The snow is falling fast and furious outside, the wind is blowing, I hear the sleet and freezing rain pelting the windows. There’s a blizzard warning just one county north of my home (that hasn’t happened in these parts since 1978). Schools are closed. My office is closed. The refrigerator & pantry are fully stocked. By all rights I & my family should be good to ride out the storm. But, I’m down to JUST ONE SINGLE UNBUILT BLUE BOX KIT! How could I have been so careless?! If I can’t stretch that single kit to sustain me through this, I may have to resort to higher-concentration-level measures, such as laying track or continuing construction of my Central Valley truss bridge kit.
That’s all for now. Time to descend into the basement…
We’re in for a seige here in the Northeast, too, according to the Weather Guessers. Fortunately, I’ve got lots of Gypsolite, Durham’s Water Putty, glue, beer, ground foam, paint, kielbasa, unbuilt boxcar kits, ballast, mustard, Kadee #5’s and beer. (Yeah, I like beer.)
We’re getting that same storm now in Ohio. Looks like I’ll be socked in. For the next three days, I’ve got no deeds to do, no promises to keep. Nothing to do but work on my layout. I’m trying to see a down side to this but I can’t.
What on earth is wrong with you? This is like a public admission off not really being a true model railroader! I thought it was obligatory to have a stash of unfinished kits, not just one or two, but dozens of the little suckers.
They just closed our schools here in St. Louis and it is still only raining. Must be bad rolling in from the West. I work from home so all it means for me is a hard time getting anything done as everyone will be at home.
I was looking forward to some quality time in the basement, adding some people and completeing a scene. My wife decided it’s time to repaint the lving room. Guess who won!
Kind of a Hansel and Gretel cottage for those of use who have outgrown gumdrops and lollypops. There’s a grill instead of an oven. Hey, throw another witch on the barbie, would ya?
I’m proud to say I have dozens of such kits, not only unfinished but unstarted. One is a craftsman coaling tower that I have had for close to 30 years. Another is an Ambroid wood box car kit. By that I mean the body is really made of wood. Today would be the perfect kind of day for finally getting around to building those but I have so many other projects that need attention that those will have to wait for another snow day.
Let this be a lesson to you, Jim. [B)] Yet another good example of why you need to pick up scratch-building: A limit-less supply of projects for times like these.
Take heart though. I did hear on the news this morning that the authorities were going to use HO-scale C-130 transport planes to drop Accurail ration kits for all needy modelers in the Midwest regions. The “supplies” have been brought under strain with the efforts in upstate NY and Colorado recently. But we’ve been rest assured that there should still be enough to tied modelers over until supplies can be replenished.
C’mon, John! Do something different today! Pony up and take a whack at a craftsman kit! Once you get a whiff of that wood glue…[Insert Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor gutteral “Ho-ho-ho” here]…you’ll get your wind and plow ahead. [:D]
And here I am in Atlantic Canada with lots of kits/projects to do and I can still see grass in the yard in February (not the norm, I assure you). You never can tell with weather. I spent $400 on snow tires that have barely seen snow.
It’s priorities, Tom, priorities!!! Right now I have to rewire all my turnouts because I redid the fascia. I am also halfway through a much needed track cleaning and I have vowed to finally get started on the second of three towns on my layout. The coaling tower is a 300 ton monster that might be approriate for my main engine terminal but I went with a Walthers concrete tower there instead. I planned on using this one for my branchline but then the though hit me that it is probably way too big to be appropriate for a small branchline road that will only have two little 4-6-0 steamers running on it. It will probably end up diorama or as a stand alone piece on a shelf unless I decide it looks better than the Walthers tower. As for that ancient Amrbroid kit, a UP boxcar, I have no idea what I was thinking when I bought it. It wasn’t approriate for my era even back then and now I am modeling an eastern road so it is even less appropriate. Of course if I was really concerned about priorities, I’d get off this stupid computer and get my rear end down in the basement and get to some real work.
I hear ya’. I mentioned it half joking/half seriously because sometimes its nice to just do something completely different to help you refocus your efforts on things that you have been doing.
The only thing I have plenty of is un-weathered rolling stock, weathering powders and paint. So, whether I like it or not, my thoughts tonight will turn to…weathering.
If you look very closely at thos little ho figues, you can see the scenery it builds…it is usually built just above the belt. it takes loads of patience tho, as it can take years to efficiently build that scenery…sorry, couldn’t resist…medic
Jim, a bit of fatherly advice…if late: it is generally not a good idea to reveal one’s personal failings in an open forum. There could be all sorts of dark and nefarious personalities lurking here that would take advantage of your calamity. They might wait until they know you are asleep and break in to steal away what you value most in these times of trouble…your model glue and sprue nippers. Now, where would that leave you?!