather than putting together a kit.  But if anyone likes anything I made I could always put a little extra time into fixing it up a bit and cutting some extra copies, all for a very reasonable small price compared to other laser kits.

[Baronjutter]

So I guess I'm ok at lasers and buildings, not so ok when it comes to trackwork...

Peco turnout to a short section of peco flex to ME flex... bit of a disaster yet the train actually runs fine over it.


I ended up cutting out some of the ME ties to solve the bunching issue and jammed some of those special Peco turnout ties to hold the peco flex in gauge better, it's not perfect but I think it's good enough??


My other joints are fine.  Here's ME55 to atlas80.


here's a blurry shot of the whole layout showing the track I managed lay.  You can see the whole city deck thing is off the layout and sitting on the floor.  With my wife's help we were able to pick it up and off the layout as one piece.  Not bad for something that's just a ton of 1/8" uneven butt joints held with glue.

[railnerd]

Peco turnout to a short section of peco flex to ME flex... bit of a disaster yet the train actually runs fine over it.

One trick is to solder the flex track while it is straight, then bend it afterwards— a pain with ME track sometimes.

Could also try using PCB ties to hold the rails apart; but make sure you have a track gauge to keep the rails spaced properly.

[Baronjutter]

I did solder it all while straight!  It's just under so much pressure and the ties got pushed so far out from the ME track flexing that it ended up like that

[railnerd]

I did solder it all while straight!  It's just under so much pressure and the ties got pushed so far out from the ME track flexing that it ended up like that

yep.  been there done that, too.   

Have you tried not staggering the joints?  Seems like that left rail just doesn't want to flex like the ME rail.

[Baronjutter]

The staggering of joints was a surprise as well, they weren't staggered at the start, nor was there that huge gap in ties.

I've got it straightened out a bit more.  My plan is to put a couple gauges on the track and solder a few PCB ties to make sure everything is 100% to gauge, although so far all my rolling stock rolls over the area just fine.

[wazzou]

Just un-scrunch the ties to close the gap toward the joint and it should work out better.

[Baronjutter]

Well as of last night I just want to rent a skip, put it under my apartment window, and toss the whole layout piece by piece into it.  I'm trying to do too much stuff for the first time and I just don't know what I'm doing.  My benchwork isn't ideal, it works but it's not ideal.   Everything has a little flaw here or there, some silly thing that in hindsight I should have done another way but now it's too late and it's hard to live with.  Nearly killed my back putting up a huge solid wood backdrop only to realize my wood is thicker than I thougth and the whole thing fits very awkwardly.

It all works, but I hate it.

[timgill]

In my experience, if there is an aspect of the layout that you are unhappy with, it's the only thing you will ever see. There's no shame in salvaging the good stuff and starting over again; I'm sure everyone has had many similar moments in their "modeling career."

My suggestion, FWIW, would be to restart your construction using a "domino" style technique, building one section of the layout at a time. This allows you to tackle things in small chunks, and learn tricks/tips you can apply as you move on to the next section.

If you don't want to tear up and start from scratch, then try redirecting your modeling efforts to a completely different project; build a diorama, module, or portable switching layout. That can get your mind off of the flaws in your larger setup while building skills that will help you as you move forward.

[Baronjutter]

Working on a backdrop.

[Baronjutter]

Backdrop test fit


Layout and train room were an absolute disaster of disorganized clutter caked with sawdust and foam chips, wife finally had enough and we did a big clean.


As you can see the "city frame" is back on the layout and the height matches PERFECTLY with the bottom of the backdrop despite not really measuring either.
What do you guys think of the colour?  I'm going to add some very light hazy clouds around the horizon.