My attention of late has been on the Sweetener Products structure. One of the signature features of corn syrup facilities is the preponderance of metallic vents and piping. The question then becomes, how do you make plastic look like metal? Simply using silver paint, even traditional paints labeled as metallics, won’t work. They’re far too grainy and […]
Category: Construction
Sweetener Products (February 13)
The next project is the structure for my largest industry, Sweetener Products. I’m doing a bit of a prototype stretch here as the Sweetener Products facility is actually located on the UP a few miles away and in a different type of structure. Call it plausible proto-freelancing. Throughout the LAJ a distinctive feature of many […]
Capturing A Sense of “Mass” (Feb.12)
Following my last blog on this subject Trevor Marshall was kind enough to point out Mike Confalone’s work with super weighting cars. In a post on the Model Railroad Hobbyist forums Mike wrote: “Bottom line, if you want really reliable operation, and more importantly, prototypical operation, you should consider adding a LOT more weight to […]
Capturing A Sense of “Mass”
Creative fulfillment aside, one the main reasons I model railroads is that I’m mesmerized by the full size version. In particular, the sense of overwhelming mass and the stunning horsepower numbers it takes to move just a few cars. (A GP38-2 tips the scales at 125 tons.) As I watch YouTube videos such as THIS […]
Some Vertical Details
I spent the better part of Saturday scratch building two utility poles and one cross buck for the Everett Avenue crossing. I’m guessing I had about six hours into the project and the cost of materials probably didn’t crack a buck. (lots of recreational play value per dollar!) On top of that, when I was […]