MODELING It's Monday, September 20th 2021: Weekend Modeling Accomplishments

Jim Wiggin Sep 20, 2021

  1. Jim Wiggin

    Jim Wiggin Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    5,229
    6,224
    103
    Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a great and productive weekend. Let's see how we all did.

    Saturday: It was a day I really needed, relaxing and stress free. Ang and I took the Mustang to nearby LeRoy for the car show and met up with her Dad. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and walked the show. The show was a nice mix of hot rods, modern and classic muscle and everything in between including a cool 1940 LeSalle Ambulance and a Holden. What's a Holden? Ask an Aussie. It is the GM brand in Australia, similar to a Pontiac but with a whole lot of muscle! The town had a festival which allowed us to grab lunch and enjoy the many vendors before everything closed at 3:00. Angela's Dad even won a trophy for his 1995 Cobra Mustang. We then relaxed at home.

    Sunday: This is our weekend to go to the monthly antique show in Bloomington but while Ang was getting ready, I started working on the Proto Throttle. By the time she was ready, I had programmed everything in but nothing worked. Oh well, walking away usually helps. The antique show was great and like always, I found some Mid-Century Modern items for the house and Ang found some more antique Christmas decorations and items for her collection. After a late lunch I headed back to the work bench. After about two hours, I went to the Iowa Scale Engineering website and finally figured out my issue. NCE Power Cabs come from the factory with a default cab address of 2 which the ISE Proto Throttle receiver will not read. Once I changed my Power Cab address to 3, and set up the receiver accordingly BAM! My new GP15-1 was working through the Proto Throttle. I still need to adjust some items and fine tune before Saturday but with a minor victory under my belt, I called it a day.

    So how about you? What did you accomplish this past weekend? I hope those who were in the path of bad weather stayed safe and damage free. Let us know how your weekend turned out. We'll assemble again on Friday the 24th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, be safe, stay healthy and as always...

    High Greens!
     
  2. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,560
    22,734
    653
    None. Banged my right hand at work Saturday. It swelled up and got stiff. (Nothing broken.) Better now, but the weekend is toast. :(
     
  3. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

    3,527
    2,337
    81
    After spending the last couple of weeks setting the viaduct and laying track over it, I’ve finally made it through the wall corner for the second time. There will be two more corner crossings above on the second level, those will be cut out when the actual grade approaches the corner.

    The corner is part of the hallway to the entrance of the layout space and will be the first thing visitors of the layout will see. Eventually the walls will be painted and the corner crossings will be sceniked and trimmed and will actually look good.

    [​IMG]


    I believe I have also settled on a fascia color. The color chip on top is called “Montana Moss” and I think it just about hits the winter-burnt turf color I wanted for the fascia.[​IMG]


    Carry on!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  4. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

    8,903
    3,622
    137
    Friday, sigh, Family / care taking of the infant.
    Saturday - Family celebrated my bday / retirement. Livingroom occupied all day by infant grandson.
    Sunday - Unbelievable - Future-Brother-In-Law, (father of infant grandson), finished making the last 2 cabinets, (bases for the layout). The Director of Land Management and Interior Decor having reviewed the space granted me an extra 6"s depth from 18"s to 24"s.
    Sigh, now I have to draw a new footprint. Argh! Er, I mean, Yes! Life is good.
    Grandson
    Wife
    Birthday
    Retirement
    An extra 8 square feet!
    Snoopy Dance!
     
  5. Tompm

    Tompm TrainBoard Supporter

    2,648
    7,736
    78
    We spent time outside this weekend. Since the tomato plants were pretty much done, we picked the last tomatoes and removed the plants from the raised planter. We cleaned the outdoor rug including shampooing it. Ran some errands on Sunday.

    I finished assembling the Union Station kit. I did some weathering but felt it came out too dark. I applied a lighter color of pan pastels. I need to seal it. I had some issues at the beginning of weathering. Before applying the chalks, I sealed the building with Kyrlon Flat Clear Coat. When it dried to my horror, I found the sealer had frosted. I checked the humidity before I sprayed, and it was right at the upper level (Can says 65%, my weather app said 66%). I also had sprayed outdoors just after twilight. At first, I freaked and then settled down and did some researching. Thanks to the folks on several forums dedicated to Warhammer miniature painting I found the problem was quite common and usually caused by environmental condition. Almost ever time it happened it was due to high humidity. Another interesting thing was many times it happened when people had sprayed outside and in the evening. Basically, I took away that Kyrlon Colormax sealer was prone to this problem, keep an eye on the humidity, and don’t spray outdoors in the evening or at night. The solution was to respray the building with the same sealer but under proper environmental conditions. I did so the next afternoon outdoors with the humidity at 30%. Guess what. It worked. Frosting disappeared.

    I also installed “glass” in the windows of a Bowser Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines caboose I had built a while ago.
     
