Builder's Railroad Project: in the Beginning...

**Gun Grape** · 13 Jun 12,, 18:41

if you go on a Tuesday or Wednesday, you can watch the Blue Angels practice. They sign autographs on Wed.

Thats pretty awesome

But your right about big planes. They don't have them. About the biggest will be the PB4y (B-24) But they have historic planes like the Jenny.

National Naval Aviation Museum - Aircraft On Display

And the ship models are mind numbing

**Builder 2010** · 15 Jun 12,, 19:03

Here's some interesting pictures from the NM of the USAF. It's neat to stand near, next to or inside things you don't normally see. It will really jack up the model detailing skills. Picture 1 is the 10+ feet of main landing gear that holds up the B1-b Lancer bomber. A very impressive aircraft. Picture 2 and 3 are from the B-36 Peacemaker. The bomb bay is vast and designed to carry 84,000 lbs of bombs including the massive Mark 17 hydrogen bomb which I'll post next. Pics 4 & 5 are of the B-2 Spirit. I would have never believed that one of these would be here, but there it is. It looks like it was produced by an alien race. There are no seams, no rivets, no reflections, no nothing. I had to increase brightness on post-processing this picture almost 100% to create a usable image. It's quiet too. One flew by at the Thunder Over Louisville this year and if you didn't know it was coming, you almost wouldn't have heard it. Can't say the same for the F-22 of which one of those was on display too. And the plane it competed with, the YF-23 is also there.

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**Builder 2010** · 15 Jun 12,, 19:20

Here's some more interesting pictures.

This is the thrust augmentation mechanism at the tail end of the F-119 engine in the F-22 Raptor. It changes the exit geometry in the exhaust stream to help the Raptor do unbelievable things.
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Here's oldest grandson Alex standing right next to the fastest manned aircraft in history, the X-15. The skin was entirely Inconel. I've machined this stuff and it's not fun.
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This is the nose and canard wing of the XB-70 triple mach bomber that was built in the 1960s. It's the only one of two left. The other one had crashed after being hit in the tail by a chase plane with an unqualified pilot. It was a hush-hush story for many years. This one flew for five more years as a test plane for NASA.
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For all you detail hounds out there, try this one on for size. This is the main gear operating machinery in the B-52. You can see all of this clearly since it's exposed when the weapons bay doors are open. The 52's weapons bay is most impressive being huge, clean, and flexible. Many weapons are loaded on special racks first and then inserted into the plane. God only knows what those cables and pulleys are for. Perhaps one of our readers will explain.
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Here's me standing next to the aforementioned, MARK 17 Thermonuclear Bomb. It was the first H-bomb that was portable using a solid lithium compound to supply the fusionable deuterium/tritium instead of cryogenic liquids. It weighed 43,000 lbs and would only fit in the B-36 until the B-52 came on the scene. B-36 pilots would claim that the plane would suddenly elevate hundreds of feet when this thing was released since it weighed so much. Very shortly, bombs began to be shrunk. Warheads are now in the hundreds instead of thousands of pounds. It's sobering to think about it.
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**Builder 2010** · 19 Jun 12,, 01:42

I put one more strip of Tyvek. I can only do about 1 strip at a time. It's a lot of trips up and down the ladder and it wears me out. I'll finish in a couple of days anyway. I will have to tape all the joints with Tyvek tape. It will seal the fate of any spider trying to come straight down on the layout.

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I've also been thinking about the backdrop painting. I found a website just dedicated to clouds: Cloud Photos | The Cloud Appreciation Society. They have thousands of pictures of clouds and cloud types from all over the world. I bought the cloud templates for use with a spray can, but am contemplating actually hand painting them. I downloaded a bunch of pictures of the kinds of clouds I want to include and found "How to Paint Clouds" vignettes on YouTube. I was actually a fine arts major my first two years of college, so who knows...

**Builder 2010** · 21 Jun 12,, 01:46

Finished putting Tyvek on the 2nd half of the train room. Put two full strips of today to finish the job. Here's that half of the room.

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Then I was ready to tape all the seams and edges. I opened the first of three roles of Tyvek Tape only to find that it has "Tyvek House Wrap" text written all over it. This wouldn't work! So it was back to Home Depot. I had the original receipt and they took back all three roles including the unwrapped one. I then bought 3M White Duct Tape, which I then remembered I also used at the old house. It was much cheaper! I saved $33. So after that interruption I was back in the basement and taped one half of the train room before dinner. Taping goes much faster than putting up the sheeting.

