1960's OWNY/NYCish 7'x17' Layout

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks Gary & eja.
(Seems as though the Curse of the Odd-Numbered Year has followed the Giants from St. Louis to Pittsburg)

Dude wanted certain buildings from Monticello in the Broadway strip, and one was an arcade.

Miles The Weathering Man http://www.weatheringman.com/ did a great job of creating & painting a Rialto Movie Theater - Greyhound Office - Arcade unit (among many other fine structures for this project):



I found the signs with a google search (so much PacMan!)
& found HO billiards table & pinball machines on Shapeways:



The billiard balls are cupcake sprinkles, sealed with Dullcote.
(Just FYI: There are a lot more white sprinkles than other colors in the bottle)
They make slightly enlarged pool balls, but dude's always telling me how much bigger a man's balls were back then, so...

Checkered floor just a found image pattern printed on cardstock.
Pool cue sticks are brass wire sprayed brown then brushed painted tan & tipped with white.
I'll attempt the taper next time.

I really wanted to figure out how to make the pinball machines light up.
Glued the machines to the back wall, then drilled holes in the upper pieces.

Attached an array of Evens Designs LEDs directly behind the machines:



L-R: Green Flash, Red/Blue Flash, Yellow Fast Flash, Green Flash, Yellow Flash

I originally wanted to run fiber optics from the LEDs to the pinball machine body top surface, but ran out of time.
The groovy thing is that, with this arrangement of the LEDs slightly back from each machine, the neighboring LED light shines through between flashes, creating a more random pattern of many more hues than one would think.
I thought the effect turned out pretty groovy (see video below), but any suggestions to build a better arcade always appreciated!
(Especially when I attempt in in N scale  )

Quick video of arcade in place on Broadway:

Still need many details along the street.

Also got the bagel bakery & plumbing supply installed, with another Miller Engineering sign for 150% more twinkle:



And here's a photo of what my wife made for dinner last night:



Cucumber, Tsukemono (pickled daikon), Avocado, Ebi (shrimp).



Away for the weekend to Portland (for a memorial service, not for PDX2015   ) but hope to have the rest of Monticello wired up & install by next week.
Woot!
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.
Thanks for looking.

[Miles]

Mark, The finished lighting on these are SPECTACULAR!!

Let me know if/when you'd like to collaborate again, that was seriously fun.

The incredible job you did with the pinball machines blew me away, as did the Movie sign. Could you take a nice shot of the movie theatre for me? It looks like the signage I created for the buildings worked out well. 

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Miles: Will do!
Just want to install LEDs under movie sign, in next door stores, then photos away!

Got the Miles-made Spector's Pharmacy installed (minus the sign):



Introduced some auto vehicles into the scene (minus the Greyhound office sign):



Installed the background warehouse:



LEDs have a thin coat of orange craft paint, which switches things up nicely.

Will coat some other LEDs with other colors.
Like I painted every other LED orange, yellow, & blue in the (totally un-prototypical but fun) pavillion in the park:





Poured first layer of Grimy Black-tinted Magic water in creek under truss bridge, then dabbed leftovers along track to mimic oil spills:



After cure should work in well with weathering powders.

Also painted fascia a found eggshellish exterior black.
Will report back whether more eggshell-ish or eggs-hellish after it cures.

Few more buildings to go & off on quest for curtains!
Back to the workbench!
Thanks for looking.

[MVW]

Pure art.

Always a pleasure to see your work, M.C.

Jim

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks Jim.
Always interesting to smash scene-specific dioramas together, but so far working pretty well, and client happy.
So win-win!

Installed the last block of buildings in Monticello:



[L-R: shuttered, bar, appliance/record store]
Still need to attach the store signs.
And hide the wires behind vehicles/bushes/etc.
But the animated BAR sign shines through the gaps in the buildings in front, so you can see it from the aisle or from the center of the room.

Was having major issues of locos stuttering & randomly spouting off horn/bell sounds.
Added a terminus resistor/capacitor to the end of the bus wire, then cut gaps in track to interrupt the continuous loop, but loco stuttering problem persisted.
A single bus along the center of the layout was feeding both sides of loop, so I added another bus and shifted some feeders so that all separate buses feed the lower & upper sections of layout.
Also added more feeders around the lobes.
The result?
Smooth operators:

Another river pour, some ground cover texturing, more signs, lights, trees, peoples, & the skirts... and we're done!
Final stretch!

