Little Touches I

Great road trip Labor Day weekend to Fleetwood, NC, and Roanoke, VA, with BIL and nephew to see VA Transportation Museum, O. Winston Link Museum, two model train shops, and the NC Creeper (the part of the Norfolk and Western that went into NC down to Todd for the timber/lumber there).

Items at the shops (model train, that is) spurred efforts to add a few detail touches for the Blacktop Crossing.

Found some PAINTED assorted junk (Woodland Scenics).  Had tried to paint a few castings on hand earlier, but found it very tedious.  Today, one of the granddaughters was kind enough to get a good start on the unpainted castings while staying in Rock Hill to escape Dorian in Charleston.

DIL took time to encourage Granddaughter and created two front windows for the small rural church.  Also cut out the foundation but hesitated to install it.  I was out in the Miata allowing older daughter to practice stick shifting!   Windows look great:

In the meantime, it became apparent that the location for the Rural Church was a little bit out of plumb.  Will use the foundation to help with that some (just cutting a few stones here and there), but figured that would not correct the whole problem.  Added a bit of Sculptamold over cork in hopes of improving the orientation.  Continued adding "earth" a little bit down the mill hill to provide parking for church service.  Hope to paint it first thing tomorrow with possibility of granddaughters returning.  Maybe we can place the church and start a little scenicking around the area.

Back to Fleetwood, my BIL had HO scale train from the '80's that he was going to pass along to his son.  I was offered any rail cars I needed.  Didn't feel I should run off with too many, so picked up a gondola with a pre-1950 build date.  Swapped out horn for Kadee couplers and added just a little weathering when I got back home.

Before leaving for the road trip, I had painted a small chimney for the crossing tower with flat black and rust Testor's paint.  Stuck the chimney in place today; even let a little "soot spill" down the roof.  Now maybe I need to do that with the team track shack and the woodyard shack. . . .

Hoping to have Little Touches II after tomorrow.  Let's see where the assorted junk and recently painted junk ends up.