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Hey gang, thanks for the good wishes!

I really haven't been around as-of-late, however don't read anything into that. We entertained friends and relatives for a non-stop 2 weeks over Christmas and New Years. I've got Thing 1 back from university so have been trying to spend time with him, *finally* finished a little model railroad layout (after 2 decades of trying)... it's ridiculously simple (figure-8) but dammit it's done! Anyway... my single-minded determination to get it done has been occupying most of my hobby time. It's been fun doing something different.

Complicating matters, both the Mrs. and I are furloughed due to the US gov't shut-down, so no money coming in. You'd think this would be prime hobby time, but once the holiday rush was over, I found myself sleeping a lot. I knew I wasn't getting good sleep over the last few months, but I appear to have been more fatigued than i thought. Feeling better now though... more energy in the mornings and more drive to do something useful in the afternoon and evenings.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and look forward to the hobby joys to come. Thanks as always for your continued friendship and support!

Glad to see you back, hopefully rested with extra sleep. I just figured you were trying to cram through the new rules for Bushido: Risen Sun, or your pirates had keel hauled you till painting was done.

Just glad to see you about bud. It is no worries about anything, but get worried when zero activity. Completely understand though. It is a funny time of year for just about everyone.

I demand pictures of the model railroad.

I'd be happy to oblige, but I'm not sure I'm allowed to post them. Let me see what I can come up with...

Of course it is gaming related, how did you model the buildings, they have relevant to terrain building and I think a gaming board with a running train is every ones dream surely.

Scale, theme, terrain, texture and miniatures for model railroading are every bit as much a game, if you make it so. There are rules, both of physics and of timetables, that have to be followed. For a layout to look good, the right elements must be present in the right relationship, location and quantities. Decorators put a ring of track around their Christmas tree and run a choo-choo; MODELLERS build to scale and have a 'story' (to quote the good Doctor H- who also has posted pics of scale train terrain here) that explains why their train is coming from someplace, going to someplace.

Rock on!

Dr H posts model railroad stuff in his P&M all the time, especially around Xmas. DO IT!!! Also, good to see you back.

Dsteingass also posted his builds which he did which started as model train buildings which he pimped out to wargaming.

Or is it that your son is not allowing you as opposed to the DakkaDakka crew?

The simple answer is to loot a locomotive for your okrs.

Failed attempt #1... deleted.

Showing as video unavailable to me , so it really isn’t much .

Hmmmmm...

Probably set private, Gits.

OK, I changed it to "unlisted" which I think means you should be able to use the link to go directly to it though it won't show up in the list of videos. I'll post a few stills here in a bit. Let me know if it still doesn't work.

Still unavailable

OK, made it public. Here's the address again in case that was the problem (though I could always get the video to play).





I also took and edited a series of stills... I apologize for the quality of the photos. These are phone camera shots. Couldn't find the necessary bits to use my good camera. Also lighting in the living room sucks.


Layout from the top. Roughly 7'x6'... ish. Squashed figure 8, On30 scale (O-scale, narrow gauge). Crossing tower, station and coal tower (big structure in back). A couple of building fronts to give the illusion of a town in the background. Winter wargaming terrain trees should be familiar to anyone who's seen my 40k battle reports.


"Downtown" from the operators position.



Section of track laid with it's disconnected end hidden behind the crossing tower, just to give the operation the illusion of being more than it is. Also allows the display of cars and loco on the layout.


One of 4 locos, all very different from each other. This is a small geared loco (Heisler). Ultimately it'll be relegated to moving mining cars around but it just happened to be on the track with a normal freight consist.


Train pulls into town from the east.


Boxcars unloading at the station.


This gondola is the first car I've weathered. Ignore the contents. Not proper for a gondola but I wanted to give it some weight and visual interest.


Better view of gondola.


Weathering these cars is interesting & challenging as they're wood-patterned shiny plastic, which I have to make look like non-shiny actual beat-up wood. It's a heck of a lot easier to do that when you start with wood (see my Bushido terrain pieces). I've got two grey box cars disassembled and sprayed with Testor's dull-coat (a necessary step to give any of the weathering options the "teeth" to adhere to the model.) We'll see if my techniques hold up on the much larger surface that the boxcars provide.

That's enormously fun, and more importantly, 0 gauge means it's gaming scale.


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(imagining the game of walking dead you could have on that!)

<alpha male nerd> "ACTUALLY, that's a stake-pocket flat car with clapboard siding panels, and is 100% suitable for those sorts of loads." </alpha male nerd>

--B.

I have in the past considered rules for gaming on a table with a simple MRR on it. I thought it might be fun to have, at the end of each turn, the train run at a set speed for a diced number of seconds. Mobile LOS blocking terrain (or you could get run-over if you were unlucky).

I always enjoy seeing non-rectangular tables for train sets, it just breaks the ordinary look and gets me more into the display. Great job with the layout and planning ahead with the extra track on the window sill to store extra engines on.

@graven, zombies cheat, they don’t stop at flashing reds nor do they yield to the right of way. And lastly they think cow catchers can be zombie catchers too , just another example of zombie entitlement .

 Briancj wrote:
<alpha male nerd> "ACTUALLY, that's a stake-pocket flat car with clapboard siding panels, and is 100% suitable for those sorts of loads." </alpha male nerd>

--B.

Awesome Brian, thanks! I know it's amateur hour when it comes to MRRing... but I appreciate your interest anyway. I'll keep working to improve it too. For now, I think getting the cars and locos properly weathered will be a good start.

I'm building a roundhouse.

 Briancj wrote:
I'm building a roundhouse.

Will it have a really manly man beard? Sorry, roundhouses make me think of Chuck Norris .

 Theophony wrote:
I always enjoy seeing non-rectangular tables for train sets, it just breaks the ordinary look and gets me more into the display. Great job with the layout and planning ahead with the extra track on the window sill to store extra engines on.

Actually Theo, I just came up with kind of a neat idea. My dad gave me an old Lionel O-scale steam loco for Christmas. I can change the track on the sill to full O scale for this loco... add a freight car of some sort and have a transfer point for things from the narrow gauge RR to the main line. Viola! Something else to do! I'm so smart!

Now to find an old Lionel car or two...

Good show Ol' chap.

One thing I've found with posting "other" modelling photos: If you're unsure if it can be classed as "Wargaming related", place a gaming miniature somewhere in the photo "for scale purposes" and you'll have no problems.

Although I've rarely had a problem with all the random things I've posted as I feel it's often clear that I'm showing modelling skills that are transferable.
I also keep them all in a "Inspiration" folder in my gallery,
And I had a chat with KK about what is "wargaming related" when it comes to modelling.

Just my thoughts as I was mentioned.

I appreciate that Dr H. As it turns out I did relate the painting of the car to my efforts working on standard wargaming terrain and such. So there is actually some direct connection between the MRR stuff and my wargaming activities.

 Theophony wrote:

 Briancj wrote:
I'm building a roundhouse.

Will it have a really manly man beard? Sorry, roundhouses make me think of Chuck Norris .

My roundhouse has already knocked you out.

That looks like the locomotive that made the Kessel run in twelve kilometers.....

With apologies for ripping off both Stars and Girl Genius (who ripped off Star Wars!)




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Love those geared locos- you tend to see Shays more often, I really like the Heislers!

They made an On30 Shay but I missed it. So all I have is the Heisler and the Climax. Shay is actually my favorite geared loco.


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Here's a good scale shot for you. Full O-gauge loco in background... wheel height is just about at the same level for both locos. Also a Death Jester thrown in for scale. Keep in mind this is the smallest of my narrow gauge locos, thus looks the most out of proportion with the big guy in the back.