The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[davefoxx]

Screwing around more with Helicon Focus.  Without even knowing any tricks or tips about how to best process the pictures into the final product, I can already turn this:



 . . . into this:



DFF

[davefoxx]

I've made a little progress on ballasting the yard in Aberdeen.  The biggest delay was the typical failure of ballast between the tracks where it was not properly glued underneath leaving only a crust on top being solidly glued.  So, I cut and vacuumed out the bad ballast, used masking tape to protect the track, and added lightweight spackling between the sections of cork roadbed to fill in the gap.  Were I to go back in time, I would just build the roadbed under the entire yard with sheet cork and avoid the gaps.  You live, you learn.  The lightweight spackling has dried, so ballasting has resumed.



On a different note, I received a surprise package in the mail from @Philip H last night, with a couple of HO Plasticville structures that he had inherited and thought might fit in well with my layout's theme.  I'm not sure of the age of these little structures, but, with a little work, I think that I can put them to good use on the layout, especially the little shanty.  I've been looking for something to use as the office for my pulpwood yard.





I'll clean up these buildings and appropriately weather them.  I'll also build up the terrain, where necessary, to give them a level foundation and then bring the foliage up to them.

DFF

[chuck geiger]

Nice work.

[davefoxx]

Spring is here.  The hydrangea is blooming!



DFF

[davefoxx]

More fun with HeliconFocus.  Since I’m presently running the early 1990s-era of CSX on the layout, out can come the CSX F-units with an intermodal train.



DFF

[Chris333]

A shrub every night!

[davefoxx]

A shrub every night!

@Chris333,

Whoa!  That's six hydrangea bushes.  That's like a week's worth of work, if I'm allowed to take the seventh day off for the Sabbath. 

DFF

[packers#1]

Getting closer to Masters week, wonder if the executive train is coming through Aberdeen?

[davefoxx]

At @bbussey’s suggestion, I flipped my iPhone upside down, which got the lens down low.  I like it.  I’m going to be using this angle more often.  As a reeeeeeeeally pleasant surprise, I did not have to fight with an upside down image in my phone, CameraPixels, HeliconFocus, Imgur, or here.  Nice.



DFF

[John]

At @bbussey’s suggestion, I flipped my iPhone upside down, which got the lens down low.  I like it.  I’m going to be using this angle more often.  As a reeeeeeeeally pleasant surprise, I did not have to fight with an upside down image in my phone, CameraPixels, HeliconFocus, Imgur, or here.  Nice.



DFF

I like it .. I have to get a new phone soon . my Samsung S7 has about had it

[Chris333]

My S5 from 2014 is still going strong 

[davefoxx]

My S5 from 2014 is still going strong 

My iPhone 7+ is from January 2018, so it’s four years old.  I hope I can get another year or two out of it.  My Samsung S3 went for five years.

DFF

[davefoxx]

DFF

[davefoxx]

How about a small update?  You may recall that I received a couple of small HO structures from @Philip H not too long ago that were old plastic structures built by some anonymous person.  Philip thought these buildings fit the theme of my layout, so he was kind enough to pass them along. 

The small garage was unpainted raw plastic that was assembled with tube glue.  I was able to remove the base without too much damage, so I would be able to install clear acetate for window glass.  I painted the brick with a red spray bomb (Rustoleum Cabernet) and then used lightweight spackling for the mortar.  Unfortunately, the spackling highlighted the so-so casting, because there are a few spots where the irregularity of the mortar joints prevented the spackling from sticking.  That is, the mortar lines weren’t deep enough or were almost nonexistent in a few spots.  I’ll disguise these spots with junk or posters or shrubbery.

Here’s what I started with:



Sadly, my incompetence struck, because after protecting the Coke machine’s sticker with an ingenious styrene mask while painting the brick, I managed to rip it off when masking the doors and windows.    I’ll make a decal to fix that, which, hopefully, will allow me to use a picture of a real 1980s-era Coke machine!  I painted the windows and doors with Testor’s Flat Gull Gray, and, after a coat of Rustoleum 2X Flat Gray Primer, I weathered the roof with Monroe Products washes.



This picture of the back shows that the original builder did not get the roof on correctly.  It’s so off-center that it overhangs on one side and does not cover the other sidewall completely.  Not much I can do about that.  Life has to go on.



Today, I’m working on its foundation.  I cut out the scenery to try to get a level base.  Two layers of cork roadbed and some sanded grout were used to fill the hole.  The driveway is unsanded grout, and that needs much more work.  I have to learn how to build dirt roads.  I’ve never gotten this right.  Ever.



DFF

[davefoxx]

The result of today’s efforts:





As for the Coke machine, the plan is to scale down and print a picture of a machine from the 1980s, like this:



I’m not sure if my printer is up to that job, but we’ll see.

DFF