WordPress Update

Posted on November 26, 2006 by Mike Walsh

I finally installed the WP2 update for this blog. I suspect the reason I was getting so many SPAM comments was due to having the older (1.5) version of WP installed. The installation went smoothly and while I was at it, I incorporated a bunch of old CTB news as WP posts. Posts now date back to late 2000 and feature some of the custom kits I released several years ago.

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Registration Required to Comment

Posted on November 25, 2006 by Mike Walsh

Unfortunately I was getting a bunch of SPAM comment posts so I have had to turn on the User Registration and Login Required to Comment options. As I don’t have many comments, I don’t see this as a big issue! 🙂

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South Hills Mall 2006 Holiday Layout

Posted on November 21, 2006 by Mike Walsh

I am in the final frenzy for NCLTC’s Holiday Layout at South Hills Mall. The modular hills I have been building are for the show. This morning I took the modules over to the mall and set them up. I think they look pretty good. They need some foliage which I will do tonight. I still have a lot to do but the major hurdles are complete.

Last night I ended up building a small house with my daughter Renee who wanted to participate in the layout. I hadn’t planned on building any more buildings but we had fun and I think it turned out pretty good. This is another house which follows the NCLTC modular housing standard (which I need to document some day). I’ll try and post pictures of it tonight. Renee wants to add flowers and trees to it before it is “done”.

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Modular Hills Part 3

Posted on November 20, 2006 by Mike Walsh

Corner to Straight Transition ModuleI guess I am still on European time as I was awake at 3:30 AM this morning. I decided to get up and address the corner adapter problem. I ended up building a new module which connects the corner to the straight. It is 16 studs wide instead of 32. ModulesIn the end, this was a better solution than trying to lay something on top of one of the straight modules. I need two corner adapters so I still have another to build. They go quick though. I also need to build the 16×16 filler corner which goes on the backside of the corner module. That won’t take long at all though. I am however, now out of 2×2 black bricks so I am not sure what I will do. I still have lots to do before tomorrow

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Modular Hills Part 2

Posted on November 19, 2006 by Mike Walsh

I am back from my business trip to Paris and picked up a large order of green bricks from ThorzLegoz which I need to complete the modular hills I had started last week.

Straight ModuleI had built 3 straight modules before I left for Paris and they went very quickly. However, the corner module took far longer than I expected it to. I just couldn’t get it to look good and more importantly, allow the train to pass through. It either looked good and didn’t work, or looked so-so and worked correctly. So after building it three times I finally have something I am happy with. I think it will work out pretty well. I deviated quite a bit from the COLTC corner solution in my final design. The design does require some sort of an adapter to match the slope of the corner module to the slop of the straight module. I haven’t decided whether I will build a separate adapter module or simply some bricks which sit on top of a straight module.Modules

Now just I need to build a couple of tunnel faces before Tuesday when the layout needs to be complete. I am also just about out of black 2×2 bricks so I may need to switch colors until another BrickLink order shows up.

Looks like my camera lens is dirty! 😉

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