Okay, well, in between trying to sell things off and making room out in The Cave, and working on my aircraft runway shelf display, and taking photos of all kinds of different things, I started yet another project: Marx Street. I've been wanting some kind of small (and cheap) display just to photograph diecast or plastic cars and trucks on and have been batting ideas around in my head for some time. A few years back there was a major housecleaning out in The Cave and most of my plywood/particle board/Masonite/Styrofoam/1x2 & 2x4 wood stock were tossed. I kept a few things back - just in case. It was from this 'just in case' pile that I found this 33" (83.82cm) wide x 16" (40.64cm) deep piece of particle board. After pulling out a Marxville plastic Service Station, Diner, and Super Market it was clear something could be put together without too much trouble.
To get the ball rolling I bought and cut up some 1"x 2" wood stock and framed up the piece of particle board. Then I bought two packages of Bar Mills No. 0684 O-Scale Sidewalk Kit. It's advertised as having 100' scale feet of sidewalk but as you can see by the photos, 100 scale feet doesn't really go that far and I had to buy another package. The streets were bought on eBay and sold by ScenerySheets.com. I purchased the intersection, streets with dashed white lines and a package of streets with green no-passing lines. Here you see the green striped streets and the trimmed down intersection piece. I ended up with a lot of extra street material and now am thinking about using that for the next iteration of my train layout.
Here's what I'm thinking of doing: there will be the three buildings seen here in full 3-D. They can be swapped out with other O-gauge toy buildings at will to change up the scene a little. The side of the street closest to the front edge will be populated with 'flats' - either plastic building fronts or cardboard, or pre-printed pictures (I haven't decided yet). After looking at some of Woodland Scenics 'Just Plug' line of light kits I may install some of those on the sidewalk. Then of course will be the myriad of tiny details which help bring any street scene to life. There will also be a backdrop behind the plastic buildings to help with the overall ambiance. All that being said, after starting this a few weeks ago I haven't gotten much farther than ordering a few more detail parts (this portion of the layout is now being used to clean, lube, and test my Marx engines for either eventual sale or to decide which ones are keepers).
Thanx so much for your support my dear readers. Although the posts have slowed a tad there are still cool things in the works! As always - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
No comments:
Post a Comment