Although i’ve been working on lots of stuff over the past months, I haven’t shared anything on here in quite some time.
I recently got the new FP9A from Rapido Trains, which is an absolutely superb model. The detail is absolutely unparalleled on any other locomotive I’ve seen (F-unit or otherwise), right down to all the piping on the underbody…something rarely (if ever) included on locomotive models.
The other day I had a chance to take it for a visit to a friend’s layout for a proper test run (it runs like a charm). His layout is South African themed, so a VIA Rail locomotive may seem a little out of place. However, a lot of the scenery looks quite convincingly like some of what one might see in western Canada, where these locomotives used to run quite a lot. Here are two photos of the locomotive emerging from a tunnel.
The second image has a rather quick and crude photoshopped background…I have very little (i.e. none) experience working with photoshop, so given that, I think it turned out okay.
I don`t wish to hog up the thread…but I have been working on my “Layout Extension” …you can see the pics on the Layouts & Layout Building section under…wait for it…wait for it…“Layout Extension” thread.
Thank you Sean! That is a fitting song, LOL! I enjoyed them as well, any commutes into the city from the Elgin (Ex MILW Line) from Big Timber stop. I also enjoyed seeing them cruise by behind work when I had a break. Great memories!
Thanks again!
This evening I finished painting a pair of Playboy Bunnies for the layout [:P]
Preiser makes a figure called Easter Bunny. Looks like this:
Kind of a weird looking figure. An artist with a paint brush, palate, boots, bunny ears, and a skimpy apron. But I thought it might work as a Playboy Bunny. So I found two fairly cheap figures, cut off the paint brush, painted the palate to look like a serving tray, and then painted as needed.
I went with the very early style Bunny without the cuffs, collar, or bow tie for the first Playboy club in Chicago circa 1960.
I agree, the Rapido FP9A and B units have reset the bar very high for the competition to follow. I have been running my CP Canadian units and keep admiring all of the detail on these engines. The Rapido passenger cars are also built with an extremely high level of detail.
I preordered an A set in the CN livery which are to be released later this year.
So I actually got a bit of work done this weekend. Mostly small stuff, but painted the base of the “classic” Pickle factory, reattached some fiddly-bits to a structure, actually figured out the layout of the factory, can storage and brining building for said pickle works, oh and painted my steeple cabs.
Silicon Valley Free-moN set up at the Great Train Expo this weekend.
With a second return loop and 4 new members’ modules, we had over 120 feet of mainline running (double that if you count coming back as one circuit).
Got two ground throws for my outer switches done. These took some planning out and slight modifications to get in place, they are more “universal” and not made for the switches I have, plus they hang off the edge by about a 1/2". Anyway, here is one of the two I did:
I have four more, but those are facing inward and are standard Walthers #5’s #6’s (I think, I don’t really remember…) so they shouldn’t be too hard. Pray for no homework this weekend [;)].
I love watching this thread as it comes up. It’s great to see what everyone is doing! (Plus it encourages us ‘youngsters’ [:D])
