East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR ("The Tweetsie") branchline in On30

[p51]

I just made this for those who have seen my layout on video:

[p51]

I was taking some shots for an article for the NMRA magazine and decided to go for a cover shot. Neither of these were useable, but I played around with them so I could post them instead:

[p51]

Just got this in the mail today:

I had no idea this was coming. This was one of two proposed cover shots I'd sent them last year with an article on my layout. The editor chose what I agreed was the best of the two but said he liked this one as well and would use it later.
This issue has no layout article, so it makes sense and I'm glad it wasn't used instead of someone's layout photo from the inside of the issue!
I'm going to get another copy, chop the cover off it and hang it on the wall with some of my other magazine appearances.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Hot damn! Congrats!

[p51]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
It never gets old,  seeing your cover photo on display to the public.
This is the local Barnes and Noble store.

[Chris333]

Wish we had a store like that. March/April Gazette? where the heck is mine?

[p51]

Wish we had a store like that.

Given that there's no model train store of note within 70 or miles at the least, I'm glad I have a book store somewhat nearby with all these publications.
I'm still not sure why they stock the UK model train magazines as I can't imagine how many of those get sold here.

[p51]

Over the weekend, I put up the original builder's plate for an Army ALCO S2 locomotive on the wall of the layout room, which fits in with the layout's timeframe:

Then, I cut the cover off a copy of O Scale trains with my newest cover, and added it to the 'wall of fame':

[p51]

I just came home from the NMRA 4th region convention. It was a nice event, I gave a presentation on military railroad operations for model railroads.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
I also won third place overall for the photo contest. They combined the real and model photos and mine was the only model photo to place.

[p51]

I recently acquired this Custom Dioramics resin M1934 squad tent off eBay. I'd never seen one before and though I could say I wish I could get more, I only have room for one anyway.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ] My plan is to mount it on a board with strings to represent the needed ropes and blend in the scenery around it when it's done.

[p51]

/>This was a presentation I did about military railroads.
It'll be a sure cure for insomnia, I'd bet.

[p51]

It's been a bad couple of weeks for me and I'm just in a place where I can post about it. 
My parents were both born in 1936, and well into their 30s when I was born. They had all the types of issues you expect from people past their mid-80s.
Dad got sick, went to the hospital, got COVID along the way (the hospital and the assisted living place are pointing at each other as to how he got it) and from those complications, he passed away on June 6. I find that date ironic as I've always been into military history and June 6 will never again be mainly the anniversary of the Normandy Landings in 1944..
I DO NOT want a bunch of responses to this or platitudes. I've got more of that than I could ever use at this point.
Dad was not only a great man (kind, funny, and the smartest person I've ever known), he was finest craftsman. In the 60s, he built a Civil War cannon (a M1841 6-pounder) that we re-enacted with into the 1990s. 

Other than the barrel (the only thing he couldn't cast), he made every single piece of it, and anything that could be bronze, he made it as such. He couldn't bring himself to paint it after making those wheels.
He also built several cannon models, and this 1/6 scale James Rifle appeared in Finescale Modeler from this series of photos I took of it.




As for how this factors into my layout, Dad's last gun barrel is on my layout. I wanted a memorial on my layout to that unpleasantness in the 1860s (some Southerners call it, "The War of Northern Aggression,
 but East Tennessee was quite pro-Union during that timeframe, something I bet they're proud of in a PC-centric world). He said he only needed to know what kind of gun barrel and scale I wanted. As I know the types, I said I wanted a 12-pounder 'Napoleon' in 1/48 scale, and it showed up in the mail about a week or so later. I jokingly said he didn't drill the vent at the back, which would be smaller than a tiny fraction of the diameter of a human hair. He thought that response was funny.

I made the pedestal, and I still can't bring myself to weather it as it'd look (all such bronze barrels outside are oxidized in green unless someone polishes them regularly).

I just wish he'd been able to see the layout. I miss you, Dad.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh man, what an incredible tribute to a great man.

[p51]

I took some more shots last night, for a article I'm sending to the NMRA magazine. The vertical one is one I'm going to submit, but in color. I really like the 'old photo' effect on it, though.

Oh man, what an incredible tribute to a great man.

Thanks, Ed. I was lucky to have a father that not only I respected, but everyone who met him did, as well. I can't imagine it was possible to have a better dad.

[p51]

These are similarly modified versions of shots I took today for another article, for the magazine of the ET&WNC historical association.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]