Wooden train project

This is a project that will need some planning and some external help (probably) before the finished product is ready.
The idea is to make a great gift for my nephew and niece to play with alongsinde their BRIO trains and rails. When I was a kid, my uncle did this for me, and I still remember all the fun I had and how cool it was to have something nobody else had (except for his other nephew, that is).
The plans are a little undefined at the moment, but the rough sketch is as follows:
Make one large plate that can be perfectly connected to the rails, and that the trains can run on just as easily as on the tracks. This will be a station and a relay/interlocking plant where trains can be parked, engines can be switched, and perhaps I can find some more ideas...
So far I know that there will be a switchplate that circulates around beween the different tracks, and that is the only gadget I know will be there (except for a lot of tracks with buffers at the end).

But there are lot of stuff I could add:
- An electric barrier
- A level-crossing barrier (electric, or preassure activated)
- A cargo area with loading cranes that can lift containers (if they still exist in the BRIO system)
- Electical lights of different types
- and surely a lot more that I probably will think about later.

The main concerns at the moment are:
- Weight (will be a large wooden plate, so it will be heavy. How to make is as light as possible?)
- Size (got to make it easy to store, and also make it exactly the right length to fit x tracks)
- Tracks (do I carve my own, or split existing tracks and add them on to the plate somehow)

Weekly update

And as we wave a hastily goodbye to week 51, I have to say that nothing more has happened on the miniature front since the last update.
But now the Christmas holliday is upon us (I have my last day at work today), and I can look forward to almost 14 days with relaxation as the main purpose.
Hopefully, that means that I get to do a solid job on my minatures.

I'm gonna drop by my local GW store today, to re-stock some of the colors that I'm getting really low on, and perhaps pick up a few brushes as I need some that are optimal for painting vehicles.

I have started to drill the holes to glue on the arm of the Chaos Champion. Found some paperclips at work, and I hope they will work as a pin.

Also this weekend, I got the great idea of building a train station and shifting yard for my niece and nephew for their birthday in June. This is not really a miniature (like Warhammer) or scale model realated, but I hope I can make some nice blogentries about it anyway.

what has he been up to lately?

The answer to that (sadly) is... not much!
I have come closer to finishing the miniatures in the mobile workshop, but none are finished at the moment.

The closest one is my mounted Khorne Lord who at the moment needs some basework before he is ready for the tables. I made a small hill out of styrofoam and mounted his chaos horse on that, but I need to do some washes to this grey hill and also add some static grass or flcok where there is just the black base. I have some scorched grass that is intended for use with the chaos army that I will try out here.

The Chaos Champion was just missing the basework, but then for some reason both his hands fell off, and I'm struggling to get one of the hands glued back on. I think I will have to use some sort of pinning technique, but I've never tried that before so he just stands very still in the corner of the mobile workshop at the moment. Hoping that the Chaos Gods will grow him a new hand in a hurry (or something like that...)

The chaos sorcerer is also getting closer to the tables, but I still have some detailing issues to sort out here. There are so many details on his staff, so I have tro find a way to make them stand out there they are supposed to, and to blend in where that is better... But I have some ideas that are being tried out.

The Goblin King is just about ready for basework. All that is missing is glueing his cape to his body, and painting the chains and sculls on the cape (two of each).

The night goblins are slowly getting ready, but there are still some details left on these lovely grenskins. They are only the humble start of the second core unit, so it will take some time before the entire 2nd core unit is ready for battle. The nettes are as good as done though, only missing thing is to do the bases, and then glue their arms (with the nets attached) to the main body. I've chosen to wait until the bases are done, as one of the netters will have a small squig under his net, and I want to do the basing before I glue the squig to the base and then I have to position the arms so that the squig can be seen under the net. I've done a "dry fit", so I know it is possible.

The squig herders have come a little further, the squigs are at the moment missing their teeth (are just primed black), and their claws (still unpainted) and one of the squigs are missing the detail color of his horn filled body (thinking of doing him in the Space Marine colors with darker shells, and white horns/bones as with all of those things). The herders are at the moment missing their green skin and the detailing on the poker and the bagpipe, still looking for the perfect bagpipe color though...

The Space Maine chapter masters has turned out to be quite detailed models, but they are comming along nicely (with one exception). The main bodies are painted, but I have to paint their heads and glue them on. Also I need to attach arms with weapons or other equipment and finish the painting of those.
I had a terrible accident with one of the chapter masters holding a broadsword in front of him, so a piece of the hilt broke off. Haven't been able to get it back on yet, so while I try that I'm also looking into options of replacing the sword with something from the Fantasy range (a Chaos warrior sword or similar).

I belive that sums up the content of my mobile workshop.
Hopefully there will be some finished models to show off here pretty soon, but I know there won't be much painting done before Wednesday...