NRTL yard & engine servicing

The facia has been added & painted black. I painted the pink foam
an earth tone right away, I find that the obnoxious pink tends to
block my creativity and by simply using some Walmart or Home Depot
returned paint in a brown color at usually less than 1/2 the original
 price helps to envision the scene. 

I started the engine servicing building.  It's a Walthers kit and I started
by spray painting the wall sections with two different tone's of red/tan
so there is a variation in color on the brick.  Once that was dried I
applied mortar, using an acrylic gray that was slightly thinned and then wiped
it off right after I applied it.  That is how I usually create mortar lines in brick.
The "just painted" is on the left and the "mortarized" one is on the right.
I think it adds some age to it as well.

The service building is coming along and I've laid out photocopy
switch templates to get an idea for spacing and layout of the yard.

Another view of the templates.

Sometimes getting the rail joiners on in N-scale can be a pain, literally.
How many times I stabbed my fingers I can't count.
I cut the end off an old toothbrush and the drilled a hole in the end to
fit a piece of rail in it and glued it into the handle.  I cut a taper on the end of the
rail to make slide rail joiners on to it even easier.  The tool basically preps the joiner
to the rail size so they slide onto the rail much easier and no more finger stabbing!

When you need a tool and can't
find it anywhere, make it!

Yard all laid out and joiners applied.  Just need to solder them together.

A view from the north.

A view from the south.