I've embarked on another anti-shackwhacky project - wanna see?

Very similar to what I have in mind 2Many. The water tank has been cast in plaster, waiting on brass angle to build the windmill.

The outrigger beam is there under the peak, need to rig a block-and-tackle to hang from it.

Got the bales cut and stacked in the hayloft and am working on the fieldstone foundation for the barn. Pics to come.
 
TwoManyXS1Bs said:
I also recall lightning rods, and the traditional rooster windvane on the roof peak...
Click to expand...

Indeed. I'd forgotten about that, thanks for reminding me!

Going to see if I can find or make some scale birds and perch them on the ridge. Along with the inevitable results...

EDIT: There's an outfit called "Preiser" that has HO scale birds. Not horribly expensive either. I'll add that to my shopping list.
 
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The haymow floor with supports and bales. Gonna sit and stare it it for a while to see what else I should add. It will only be viewable from the open doors on the end of the barn so you'll only be able to see the first third or so.

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I really like working with plaster of paris. I poured some thin bits to make a field stone foundation, scribed the grout lines in with a dental tool and highlighted a few of the stones with diluted oil colors.

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The "walls" are then glued to a styrofoam base with spay adhesive as they are fairly delicate. The top of the styro was covered with a skim coat of plaster to simulate a concrete floor.

BTW, the hot wire cutter worked slick as a smelt. The base is about 3/8 inch thick and cut smooth as a baby's butt.
 
LOVE IT DE - keep coming with the pictures!

I was a model RR guy too. My parents started me out with a little wooden set when I was about 2-3 and I was always told that after setting it up, I looked up at them and asked "where is the button?" Then they moved me up to a used British Hornby Dublo HO set based on a 4-6-2 "Pacific" class steam locomotive with British style rolling stock (the loco is identical to that shown below and is painted in CPR colours - apparently quite rare now). The Hornby system was three-rail and worked really well. I still have it carefully packed away for a little grandchild who shows interest.
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Perhaps you could get a tiny version of your dozer going on the farm....:thumbsup:
 
Downeaster said:
I like that idea! Pop one of the tracks off and have it laying on the floor next to it, little puddle of oil, etc.
Click to expand...

YESSS!!!

...and scatter a few empties around while playing a soundtrack of muffled cussing and loud blows of a heavy sledge hammer.

It will be SO realistic!
 
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Built the "production" version of my hand held hot wire cutter today. 1" and 1/2" PVC Pipe and fittings.

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Everything dry-fitted which is good enough as there's no pressure involved and that way I can take it apart if something goes wrong.

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Drilled a hole in the 1/2" caps and threaded a 12-24 screw through as the wire mounting terminals. Drilled a hole in the 1" end cap to mount the male receptacle for the wall wart. That way it's easier to store plus I can move up to a higher voltage power supply if needed simply by plugging it in.
 
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Working on detailing the shop scene, working on the crawler. Bought a bunch of HO scale shop equipment like jack stands, a floor jack, an air compressor and a set of oxy/acetylene bottles. Bit small, but close enough to S scale if you don't break out the scale ruler.

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Decided to see if I could come up with a set of regulators and hoses for the O/A setup. As you can see from the ruler, VERY fussy work, just happened to be in the mood for it. "Gauges" are slugs from punching holes in brass, hoses are green and red sewing thread super-glued together. Waiting to see if it will be rugged enough to transfer to the diorama.

Once I'm satisfied with the level of detail, I'll post pictures of the completed shop scene.
 
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After trying a couple of other options, I finally resorted to building a stand for the diorama. Now I'm playing with the placement of buildings and lanes. I'll look at this for a couple of days and see if it clicks.

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Closeup of the shop. Not done detailing it yet, waiting on a couple of orders to arrive. I seriously underestimated how much one can spend on a diorama! Well into 3 figures already and not done yet, tho I don't expect any more major expenditures. (Where have I heard that fib before?)

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Pretty happy with this arrangement for the barn. Weathering and scenery to be added, of course.
 
Haven't posted anything in a while because what I'm doing is mostly prep work - preparing the base for scenery, detail painting models, weathering structures, that sort of thing. All adds a great deal to the finished product, but not especially interesting.

However, this is just too cool not to document. I'm working with an entirely new-to-me medium called "static grass". It's some sort of plastic fiber that comes in various lengths and colors. I have some yellow-green in 4mm and medium green in 7mm.

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It's applied with a "static" (negative ion) generator. There are ready-made static grass applicators out there running from $35 up into three figures. Being a cheap esso bee, I built one out of a $10 "electronic fly swatter".

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It's intended to run off a pair of AA cells (3V) but I Tim-the-Toolman'ed it and run it off a 9v battery. You clip the positive lead to a conductive base and place the grass to be applied on the base.

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Clip the negative lead to the conductive armature you want to build the tree on and hit it with some spray adhesive, then turn Ol' Sparky on and bring the armature near the pile of grass and it'll align between the armature and the base. When it stops sticking, spray again, and apply another layer. I start with 4mm grass for the base and then add 7mm towards the bottom to get the shape I want.

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The resulting "fir" trees look pretty darn good IMHO.

Note to self: When holding the metal hemostats with the armature in one hand, it is not generally advised to adjust the position of the tray with the other hand. 12KV will BITE even at some miniscule fraction of a milliamp...
 
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Discovered it on Ewe Toob, then adapted it to my needs and budget.

Bought a bigger generator to do the long grass on my layout, don't think the hot-rodded flyswatter has enough poop. We'll see.
 
Big generator module came in today, grabbed a 12v 3 amp WII power supply at Good Will for $5 and grabbed a project box and other doodads out of my pile and built a nice enclosure with a gozon-gozoff switch, a power indicator and banana jacks for the leads.

The hot-rod flyswatter did okay with the 4mm stuff but wouldn't make the 7mm stuff stand up. Even with the 4mm stuff I had to be so close to the work that I'd get an arc occasionally if I twitched.

The Big Hawg will suck 7mm grass out of the shaker from 3 inches away and make it stand at attention! Woohoo!

Mrs. Downeaster was looking at the layout and said "Where's the house?"

"House?" sez I, "I got a barn and a shop, don't need no steenkin' house!" (Running joke with us about farmers. I'll spend money on a garage or shop before I'll put another nickle in this @#($ing house...)

But, she's right. Found a nice farmhouse kit from Walthers that wasn't TOO ridiculously priced and ordered it. Necessitated relocating the grain bins and the shop, but will give me an excuse to put in a nice "lawn" with the 4mm grass.
 

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