NorthGeorgiaWX

10/13/16 - Construction Accident Started added Realistic Water today. I thought I would use E-Z Water until I heard some bad stories about it eating up foam, and changed my mind. So it's going to take more than a few layers to get it where I want it. The roads around the pond will not be in the position you see now, I'm just playing around with placement. Started adding snow to the all areas of the layout where there are shrubs and plants, and that required me to take the two left houses off to keep them from getting sprayed by Scenic Cement. The "construction crew" got a little careless when taking some of these pictures, and the camera strap caught one of the street lights... so now there is some utility repair work going on. Luckily, I had a spare street light, so that will get installed tomorrow after the pond dries. I'm also playing with icicles and the waterfalls. I'm redoing the icicles to be smaller but they are easy to make, so if I mess up, no big deal. There seems to be a creature in my forest... 😉 Next post: \

10/12/16 - Work continues... I painted the pond today, so that's going to dry for 24 hours before water goes in. I also added another layer of snow to the background hills, but I'm not sure how much I want to add. With each layer, I spray Scenic Cement over what's already there, lay down the new snow, and then add another spray of Scenic Cement, so it takes some time to build it up. Most of the stream has had it's last layer of water before the final "ice" layer. It's mostly the pond that will be icy, but certain places in the stream (near the waters edge, etc) will be icy as well. I'm still adding layers to the section just before the bridge. I'm making icicles for houses and for the waterfalls if all goes well. If it doesn't, nothing lost, just try again. The white "Water Effects" dries clear in 24 hours. I took a bunch of pictures today, again, no snow on anything but the hills right now. Next post:

10/11/16 - Yes, I will redo the pond. Last night I started adding snow to the hills behind the houses. It's going to be a multi-layer process to get it just right. I want to make sure I pay attention to how the snow "falls" on things so that it really looks like fallen snow. It's almost ashamed to cover up all of the landscaping, but hey... that's winter. If I had to do it over, I would also add more deciduous trees into the mix, and I would make it thicker. I may still add a few more trees just to try to make it more lush. The pond... yes, the pond has been a pain in my arse. I've learned a few lessons about water features. First, don't use any slope in the stream or creek if you want the water to have any depth. If you have a slope, the Realistic Water will just run down to the lowest level and not pool. What I've had to do to get around this issue is add dams to sections of the stream so the water collects instead of running off. Second, make sure you thoroughly cover the water feature in plaster. The Realistic Water will seep through any holes or other porous areas of the layout, and make it difficult to build up any depth. And speaking of depth, they really only recommend a 1/2" or less of Realistic Water. You might think that's not enough to make it appear deep, but it really is. Woodland Scenic's makes a product called E-Z Water that you heat and pour and it can be used to make deeper pours. Unfortunately, I can't use it on top of the Realistic Water, but I can use Realistic Water on top of the E-Z Water. So I think I'll raise the pond back up some, and then use E-Z Water for the main pour this time, then maybe add some Realistic Water over the top. E-Z Water has to be used in one pour, you can't go back and add more or it will leave a transition line in the water, so the pour needs to be planned and setup ahead of time. Icicles will be my next first time part of the project, but that will be easy, and I will use a product called "Water Effects" to create those. You simply get a piece of wax paper and with a toothpick, draw out of lines of Water Effects on the wax paper. Once they dry (and they dry clear), you peel those off and tack them anywhere you want icicles. I'll have more pictures tonight as demolition begins on the pond. 🙂 I added more plaster to the pond and covered up the water I put down. I needed to raise the bottom of the pond by about 1/2", so I mixed up some plaster and covered everything up. I'll let that dry and then paint it a darker color before re-adding water. I do think I'll use E-Z Water on the pond so I can get it a little thicker. If I need to, I'll give it a top coat of Realistic Water mixed with a little white pigment to make it look like ice. Two days of snowfall in the mountains... 🙂 I'm starting to get a better accumulation of snow now. Not sure how deep I'll go, but I have a real desire to have a blizzard. 🙂 Of course that's probably just my own personal "what I'd like" kind of thing but hey... who's building this? 🙂 The water in the stream is starting to look good and get some depth to it. At some point I'll add a little white pigment in places so it looks like certain areas are frozen. The last image in this group shows the house with some snow that I added just a little around the base just to show how the edge around the base of the houses will be covered up. It looks really good too. Next post:

