Masterpiece of scenery & weathering...

 Kevin,

Absolutely fantastic job on the buildings, scenery, weathering and realism!  I'm officially very jealous...

I'll have to look at your website tonight at work, to see the other photos!  Was waiting for the latest edition to be finished and you have not disappointed me one little bit.

Cheers and well done,

Jas...

Dude, you've been at work!

Guess you got your problems with the city employee unions solved and got those lazy good for nothings to actually do some work!

Looks awsome!

Charlie

Waterfront Photos

I looked at your site photos.  Great modeling!  I really liked the fill slopes going down into the water and the flotsom on them!  Two problems I saw were that there was not much rust, salt water equals rust and there are no birds.  You need seagulls and terns and pelicans! 

I've been looking for pelicans for a long time but have not found a source yet for my Galveston Causeway Project.  Even went to Galveston and got copies off of the original 1903 blueprints to build it (compressed) from!.

Anyway, your work looks great keep it up and more pictures please!

Ben

Road and sidewalks

I would love to see a detailed description of the road and sidewalk construction. To me that makes the images that much more realistic. Wonderful modeling.

Outstanding!

Those streets and sidewalks came out well.  What are you using for the manhole covers, storm grates and sidewalk/curb?

*Edit* DOH! Found the manhole cover reference on your site...

Mean Streets?

Those are some mean lookin' streets.   Very well done.

Holy Smokes!

 I was wondering where the turn was for Route 101. . .really great details that you don't see on most layouts. A real inspiration. Will have to go see the 'tour' on your web site.

Fantastic!

I wish I could do that!

I'll second that - Fantastic!

Kevin,

Thanks for the pictures.  I went and looked at the rest of the photos and read the captions.  What a great informal tutorial on street building.

I just received some lamps from "WEHONEST" and was wondering about some of their other offerings.  The pole lights look pretty good.

I never thought of making manhole labels.  I was wondering how you made them look so good!  Now I know.  Thanks for the tip!

Always good to see what you are doing, thanks again.

TRASH BINS

Can i ask where you got the trash bins or did you scratch build?

Gary

Buildings

Excellent models!. Only thing is the gaps between the bottom of the buildings and the ground. Filing them will make them look "set into the ground" rather than "plopped on". John Allen had an excellent advice back in the Dark Ages: take a picture, make a larger (at least 2X times) print and fix anything that does look "modelish". Still valid today.

Kevin - Hat's off!

Kevin,

My hat is off to you and the wonderful modeling!  As a "structure guy" I can appreciate all of the hard work, skill, and patience that went into this.  I'm also curious about the dumpsters as I need some for my layout - where did you get them, or did you build them?

Rick

Dumpsters, Manholes and Seagulls....

I appreciate all the kind comments and suggestions. Some of the questions I have answered in some detail on my website in the "City Streets of Port Andrews" photo gallery. But in Brief:

Ben: Duely noted about the rust. Sometimes I think I tend to over rust (ever seen one of my cabooses?)  But you are probably correct. As far as the birds go, I do have a flock of seagulls waiting for paint and installation. they are on the way. Although I don't remember seeing any pelicans around the Olympic Peninsula, but I could be wrong.

Bob, Rob: The sidewalks are left overs from Bachmann's recently re-released "City Scenes" kits. I sold off most of the structures because of a lack of room for them on this layout, but kept the sidewalks that were included in each kit as I thought they were nice looking and they really came in handy here. Manhole covers, storm sewers and electrical covers on the sidewalks are all photographs of the real thing in Seattle. Plugged them into photoshop, scaled down and then printed on Starliner brand adhesive backed paper. Then simply cut out and stuck down. All road surfaces are mattboard.

Rick, Gary:  The dumpsters are rather poor resin castings I mail ordered some years ago for the previous layout. You'll have to forgive me as I'm not sure where it was I got them now. I upgraded them by adding the side rails used to pick them up by the mechanized garbage trucks, the lids, and runners underneath. These were all fashioned with styreme. There are better ones available. On my website in the Seadog Boats and Marine section you can see a much better dumpster casting. Again......got those some time ago too and not sure exactly where.

Pip: I know, the gaps have always bothered me as well and I totally agree, but I'm not really sure how to remedy the problem. If you sink the structures into the ground the bottom of the doors look to be embedded as well, which I thought looked as bad or worse. Plus cutting out a perfect footprint to sink them into is almost impossible (at least for me, I've tried). It occured to me after reading your comment and thinking about it some more that maybe gently sanding the whole footing of the building to actually be perfectly flat might help. Those DPM kits need all the walls sanded flat and at 90 degrees before assembly, and maybe the base of the walls should be too.

You might make styrene foundations.

