Painting continues on the overhead appurtenances.  The valence has been primed and the backside has the finish coat applied.  I hope to get the finish coat(s) brushed on the front side this coming weekend.  The view blocks will be next.  Since these are simply suspended on hooks, it should be a bit easier and less time consuming to get them painted up.  I’ll likely just take them down and stand them up against the wall and roll on the paint.

As a break from the painting, I took a few weekends to build the desk for the train room computer and accessories.  The computer was temporarily sitting on an old kitchen table in the train room and I wanted that table to pile tools and stuff on during the layout construction.  So the computer desk is now designed, built and (sound the trumpets) painted!  It even has a nice Formica top.  It is on casters and will be rolled under the layout at a planned location.  The casters will allow me to easily roll it out of the way during construction of that section of the layout.

I haven’t done the “practice” backdrop yet, but I’m leaning toward the stencil method of painting clouds due to my total lack of artistic ability.  Wayne Robichaux and I employed this method some 18 or 20 years ago on a layout at my former residence.  Bill, I may indeed borrow your stencils if the offer holds, as I think mine are so coated in paint that they can barely support themselves any longer.  Or heck, if they’re still available, maybe I can just order a new set.

I’ve been checking out the spray paint selection over the past couple months.  While flat white is widely available, bluish gray colors are not.  I was thinking of this color to add bottoms to the clouds.  I’ve seen some flat gray paints (primer, ugh!) and one place had some flat blue, but it was more of a light baby blue.  So to hopefully solve this dilemma, I purchased a Paasche spray gun that is somewhat bigger than an air brush, but much smaller than a full size paint sprayer.  It’s very basic in construction, and only the air volume/pressure is adjustable, but I think it will ultimately be more controllable than spray cans.  This will give me the ability to mix paints to whatever color I want.  Since it was only $25, I think I can offset the cost with the savings in paint (rattle cans vs. quart cans).

That’s it for now.  I hope I can have a benchwork progress report within a month or so.  Having time only on weekends to get things done greatly slows down the construction schedule as I’ve learned.  I’ve also learned that getting old greatly slows down the construction schedule.

-Jack