10/10/16 - Night Scenes I took some pictures with the lights off for the first time, just to see how things were going to look in the dark. The houses all use a C7 Christmas light bulb for light. I've replaced some of the incandescent bulbs with LED's, but I'm not happy with the light output. I have some new ones on the way and hopefully they will work out better. The "Just Plug" street lights look awesome and cast a light that makes them look like real street lights, I'm very pleased with that addition. In the future I'd like to add more "Just Plug" lights and possibly a couple of vehicles to the scene. I'm also going to find a blue LED light to cast a faint glow (like moonlight) over the entire layout to enhance the nighttime look. For an example, see the last image in this gallery. There is no snow on the roads right now but it almost looks like there is. The roads were formed with Smooth-It, a product that provides a nice smooth road system. I need to fill in the gap between the road and sidewalk with some grass like material before I cover it all up with snow. 2023 Note - I did end up finding blue lights to illuminate the scene, which you'll see in later posts. I have also added cars and more street lights to the scene since this 206 post was made. Next post:

10/10/16 - Busy Weekend Much more accomplished this weekend. Most of the landscaping except for the park area is done, although I find myself going back and adding and enhancing what I thought I had already completed. Can't help myself. 🙂 I've started adding the realistic water to the layout but it has to be added in layers so it's a slow process. I should have used a different water product and I still may on certain sections. And while it may look like snow, I haven't added any of that yet, that will be the last step before completion. I have used a product called Flex Paste for some of the snow areas and more will be used to create drifts etc., but the final product is powdered snow that will go over everything. When that is done, you won't be able to see where the house fits in the Styrofoam. I'm getting ready to landscape the "park", the area in the very front of the display. I've saved it for last so I wouldn't tear it up working on the other areas. The park is where the pond is located, so I'd like to get my "water" in place before I do that final landscaping. I am re-thinking the water material I'm currently using. I started by using Woodland Scenic Realistic Water, but it requires 1/8" increments and 24 hours drying time. Instead, what I should have used is Woodland Scenic E-Z Water. E-Z Water is used for deep pours and dries in 15 minutes, but it must be done in one pour. The only problem at this point is that I can't pour E-Z Water over Realistic Water. Learn the hard way. When creating the layout, you have to build it like a regular landscaped non-winter scene. All the plants, shrubs and trees have to be added before any snow can go down. The one thing I am not adding is grass, as that will be covered by snow anyway. 2023 Note - One thing you'll notice are fall trees. I though I wanted to do a late fall/early winter scene, but I later abandoned that idea. And like I mentioned above, that is not the snow you're looking at, it's just the foam and white paste. Click on the pictures to enlarge. Part 3 coming up! Next post:

SPC 1730Z Day 2 Outlook Day 2 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1059 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 121200Z - 131200Z ...NO SEVERE THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Severe thunderstorms are not expected on Tuesday. ...Synopsis... Generally dry and stable conditions will preclude thunderstorm development across most of the CONUS on Tuesday. One possible exception will be across parts of eastern NM and west TX, where a modest increase in midlevel moisture is expected in advance of a developing mid/upper-level low over the Southwest. The increasing moisture will support the development of weak elevated buoyancy (MUCAPE of 100-300 J/kg) Tuesday evening into early Wednesday morning. While more favorable large-scale ascent will likely remain displaced to the west of this buoyancy through the end of the period, some development of elevated convection cannot be ruled out late Tuesday night across parts of eastern NM and/or west TX. Should this occur, sporadic lightning flashes will be possible, though confidence remains relatively low at this time. ..Dean.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article

SPC 1730Z Day 2 Outlook Day 2 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1059 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 121200Z - 131200Z ...NO SEVERE THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Severe thunderstorms are not expected on Tuesday. ...Synopsis... Generally dry and stable conditions will preclude thunderstorm development across most of the CONUS on Tuesday. One possible exception will be across parts of eastern NM and west TX, where a modest increase in midlevel moisture is expected in advance of a developing mid/upper-level low over the Southwest. The increasing moisture will support the development of weak elevated buoyancy (MUCAPE of 100-300 J/kg) Tuesday evening into early Wednesday morning. While more favorable large-scale ascent will likely remain displaced to the west of this buoyancy through the end of the period, some development of elevated convection cannot be ruled out late Tuesday night across parts of eastern NM and/or west TX. Should this occur, sporadic lightning flashes will be possible, though confidence remains relatively low at this time. ..Dean.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article

