Layout Work Resumes - Wetherbee's Hardware (Part 1)

With the book in hand and shipping (thanks to everyone who ordered the book!) it's time to turn my attention back to the layout, and to this blog!

You ever get completely overwhelmed by the number of projects you want to complete? My typical reaction when that happens is to start a bunch of stuff that I'll work on for a bit, then put away. OR I just get some sort of overload and can't start or finish ANYTHING! The latter is what happed to me about three weeks ago.  I went downstairs, turned on the layout room lights, looked around, and promptly turned them back off! There seemed like there was so much to do I couldn't come up with a single project to focus on. 

Of course, thinking about this logically I'd remember that no matter how many projects I might want to do, I can only do one thing at a time!

There are too many empty lots in what is supposed be Enosburg Falls - and ideally, I'd like to get the rest of the structures for the town completed in time for the Mid Atlantic RPM meet this fall. I don't know if we'll have an open house this year as part of MARPM, but getting the town looking "done" by mid to late fall seems a reasonable goal. 

Between the CV freight house and the front edge of the layout is a large open area - approximately 7"x18" defined by Archambault Street and Railroad Ave. This is across the street from the implement dealer that I built five or six years ago. I did a nine or ten part series of posts on that build - you can find part 1 HERE.

As I was flipping through the History of Enosburg Falls book I came across this photo of a hardware dealer that, according to the descripition in the caption,

Test fitting walls and windows. Nothing is glued up or square at this point!

Experimenting with different finishes on piece of scrap shingles. 

Shot of the left front facade shows the two different types of siding. 

was located near where I had that blank lot. It was a fairly long, narrow building and I thought while it's in no danger of winning any architectural awards, it was typical enough of the business district of a New England small town that it would make a nice addition to the scene. 

I don't know for certain, but it looks as if this was two older buildings - perhaps a house and a barn? - connected with a "modern" addition connecting them together. Note this is the only picture I have found of this building, so I would have to imagineer the rear and side walls!

The first step was to figure out how to build this thing. My go-to and much preferred material is styrene, but in this case the entire street facing upper floor of the building is shingled. Note these are not shakes - these shingles have flush cut ends with varying widths. I've built a number of BEST Trains laser structure kits and several of them use laser etched wood sheets with the shingle pattern embossed in the wood. Thinking that would be easier than applying individual layers of shingles, I ordered a sheet of the stuff. For the first floor of the street side of the building I opted to use .090" vertical scribed boards. 

I dug through my rather extensive collection of Tichy and Grandt Line door and window castings and came up with close enough matches to what showed in the protoype photo. I did have to shorten the middle section somewhat - meaning I don't have quite as many big shop windows as the prototype - but I doubt anyone will ever realize that unless I tell them!

I will say it's been a long time since I cut window openings out of wood stock - and it's not something I enjoy. At this point I have front walls cut out - and my original plan was to use wood for the entire building, especially for the side wall that looks fairly weathered and worn from the little bit of it that shows in the right edge of the photo. But I'm toying with making the remainder of the building out of styrene. 

Modeling Autumn Scenery

 It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks - after shipping the book off to the printer we thought it would deliver between the 16th and the 21st. But thanks to some much appreciated effort by our rep at the printer, the books actually showed up on our doorstep on April 10th. 

I wasn't planning to go to the Timonium MD show since I didn't think we'd have any books - but since the show was on the 11th and the books were there on the 10th I grabbed a stack of books and headed up the Maryland State Fairgrounds. 

Show attendance seemed a little light, and not many people were buying - perhaps it had something to do with the sunny, beautiful weather. No one really wanted to spend all day at a train show and I think it showed in the sales overall. 

The one good thing that came out of the trip up there was we managed to get Artisan Rail Media into the Craftsman Courtyard area of the National Train Show in Chattanooga this coming July. 

In the meantime we've been shipping books, and decals, all week. We've gotten almost completely caught up with the book orders, except for a half dozen or so (we ran out of envelopes and mailing labels! More are on the way, and based on what the post office tells me, most people who ordered between February and late last week should receive their copy of the book sometime next week. I'm excited, and terrified, to hear what people think!

We also have posted some Southern New England and Central Vermont decals. I'm not surprised the CV decals are selling well, many people have a stash of those resin CV boxcars awaiting decals - but I'm surprised at the reception the SNE decals have received. I have several more CV and SNE sets that I'll be posting this weekend. 

You can find all of these on the web site - HERE 

or https://www.artisanrailmedia.com/

Thanks again for your interest and support - and please order a book! 

Modeling Autumn Scenery book and Artisan Rail Media

 
Wow, I see that I haven't posted anything here since November! Yikes! Well, hope anyone reading this had a wonderful Holiday season - and Happy New Year, albeit a couple of months late!

Our new website - Artisan Rail Media - where you can order our new book! 

I have been posting - occasionally - to my Southern New England Railway Facebook group. And you're more than welcome to join the fun there. But I have an excuse for not posting things here - 

When I really get into a project I tend to dive into it, and things like Facebook and blog post updates don't take priority. In other words, I usually float from one project to another - but when I focs - I get really focused. 

For the last few months I've gotten very serious about finishing my Modeling Autumn Scenery book. I've talked about doing this book for a number of years - and have been thinking about it even longer than that! 

This is one of two possible cover photos for the book. 

I'm pleased to say that it is almost done - - to the point that it should be shipped off to the printer sometime in the next two weeks and be ready to ship shortly after that. I'm trying something new - self publishing this book. I considered doing a print on demand option but have been disappointed with the color and printing quality of that approach. 

One of the page layouts for the book. 

A scenery book - especially an autumn scenery book - where color is everything - needs to have the best looking photos possible. So, Christine and I are taking a risk and having the book printed by a print shop here in the US that specializes in short print runs. The test proofs looked great, so we're very excited about getting the book in our hands, and hopefully a LOT of yours! If nothing else we don't want to end up with a garage full of these things!

What's in the book? Essentially it's everything I've learned that I can remember about modeling autumn scenery. Here's the list of chapters: 

Chapter 1: Fall Colors

Chapter 2: Scene Composition and Planning

Chapter 3: Backdrops

Chapter 4: Landforms

Chapter 5: Vegetation and Ground Cover

Chapter 6: Background Trees

Chapter 7: Foreground Deciduous Trees

Chapter 8: Conifers

Chapter 9: The Colors of Autumn

Chapter 10: Autumn Details

Full color. (I've lost count of how many photos). 

Approx. 100 pages. 

And best of all I've been able to include some photos from other models who depict the fall on their layouts. These give some much needed variety to the book, and show how others model other parts of the fall - from early mostly green season, through the peak colors of fall, all the way to the "dead" season. I'm immensely grateful for these friends who have been so willing to contribute to the book! 

Actually, even if you model the height of summer you should be able to find some useful information in this book - just use a lot more green than I do! 

How can you get a copy? Well, we've set up a little business to sell these things (and some other products, more on that in a moment). You can get the book at the special prepublication price of $24.95 + shipping at our new web site - Artisan Rail Media. 

What about those other products? Well, for starters we have Central Vermont boxcar decals, as well as SNE "modern image" decals that we'll list for sale. But first the book must be done!