And we’re done. Well, nearly… just have some fine tuning on the Tunnel (see photos) and that’s about it. I reassembled everything tonight, including the newly painted tunnel, and glued down the rest of the track + buildings. My mother bought a few more sets, and once I saw the Airport set I had to [...]
Time to make tracks. Or at least, lay them out! I did the initial track layout this evening, spending a fair amount of time futzing around trying to get things right. Van’s requirements were that all buildings/activity areas were as close to the edges as possible, and I managed to do that. So after a [...]
After some slow progress, it was time to make mountains. I finished up the mountain casting, and started painting. I used flat black spray paint to put a quick foundation coat in the areas where I wanted some definition. Next up was a few coats of clear coat to protect the mountain from small children. [...]
Progress took a hit while I was effectively out of town for 2 weeks – however I did manage to finish all of the sanding, staining and painting. As well, all the track + buildings have shown up, sans 1 set of 8″ track that won’t slow me down. I’ve built up the mountain backdrop, [...]
Not much has changed, visually, however several coats of Minwax Polyacrylic have gone on the table tops. It’s a slow process, brush on, wait a few hours, lightly sand it, and then repeat. I’m hoping 3 coats will do the trick, but won’t know until tomorrow. Hit Mastermind again today to get a few Chuggington [...]
Chapters shipping part of my order… however I now feel I should open a Thomas store. Mastermind started selling the Chuggington Woodend Railway line today (Toys R’ Us has the incompatible Die-cast version), so Van took Preston as promised, and they came home with the Roundhouse and Brewster. So now I need to integrate that [...]
Painting continued today with rapid progress. However, I did make one mistake – the sample size paints from Home Depot, which covered about 25 sq feet on drywall, only covered about 16 sq feet on the MDF. MDF seems to like to suck up that 1st coat of paint. So off to HD to grab [...]
After the initial rush, I’ve had to slow down a bit. The temperature is dropping below 10 degrees at night, so I can’t leave the window open and let stain and paint dry. So far, staining is complete on 2 of the 4 pieces, and I’ve painted in the ‘Ocean’. I decided to Polyurethane the [...]
Started construction today, cutting the 1×2″ frame and 2×3″ legs (15″ long). I’m using ‘No More Nails’ frame and moulding adhesive to stick them onto the MDF, and then 1.5″ brads to add some additional strength for the legs. All corners are nice 45 degree joins, so once it’s sanded and stained it’ll look fairly [...]
For Christmas, I’m building the boys a Thomas the Tank Engine train layout. Now, they have a little 3×4′ one in the living room – a simple sheet of MDF with all the track glued down – but this will be something else entirely. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile, watching them play, and [...]
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