SPC 1730Z Day 2 Outlook Day 2 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1059 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 121200Z - 131200Z ...NO SEVERE THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Severe thunderstorms are not expected on Tuesday. ...Synopsis... Generally dry and stable conditions will preclude thunderstorm development across most of the CONUS on Tuesday. One possible exception will be across parts of eastern NM and west TX, where a modest increase in midlevel moisture is expected in advance of a developing mid/upper-level low over the Southwest. The increasing moisture will support the development of weak elevated buoyancy (MUCAPE of 100-300 J/kg) Tuesday evening into early Wednesday morning. While more favorable large-scale ascent will likely remain displaced to the west of this buoyancy through the end of the period, some development of elevated convection cannot be ruled out late Tuesday night across parts of eastern NM and/or west TX. Should this occur, sporadic lightning flashes will be possible, though confidence remains relatively low at this time. ..Dean.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article

I wrote a blog post on my old blog site back in 2016 about a Christmas Village Diorama that I was building, so I figured since we were coming up on Christmas, I would move the contents over here. Instead of one big post, I'll beak it up into several. ------------------------------ I apparently have more hobbies than I thought I had. 🙂 My wife and I bought a bunch of Thomas Kinkade Hawthorne Christmas Village houses and buildings off of eBay to use as a Christmas display. We put them out last year on some fluffy cotton stuff but being picky like I am, I just wasn't satisfied with that look at all, I wanted something that looked "real". My interest in model trains goes back to when I was a kid, and I had started looking at creating a detailed and realistic train layout when I remembered the Kinkade houses. I started searching the internet for some examples of designs where people had used the house in some designed setting but I couldn't really find anything, so I started thinking about creating my own winter scene. So....here is where I'm at. First, I've never done anything like this before, so it was all new to me. Second, I spent a lot of time watching videos, reading up on materials, finding examples, and collecting images of scenes I wanted to duplicate, etc. After a lot of thought and consideration, I jumped in head first. And yes, I have messed up and still messing up. 🙂 The great thing is that if you don't like something, you rip it out and start over. The Kinkade houses aren't exactly HO scale, but that's the closest scale to what the the houses are, so that's what I used. I don't have a lot of before images, but even these images are "before" as it is still in the working stage. I'll try to break these images into groups to help show the progression of the build from this point forward. I wanted to quote a piece from the Thomas Kinkade website, and it says perfectly what I was trying to capture in creating this diorama: "The look of Christmas, with its trees and garlands and twinkling lights, is of course well known. But for Thomas Kinkade, the challenge in painting Christmas scenes was capturing the spirit of the holiday – the warmth, the joy, the good fellowship and family feeling. He loved the contrast of the cold gleam of moonlight on snow with the warm radiance of golden light pouring through the windows of a festively decorated cottage. That golden glow is truly the light of love." These are some of the images that I used to help me in the inspiration and design of the Christmas Village, and of course they are all Thomas Kinkade paintings. I tried to incorporate as much of his scenes as I practically could into the diorama. This first group of images were taken after some very basic landscaping had been done. The original pond had to be redone when I realized that its elevation was higher than the stream that was feeding it. 🙂 I blame the clown that is working on it now... :-). I may need to redo it again as I probably dug it too low this time. 😞 I'll get it right eventually. I created a wooden frame for the base and glued sheets of foam over the top and the dimensions are 60"x24". The elevated areas were created using wads of paper and plaster cloth along with pieces of foam cut to shape. Almost all of my supplies comes from Woodland Scenic and they probably have the most complete set of supplies and materials anywhere. Not only that, they have tons of how-to videos that show you how to use their products. There is no way I could do this without those videos showing the way. The remaining post will follow. Next post:

