The Rich and Powerful have their Stinking Mansion!

I'm celebrating the completion of the Faller 232298 Villa - now complete with lights! Wow, these kits seem deceptively simple, but so easy to make a mistake...

Anyway, got all the wiring done - which includes the obligatory interior details and painting/weathering.

This Villa has the appropriate look for the powerful overlords who rule over New Quinntopia from their hilltop perch over-looking the city!

For the masses and common people, I can now move back to the Elevated line. Which began with using my handy Dremel to cut away the interior plastic and connectors of Kato's elevated viaduct pieces.  So glad I have a Dremel! This would have taken forever with a knife or saw...

The elevated viaduct swerves over the mainline track, so I needed to custom-build supports/viaducts for this section given the height.  I considering different solutions, but a combination of Evergreen Plastics styrene and some girder strips from Plastruct will do the job.

I am building the elevated section by first establishing the right vertical hight...details and paint to come next!

That's it for today! Tomorrow is Memorial Day, so let's all remember those who gave all for their country, and hope that all future wars are rare and short.
Until next time...Quinntopia out!

Hills for the City and the Metro Station Gets Paint

Work has kept me very busy, but I've been able to slip in a few minutes of train time to make some minor progress since my last update....

First, I' ve now added the foundation layer for the buildings/city.

Which means I can now start to finish up the "Metro Line", add buildings, lighting and then track...and then trains! Easy, right?

The below photo is another good perspective on where the passenger terminal tracks will be located relative to the city and Metro Line.

I am intentionally hiding my curves as much as possible, so the tracks will pass under a hill on one side via a large tunnel complex. This section is removable so track maintenance will be simple. You'll notice of course the styrofoam which will give some elevation to the city so that it won't be just one flat space with streets and buildings.

On top of this hill will rest this Faller 232298 "Villa" building.  I was looking for a very austere and formidable looking structure to sort of place on top of the hill overlooking the city.  I'm actually following the instructions for this kit - typically I just kit-bash things, but Faller kits are such nice models that it's kind of fun to put together a kit like this for a change!  I will add in more 'elevation' once I determine the footprint for the Villa and its parking lot/roadway. I may even add some secret security bunkers as well.

As much as I didn't want to, I broke down and bought two more Walther's Norther Light Powerhouse structures to complete the other side of Latveria Metro Station.  These have been cut, glued and primed and the very first coat of paint for the architecture has been applied!  What I am still trying to determine is how I want to finish the windows and the station interior walls.  This will be another project unto itself! The windows that come with the kit have fairly thick 'panes' (or whatever they are called) so I am considering re-creating more fine-lined panes on the computer, printing on transparency sheets, and using those instead.

So a fair amount of work, while I also continue to work on a 'secret project' that I've been thinking about doing for years (in truth, its sort of a distraction as I have four separate projects going on at the same time - which is a terrible idea!).  Until next time...Quinntopia signing out!