Little Town, Big Changes

The town of Thunder Mesa is changing again

Once again the town of Thunder Mesa is getting a makeover. As other structure projects have gotten underway, I've been eyeing the town and seeing how everything works now that all mainline track has been completed. Turns out, I didn't really like where the depot had been located and one change lead to another until the entire town had been reconfigured.

As the layout has grown from it's original 3'x6' configuration, the little Town of Thunder Mesa has been moved and reshuffled again and again; most recently at about this time last year. As my overall vision for the TMMC has evolved, this very central piece of the puzzle has necessarily evolved right along with it.

On the original 3'x6' layout, the town was situated high up behind the mill

With the first layout expansion, the town was moved even higher up behind the new turntable. The road up to town was almost impossibly steep and I was never crazy about the sight lines this configuration offered.

In November of last year I began work on a new town module that could be built at the workbench and then installed on the layout. Once again I tried to keep the general look and feel of the town's inspiration, Disneyland's Rainbow Ridge, with the building stacked in rows facing the track. In the end I felt that, while this works fine for a theme park, it stretches credibility a little too much for what's supposed to be a real town.

Meanwhile, Thunder Mesa Depot and the Rainbow Desert Freight Lines still resided alongside the short spur where they were originally planted back in April. With a new passing siding added as part of the latest expansion, this location began to make less and less sense. Surely, the depot would have been built in the heart of town right along the mainline tracks, just as was done in countless frontier boomtowns throughout the West. Deciding at last to move the depot to a more logical spot is what lead to the latest redesign of Thunder Mesa town.

And here we are today with the depot rotated 180º and placed trackside in the heart of town. A low retaining wall will separate the depot area from the main street where the commercial building of Thunder Mesa will now curve around on a slight rise. Gone is the idea of building the entire town as one removable module. Now, each structure will be its own unit, just I had started to do with Big Thunder Saloon. 

It makes so much more sense now for trains arriving in town to stop here in front of the depot instead of having to back into a siding.

Rainbow Desert Freight Lines has moved to a more logical location too, between the former depot spur and the main road into town.

The new location of Rainbow Desert Freight creates improved sight lines flowing into the main street of town.

As for the old depot spur, this will now be home to some stock pens and perhaps a livery stable.

With this new town configuration firmly established, I feel more comfortable diving into the scenery here and finishing up some of those other structures. I'm really looking forward to replacing all of those paper mock-ups once and for all. They've done their job in the planning stage but now it's time to move on. Breaking up the old depot scene was a little tough, but the lesson here is to never be so enamored with a scene that you are afraid to change it when a better idea comes along.

Thanks for checking in, amigos. I'm juggling a lot of projects right now and there should be much more fun stuff to come in the weeks and months ahead. Adios for now!

Down by the Station

It's just past noon down at Thunder Mesa Depot on a hot, dry summer's day. Once the engineer of #6 finishes swapping boxcars at the SFD&C interchange track, the crew can break for lunch over at Cordelia's Cafe. Problem is, things are running a tad behind schedule so Cordelia's famous fried chicken and berry pies will just have to wait. 

Backdrop and smoke effects added in Adobe Photoshop, all else as modeled.

It's a little cold here today for Arizona so guess I'm daydreaming about summer!

Aerial Views and the Depot Scene - April 4, 2014

First light paints the sky to the east as the station master prepares for another busy day at Thunder Mesa Depot. 

Two Year Anniversary of the Thunder Mesa Blog!

My, how time flies! I started this site back on April 1st, 2012 to document the construction of my On30 Thunder Mesa Mining Company layout and here we are two years later. It's been a great ride so far and I continue to appreciate the great feedback I get from followers and the many friends I've made in the hobby. Thank you all!

Two years ago: April 1, 2012.

Last month: March 1, 2014.

Today: April 4, 2014. 

Nothing has changed in the expansion area so I'm just focusing on the original Thunder Mesa section this month.

For a more complete view of the layout's progress to date, check out the Layout Construction slide show on the Photo Albums page.

Zooming In

I'm trying something a little different with the aerial views this month, zooming in on specific areas that have recently been completed or are currently under construction. Imagine we're drifting along in a Victorian airship, snapping photos of the scenes below...

Zooming in we can see the recently completed scenery around Saguaro Siding. It looks like the Marc F. Davis is getting ready to dump another load of leaverite at the tailings trestle.

Drifting northwest, we pass over Geyser Gulch. There's still a trestle that needs building here.

Maneuvering our imaginary airship around Baxter's Butte reveals new track work underway on the High Line. The previous On18 track has been removed and Peco On30 track is being fitted in place. Soon this area above Rainbow Caverns will be home to the Big Thunder Mine and some stock pens.