You might make some 1/8th inch thick foundations from styrene to blend the buildings into the ground.

This Time The Caboose came in First pulling the train.

Now that's what I call an executive decision and one really nice city scene. 

1920's buildings in 1980 decor and colors with a little more modern Warehouse. This could be Down Town middle America any where in the U.S.A.

To be honest I am really Impressed with your work. The streets are really nicely done and Willy the Wine-O leaning against the wall just back of the Vineyards Van and under the Cutty Sark poster is a really cool effect. I like the street lights, do they light up at night or will they?

I really want to see More Photos when you get more details and I really want to see your electrical turned on.

Thanks for sharing your pictures and again NICE WORK!!!

Dan

Building gaps

What I did in the past was to just put some plaster (just a little bit to fill the edge) and then set the building on it.  If you coat the building bottom edge with something the plaster won't stick to, presto! , custom-fitting edge-filler!. When dry, paint either wall or flooring color to match.

Building a couple of Dumpsters

Kevin said ... "The dumpsters are rather poor resin castings I mail ordered some years ago for the previous layout. You'll have to forgive me as I'm not sure where it was I got them now. I upgraded them by adding the side rails used to pick them up by the mechanized garbage trucks, the lids, and runners underneath. These were all fashioned with styrene."

There is a whole thread on "Dumpsters" ...   http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4109  ... at the model railroad forum known as "Big Blue at The-Gauge." Unfortunately, half of the photos are not viewable to "visitors" ... only to those who are registered (which is free and only take a minute or two.  It's worth the minute or two to do so, believe me!) I went to visit there over a year and a half ago after being invited by someone on the Model Railroader Forums ... I seldom go anywhere else at this point.

I post there as "P5se Camelback," but I'm known as BiL now that I've been there for a while. Stop by and take a look! The dumpsters are pretty convincing.  The thread starts as merely photo documentation of building a couple of Dumpters and pretty much becomes TWO photo tutorials, one from a guy in Texas and the other from a guy in Germany. GOOD STUFF from both of them!!

Your modelwork would be a nice addition, Kevin!  We all learn from each other there!

BiL Marsland
P5se Camelback
Lehigh Acres, FL
wwmarsland@gmail.com

Building foundation gaps

I have used gray modeling clay as a gap filler where the building sits on the layout.  I use the non-harding kind and roll it into a very thin "snake".  I press the clay on the bottom of the building and then press the building on the layout.  There's no reason that the air dry (hardening) type could also be used.

Rick

Photo of the raw matt board?

 Kevin,

Do you have a photo of the matt board you used to do your roads with?  I have several sheets myself from when I used to dabble in some picture framing, and I think it would be perfect to finish the "HUGE" amount of concrete that I have to install for the intermodal area...

Cheers,

Jas...

Jason, the intermodal yards I've seen in Ca. don't use concrete.

Typically, they are paved with asphalt.  There will be a strip of concrete beside the tracks where the trailers are loaded to or unloaded from stack trains, and there will be a strip of concrete where the landing gear sits when the trailers are dropped.

I just went to Bing maps and looked up Hobart Yard which is the BNSF's main intermodal yard in So Cal.  If you go to East Los Angeles near the 710,5, & 60 freeway interchange you will see the BNSF intermodal yard marked out on the map.  Go in for a close overhead view and yoiu will see that there is a concrete lane on either side of the tracks and an asphalt lane between the concrete lane on the east side of one track and the concrete lane on the west side of the next track.  When I panned over the area where the trailers are parked waiting for truck drivers to pick them up or waiting for the yard hostlers to move them to track side for loading, it appears that there is no concrete, just asphalt lots.

Really Nice Work

Great details, Kevin, from the placement of the parking meters to the boxes and crates in the window of the hardware store. It's clear you've spent a lot of time looking at photos and working on the small things. I especially like the plumbing under the fire escape and the gutter pipe at the corner of the building. I seem to find something new every time I look at the photos. Nice job!

Tom Patterson

City Scene

Let me add my cudo's to all the others you have getting here.

The details are superb.  Love the cracked streets.  Took a look at some of your photo's on line, very nice indeed.

Have you been published anywhere - your work certainly should be. 

Thanks

Thank again for your compliments guys. I'm glad I'm having success in your eyes.

Great ideas on tiixing the cracks under the building footings. I'm going to be doing some experimenting. I appreciate your suggestions. Always a ton of great ideas in here!

Jason, I don't have any full sheets of mattboard currently, but here's a chunk left over from the city streets project. The brand here is Crescent, but I'm sure there are many others. I just get black and it typically comes in 32" x 40" sheets. You should be able to find it at any art supply store or framing shop.

Styrene

In one of Joe's videos he uses styrene. Have you any experience with it? Any comparisions?