Layout Progress -- Staring at Grain Elevators
I had wanted to make more progress this weekend, but we had an astoundingly rare tragedy at one of our campgrounds (family got hit by lightening) so handling that had to take priority. But before that came awful bit of news, I did make some layout progress. Mostly I was tearing my hair out trying to weather a grain elevator, which turn out to be a pain to duplicate, unless one wants to paint it brand new and all white and that is never the look I go for. They tend to be chipped, with horizontal weathered streaks as well as vertical staining. This is where I am so far. It looks better in person, but for just that reason photos are a great way to exaggerate modeling problems. In this case, I have too much of a cross-hatched effect on the tower and need to work on that. Push comes to shove I will repaint the tower white and start over.
On the positive side, I finished my first pair of handbuilt switches using N-scale schedule 40 rail. This was a ton of work for something they sell in the store, but the results are worth it, I think. The switches are #8, built from Fast Track jigs, soldering the rail to PC board ties every 3-5 ties and using stained wood ties glued to the rail with Pliobond for the rest. Rail is painted Floquil rail brown with hand-painted rust streaks.