The Depot Scene

Checking our map, we can fly over to the depot area to see how this scene is progressing. The recent addition of Rainbow Desert Freight Lines has inspired me to bring this newer corner of the layout closer to completion.

The depot scene extends from the tunnel portal to the end of the depot platform and includes three structures: Thunder Mesa Depot, Rainbow Desert Freight Lines, and a freight house for the Santa Fe, Denver & Carolwood R.R.

From directly above the depot scene we can see that some ground cover and plants have been added, and that the track has been painted and ballasted. The white structure is a card-stock mock-up for the Santa Fe, Denver and Carolwood freight house.

Here's a closer look at the track. The mainline ballast is dyed chick grit and the sidings are red sand from Sedona, AZ. The track itself was painted with Floquil paint pens; Rail Brown, Rust, and Tie Brown, then highlights were added with dry-brushed acrylics.

Two new lamp posts have been installed adjacent to the depot platform. The lamps are 2.5mm yellow flickering LEDs built atop juice box straws. Rainbow Desert Freight Lines has acquired a wagon from Grizzly Mountain Engineering but is still waiting on a team of horses. A small cactus garden has sprouted up next to the depot platform along with an assortment of springtime weeds. The ground cover in this area is Polyblend sanded grout and the mud puddle was made with Woodland Scenics Realistic Water.

Another night shot of the scene with all the lights aglow. The sky was added in Adobe Photoshop but all else is as modeled. It's the magic of scenes like this that keeps me building.

Some good progress has been made on the depot scene but there's still loads to do before I'll call it finished. The tunnel portal needs work, a freight house needs to be built, and the entire scene needs more weeds and junk, figures, lights and so on. Looks like I'll be busy on this one for awhile! We'll check back in with more aerial views next month to see how things have progressed.

As always, questions and comments are most welcome. Thanks for checking in. Adios for now!

Rainbow Desert Freight Lines

Located next to Thunder Mesa Depot, Rainbow Desert Freight Lines provides express wagon service to many frontier outposts not served by the railroad. This graphic is one of the signs created to help transform an old B.T.S. Red Eye Saloon kit into an office for the freight lines.

From Saloon Kit to Freight Office 

After finishing up Big Thunder Saloon I was inspired to keep things rolling with another structure project. This time it's a kit-bash of an old B.T.S. Red Eye Saloon. It's a nice kit with great period architectural details and a small size that's a perfect match for the other diminutive structures in Thunder Mesa Town. Looking at the kit, I realized that with a little creative imagineering it would be perfect for an empty spot next to the depot.

This is what I started with. I built the Red Eye Saloon kit for another layout years ago but never got around to finishing it. Luckily, the roof was never glued down and that made it easier to bash and detail the structure now.

And this is the final product ready to be installed on the layout. New signs, a new front porch, loading dock, roof, lights and interior details are just some of the modifications made to the structure.

The loading dock with miscellaneous freight, Grandt Line freight doors and a wall mounted oil lamp.

Step one was carefully cutting through the scribed basswood siding of the model to create an opening for the Grandt Line freight door.

The freight door and frame were primed and the door was airbrushed in a two tone scheme to match the structure.

The freight door was cemented into place with ACC and the transom windows glassed with frosted acrylic. A new foundation was created from 1/4" thick MDF with the edges scribed and carved to resemble 12" x 12" scale timbers.

A wall mounted oil lamp was created for the loading dock by assembling the pieces above.

The finished lamp. The protruding diodes were bent back at right angles to the lamp, extending through holes in the structure and connected to the interior wiring.

The oil lamp in place on the structure.

An awning for the loading dock was constructed from illustration board and I made these decorative brackets from scale 6" x 6" stock to hold it in place.  The balls are dress-pin heads.

The awning roof was covered in hi-res printed photo-textures of actual tarpaper roofing. Scale 12" stock was used to deck the platform and front porch.

Interior walls were laid out in Adobe Photoshop using wood plank photo-textures and a door from cgtextures.com, along with various signs, posters and pictures. The print out was laminated to 1/16" thick illustration board using 3M 45 all purpose spray adhesive.

When cut out and assembled inside the structure, it is very difficult to tell that the interior walls are merely printed paper.

A counter, chair and oil lamp complete the interior detailing. The lamp was constructed around a 2.5mm yellow LED. The lion's share of interior space holds wiring for three LEDs that light the structure: the counter lamp, the flickering platform lamp, and a hidden 5mm yellow LED to illuminate the back room windows. Power enters from beneath the floor.

