Gettin' There...

Evidently, it's been over two months since my last post which doesn't exactly jive with my mission of the blog forcing some kind of accountability on my modeling... BUT, I have been making progress.  The days and weeks following my last post have been fraught with turmoil - touched off by a surprisingly violent exchange between myself and my Wagner paint sprayer.

I don't drywall for a living, nor do I paint for a living, which might have something to do with why priming my walls was such a process er... failure.  I know the 5 gallon bucket of Sheetrock brand "First Coat" says you can thin it, and I took it all the way down to the thinnest I could by the time it was over, to no avail.  My sprayer (a pretty decent sprayer, not a cheap one - which I've used with success with other paints before) would not push the stuff through the filter in the spray handle no matter how hard I tried.

It was an unmitigated disaster.

I cussed so much in the span of those few days that I have likely secured a 12th floor suite in Hell.  I threw tantrums like a 5 year old in a grocery store - I just want to paint a wall.... Just paint a mother-loving wall so I can move forward with this hobby that is so relaxing to me... the hobby that was threatening to push a blood vessel out through my forehead.

So eventually I caved.  I just roll-painted the darned thing over the course of six hours and got it done.  The paint sprayer didn't survive, but I did - though I will carry the emotional scars with me for all of my days.

In addition to the priming being complete I've also been moving forward with some other not-so-interesting but essential projects around the house to prepare us for the arrival of our second child coming in the spring.  Another son, to whom I will pass down the art of lofting non-functional tools into the yard, like my father before me.

-Ryan

Project Dustbowl: Complete

Today I was able to wrap up the final small spots of finish sanding on my 24 acres of drywall.  After that massive feat was accomplished, I also managed to shop vac all the walls and sweep the bulk of the drywall dust off the floors.  This should allow me to continue next week with the application of a primer coat on the whole project.

Below is a panoramic photo from just a few minutes ago of the layout room.  There is a wall down the center of the room that divides it into two halves, the end of which appears as a vertical strip in the photo.  A peninsula will wrap around this wall.  To the far left in the photo is a doorway which is the primary entry to the layout.  On the other side of that door will be a workroom that will also house a staging yard.  Another door is visible on the left half of the photo which will open away from the layout room into an unfinished area, serving only as a secondary entrance, which the layout will cross over.  To my back in the photo is a plain old 15' wall which will host the opening scene of the layout.  At this point I plan for the layout to dead end at that far left door, though I have been entertaining the idea of a helix down to an abbreviated second deck... Not because it's necessary, but because I'm indecisive and a little bit greedy.

-Ryan

First Post

I've decided to create a blog to allow others to follow along as I plan and build a layout in HO scale.  Room construction and finishing is nearing completion after starting just over a year ago.  The layout will represent an existing piece of railroad in north-central Indiana, though I'm currently up in the air about which one of two I'll select.  The railroad operating will be my freelanced shortline, Indiana Central, which is inspired by the real-life (and defunct) Indiana Hi-Rail, along with a host of other railroads that I've followed over the years.  My target date for the railroad will likely be set in mid-October of 2004.  I'm hoping that the addition of a blog, and the potential of outside interest will help to prod me along in progress, and hopefully inspire other as I have been by so many other terrific modelers out there.

I'll do my best to add some construction photos soon, as well as improve the aesthetics of the page beyond the basic cookie-cutter design that we're starting with here.  I appreciate you taking the time to stop by, and I look forward to sharing more soon.  For now, the photo below describes what I intend to model (in terms of "feel" at least).  The elevator at Wyatt, IN hasn't had rail service since the 1980's but it's a facility I've passed countless times over the years.  It's one of those places that only other railfan/modelers can understand, that unassuming place in the middle of a journey that you look forward to because it matches some image in your minds-eye that you wish to replicate.  The overall scene appeals to my modeling ambitions - corn, soybeans, fertilizer, jointed rail, hand-me-down power, covered hoppers, and laid-back operations.  So, here we go.

Thanks!
-Ryan