SPC 1630Z Day 1 Outlook Day 1 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1029 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 111630Z - 121200Z ...NO THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Thunderstorms are not expected in the U.S. through tonight. ...Synopsis... A large-scale trough currently over the Lower Great Lakes vicinity will continue east-northeastward across the Northeast through the period, while a related cold front over the Gulf Stream advances further east into the Atlantic Ocean. Thunderstorms are confined to the cold front where sufficient buoyancy is present and will remain well offshore. Cool/stable post-frontal conditions will limit thunderstorm potential over the CONUS. ..Weinman/Guyer.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article

SPC 1630Z Day 1 Outlook Day 1 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1029 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 111630Z - 121200Z ...NO THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Thunderstorms are not expected in the U.S. through tonight. ...Synopsis... A large-scale trough currently over the Lower Great Lakes vicinity will continue east-northeastward across the Northeast through the period, while a related cold front over the Gulf Stream advances further east into the Atlantic Ocean. Thunderstorms are confined to the cold front where sufficient buoyancy is present and will remain well offshore. Cool/stable post-frontal conditions will limit thunderstorm potential over the CONUS. ..Weinman/Guyer.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article

SPC 1630Z Day 1 Outlook Day 1 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1029 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 111630Z - 121200Z ...NO THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Thunderstorms are not expected in the U.S. through tonight. ...Synopsis... A large-scale trough currently over the Lower Great Lakes vicinity will continue east-northeastward across the Northeast through the period, while a related cold front over the Gulf Stream advances further east into the Atlantic Ocean. Thunderstorms are confined to the cold front where sufficient buoyancy is present and will remain well offshore. Cool/stable post-frontal conditions will limit thunderstorm potential over the CONUS. ..Weinman/Guyer.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article

SPC 1630Z Day 1 Outlook Day 1 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1029 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 111630Z - 121200Z ...NO THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Thunderstorms are not expected in the U.S. through tonight. ...Synopsis... A large-scale trough currently over the Lower Great Lakes vicinity will continue east-northeastward across the Northeast through the period, while a related cold front over the Gulf Stream advances further east into the Atlantic Ocean. Thunderstorms are confined to the cold front where sufficient buoyancy is present and will remain well offshore. Cool/stable post-frontal conditions will limit thunderstorm potential over the CONUS. ..Weinman/Guyer.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article

SPC Day 1 Fire Weather Outlook Day 1 Fire Weather Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1030 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 111700Z - 121200Z ...NO CRITICAL AREAS... The previous forecast remains on track. Latest observations across southern CA/lower CO River Valley and the southern Plains show dry conditions, but generally weak winds. Latest ensemble guidance continues to show low potential for strong winds and elevated/critical fire weather conditions. ..Moore.. 12/11/2023 .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 1252 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023/ ...Synopsis... A quasi-zonal upper-level pattern will develop as a strong upper-level trough exists the East Coast today. Surface high pressure will be present over a vast majority of the CONUS. Cooler temperatures and lighter winds over the driest fuels should keep fire weather concerns low. ...Please see www.spc.noaa.gov/fire for graphic product... Read more View the full article

SPC Day 1 Fire Weather Outlook Day 1 Fire Weather Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1030 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 111700Z - 121200Z ...NO CRITICAL AREAS... The previous forecast remains on track. Latest observations across southern CA/lower CO River Valley and the southern Plains show dry conditions, but generally weak winds. Latest ensemble guidance continues to show low potential for strong winds and elevated/critical fire weather conditions. ..Moore.. 12/11/2023 .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 1252 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023/ ...Synopsis... A quasi-zonal upper-level pattern will develop as a strong upper-level trough exists the East Coast today. Surface high pressure will be present over a vast majority of the CONUS. Cooler temperatures and lighter winds over the driest fuels should keep fire weather concerns low. ...Please see www.spc.noaa.gov/fire for graphic product... Read more View the full article

No Mesoscale Discussions are in effect as of Mon Dec 11 14:01:01 UTC 2023.View the full article

