Model Train Journal

Yup, going to finish this in that 1950’s glitter-house style. Not sure what I’ll do with it when it’s done as I made it too big. It’s probably close to 1/48-scale. All the others I have are much smaller.

I do want to build another tunnel/tree-stand. The interior lining of the tunnel on the O-27 version I built last year is slightly too narrow. A six-inch car will drag against the liner; only the small wind-ups can get through without brushing against the sides. The radius is okay, but the lining needs to be widened a couple inches. Building the first one was a good attempt; learned a lot, but dang, a lot of work!

Howard Lamey has made a number of glitter-house versions of the prewar Lionel estate houses. They are sharp:

https://get.google.com/albumarchive/111802071051421222832/album/AF1QipOc4efoyLuUTtTEAa38Ptw6Q_SnVgDF5sarMGRy/AF1QipPkCnYsyKw5B0OyzZbrh-34smJkVEs3QLKRNQPz?authKey=CIWMs8SjwqXHgwE

Looks good Paul. Those would go well with my tinplate layout that I’ll never get to


I’ll post these here even though it may end up in the modelers thread. I never intended to build this but let’s just say I had a mishap on the scale of my saw mill floor. I couldn't stand the idea of pitching it so I decided to re purpose it instead. I have this cool book by Pat Harriman on early wood/stone structures. It has a blacksmith shop that I was able to work with. See pics below. At some point I need to get away from this modeling and get busy on the layout.

Always had a soft spot for false-front style buildings, and this looks to be a good one. Riding through some of the small towns around here, there’s still quite a few of them to be seen. Marty made a really nice tobacconist shop that has a squared-off front for me a while back using a “cut-out” from an old Toy Trains mag from the 1950s. Some have a decidedly western look about them, showing up a lot on movie sets of the genre, but definitely not rare back east.

Heard back from Howard last evening; his recommendation is to attach the roof, build the base separate, then paint/glitter both parts, cement in the windows, then glue the house to the base. Should work. Gotta buy another sheet of board first, as I don’t think I have any scraps left that are big enough for the base.

I always had a thing for night time running and lights on the layout. As I was shutting the trains down for the night I thought this looked like a half way decent photo op.

Yup, night shots on the layout are fun. I've posted this one numerous times, but it's a favorite:

I like it! You could alwys go Frank Ellison and pencil and water color shingles and siding on as well... I do like it though!

gregj410 wrote:I always had a thing for night time running and lights on the layout. As I was shutting the trains down for the night I thought this looked like a half way decent photo op.

I would call that a "way decent photo op!"

And this rock slide detail is fascinating.

Paul,

I think it looks pretty good. I am not sure what a "glitter" house is, though. When I was growing up in Weirton, there was lots of "glitter", i.e. particulates on houses, and cars, and clothes on the line, etc.

By the way, you can always cover the vertical corners with an angle shape (e.g. Plastruct A-2, A-3, A-4) to hide the seam. If you look closely at the prototype photo you can see the builder did in full-size.

George

Thanks guys. I'll post some more pics when I've made a bit more progress. I've got the base assembled and given the main roof and front porch roof a coat of paint. Gotta paint the house itself next, then a glitter-fest before mounting the printed windows.

George, I'm gonna cover the exposed edges with corners made from paper. This is my method on all of these paper building projects, and presuming one uses some good strong glue, it works okay. If you don't use a good glue, you run the risk of the paper lifting when it's painted.

healey36 wrote:Thanks guys. I'll post some more pics when I've made a bit more progress. I've got the base assembled and given the main roof and front porch roof a coat of paint. Gotta paint the house itself next, then a glitter-fest before mounting the printed windows.

George, I'm gonna cover the exposed edges with corners made from paper. This is my method on all of these paper building projects, and presuming one uses some good strong glue, it works okay. If you don't use a good glue, you run the risk of the paper lifting when it's painted.

Okey-dokey. Please post a photo.

George

webenda wrote:

gregj410 wrote:I always had a thing for night time running and lights on the layout. As I was shutting the trains down for the night I thought this looked like a half way decent photo op.

I would call that a "way decent photo op!"

And this rock slide detail is fascinating.

Thank you Wayne! Those Timbers have to be sturdy to hold back all of that vermiculite