Thanks for looking.
Back to the workbench!
(And to watch USA vs Peru)

[glakedylan]

M.C.
have fully enjoyed fully this thread
your skill and ability are so appreciated
thanks for sharing
sincerely--
Gary

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks, Gary, for the kind words (& for spending the time following along my HO journey).

Spent a very warm & lovely Labor Day Weekend hemming & sewing on velcro to miles of skirting:





Fortunately an avalanche of Euro Cup & African Cup of Nations qualifiers (and the A/C) were on!
Only 102 right now 
So not going out the garage any time soon.

Don told me about some other stores from his childhood memories of Monticello, so I was able to get pretty close approximations of both Kaplan's Deli:



[Put on a closed building for now, will remove brown paper & have an interior later]

The slim Greyhound station:



And Davco Stores (where he bought his first bow & arrow set):



And got the dancers dancing & the boys playing ball out in the park:



The Coup de Grâce: the plastic tarps are off the floor, the carpet vacuumed, & the skirting installed!







Perhaps might have trimmed an 1" of fabric off the bottom to lift the skirt slightly off the floor (prevents skirts falling into aisles), but still can because all 42' of skirts (in 6' panels) are attached by velcro (in turn epoxied to inside of fascia).

So still a few more scenicking details (like gravel for the gas station, etc.), and lots & lots of people (who are currently melting in my 120F-deg garage), but definitely in the home stretch.

And, of course, the short progress-update video, showing both the layout & it's relationship with the rest of the bonus room:

Don's dad (upper 80's) just arrived for a visit, so looking forward to his feedback on Monticello as well!

Thanks for watching!
Stay cool, & I'm back to the workbench!
(After this cool drink).
Cheers!

[TLOC]

I don't care what the dad says, your work is Excellent and fits any town in that era.. I hope Don the client knows how lucky he was to have you build this. It has been a pleasure reviewing your postings. Thank you, I've gotten so many ideas filed away.

Tom

[dnhouston]

The overview, with the skirting added, really showcases all the work that has gone into this project.  It has really come together nicely.  You are quite the artist.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks, Tom & David.
It's been fun to play in HO, but will be nice to get back to N(ormal) scale 

A few more details added earlier this week:

Added lights to the racetrack billboard:



Added a light under the Rialto marquee as well as inside the two stores on either side of it:



[Hue is more yellow in person]

The Broadway strip:



By the time the steamer comes back from the shops in 3-5 weeks I should have a bunch more people painted.
Probably plenty more trees & bushes as well.

Thanks for looking!

[Philip H]

Ya know that three way intersection on the right is screaming for an animated stoplight.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Ya know that three way intersection on the right is screaming for an animated stoplight.

Researched it.
Was thinking of one suspended on wires in the center of the intersection.
If client wants it, I'll put it in.

[Philip H]

Technical difficulties

Why can't I delete this post?
Or am I missing the button?

You mean just this post or the whole thread?

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Just that post.
No worries--finally got my stuff together.
So here:

While my job at a civil rights / legal services non-profit org in San Francisco over the past couple years hasn't allowed me the luxury of model railroading as much as I'd like, I do pop in from time to time to see all the fab work you all are doing.
Very inspiring!

I finished a NYC-ish HO layout for Don back in the summer of 2015.
He wanted Montecello, NY in the late 1950's, so I built it for him.
(With fab structure help by Miles the Weathering Guy)

This last weekend (4/14/2018)  Don calls & says he's moving.
In less than a month.

This Saturday, with multi-scale model railroad superhero Eric (from the Silicon Valley Free-moN Anarcho-Collective we rock together, & Silicon Valley Lines HO Club), we take down & remove the entire layout, saving as much as possible for projects our own as well as to share with others in our orbits.

A good chunk / good chunks of this project will appear in many Bay Area layouts over the coming year.

Plywood to plywood,
Foam to foam.
Funk to funky.

Here's a time-lapse of the dismemberment process.
What took me (& Miles) over 6 months to build, Eric & I removed in less than 7 hours.

May it inspire you to get building!

Life & model railroading is fleeting.
We see so many threads & builds that disappear--just wanted to share how this layout finished.
& how much of it will excite & invest life into other layouts.

[Miles]

Aww, what a shame to see it go! It was really fun working with you on this. Lemme know if/when you're down to collaborate again. Are all the buildings safely stowed away for a future layout of his?