The C&NW RR Project - Building Acquisitions

My 1/56th scale buildings are just not going to cut it for the C&NW layout, so I took the time to start hunting down some of the 1/48th scale kits that I have admired over the years. First up was to see if I could find some Stoney Creek Design buildings at a reasonable price (reasonable being very subjective at this point). I actually managed to succeed and I  acquired the Gunsmith building from the Crossroads series, a three building kit released in 2006 at the Narrow Gauge Convention and one of the Drugstores from this years releases. These are not cheap kits and they are hard to find for sure. There are a few others that I would like to get but the collectors prices that these kits demand are probably going to put them well out of my reach. Its likely that smaller versions of all of these are going to show up on the Calamity board as well!

The bonus building for buying all three

You just have to love bags full of stripwood. 

The C&NW RR Project - Acquisitions Motive Power - Bachmann Porters

All the locomotives I have purchased for Calamity will run on the C&NW. The 2-6-0 made by Bachmann is almost a dead ringer for the 2-6-0 than was owned by the C&NW. I'm still going to be in search of the Bachmann 2-8-0 or some HO mechanism that is big enough to convert. Ultimately I need 3 of those.

In the meantime and because I wasn't quite sure what we could pull off in the house I managed to acquire a couple of small porters since I wasn't sure what kind of space might be available. These might still find a home on the larger layout shuttle cars between mines or something similar. These are neat little engines and if we don't get around to doing something bigger then I can always do something smaller and store it away as long as it fits that 45"x 23" footprint.

The 0-4-2 Porter. Both of these feature a saddle tank for the water, it certainly bulks them up a little bit.

The 0-4-0 Porter, very similar to the 0-4-2. Again this one comes with a saddletank but I'm not sure where the coal or wood is going to reside!

The C&NW RR Project - Thoughts

C&NW #30 in her final configuration when she was #74 on the RGS.

Like I don't have enough projects but this one is a little different in that my wife is interested in working on it with me. While she does not enjoy painting miniatures she is intrigued by working on buildings and scenery. Over the last couple of months I have been scouting the house for a place to install some kind of layout and was just about willing to admit defeat when it occurred to me that I might be able to do something modular that could be taken apart and stored. That opened up some possibilities and we have settled on the formal living room as a place that a layout could reside in when its assembled.

There are two unused closets that could be used for storage. That allows for a module 45" long and 23" deep and I can adjust the shelves to fit the height of the module without a problem. I have been sketching out some designs although nothing has really blown me away at this point so that will need some work. I'll still be working with On30 and this layout will be O scale, unlike Calamity which will still be 1/56th scale. And yes I still plan on using the equipment for Calamity as well.

Right now I'm working with an around the walls concept, running from a fiddle yard, then through one small town, then a section of mountain scenery and bridges and ending in a mining town. Continuing with the idea of it representing the Colorado and North Western (or later and it would be the Denver, Boulder and Western) I'm thinking that the fiddle yard would represent Boulder, the first town would be Salina and the end would represent Ward and its mining district (I'm thinking the Big 5 area at the point). Anyway that's what has been distracting me as of late.

Shay in Action

I just found this animation created by Google from the series of pictures I took of the Shay on the Georgetown Loop RR. Just something cool for all those steam fans out there.

AWI Project - The first four

I  have ever so slowly been working my way through four continental infantrymen. I started with the Perry plastics just to get a feel for how they will paint up and how they will look on the table. I like the initial scheme that I went with; standard blue uniform coat, with red facings, white waistcoat and buckskin breeches. These will be the first four of a much larger unit of 28 or 32, not quite sure how many will make up a regiment yet.

Before I proceed with the rest though I want to paint some samples from Fife and Drum. I'm thinking those are going to paint up quite a bit faster. I'm not terribly happy with my brush work or technique on these four but I haven't really been in full blown paint mode for a while either. I hope everything will really speed up once I dig in for the long hall.

There are a couple of things to distract me though. I need to finish the Lt Winters miniature for ReaperCon, try and get the M4A1 76 finished as well. I would still like to get a diorama together but I'm just not sure I can pull that off on top of everything else. Also I have all those Americans and Germans from the Brigade Games kickstarter to get done. I'm going to work the Germans first and try out some airbrush techniques to achieve a faster tabletop paint job.

So here are the results of my first AWI miniatures:

I was well into the painting and they were looking pretty rough before I remembered to snap a few pictures.

The Blues

For the Breeches!

A slightly different take on the flesh

A bit farther along

And finished, still need to be based but good enough for a mug shot

I think they will rank up pretty good. I also think the blue needs to be quite a bit darker.