I'm in the home stretch with my first structure but there are a few problems I'm facing and would appreciate suggestions/pointers.  My building is a kitbash of 3 Walthers Commissary buildings  which required trimming the foundations down to fit the buildings together.  Despite my best efforts I've discovered my cuts weren't totally square.  Here is a quick shot with my loading dock test fit in place:

Finally, after a 6 month moratorium on operations while I was shooting video, making scenery, shooting more video, making more scenery, shooting more video, etc. ...  for HOT Trains volume 1, the Bear Creek and South Jackson management decided it was time to run trains again. Well the guys in the video credits were complaining the yard was a mess and that none of the paperwork was with the freight cars it should've been and they were right.

I'm engaged in an active search to find some logging flat cars to go with a lumber mill scene that I am developing on my layout.  The is based on the Walther's sawmill kit from a decade ago and I have been chasing after some of the Walthers logging flat cars that go with it.   Luckily we model railroaders  have a habit of acquiring things to squirrel away so with enough time I should be able to meet my "needs" on Ebay. This is the only real option for a guy living on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to acquire items no longer in production.

Hopefully not one of my last. This is a really detailed but small structure. The setting is in the more arid regions of Southern California (aw, come on, all of Southern California is arid, isn't it ?). This structure shows how harsh the desert or near-desert weather can age the buildings. This is out in the "boon docks", where not even the buffalo roam.

Laser etched detail, including the shingles, clapboard and red brick foundation (not).

I've got the idea at MRH Jul/Aug 2010 by Charlie Comstock

Wolfgang

I am in the midst of reading the article on the Train Ferry Solano that appears in the October 2010 issue of NMRA Magazine and I am stunned. But I am not stunned enough not to write anything about it or my impressions of this model.

My latest kitbash project for the Hoovertown expansion is The Henderson Building named after my sister and family. It is a combination of Bachmann's Ambassador Hotel and Walther's Merchant's Row II. Actually, it is mainly the Ambassador Hotel as the only parts I'm using from the Walther's kit is the ground floor retail front and the very top cap.

Here's the Walther's kit after I cut the sections out that I will use.

I imagine within this august forum, and with the depth of knowledge demonstrated by all concerned - someone can probably answer this question.

Has anyone scratch built track signals using LED's and fibre pipe?

I had some time today and got most of the track in place on the layout. I would have got more done but I ran out of wire to run my feeders. I will be making a trip to the store on Monday to get some more wire so I can get things running. I will go ahead and attempt to hook up what I have to the bus and may try to get a couple of tortoises in place.