Roofs are done and village taking shape

      The warehouse is done. Just finished the roofs and it's weathering. All that's left to do is some touch ups here and there.

     Here's a look at the village. I've realized that I'm missing two houses. I've just ordered them with a few winter figurines. I will be putting lights in every house in strategic places so that not the entire house is lit.

The little town as started growing

     First, here's a little staging of my box car yard. The next step will be the weathering and finishing the roofs.

     I did a plan of what my little village would look like. There will be 7 houses, a church and a gazebo surrounded by a skating rink. In case I didn't mention it, this part of the layout will be the winter season.

     Here are a few of the houses that will be install in the village. Roofs to be done later.

     The village as started to take shape. The road as been laid out and the location of the houses drawn out.

Still working on the warehouse

      The four walls and the roof are done. The green will be painted black and fine ballast will be glued on top. I also ordered roof top units which I'll then install on the roof.

     I've also been working on my platforms. The platform roofs were given it's first coat of paint and all the pillars are now done. The side of the roofs is a balsa strip which solidifies the strings on the roof. I will now be able to cut the strings under the roof. I will install hanging lamps later.

Little details and the warehouse

     For the past few days, I've been working on some details such as this security gate made from scratch. This will be at the entrance of the container yard. I still need to make a few touch ups, but I'm happy with the result.

     I also tried making a link fence which will surround the container yard, I'm happy, but not satisfied. I'll have to give it another try later.

     I've also started working on my "L" shape warehouse. The walls are made of foam board. I searched the net for brick like walls in HO scale and found someone in Greece that sold them on EBay. The bricks are printed in color on embossed paper. I really like the look and feel of these.

New Year for the layout

     Before continuing on the layout, I decided to do a little staging of my container yard. I then realized that I needed to extend it in the back so that my tractor lift for the small containers could have access to the right side. Did a bit of weathering on the concrete with the expansion joints.