SPC 1300Z Day 1 Outlook Day 1 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 0629 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 111300Z - 121200Z ...NO THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Thunderstorms are not expected in the U.S. through tonight. ...Synopsis/Discussion... In mid/upper levels, cyclonic flow will remain over the East, but will lose amplitude in response to two processes: 1. The eastward ejection of a substantial trough now over the Lower Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic region. The associated low-level cold front is in the process of clearing the New England Coast, with the surface-based buoyancy well south of the area, and another couple hours of 100-300 J/kg MUCAPE largely confined to between the top of a stable boundary layer and the -20 deg C thermal level. While a rogue flash cannot be ruled out around Cape Cod, lightning potential appears too low and isolated to introduce a general-thunder area. 2. Amplification and slow eastward shift of initially weak troughing now over the Pacific Coast vicinity, reaching interior OR/western ID, northwestern NV, and east-central/southwestern CA by the end of the period. Associated strengthening DCVA/cooling aloft should remain too displaced from enough elevated moisture to support a thunderstorm area until day 2. ..Edwards/Gleason.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article

SPC 1300Z Day 1 Outlook Day 1 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 0629 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 111300Z - 121200Z ...NO THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Thunderstorms are not expected in the U.S. through tonight. ...Synopsis/Discussion... In mid/upper levels, cyclonic flow will remain over the East, but will lose amplitude in response to two processes: 1. The eastward ejection of a substantial trough now over the Lower Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic region. The associated low-level cold front is in the process of clearing the New England Coast, with the surface-based buoyancy well south of the area, and another couple hours of 100-300 J/kg MUCAPE largely confined to between the top of a stable boundary layer and the -20 deg C thermal level. While a rogue flash cannot be ruled out around Cape Cod, lightning potential appears too low and isolated to introduce a general-thunder area. 2. Amplification and slow eastward shift of initially weak troughing now over the Pacific Coast vicinity, reaching interior OR/western ID, northwestern NV, and east-central/southwestern CA by the end of the period. Associated strengthening DCVA/cooling aloft should remain too displaced from enough elevated moisture to support a thunderstorm area until day 2. ..Edwards/Gleason.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article

SPC 1300Z Day 1 Outlook Day 1 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 0629 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 111300Z - 121200Z ...NO THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Thunderstorms are not expected in the U.S. through tonight. ...Synopsis/Discussion... In mid/upper levels, cyclonic flow will remain over the East, but will lose amplitude in response to two processes: 1. The eastward ejection of a substantial trough now over the Lower Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic region. The associated low-level cold front is in the process of clearing the New England Coast, with the surface-based buoyancy well south of the area, and another couple hours of 100-300 J/kg MUCAPE largely confined to between the top of a stable boundary layer and the -20 deg C thermal level. While a rogue flash cannot be ruled out around Cape Cod, lightning potential appears too low and isolated to introduce a general-thunder area. 2. Amplification and slow eastward shift of initially weak troughing now over the Pacific Coast vicinity, reaching interior OR/western ID, northwestern NV, and east-central/southwestern CA by the end of the period. Associated strengthening DCVA/cooling aloft should remain too displaced from enough elevated moisture to support a thunderstorm area until day 2. ..Edwards/Gleason.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article

SPC 1300Z Day 1 Outlook Day 1 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 0629 AM CST Mon Dec 11 2023 Valid 111300Z - 121200Z ...NO THUNDERSTORM AREAS FORECAST... ...SUMMARY... Thunderstorms are not expected in the U.S. through tonight. ...Synopsis/Discussion... In mid/upper levels, cyclonic flow will remain over the East, but will lose amplitude in response to two processes: 1. The eastward ejection of a substantial trough now over the Lower Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic region. The associated low-level cold front is in the process of clearing the New England Coast, with the surface-based buoyancy well south of the area, and another couple hours of 100-300 J/kg MUCAPE largely confined to between the top of a stable boundary layer and the -20 deg C thermal level. While a rogue flash cannot be ruled out around Cape Cod, lightning potential appears too low and isolated to introduce a general-thunder area. 2. Amplification and slow eastward shift of initially weak troughing now over the Pacific Coast vicinity, reaching interior OR/western ID, northwestern NV, and east-central/southwestern CA by the end of the period. Associated strengthening DCVA/cooling aloft should remain too displaced from enough elevated moisture to support a thunderstorm area until day 2. ..Edwards/Gleason.. 12/11/2023 Read more View the full article