Well... I did a full-court press yesterday and actually, sort of, finished up the Bernheim 2 project. It needs to thoroughly dry and then get some more spritzes with wet water and scenic cement to secure all the grass. For the track, I painted everything earth color and then picked out the ties with medium gray as if they were aged wood. It seems to work. Here's some final, but not display, pics.
When finishing the sidewalk I ran into a problem that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I painted the styrene with two coats of a custom mixed concrete color (Tamiya Deck Tan and Medium Gray mixed about 50:50). I then oversprayed with Dull Coat to protect it from the alcohol wash that would bring out the joints and cracks. Doh! Isopropyl alcohol dissolves Dull Coat. So as I was wiping off the excess, all the paint was coming off too. I decided to clean off all the paint and start over, but what was left was all the cracks nicely filled in with paint. So I then air brushed two light coats of the same concrete mix that gave it a concrete color and let the colored cracks show through. The results were very pleasing and are a way I'll probably do this in the future. Serendipitous discovery... kind of like Teflon.
I showed these images to the Shapira Family last night. They are the owners of Heaven Hill Distilleries, and their response was wonderful. Max Shapira, the patriarch and CEO wants to get an article written in the local Louisville paper about my hobby, the railroad, my interest in "Bourbonism" (a recent term coined by our mayor), and the creation of this model. I'm looking forward to that.
Removing the middle rail on the Ross track worked well to simulate 2 rail scale. Of course Ross track is taller than scale spur tracks, and if I went to scale height rail I would then have to change out the trucks on the Atlas Steam Era freight car. The viewers will not pay attention to this. They will be looking at the building and comparing it to the picture from 1870.
The building dropped into its socket very nicely. I'm not gluing it in. It will be easier to move this if I can separate the building from the base. Prior to doing any ground cover I sanded down any raised edges around the socket to make the transition to the building very flat and even.
They are now deciding how and where I should deliver it so they can have the base and clear case made.
Andre Garcia (River Leaf) and I are still trying to determine if there's enough interest in this complex model to offer one to the market. I'm going to prepare some more elegant pictures for him to display at York and see what kind of interest it generates. It's going to be expensive due to the extensive and elaborate cutting costs. If it wasn't for the bricks it would be a simple, but the bricks add an enormous amount of time on the machine.
Let me know if any one would like something like this on your railroad. If you want one built, that can be done also. I'm getting pretty good at it...
