Mock-ups and paint

Today I took some time to paint the 1" foam pieces that I cut for the layout. I picked up a can of Latex paint at Lowe's. The color was Satin Java Brown. Went on no problem with a brush. Once it dried I added it to the layout. Because of the paint, the foam board slightly warped (nothing major). I still need to glue the foam board down and when I do I will just add weight on the top to ensure a level surface in the end. Some of the board had some divots in it from transport. This will be no issue as they will have scenery or road put over them. I also took the time to rough in some structures and track, and spotted some cars just to see what I am dealing with. It didn't turn out to bad and I think things will turn out great. I may touch up the sky prior to gluing down the foam so i can ensure that it will be blue sky's looking at me (my attempt a musical humor).

I still am going to add one more track in as a sorting/storage track for this industry.

The next addition for this industry will be a Rix Product storage tank I picked up off of eBay a few months ago. I took this tip from Lance Mindheim's book about shelf layouts. He built a food processing plant and had a tank there for vegetable oil. That is the game plan for this structure. As for other liquid ingredients, I am going to build a building next to it for those items. I'm not sure if it will be an addition off of the brick structure next to the silos or not. 

Work on this is a bit slow, but it is coming along. Stay tuned for more updates as I hope to have track down, and wired with in the coming weeks!

Progress

Well layout progress has been a little slow lately since I was at training for work the past few days, and with being away from work leaves the issue of having to come back to things that were put on hold.


The bench-work was completed, and I added the background today. The background is Masonite (1/8") cut into two 4' lengths. I have one small 2' section that needs to be cut. The Masonite was secured with 3/4" lath screws. I then painted the Masonite with primer and followed it up with sky blue spray paint when the primer dried. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the results but when I hit it was the sky blue it came to shape nicely. But i saw I was missing spots, but this gave me a nice effect of light, thin gray clouds. To me it seems to give it a little depth.

( The picture looks a bit dark. I will try to get better ones)

I also cut some 1' foam today to fit the layout. I tired using a utility knife, but could never achieve a nice clean cut. I did a little research on YouTube and found that there were some blades out there used to cut foam. I took a trip to my local hardware stores with no luck. So I checked out Amazon, as one of the videos suggested. I picked up Festool blade, model S155/W. This blade is specific for soft materials (cardboard, foam, etc.) This fits most model jig saws. It worked out great, I got a nice clean, smooth edge. I cut four 18" x 4' pieces for the layout. Tomorrow I will paint the bases brown and glue them into place.

I also did some work for my main industry on this layout, a food processing/bakery industry. I am basing it off some photos and overhead shots of these types of industries in my area. The facility will be a kitbash between the Magic Pan Bakery and Buds Trucking Company. Both are Walther's kits. I paints the metal part of the warehouse area today. The colors for this are Almond for the bakery and ingredient unloading building. Silos will be painted white.

Once the foam is secured down, I will then make the decision whether to go with Atlas track, or make the leap and put in hand laid track, but I still may put in a mix of Atlas and some Micro-Engineering. Turnouts for this will be Peco.