Here's that half of the room:

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It's a bit wrinkly, but it works. It's bright and clean, and keeps dust and unwanted visitors off the trains. I chose not to entire cover the duct work. I did this in the old house and it was not worth the effort. Here, I just bring the Tyvek down a bit and tape across the edge. It dresses it up a bit and looks semi-finished. Those cellar spiders are going to have their work cut out for them when they want to drop down on my new layout.

**Builder 2010** · 14 Jul 12,, 15:37

I'm still here!

Summer travel kept me out of the basement, but I did do some stuff. I finished the taping of the entire ceiling so that's done. Yesterday I decided to add some lighter color at the bottom of the wall mural to make the sky look a bit more "natural". I could have even done more of this. I'm now ready to lay in the clouds and then onto constructing the platform itself. It's getting time to make some sawdust. Here's the wall with the added shading.

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Next work session will have more interesting things to show. I realize that all this prep work is terminally boring.

**Builder 2010** · 16 Jul 12,, 17:33

I took the plunge yesterday and started painting the clouds on the wall. They're tougher to paint than they look. Here's the first attempts (I'm about 1/5th done).

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The lower clouds have a bit of sunset tinge to them.

Then I decided to get cute and represent a thunderhead. I'm not so sure about this one and it's nothing that a swipe of sky blue paint won't cure. I'll see what my blog readers say about it before making changes. My wife thinks it looks just fine, but then she thinks this whole "cloud thing is silly and I'm wasting time that I could be using building a train layout". I explained that building a train layout is ALL these things, not just putting down track. I'm still not convincing her.

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So... I need feedback. Lots of feedback.

**USSWisconsin** · 16 Jul 12,, 18:11

It is very nice - I love the texture and the colors you are using - the sunlit portions really add a lot, as does the dark could texture.

I am a little confused by the sunlight on the clouds - it seems to be a bit inconsistent about the direction its coming from - I wonder about the rain too, it does add interest, but it might be hard to fit in with theme on the rest of the sky. Still it makes me think, and that's a good thing, it would be fine the way it is - just offering a few random ideas. It makes me want to paint some clouds too.

**Doktor** · 16 Jul 12,, 19:10

I like the clouds on the right. A lot.

Not so sure about the on the left, looks like atomic mushroom, or a pin.

**Builder 2010** · 16 Jul 12,, 22:22

I think I'm going to eliminate the one on the left and redo it. It is a bit weird and doesn't really look like a real thundercloud, just as it looks in my head. I'm an impressionist.

**Doktor** · 16 Jul 12,, 22:38

Dali would've been proud of that cloud

Do it as you feel it is right, after all, it is YOUR project.

**Builder 2010** · 17 Jul 12,, 14:54

You're way too kind.

I too am concerned about the sun angle. For the cloud to have a golden halo, the sun would be coming from behind which means the entire cloud is some shade of gray. If it's coming from the from or side, the halo isn't there and the puffs are bright white with gray shadows. I have both! It is a bit ambiguous. And that's because I didn't think about the sun angle at all since I was "just painting clouds". I may go back and adjust. Sun coming from the front is better.

**Doktor** · 17 Jul 12,, 15:01

There is of course another way to do it

Buy some cotton wool, glue it on the canvas, and you will get a texture as well as shadows (from the lights)

**FJV** · 17 Jul 12,, 20:31

Originally Posted by Builder 2010

I took the plunge yesterday and started painting the clouds on the wall. They're tougher to paint than they look.

But Bob Ross makes it look so easy.

**GrayGhost1975** · 18 Jul 12,, 22:53

Originally Posted by Builder 2010

Here's some interesting pictures from the NM of the USAF. It's neat to stand near, next to or inside things you don't normally see. It will really jack up the model detailing skills. Picture 1 is the 10+ feet of main landing gear that holds up the B1-b Lancer bomber. A very impressive aircraft. Picture 2 and 3 are from the B-36 Peacemaker. The bomb bay is vast and designed to carry 84,000 lbs of bombs including the massive Mark 17 hydrogen bomb which I'll post next. Pics 4 & 5 are of the B-2 Spirit. I would have never believed that one of these would be here, but there it is. It looks like it was produced by an alien race. There are no seams, no rivets, no reflections, no nothing. I had to increase brightness on post-processing this picture almost 100% to create a usable image. It's quiet too. One flew by at the Thunder Over Louisville this year and if you didn't know it was coming, you almost wouldn't have heard it. Can't say the same for the F-22 of which one of those was on display too. And the plane it competed with, the YF-23 is also there.

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I thought I read in some magazine that the B-2 on display at the USAF museum is one of the static test airframes that never flew.

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