  6. nscalestation

    nscalestation TrainBoard Supporter

    1,558
    9,262
    58
    Weekend went about as planned. Enjoyed a short visit from our oldest nephew Friday and Saturday. He had not seen the layout for quite a while and was surprised at the progress I had made. After returning from dropping him at the airport on Sunday I did do a little bit of work on building some turnouts but mostly pressed on with projects on the travel trailer. Seeing the beginning of fall here thinking I need to finish that while weather permits.
     
  7. Philip H

    Philip H TrainBoard Member

    1,007
    2,938
    54
    All three kids passed their Karate rank tests saturday. Gym was not airconditioned (!) so spent most of that time running fans and moving coolers of cold drinks for fans and kids alike. The ten year old passed rank tests in two versions - Shotokan and Kook Sul (Korean). He's motivated. Then kids in the pool. Kids friends in the pool. Cooking out with other parents. Collapse in bed.

    Sunday I spent about 3 hours tacking the growing mess in the garage (!) and tried to get caught up on yard work. We've had non-stop rain from T/S Nicholas all last week, so the yard is soggy. I managed to look at the layout and the workbench . . . .
     
  8. Kitbash

    Kitbash TrainBoard Supporter

    2,089
    5,586
    73
    Saturday was spent handpainting about 45 LF of track. Yesterday I put down about 24’ of ballast.

    [​IMG]
     
  9. dti406

    dti406 TrainBoard Member

    1,389
    11,336
    56
    Friday: Managed to bowl over my low average right now and the team won all seven points so we are now at .500 for the year.

    Saturday: Went to the club and ran some trains, stopped at the Hobby Shop and picked up some Intermountain cars and kits I ordered. Put up a new LED fixture with the help of my tall son in the kitchen the light output tripled over the crap fixture that was originally installed. Also decaled a hopper and boxcar in the evening (one side only).

    Sunday: Did not do a lot except for laundry after sleeping in till after 11 am, did complete the decaling from Saturday and started on building an Intermountain Canadian grain hopper.

    Rick Jesionowski
     
  10. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

    10,674
    44,837
    142
    My wife and I combined our anniversary with a soggy mountain weekend and Volkswagen show, so got nothing done on my train table build. The humidity has been unbearable. After four days of "drying" in the garage, my fascia panels are still tacky, so I moved them inside when we returned home last night. The A/C should help. I still need to paint the other side of these.

    2021-09-20 DSN Fascia Drying.jpg
     
  11. Tim Holmes

    Tim Holmes TrainBoard Member

    313
    1,154
    21
    Hi Rick: What hobby shop did you go to? I'm always looking for hobby shops in the area (I live in Medina)
    TIM
     
    Mark St Clair likes this.
  12. gmorider

    gmorider TrainBoard Member

    2,093
    6,282
    65
    Yep. The non stop rains are impeding many. Saturday was chore day. Sunday was birthday party for great granddaughter, age one. :D Modeling was on back burner. Just a while ago I began prepping reporting marks for three covered hoppers. After that, roof assembly I think. All have a great week. :)
     
  13. pomperaugrr

    pomperaugrr TrainBoard Member

    224
    1,645
    39
    I finally had a chance to get a little more work done on these locomotives. This was my first attempt at custom body modifications and painting N scale locos. Scratch and kitbashed modifications are complete along with basic paint and decals on my Housatonic RR Rs3M (#9935), GP7 (#1802) and GP9 (#7324). The #1802 and # 7324 are also now fully DCC and sound equipped. The RS3M is only DCC at this time. Sound may come some day. N scale number boards are not fun.

    I will get around to weathering these at some point, but they are "good enough" for me at this point. Please excuse the poorly focused cell phone grab photos.

    upload_2021-9-20_16-47-52.jpeg upload_2021-9-20_16-47-52.jpeg upload_2021-9-20_16-47-52.jpeg upload_2021-9-20_16-47-52.jpeg
     
  14. in2tech

    in2tech TrainBoard Member

    2,703
    7,639
    78
    [​IMG]
    Continued working on 3D printed mansion. Just a mock up, nothing glued yet. Amazing you can actually see through railing in an N Scale printed structure. Almost sure it was Resin printed? I think he printed the wrong window sizes, tried Dremel Tool to fix, and man this is rough, although tool is awesome.

    [​IMG]
    The 3D printed base is really thick, maybe too thick, and filing and sanding not an option, plus window area is tiny. Might just wait till he prints more windows that fit? Still looks really cool.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2021
    fordy744, BNSF FAN, BoxcabE50 and 4 others like this.
  15. Pastor John

    Pastor John TrainBoard Member

    888
    4,509
    42
    Well, I'm reporting a week late, but last Sunday my six month "pobation" period ended and our train club voted me in as the newest full member. I should get a key and a securities soon and will be able to access the clubhouse (a retired Pennsy freight station) any time I want. Of course, being on probation was free and being a member is... decidedly not.

