Split rail fence proof of concept

Two sides of the pasture are demarked by a double-post split rail fence. I’ve been keeping an eye out for suitable twigs all summer, but they’re all either too curved or too difficult to split or otherwise unsuitable. Then I came up with the idea of using bamboo skewers: they’re straight and plentiful and they […]

Pasture Background in Place

I was almost surprised to find that my old staple gun packed enough oomph to blast right through a layer of aluminum flashing, another of laser board and into the plywood that forms the bottom layer of the pasture. It made quick work of the operation, and then all I had to do was come […]

Painting the pasture background

The Girl asked me to vacate the house on Thursday evening so she could have a friend over without “weird parent vibes” infecting the atmosphere. We compromised, and I decamped to the garage where I’d set up a little art studio. There I spent a pleasant evening discovering which 20-year old tubes of acrylic were […]

Pasture gets Another Background

Something bugged me when I posted that photo on the weekend of the four different backgrounds for the pasture: why had the barn turned out so much smaller than the aluminum version? As I thought about it, I realized the fence in the foreground had needed a lot of shaping to match the ground profile. […]

Pasture background cut out

Thanks to Rob Kirkham for pointing out that I never published this post on the weekend, and then referred to it on Monday evening. With the drawing matching the ground as modelled, I broke it into pieces so it would fit on the laser. The pieces follow the natural edges in the final scene, so […]

Dogs and Tennis Balls and Math

In Lance Mindheim’s post this week about simple layouts, he likens himself to a dog with a tennis ball. He’s happy to repeat the same moves time and again, much like the professionals. But what if you’re not like a dog chasing a tennis ball? How much complexity does it take so that you will […]

Full extension slides for quality of life

I saved some money when I built my modelling desk by using some drawer slides I’d found at ReStore. While they were the right length, they were partial extension or regular or whatever the opposite of “full extension” is. With the two-inch overhang of the desktop to facilitate clamping, these slides wound up hiding the […]

The Devil’s in the Details

I wasn’t deliberately putting off the final shaping of the pasture backdrop. At least I’m pretty sure I wasn’t. I knew it would be some work, and probably a little risky too when it came to adding all the details in the foreground trees. But, the rough shape took only an hour or two; how […]

The Stars of the Show

A couple of weeks ago, Trevor Marshall mentioned Jonathan Jones’s intriguing article in the 2023 issue of Model Railroad Planning, specifically Mr. Jones’s* assertion that if everything is important, then nothing is important. I’ve been wanting to write about this article since it came out, as it is the most innovative thing I’ve read in […]

716 Mary Street Gets Clad

The plywood core for 716 Mary Street, coupled with accurately-cut siding makes for super square, solid construction. The model is in danger of starting to look like a little Ontario house. I wish I’d thought of curtains before putting all the walls together. They’re going to be nuisance now!