Undead Rotory Tool

I have a thing for zombies.

Anyway, I've had this battery operated cordless Dremel for a good 10 to 15 years. Some time ago, I lost the battery pack. Don't ask me how. I have moved a lot though.

Instead of trashing the tool itself (and all it's accessories), I held onto it, thinking I might find the battery sooner or later.

I never did, but a few days ago I had the idea to skip the battery and turn it from a cordless into a corded Dremel, by hooking the motor to a spare locomotive power pack I have.

And it works! AH-hahahahaha!

Update January 2012: I've replaced the test cord above with one stolen from an old VHS camcorder that I had. The cord allowed the camcorder to be played directly off the car's 12V DC (the cigarette lighter in other words). Clipping off both ends gave me a convenient spiral cord that works really well. I had a couple of spade terminal connectors in my junk box too, making connection and disconnection really quick. 

Hilltowne Hotel

Currently working on the Hilltowne Hotel, which I will rename....as soon as I come up with a new name. Ideas?

Progress is slow, this is a big building with a lot of small details. It's not as big as the factory of course, but it has a lot of small details that should be different colors than the surrounding stone and brick.

As such, I present it as a Work in Progress:

Update, January 2011: I stripped the brown paint from the front, didn't think that was the look I was going for. Also removed the rooms from inside (except the lobby) as they didn't quite "work" for me. Removed some of the window for glazing issues with the superglue. Removed the back wall so that I could get at the interior better and add windows (which I really should do before assembling the walls), as well as sand the inside edge of one wall to make it fit more flush against the side wall.

Uncle Eric's Hobby Shop Renovations

Decided that the front facade needed painting. 

 Then I noticed some leaks in the roof and decided to have it redone. Whose bright idea was it to have flat roofs in Maine, anyway?

Did I not post this building after it was done? Whoops.

In any case, I believe that it is DPM kit "Char's Soda Shoppe."

Can you see the Bachmann, Walthers, and Atlas signs in the window?

Quinntopia

My new favorite model-railroading related website is "Quinntopia." Check it out!

Here's a recent video he made, its pretty sweet:

October 2011

I still have work to do with the details of the Woods Factory kit, and a bit of work on a couple other buildings in the picture, but here you can see where the layout currently stands.

Woods Furniture

This is a DPM "Gold" kit, tres' expensive, but I got it for-cheap about 8 years ago (?) and just haven't done anything with it because there are just SO MANY PIECES (see for yourself: here are the instructions). I decided that I was brave enough and skilled enough now through practicing on the smaller kits to tackle this big one. One thing that especially helped was finding a brick-mortar coloring technique that worked for me: slathering on enough white-ish paint to pretty much cover one small section at a time (this helps you know the mortar lines are filled), then wiping off the brick surface with a paper tissue. The tissue removes the paint on the face of the brick, but leaves the paint in between, where it's supposed to go. Is it prefect? Nope. Is it good enough? Yup. Is it better than any of my previous attempts? Absolutely! The white paint also helps to tone-down some of the redness of the brick as well, which isn't a bad thing.

The picture on the box is of the kit painted a yellowish brick color; such a color doesn't really exist in Maine, where red brick is the norm, so I left the red kit pieces alone and simply filled the mortar lines in with the white acrylic paint.

It's nowhere near completion, but here are some pictures from this weekend as I assembled it.

Assembled each wall from multiple pieces, then assembled the walls together.

The roofs are up.

 Before painting

During painting (see the contrast)

 Mostly painted

 Left one bay open, to put in a small interior scene (forklift, boxes, people, etc)

Not bad eh?

Working on the dock

The biggest "catch" to all this is that I bought the kit back when I had envisioned a larger layout, I honestly don't know if I have room on the current layout for this monster.

The Robber Barons Pub

Also known as DPM Kit "Bruce's Bakery."

Up Next: Char's Soda Shoppe! What will I rename it? What kind of business? Hmm.....

Kathleen's World-Famous Bookstore

You might recognize this one as the Crestone Credit Union, another DPM kit.

Taylor Pharmacy

This is another that I've had for ages, but never quite completed. I have tried, on numerous occassions, hence why it may look a little battle-worn. I'm hoping that with some new paint, details, and add-ons, that no one will recognize it's shortcomings from previous failed experiments.

I've kept it a pharmacy, as a DPM "Corner Apothecary" kit. This time, instead of just window treatments, I've printed and installed a rudimentary interior to the inside walls so that you can look through the windows, giving it all a bit of depth. I may add a floor with a couple of people shopping inside to help the illusion.

New Building

After a significant amount of time "away" from the hobby, I'm trying to dabble a little more on weekends, and days I have off.

Utilizing a three day weekend, I decided to do some work on a building that has gone unassembled for over a decade. You may recognize it as the "Roadkill Cafe" by DPM.

One of the brilliant ideas making it possible was a suggestion to use Lego blocks to assemble the corners. I've always had an issue with keeping the corners square, and now I don't!

I also went online, downloaded some pictures, and used them to populate the windows of the building. The success of this makes me think that I might perhaps use printouts and photos of more than just windows to model things accurately: such as taking pictures of roadways and "printing" my roads (I've never had any luck with other techniques, so it's worthwhile to try something radically different).