วีดีโอ

It's always a great trip. I was at the Curve for about two hours... maybe a little longer - saw a total of 10 trains go by. It was a busy rail day! excellent trip and highly recommend for anyone that can get to the area.

And now i know who stole the husky stack set i wanted! you jerk; just kidding. they were good finds and i debated grabbing them when i first got there and taking all three or four sets he had but i figured i'd walk around first and see what everyone had before making all my purchases. i was surprised he still had sets that look unused and i couldn't believe the pricing - i assume he was just tired of lugging them around at this point. folks are selling them online for crazy prices - far above what i would consider paying for them. I googled out of curiosity and it looks like InterMountain bought some of their moldings? it wasn't clear if they bought moldings and rights to make them or just remaining inventory. But if you wanted to go and just buy five unit cars now, i think you're pretty much stuck with Kato. And the Kato units aren't bad... but the Deluxe Innovation versions are better detailed in my opinion. They are a bit finicky with the containers though - like oversized Atlas and Athearn don't fit in them. I haven't tried JTT containers though. Enjoy - good pickups!

I too was surprise he had some left cause I didn’t make it back to that part right away. When I got there someone else was buying two sets of them. I grabbed an Athearn Pennsylvania railroad hopper while that guy was paying. I seen he had two sets left and figure I would grab one. I got the CSX one. I ended paying $70 for both things $60 for the well cars and $10 for the hopper. I heard someone bought some tooling or molding from deluxe innovations just not sure who. I also got a pretty good deal on a deluxe innovation Swift road railer set at the show as well.

@@bkauffman2010 Now how did i miss the Roadrailer set?! not that i really needed another one but why not? I can't believe someone hasn't made those yet - i mean, Deluxe has been out for what - close to a decade? figured someone would have stepped up by now.

@@AlleghenyNorthern the guy was right across for the painting/picture guy. He was kinda just setting stuff out, think he was with the one club layout. I picked the set up for $140 which I thought was a good deal. Talking with a couple buddies, they heard someone might have bought the tooling for the road railers. Which would be cool to see come back out, but I already have a few sets (not saying I wouldn’t buy more haha)

They're pretty cool looking! I'm excited to build those kits - they're going to be the next build of Rearden Steel on the new layout.

oh most of those structures were absolutely kit builds. The scenery was nice on a few of them but there wasn't a ton of scratch building. could be they get moved too much and i would be devastated if i spent hours and hours scratch building and then had it damaged at a show. I can't pass up locos - i just love watching and listening to the real thing - after the 20th box car i've seen them all but locos will always be awe-inspiring. same goes for the pocket-sized ones - i need the cars to build the train, but i really just want to watch engines LOL!

HO or N i think are good scales and you really can't go wrong. N is obviously my favorite mainly for space but i do get envious of the amount of stuff available in HO. O gauge is fun to watch - but it's just to big to make anything meaningful from - at least in my house!

Just finding another way to put all those civil engineering courses to good use! The techniques need a little improvement, but i have a lot of roads to 'pave' so i'm sure there will be an update to this in the future.

@@AlleghenyNorthern looking forward. I've never been 100% settled on how asphalt is rendered on CCMR.

The AK and Green Stuff World products are really nice. there's only one 'local-ish' hobby shop that carries them near me so they have me as a captive buyer.

seems like it was really early this year.

perhaps that is why i can tolerate a trip to the hobby shop!

LOL! Yes! Stop adding more unnecessary letters to words. especially since so many of them already have unnecessary letters!

AH! the concrete is easier. I use the AK Interactive concrete texture, add a highly diluted black wash - and if necessary a gray dry brush. i'll have to show that in an upcoming video. it works very well.

and there's the two edged sword. you saw cool new stuff you need... but now you need to go buy cool new stuff LOL!

*contrast. Silly autocorrect.

i applied the powder to the spots and pulled the brush towards the road and because of the rough texture, the spots took on most of the powder. i ended up going back first with a dry brush and then with a damp paper towel and taking some of the powder off because it was just a tad thick in the spots. i was debating whether or not to make it a more consistent gray across the spots to model old spots with a newer road but decided ultimately on a more uniform look across both.

i was going to see how much air brushing i could do. i think your method is probably the best approach. i have some pretty fine brushes - i'm going to see if they're of any use for some of the smaller details. fortunately, i have some wild colors from some of my non-train projects, so i should be able to use those for some decent looking outfits for my n scale wardrobes!

@@AlleghenyNorthern interested to see how your fashion decisions are reflected in the figures...😁

@@ChicagoCrossingRR Disclaimer... fashion is not my thing. they're going to be epically horrendous. i can't wait.

@@AlleghenyNorthern I shoot Tamiya acrylics I cut them with 90% ISO Tamiya paint also works as a primer so clothing paint on the figure lays down great.

@@AlleghenyNorthern I will send you so pics of some of the ones I have hand painted via e-mail

i thought woodland scenics had their own version, too. i could be wrong.

They do. But I do like variety. 😂 I did find a few on eBay but they’re pretty pricy.

@@MacTrom1 Well... there's one other option. it involves real photographs and some pricey photo-software BUT in theory - you could custom make them. if you did, you could print them on a non-glossy photo paper or cardstock and laminate the images to some styrene. it would be a lot of work but you'd get a unique interior and i'm thinking if the perspectives of the photos ended up being off just a bit - the small nature of n scale might hide it. OR... alternatively, you could 3D print a full interior and model it out. that would also be a lot but both options would be pretty sweet to see.

@@AlleghenyNorthern ah yeah. I’ve also tried the google search for shop front interiors but didn’t care for them. I’m at a limit to budget and capabilities so I look for the easiest results. I do have plans for woodland scenic combo set of DPM and just plug lighting with their interior roomettes.

there is something special about finding random things on the shelf. also something neat about just being able to pick things up and look at them before buying.

Welcome to the channel!

The Roadrailers are made by Deluxe Innovations which has been out of business some ten years or more now. You'll need to find them at train shows now from someone selling them second hand. Most of the heavy equipment was 3D printed from Shapeways who went defunct in July of this year. Sorry for the 0 in 2 score on this one.

@AlleghenyNorthern now that the roadrailers are no more they'll likely start making them again or the new version that their changing them too

I made the terrible mistake of purchasing two of the BLI models and I absolutely hate them. They have sound issues, one arrived missing an entire set of gears from the motor to the wheels and were plagued by general operation issues. I have six of the ScaleTrains SD40-2 and will likely pick up a few that i'm missing - like the BN and CSX units. The first batch ran a little low but if your track is in good shape and well installed, you won't have any issues. ScaleTrains over BLI hands down.

@@AlleghenyNorthern Thank you for the reply!

I have added distant signals on either side of the crossings. I am planning for a simplistic signal system that i was going to start this year BUT since i went into expansion mode, that's probably going to be a late '25 project now.

The tress are largely Scenic Express Super Trees with the same firm's Super Leaf flocking. It's really the best thing out there for making trees. I do have several videos on trees.

Thanks. Yes, i really like AK's line of diorama materials and their paints, washes, and terrain pastes are really nice. Expensive if you're trying to do an entire layout with them but great results for small areas.