Tim, I am glad it arrive safely. I always have my finger crossed when I use USPS. Tim, its not a scratchbuild. Its a kitbash. I dont have the talent to scratchbuild. The title of scratchbuilder should be restricted to talented builders like yourself. Here is a link to the GP38. If you can make me some mail delivery slots, I would greatly appreciate it. http://www.locophotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=23576
Tim, it looks like you are one of the biggest Z scale manufacturer at the moment, and your frequency is also impressive. Respect! And no doubt the quality is perfect! I have pre-ordered my Maxi III with Harald, wonder how long it will take him to make a new run.
Nah!!!! Gerd, Thanks for the compliment, but I don't see myself as that good yet. Maybe some day. Right now I have plenty of time on my hands to play with Z scale being I am not currently employed. I will soon have an opportunity to work some short power plant turn-arounds and need to clear my plate of backlogged z scale projects for others. I am almost to the point where the only projects I will have left to work on will be my own. Manufacturer? Actually the only thing I am manufacturing is the Thrall well cars for Ztrack, the rest I concider just personal projects for others. Maybe someday I can have more of a manufacturing presence in Z scale. Crossing my fingers. Maxi III kits from Harald are very nice. He has improvements that make these easier to assemble than his first generation Husky well car kits. The Maxi III kits come with the main bodies pre-bent and you have to bend the rest of the parts. It takes not quite 30 minutes to bend all parts. It will take you about 30 minutes to an hour to solder it together. I suggest using a liquid flux to help the solder flow. Use silver solder. Also, the thinner the flux liquid the better flow. I use a 40 watt iron for quick soldering. Do not attach the walkways until after you have painted the assembled main bodies. *Note, their are 8 articulating end pieces that you will have in the kit. They all look the same size. If you look carefully at them, 4 are slightly longer than the other 4. So you have 4 short and 4 long. We are talking about a 1-2mm difference in length. Not a very noticeable difference. I tell you what, when you recieve your Maxi III kit, the best thing to do is inspect it very carefully to understand it better for an easier assembly. I have a BNSF Maxi III that Harald built so I had a model to compare the kit too. I used it once or twice for parts placement and comparison. (The first kits Harald sent out were missing two parts, only by comparing my BNSF Maxi III did I know the parts were missing) :star:When you get your kit, send me an email so I can send you photos of the key details to make sure you put them in the correct places. Trust me, there are ket details. I have done too much de-soldering not to pass on this info. "This goes for others who are building their own Maxi III kits!" I have created TTX decals for the Maxi III kit. 6 different road numbers. I have requests from Germany to make about 4-5 other different Maxi III decals. Will concentrate on the other decals soon. If you don't want to make your own decals let me know. Have fun! Hobo Tim
Hi Tim, I agree with Gerd, what you make is absolute fantastic, and crazy your productivity. I'am always asking me from the husky's how you made to take just some letters away, this trick you must learn me :eh-confused:
Hi Tim, thanks for your help, I think I will get some TTX decals from you, I don't have to re-invent the wheel. I prefer to make decals for things others haven't so far. Looking forward to see the finished cars!
This first photo demonstrates why I was desperate to improve the ride height of a Micro-Trains caboose—it is an embarrassing sight: Easy enough to file down the bolsters and get the trucks tucked up tighter, but what about coupler height? As it happens, I found a trick that not only preserves coupler height to nearly the same as before, but improves appearance at the same time. The first step is to pop the coupler pocket apart. Then make a dimple in the frame next to the mounting screw hole with a #60 drill bit, and grind a recess for the spring. This pretty much replicates the inner surface of the coupler pocket lid. Finally, just screw the lidless pocket, together with the coupler, right to the frame (and grind off the excess screw later, of course). Here's a before-and-after (actually, in this case, an after-and-before) comparison of the ride height: There were lots of other cosmetic improvements made, nearly all of them to the frame. Details on this work-in-progress are on this page: http://jamesriverbranch.net/project_9.htm
That really helps the appearance David. Many cars are just way too high to look convincing, and need to be lowered.
New 5x9mm speaker for Z Hi, Today I made intensiv testing of the smaller speaker with homebuild resonance box. My calculations with the 50mm3 room for the 5x9mm membran where totaly right. It works perfect. Much more loud than the ESU 13mm round speaker. And with only 1/4 of the membran surface, the sound is just about 2/3 as loud as the big with 11x15x8mm, crazy satisfied.
Hi Robert, Exactly, And with only 4mm thick it will fit in the same room over the decoder, thats the trick. I am in contact with Tran from Ct-Elektronik, he want to produce now this speaker with new resonance box in commercial way. This will open a new area for Z sound decoder installation. Anyway the SL74 is the smallest and he improve software last year, I must say that after playing a lot with this sound decoder, I appreciate it. There are always some limits, like the special light effects that you can find in the Dx74. But overall with the small footprint it is a wonderful little thing.
David, great work! I have to say the difference is amazing. Tim, your work has been nothing but first rate from the start! Armand, amazing is all I can say about your efforts. When the season is done, I have got to get down to some serious modeling!
Sanity Check - MOW Truck progress Sanity Check. Here are two photos of my personal project for the week to keep my sanity in check. All work and no play (or projects for myself) make for a stressful and depressing week. Here is the progress!!! Lots of work left to go. The shell is about half finished. Still need the fuel tanks, front and rear track wheels, and the rear truck bed with all the cool tools and crane and out riggers. Without the shell! The blob on top of the motor is super glue and white metal from a test weight during DCC testing operations. This little bugger is so cool. I have an oval set up with a DCC system. I don't know who makes this decoder but it is the right size for this truck. The truck bed will hide it perfectly. CV5, max speed, is set at 007. When I am finished with the shell, casting in white metal, I might even attempt head lights and tail lights using 0602 white and red LEDs. We'll see!!!! Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled program! Hobo Tim p.s. This is what it will look like when finished!
Holy cow Tim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am still working on my FEC GP9. The original Microscale FEC logos were too small, and I replace them. First I took a piece of magic tape and tape it over the old logo, and use a quick peel technique. The decal came easily. The I use some new logos made by Micheal Hilliard. The were the perfect size. The next estep is building a pilot. I kind copy what David Freehling did on the GP40. Before I glue the pilot to the shell, I install the hooks for the cut levers. Those things are small. I lose three hooks for every one I install. Well, its almost finish. I only need to add some minor detail, and its done.
Hi Tim. You probably told us before, but which motor and how small is it in this cool rail car you are building?
