Jim would have been amazed with Neil's basement layout..

Mark..can i pre book a room at your home resort for Easter 2020. I promise not to upset the dogs on this visit...

Hi Everyone.

Jim was definitely amazed with Neil's basement empire, Mario - and, like everyone, gob smacked with what Neil is able to make convincing scenery out of!

Well - a bit of work was done this week, making up L-girders and attaching them, and thinking through how the backdrop and cloud will attach. Today I was able to attach the legs to the larger section, brace, stand and then prop and attach the wheels. Lastly I wheeled into position, clamped and drilled and bolted together the baseboard sections. There was a bit of chocking under the wheels of the existing section to get things just right - the concrete floor is not too even - mind you - it is a barn.

A couple of angles of the new section.





The bolts which hold the sections together and align them.



We had our annual Trainz weekend this weekend which I went along to on Saturday. I spent the day catching up with some good friends and doing a bit of scenery planning.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

Progress.. :up:

Col. John 'Hannibal' Smith: "I love it when a plan comes together."

Mark,

All your hard work is paying off. You have a beautiful room and the benchwork is top grade. That’s an impressively artistic conception you have in mind.

I had missed the anagramous origin of Tellynott. I thought it meant “Do I or do I not watch the Telly? Nott!”

Mike

Hi ereryone.

Thanks Carl, Frank and Michael for your comments and following along!

Michael - I actually didn't even click on that reference until a bit further down the track - works quite nicely though! I must confess - I do enjoy watching a bit of Telly - with a bull mastiff head on my lap! My wife and I try to finish every evening in the lounge with a couch and a bull mastiff each.

Well - A bit more progress. I have just finished construction of the second corner piece. It still needs to be positioned - potentially a two person job - although I seem to do pretty well on my own.

the view of the top



the back wall and ceiling



Cornelius and his dolly - what could be better than spending time with these guys?



More soon, cheers, Mark.

Mark,

Just catching up on your thread again. That sure is some impressive benchwork you have completed so far. Wish I had your expertise in layout construction, heck even one third of the space!

When will scenery commence? Looking forward to your future work.

Rich

Hi Rich.

Thanks for your comment and continued interest. I do find it helps keep me motivated.

I really have had enough of bench-work, but... - I'm determined to get this last section finished. If I don't there will be a lot of things done twice - and I hate that! So ... once this corner section is installed there is one more straight section of ceiling and backdrop to build and install, and then the 'cloud' which will hang over the peninsula. I'll have to install that with eyes, hooks and chains along with the extra support for the front of the sections finished so far. Then the ceiling and backdrop will need to be primed and painted and then the lighting installed. Then - will come the scenery! It doesn't sound like much if you say it fast and gloss over bits.

I'm hoping to have my layout on the tour for our Easter 2020 convention - so it would be good to have made a bit of scenery progress by then! With that in mind I will not continue on with bench-work for Shadowlands until after the convention - that and I need a break from bench-work! The scenery work will start with an overall mock-up.

Cheers, Mark.

Mark, OMG on the curved benchwork.

And kudos to Cornelius and his dolly. Serendipity. [:-doggy]

Nice work Mark! I suspect folks would be calling you to build THEIR benchwork!

And your mastiff is awesome! :up:

Thanks for the kind words Frank and Carl!

There are certainly a lot of different things to consider when constructing the curved sections. Sometimes I just have to stand back and scratch my head for a bit - going through the different orders I can do things, the likely problems each different order of construction will produce, and how I will deal with these problems. Then I choose a path, start cutting and assembling, and hope I haven't forgotten anything too important! I suspect if I were to construct a couple more of these in short succession, a specific order which caused the least problems would present itself.

More soon - although the hedge trimming guy is coming on Friday, and I suspect after about a kilometer of hedge trimming the mess will take me quite some time to clean up!

Cheers, Mark.

Hi Everyone.

Well - I'm still cleaning up the hedge trimming! However, to save the back, I have managed to fit in a few modelling sessions.

This first photo shows the second corner section in position, connected to the end of the existing layout. From here on everything is all new square footage!



Here is a photo of the straight section in position. I have managed to get all these sections lifted onto the benchwork and into position by myself. There have been a couple of times where I have found myself lying on top of the benchwork, sandwiched between this and the 'cloud' wondering how long I might be there until someone finds me! However a bit of jiggling has managed to get the vertical timbers behind the backdrop into their slots, and once started they seemed to always just slide down into position.



Here is a view back to the new backdrop and ceiling behind with the cloud which will hang over the peninsula in the foreground.



And here is a photo looking down on the peninsula cloud.



I'll take a coupe more photos from up the ladder this afternoon and upload them. Tomorrow I hope to buy the items needed to hang the cloud and help support the front of the other sections. Those dwangs or nogs you see made of MDF and 2 by 1 dressed timber running along the bottom of the photo between the widthways rafters(?) will be moved to the centre to give the cloud strength longways. When the MDF fascia is added to the two sides this should be plenty strong enough.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

Mark, did you read the warning label on the top step? "Do not stand on this step".

Beautiful craftsmanship.

Frank's right. Excellent construction.

Mark,

You bring a whole new meaning to “in the cloud.”

Beautiful behind the scenes work.

Mike