Hawks NEW "MHO Junction" layout


Thanks Rick, I did look for piano wires in my area and couldn't find any, I thought of buying them online. Will see how it goes, got about 93 turnouts to install and will probably not install tortoises on all of them, depends on what the Canadian dollar will do.....:eek:. A year ago it was almost at par. now it's 41% more.....OUCH
 
Hawkesburytrain said:
I have a color printer and thought "hey maybe I could do my own backdrop", I'm pretty at ease with Photoshop, why not give it a try. I did look up Backdropjunction and for what I would need, it would cost me about $2,700 (about 170 feet).
It just seems that I did lots, but don't have much to show. Hoping to have more done on the layout by my next update.

Thanks for following, later
Click to expand...

By the time it is all said and done, you could probably get it at Backdrop Junction for half that price. Right away, there is a 20% discount for purchasing adjoining scenes, which is something you would do.

There is also a substantial discount for taking after pictures and posting them on their website. And, if you document your process and submit that, another discount.

All told, I think you could get 47% or more off. And, it you are able to make a story worthy of MR, which I AM SURE you could do, even more money back.

For very large layouts, the only thing better would be hiring a professional artist.
 
Thanks David, that would be a hell of a savings.

How about certain areas of the layout where you need specific backdrop such as a stream, container yard, small village, lumber yard, etc.
All of these have to be blended at specific locations and of different size, can they accommodate all of these specifics? What about different elevations in a continuous run?

Here's another question for you,
Your layout is completed and now you're installing the backdrop, looking at my layout, should I be installing my backdrop before starting work on scenes? Once all buildings installed, I would be scared to damage them or being a bit complicated to maneuver around them, especially if you have some cutting to do and fitting around items.

Thanks for your help
 
Lloyd-
If you can get a good idea where your backdrop will "tie-in" with buildings and scenery that will go in front of it, it might be better to install the backdrops first. The only caveat is that you'd want to protect the backdrop from paint, plaster, etc., that you apply to scenery in front of the backdrop. An alternative might be to glue the backdrop to some display or matboard and insert it behind the scenery in the foreground. I left space about the thickness of matboard behind plaster scenery on my layout. Where the foreground scenery was flat or relatively so, I simply placed the display board atop the flat scenery and stapled the backdrop to the wall using an ordinary stapler (opened to allow stapling to a flat surface). I oriented the staples to blend in with the scene on the backdrop. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks trailrider,

That's exactly what I've been doing, leaving a +1/8" gap between the wall and the layout so I can slip in the backdrop. The bottom will be held by the layout and the top will be held by the roof where the lighting will be. That way I won't need to fasten the backboard to the wall.
Hope that makes sense.
Much appreciated
 
Hawkesburytrain said:
Thanks David, that would be a hell of a savings.

How about certain areas of the layout where you need specific backdrop such as a stream, container yard, small village, lumber yard, etc.
All of these have to be blended at specific locations and of different size, can they accommodate all of these specifics? What about different elevations in a continuous run?

Here's another question for you,
Your layout is completed and now you're installing the backdrop, looking at my layout, should I be installing my backdrop before starting work on scenes? Once all buildings installed, I would be scared to damage them or being a bit complicated to maneuver around them, especially if you have some cutting to do and fitting around items.

Thanks for your help
Click to expand...

I would definitely put in the backdrop now. You can cover it with poly to protect it during construction. You are presently constructing one of the best planned layouts I have seen!

As far as scenes, you are a little limited, although you have hundreds to choose from. Several of their scenes are continuous. Many rural scenes and some city scenes. Their industrial scenes don't give much of a selection.

In some areas, sky background alone can be transitioned to a landscape with something you do on the layout, like building up a hill, buildings, or thick grouping of trees. He also offers a custom transition when will work in certain situations.

You would have to be somewhat creative and a little flexible to get the background to work the best. I looked at their pictures for literally months, writing notes, and taking a week break here and there and then getting back to it.

Still waiting for mine to arrive, I ordered it on Dec 19 and it has been three weeks so expect to see it any day now. I will have to bug him if it doesn't come soon.
 
Here's a small video of what I've done so far on my track work.
Small train ride pushed by hand...lol

[video=youtube;r0JE7_q7Y4g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0JE7_q7Y4g[/video]
 
Looking real nice Lloyd. I really like the broad sweeping curves. Keep the posts coming. By the way, were you using an 0-5-0 in the video?????
 
Weekend update

Finished laying the tracks from the lift-out to the small town. All elevation work now has track. In the following weeks I'll be working on new elevation from the town to the small refinery (includes peninsula), preparing all the feeders for the track that have been installed.

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Also finished weathering the covered bridge and assembling the track base to the bridge. It is removable so that I can do the landscaping much much later.

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Later all and thanks for dropping by

P.S. The How to of my covered bridge is almost done. I manage to condense 6 hours of video into 30 minutes. The only thing left is adding voice to the video, which should be done this week.
 
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It's finally done.
Here's the "How To" of my covered bridge
Enjoy and any comments or questions are welcome

[video=youtube_share;59RTLW9WPCM]https://youtu.be/59RTLW9WPCM[/video]

Later
 
Thank you

Now here's my week update, not much but moving along.

I've been working on the elevations on the peninsula and build the overhead for my lights.

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I received my RGB LED strip and wanted to see how it would look. I control the colors from a little remote. I'll probably have to put foil paper on the bottom of the overhang to make it more brighter. Here's a look at dawn and dusk

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day

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night

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Right now the colors don't do it justice because my walls are blue, but with a nice background, and increase brightness, it should be ok.
What do you all think?

Later
 
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