It's been a long time since I've posted, but progress on the track had pretty much come to a standstill due to work issues and the fact that the family cat had basically "deconstructed" much of my grandstand building, which was pretty discouraging. With some hours of work wasted, I didn't really feel like doing much of anything for quite a while...especially since there was still so much more to do.
Since last summer, however, the cat and I have come to somewhat of an "understanding" -- and I take more precautions to protect my work. She doesn't really bother the track itself, just anything which happens to be on my workbench. This aids my progress as well, since the work approach has become “get something finished and get it off the bench.”
In any case I wanted to share some of my more recent progress. First, anyone who has some Artin track (as mine is) probably recognizes the blue starting gate assembly; not needing this for anything, I re-utilized it into a marshal's stand. I will be needing three of these, but since I had two original Artin sets I have plenty of material for that.
Also, I have (for the most part) completed the grandstand and garages. They are lit with LEDs (pics to follow later) and have been fully populated, though I am still painting pit crews. I just got the whole assembly back in place on the track, and am now working "outwards" from this area, towards the town on the right side of the layout. Most of the buildings there will be very shallow-faced building fronts, like commercial shops and such, apartments, etc. but the effect should be relatively convincing, I hope.
