Hello. I finished the Engine House. The Senior Editor at GRW came up with some excellent suggestions and comments. One was a response to my inquiry about auxiliary doors to the building and did they exist? Yes, and so I included one. He also suggested that period buildings had attached sheds, so I designed one after searching the web and coming up empty handed. Hope it seems appropriate to the time (30's - 60's) and compliments the Engine House. Thanks for looking. Tripp.

Nasty week last week. End of Year construction projects and management, plus our little guy had to be rushed to ER; now the youngest daughter is in CCU. Still have to hold down the fort, and little guy watch and chores while the missus is doing nurse calls and more. Still, my sanity escape is my drawing work, late at night. So here are the results of Submittal #4 preliminary elevation renderings. Thanks for looking. Tripp.

Well...its finally Friday (again). Last night was a late one, getting final cleanup to my AutoCAD so that I could start the page sets for printing for the GRW subscribers at Garden Railway Magazine. http://grw.trains.com/ 

I hope that those of you who model in 1/29 scale will take a minute to email me or blog me and let me know what you think; what you are looking for; or if you have any plans that need conversion and drawing overlay. Be glad to chat with you all. Thanks for stopping by. Tripp.

Hi all:

I have updated my Blogspot to allow for album viewing, and include a blog link to my work blog that covers the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the projects I do there.

Garden Railway Magazine liked the rendering of the Brick Sand House, but wanted something more current, or active as a functional structure. So I removed the old plaster and faded grey brick, and made it a Red Brick facility more in the period of most Garden Railroad eras.

Submittal #3 - Brick Sand House Finished!

I am continually amazed at how a simple struture can be so difficult to re-render in Google Sketchup; which is one of the easiest tools to use. I did learn a trick in AutoCAD; before final save; to enter the command FLATTEN, which then puts all your lines on even layer plane.

Since this was an old 'typical' structure; plaster on brick; I attempted to simulate fractured plaster patches left on the wall; peeling paint on the sand tower, doors, and trim. I hope it is successful. It was quite an effort on my limited knowledge part! Thanks for commenting if you can. Tripp. (See final render group on right).

A little lunch time fun; getting elevation and wall texture suitable to match the age and presentation of the Brick Sand House. You can see the CAD outline imported in the rear of the photo, for which I will take out the sand tower and affix to this 3D image for final rendering. Please comment as you can and thankyou for visting my blogsite!

Busy week. Not much if any time to blog my status on Submittal Drawing #3 - Brick Sand House. It is from July 1957 Model Railroader magazine. Drawings are rough, but as you can see on the right, I finally got them through AutoCAD in real dimension, to outlines I can now render in 3D. That is coming. As I started out on this journey, I had only a one project mindset. Now, I can see limitless projects based on historical buildings, bridges, edifaces, Architectural features and featurettes, landscapes and more. While my drawing talents are very limited, this dimensional form of drawing allows me to put to electronic paper what consumes me on the second tier. My first tier is Automotive designs and COTS applications for you engineering buffs. Once those projects come out from the veil of NDA, I will begin to publish them for public comment and review. Thanks for reading folks. Please take a minute and comment, bad or good. Tripp.

Ah...Sunday. A lot going on this weekend at my eldest daughters; getting a low threshold shower into place after removing a poorly made shower and tub unit that failed after only 7 years. I forgot how much work goes into redoing the walls; installing a floor pan system; plumbing; putting in the shower wall system; wall plastering; and finish baseboards and trim! Love doing it though.

Came home and found my 3rd Submittal assignment in the mailbox. Its titled "Brick Sandhouse". It comes from the July 1957 Model Railroad magazine. Immediately there were issues with scaled height, window sizing and one drawing depicting rafter tails, and another not. This photo shows how I start a forensic drawing to determine what will be correct for the AutoCAD page that will print out to scale. This also is the foundation for the final 4 elevations that will be rendered in color. Enjoy!



New project in the works. Found several historical buildings out there. Issue with plans. Everyone but me wants a piece or a sum for something that didn't belong to them in the first place. This is a Black Smith shop based on the old Jesse Hoover Shop with a few tweaks to make it my own.

While taking a break this week and looking for new subject matter, thought I would post the website version of Garden Railways Magazine and my first submittal being featured for free drawing access.

Took time to update- Looking over the last 3/4 century of MR magazine articles in hopes of discovering something unique to draw for submittal #4. There are so many older Railroad Buildings out there in varying shades of decay, with no archival history available to state its purpose or function, its life, its demise.

Trying to extrapolate a structure from one or two possible dimensions known to general construction is a daunting task and takes its toll on the fire within that drives me to draw and render them. I have recently uncovered old covered bridge photos - but (sigh) no drawings. Great structure - it wil task me but the reward may be worth it.

More to come.....