The counter lamp provides a steady, warm glow.

Testing out all the lights.

The original stove pipe from the B.T.S. kit was a bit oversized for such a small structure and I ended up replacing it with one from Grandt Line. The weathering was done with chalks and dry-brushed acrylic paints.

To finish the structure, I added a few crates and barrels to the platform, including one open, scratch built crate filled with packing straw (actually finely cut Woodland Scenics dry grass). A new, better fitting roof was built from illustration board and covered with photo-texture tar paper.

Rear view. The rafter ends are illustration board.

One Thing Leads to Another 

Finishing the Rainbow Desert Freight Lines has inspired me to get back to work on the entire depot area, a spot on the layout which has remained untouched since the depot was completed back in September of last year. In the coming weeks I'll be filling in the scenery here, ballasting the rails, adding details and a couple more small structures to finish things off.

The space between the depot and the freight office will soon be a busy wagon loading scene. I also need to do something about that tunnel portal.

That about wraps it up for this project but there's much more to come in the town and depot areas. Thanks for checking in. Adios for now!

Thunder Mesa Depot Grand Opening

It looks like Billy Hill & The Hillbillies have come down to play and everyone's having a grand time at Thunder Mesa Depot's grand opening celebration!

Lights, Sounds & Details for Thunder Mesa Depot

Well, I think I can safely say that Thunder Mesa Depot is now finished. Of course, there are always more details to add and little things to tweak but the project has now reached that point where I'm ready to move on to the next thing.

The platform is detailed, the signs are hung, the roof is weathered and the lights are on. Yup, looks finished to me.

Details, Details, Details

I like loads of detail in my structures, both to give them character and to help tell the story. This last week was spent creating lots of little details for the depot.

Platform details. These are mostly resin and white metal castings from various sources, painted with artists acrylics. I use an airbrush to get even coverage and some variations in the color. The tinier details were painted with a tiny brush. 

More platform details. The big trunks are castings from Wiseman. Some of the smaller suitcases were made from bits of strip-wood with music wire handles.

You can paint just about anything with acrylics, but wood, metal and plastic all need to be primed first. This batch of details has just been primed with a rattle-can enamel. 

Pot-bellied stove and coffeepot for the depot.

Stove and other details installed inside. 

A broom for sweeping up. 

Signs and smoke-jack ready to install.  The signs are made from paper, wire and wood. The smoke-jack is from Grandt Line.

Lights and Sounds

With a detailed interior like this, it's nice if people can actually see it. I decided to add LED lighting to the structure, along with some digital telegraph sounds with an ITT Products sound module.

LED lighting. One of the bulbs provides a lantern-like flicker.

The interior is lit by one 5mm yellow LED and one 5mm flickering LED. The covered waiting area has its own 5mm LED. The yellow bulbs are very diffused at 360º while the flicker bulb is more focused. Wiring for LEDs is pretty straightforward once you figure out that they are polarity specific and every bulb must have its own resistor. The resistors in this case are 510 ohm to match up with a 9 -12v DC power source. The tricky part is soldering all of the tiny components without burning out the LEDs. I tin all of the pieces to be soldered beforehand and use a heat sink (wet paper towel). Tinning with solder beforehand means you only have to touch the components with a hot iron for a second or less to get a good bond.

The LEDs provide a nice warm glow.

Only one flicker bulb was used because a little flicker goes a long way.

The wires run down through the walls, through the platform, and beneath the layout. Since LEDs are polarity specific, it was important to keep track of which wire was which - red for positive, black for negative. A mini-plug connector was used to hook up to the effects control panel. This allows the structure to be easily removed from the layout if necessary. The white dots insure proper polarity alignment. The sound unit is hard-wired beneath the layout and not physically attached to the depot.

Here are the components of the ITTP sound system, a 9v DC transformer (also used for the lights) the sound module and a 2" speaker. Hook-up was super easy and the sound is great. I can highly recommend ITT Products.

The sound module was mounted below the layout with 3M foam tape. It doesn't really matter where this goes, what's important is the placement of the speaker. I put mine directly beneath the depot platform (the pink foam makes a great resonator). I had originally planned to cram the speaker in under the roof along with the lighting but there was no need and it actually sounds better where it is. 

And here is my hi-tech special effects control panel! Actually, the real panel is yet to be built and will control all of the lighting, sound and animation effects in Thunder Mesa. In the meantime, this good old, well used, highly temporary Atlas Connector performs the necessary on/off duties.

Okay! I think that covers it for the Thunder Mesa Depot project. It's amazing how much can be packed in to such a small structure. Thanks for stopping in! Here's two more for the road.