My Mini Diorama and New Grill!

Tonights efforts were spent creating a little diorama to temporarily test place my new creations as I develop them. I will eventually paint or add a scale backdrop. The little grille I made tonight utilized a pdf. front I downloaded and pasted to a block of wood. I then painted the structure, added some roof detail and side windows. I also pasted decals to the sides, and then cut a piece off a square toothpick for the front overhang. I also glued a piece of a round toothpick as a chimney. It looks incredibly cool!

The actual water tower I based my golf ball water tower upon

My Morse Code Train Box!

These are pics of my Morse Code Train box. I came up with the idea after visiting the B&O Railroad museum and seeing the nifty code kit in the giftshop. It just seemed like a railway themed box would be the perfect housing for such a kit. The inside is surrounded by a tiny painted wooded forest.I also decorated the sides with tiny trains in various seasons and locales.

Painted Golf Tee Water Tower!

Painted and placed amidst my evolving town - What?Doesnt everyone have a Z scale Godzilla?!

Here is my first scratchbuilding idea - a watertower from a golf ball! I came up with the idea this morning while idly noticing a similar watertower while driving. The scale is just about right, after the glue dries I am going to paint the wood white and fill in the edgings with white clay to smooth the areas around the base of the ball and perhaps around the base as well, but actually that looks pretty cool as is. The stem is a coat hanging dowel and the base a circular base I had around. It took me forever to cut this hard wood with my tiny saws and dremel. I figured I was saving all sorts of money buying standard lumber but cutting it with small tools is really tough. In any event I am pleased with how its coming along. I can well imagine that somewhere there exists a watertower specifically created to look like a golf ball so why the heck not model using one?!

Sure enough there are golf ball painted water towers! I liked the photo of the baseball one above the most so I added it, it can be found at ohiobarns.com under misc.

I got these incredibly detailed bicycles in an ebay auction - at z scale, they just simply are amazing!

The track plan by Marklin for the Cortina layout that my village will take shape amidst. So far I only have enough track for the outermost loop.

Another overhead shot.

Here is a cell shot of my village with some of the buildings and elements just laid in for now.

Here are some of the engines and cars that I have. The longest train is a Marklin Bavarian passenger train #8102 with a baggage car 8609 added. Below is the engine from my first starter kit with several cars laid about. My Jaegermeister Motor coach with interior illumination is powerful as heck and simply lovely to watch zip about the track. The yellow freight car on the right has a bright bow attached for track cleaning but its a little heavy for any of my engines so far.


The set below is my new Marklin Mikado 81466 set.

Unity Township Begins

I am at the very beginnings of planning my Z scale railroad village; "Unity Township" My husband bought me this beautiful Cortina layout and I have collected several buildings and trains to add to my village.

Z scale is a truly daunting scale - 1:220. There is an amazing amount of detailed information to consider and begin learning.

So far I have compiled all my layout schematics, images, buildings, elements, and scenery ideas and pasted them onto 4X6 index cards so that I can carry my layout with me and note ideas that come to me as I go about my day.

The first actual gluing I have begun was to glue the windows into the following vehicles using Nestors Plastic Cement. I am currently researching which paints to use for what details I plan to add. I may be able to utilize some small decals I may have from other kits, but I am still in the planning stage here. I may use fingernail polish for the silver bumpers, red lights, and black details.

I am fortunate that the Cortina layout has track plans because I am realizing that even with such plans, construction is going to be complex. There are many things I do not know yet including how to attach to layout, what roadbeds to consider etc.

Track plans are a science unto themselves and I will post more about these in a separate posting because I am still new with uploading images here so I best stop at these two for now.

I also have many ideas for scratchbuilding I wish to research and explore working with. Z scale is immensely expensive and I just cant help thinking that I may be able to come up with novel ideas for trees, etc. I am wondering what all I could manage to do with common things like found twigs, rocks and sandpaper for example.

In time I hope to start adding actual shots of my layout as it evolves, and focal pictures on each element and building as I work on them.

I will also over time include links that have helped me.

For now this is the blog website I am developing to accompany this very fascinating journey as my little town of Unity Township develops.