First off, I want to say a hearty "Welcome!" to anyone who's visiting here for the first time having heard of The Valley Local on the NERx this week. While I admit I post most regularly on the Valley Local Facebook Group page, I really want to get better at posting more detailed content here at the blog (and, ergo, on the Valley Local website).
Unfortunately, it's been just over a month since my last full progress blogpost and FB group members have gotten a little taste of what's been going on 'round here. But over the next few days, I'll get the blog caught up - and with additional detail . . .
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I set up a work session in late February where I was able to enlist the help of some fellow modelers. Here's Pieter and Roman providing some HUGE help in coloring/weathering ties & track in Essex. As a younger/newer modeler, Roman hadn't ever done this before so I pointed him to my blogpost on the technique I use (scroll down) and he did a great job. While I'd love to think his success was due to my impeccable instructions, I suspect it had at least - if not much more - to do with having experienced-modeler Pieter alongside for guidance. |
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No matter how experienced a modeler you might think you are though, you can always benefit from others' perspective and experience. So while Pieter and Roman were working on track in Essex, I had the privilege of having Jim Dufour help me with scenery in Wethersfield. |
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Meanwhile, the guys back in Essex made great progress on the track, coloring/weathering all the ties except those on the mainline. |
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You can also get a few glimpses of the backdrop mockup in Essex. I'll be detailing that process in a future post. |
As you can probably guess, weathering the ties like this can be REALLY tedious/time-consuming work so having Pieter and Roman tackle it for me was a huge help! And it was a bonus that, having two different guys doing it, with different levels of experience, went a long way to making it all look very prototypically random. All I had left to do was the mainline!
And of course it probably goes without saying that having somebody like JimD provide guidance on scenery-making is priceless. I have a long way to go before my grasp gets anywhere close to my reach, but getting such a good start on the "layering" aspect of scenery has certainly put me on the right path.
Thanks to Jim, Pieter, and Roman for such a productive and fun day!
Nice to see some progress! Thanks for the shout out BTW on the NERx last night!
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