This older view of the layout is a classic example of visual chaos. The eye dances around a sea of pastel cubes and struggles to make sense of the mess. Some of the most enjoyable, and useful classes, I took at The Smithsonian were on artistic composition and visual literacy. The applications to model railroading […]
Category: CSX Downtown Spur
Miami Jai-Alai 21 Nov.
As I mentioned in my last post, the last thing anybody wants to do is spend hours and hours on a structure only to find that, after putting it on the layout, it doesn’t fit in the way you expected. It’s not something that can be worked out on paper either. Mock ups are a […]
Miami Jai-Alai
With no projects that really moved the needle for me, I took a few months off from the layout. I knew that if I consumed enough craft beers, and took enough naps, eventually something in the way of an idea would float up from the bottom of the pond. And….eventually it did. That “something” being […]
Kikos Wrap Up
Shown above is the finished renovation of Kiko’s Wholesale. I’ve learned a little since I first started experimenting with photo laminates many years ago. I used to look for photos with very few shadows and then photo shopped out any that remained. I now do the opposite, intentionally looking for images taken on sunny days […]
A Facelift For Kikos
One of the more interesting scenes on the layout, both visually and operationally, is where the switchback makes a totally blind crossing of a very heavily traveled 12th Avenue into The Miami Produce Center. Switching the industry is particularly challenging because the view northward up the street is totally obscured by a business called Kiko’s […]