I’ve posted before that it’s just a little hard working in the train room in the winter time. The 10’ x 14’ room is behind the garage and, while part of the house, not heated. There were times I came out and it was 34 degrees Farenheight before I turned on the space heater and warmed up to a balmy 49 by the end of the work shift. Needless to say, a little challenging to work with detail parts sans gloves and let’s not get started on using water based paints! Nonetheless, there were reasons to come out and ponder the work in progress.
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| Youghegeny River Scene |
One area that I find inspiring and satisfying is the Yough River Scene. I had a vision for this corner that I was sure would be beyond my very limited artistic talent. It had been bare, painted insulation board for quite a while with a carved depression for the future river. The first challenge was painting the tree covered hills along the backdrop in this corner. I dithered forever and Bruce conveniently me that I should just give it a shot...we had plenty of sky blue paint to cover up mistakes! I read How To articles and looked at photos for ideas and tackled the task with a couple different shades of green and a stubby bristle paint brush. After I was done, I stepped back and was...stunned. No ribbon award winner, but plausible!
I painted the riverbed, added some talus rocks and sand, then Adam helped me sculpt the river water with a plastic resin you heat, pour and work really, really fast! Added a couple of canoes before it dried and then tackled the surrounding scenery. Dirt, grass, trees, stumps, fallen logs, dirt were next to make this a bit of an untamed nature area. Abandoned campfire, birds, deer, backpackers and fishermen rounded out the scene. Not too shabby!
I pulled the locomotives out of their winter hibernation over the weekend...I store them in the house so they don’t get too cold and the little lubricating oil in them don’t gum up and after a few times around the layout, the trains were once again running on the PRR Irwin District. This spring I hope to finish the ballast cleanup project I started in September, add the separate power supply and wiring for interior lights in the buildings, finish detailing Camp Bruce and build the farm house.
Should be fun!
