Module protection

After fixing the damage to the Yard Office I decided to finally truly protect the modules from my cat. I built some sides and a lid over the weekend. All this actually serves three purposes in addition to cat protection, the sides against the wall serve as backdrops, the top keeps a lot of cat fur and dust of the scenery and lastly the backdrops will be protection during transport. The front and top will stay home when I take the modules to events.

 The lids are blue foam board, I wanted something very light, The scraps I can use for future landforms.

In the image above you can see the wood brackets on top of the backdrop. These hold up the foam lids.

Good as new

Well maybe the post title is a bit deceiving, I don't model anything that looks new. As bad as it looked, the damage to the yard office was easily fixed. Only one piece of wood was broken and even then, it wasn't in two pieces. A little white glue fixed it. The rest was just reassembly of the stairs and platform.

I had added the TV antenna a few weeks ago. If you look closely you may see the TV cable from the antenna going into the window. The antenna is N-scale etched steel by Gold Medal Models.

Ouch!!

On Sunday last I notice that the model Yard office was lying on it side but still on the module. Upon closer examination I could see that my cat, (who will remain unnamed to protect the guilty) had apparantly launched herself up onto the module and landed on the wooden kit. For images from the structural autopsy see below.

The damage is only to the stairway and platform and I'm sure I can make repairs. Some parts will have to be completely replaced but the most important parts are intact. I may use this as an opporturity to individualize the structure a little with the rebuild.

At least she didn't damage the building.

MG

Yard office, before and after.

I had to delay continued work on the conrete plant complex because I needed to finish some scenery immediately around the yard office. Otherwise I might damage parts of the conveyor supports in the conrete plant complex while trying to reach the area around the yard office. So I dug out some of the Silflor grass I had been using and did some scenery. Now before I did this I needed to build up the foundation of the office structure first. I want all the structures to have foundations that are recessed into the scenery. This way they don't look like they are resting on top of the scenery.

The image above shows the foam scenery base cut away for the structure foundation to recess into. The black and red object is a tab accuated wire quick connect to the lighting harness. I just push on each tab an slip in a wire from the 14v bulb I have mounted in the structure. This is the first time I've tried this devise so the jury is still out.

Before

After.

I am very please with this Silflor stuff, if you haven't tried it yet, go get one of the small starter packs.

The working time between the two previous images to add the grasses is about 15 min. Note: The concrete wall was already in place.