    For the last week my wife and I been cleaning, sorting, organizing the house from top to bottom in preparation for tomorrow's annual personage inspection. The trustees at this church are nice, but we've had some significantly negative experiences in other churches over the years, so we do our best to make the house look nice. It sure is easier without kids in the house though.

    I didn't run any trains at this Sunday's outing to the train club, but talked with some of the other members about the work that needs done on the layout before our open house in November. Specifically, the things that need done to run trains through the new 16 foot port facility that is still under construction. The bench work is done, and most if the track work that is needed for basic operations is done, but a few more switch machines need to be powered, a temporary control panel, etc.

    A week ago, or thereabouts, I did manage to get Linux running on my old computer, built a hanging shelf under my workbench, and received the last part that I need to run JMRI on my three feet of test track. Hopefully, that experiment will happen soon.

    Among the housecleaning, I found the top of my basement workbench so I won't have that as an excuse to not get things done thus week. That about covers it except gardening, scout meetings, church committees, dogs, cats, turtles, and other ordinary busyness.

    Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk
     
  16. Mark St Clair

    Mark St Clair TrainBoard Member

    430
    3,064
    39
    Another good weekend into the books. Mea culpa! Some of my accomplishments actually occurred today. Retirement weekends are kinda flexible.

    Boxpok drivers: The laser at the MakerSpace was already reserved on Saturday when I finished getting my drawings ready. Sunday was busy with family activities most of the day. My chance to try my files was today. Cutting to the chase, here is an example of what I was able to do. (BTW, I have started posting thumbnails within the message. Some of my photos seem to overwhelm the screen otherwise. I figured anybody who wants a closer look can click on the image. Let me know if you prefer full size.)
    DSCN2547 (2).JPG
    Not perfect, but much better than an earlier attempt. The white background is 110# cardstock which is a cheap test media. The black strip is PolyBak laser board.

    Here is another prototype of where these are going for my N Mikado. This is the "other" side of my test driver pair. Milled it out a little less than the first to preserve as much of the original strength as possible.
    boxpok ard2 210920.JPG

    Another big "Thank You" to Robert Ray for his guidance as I have been working on this challenge. He provided direction on how to go about it, cut discs for me and provided some sound advice on how the laser works. In addition to building the model I am also trying to learn how to use the laser engraver/cutter and drawing software. These are samples of my own work cut locally. A few more tweaks and some experimenting with laser settings and I think I will settle on the best combo.

    I spent my waiting-for-the-laser time working on the first sand dome. A couple weeks back logging loco asked for pictures of a boring tool solution I commented on. I ended up drilling a pilot hole and using an internal cutting tool to finish it. My reasoning was that the fixed relationship between the rotating part and the cross slide, holding both internal and external cutting tools, would result in concentric internal and external holes. Using the tail stock to hold a bit would be more difficult to align the internal hole with the outer diameter.
    boring tool mount 210920.JPG
    The tool on the right is one of two internal cutting tools I acquired at least two decades ago. It's twin is mounted in the tool post. Their storage tubes don't list a manufacturer, but they were made in Irwindale, CA and are good down to .080" diameter. The other tool is a standard 1/4" shank internal tool. My problem was that the 1/4" tool was too large for the .193" diameter hole I needed to bore and I do not own a tool post for the mostly cylindrical shank of the smaller tool. It needed to be held securely at the correct height for the spindle. As shown, my solution was turn it over, cutting edge down, and elevate it on shims. The screws pushed the flat against the shims and the shank against the back wall of the post. Fortunately it worked as seen in the photo below. Note that it is cutting on the backside of the hole because it is upside down. Otherwise I would have needed to modify the 1/4" tool or make a custom tool post. Neither sounded fun to me.
    boring 210920.JPG

    The second thing I worked on for the sand dome was making an arc in the base to match the diameter of the boiler. For the steam dome I used a grinder wheel about the correct diameter. It was OK, but was very tedious and I had to protect the surfaces of the mill from the abrasive material. This time I tried the "Circle of a Thousand Holes" approach. I own a machine. I am not a machinist. This is all an adventure. It was fun to drag out long-dormant trig calculations, make a spreadsheet and have a go.
    arc cut 210920.JPG
    This is the part you saw in the lathe being bored. The OD on the right end is .249". The arc has an intended radius of .279". It is very close to what I want, but not quite. There will be a Rev B. And perhaps a C, D.... Depends on how quickly I learn.

    Again, I had a good weekend. Looking back, I didn't finish any of my projects. Learned several things and I am happy with the progress. Feels like it really is the journey, not the destination. In any case I will be away from the work space for a few weeks. I just might cheat again and post the progress, if any, I make this week.

    Stay safe,
     
  17. Mark St Clair

    Mark St Clair TrainBoard Member

    430
    3,064
    39
    I'm "Like"ing your post, but actually it sucks! Hope it is better soon.
     
    BoxcabE50 likes this.
  18. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

    6,266
    6,246
    106
    Let's just say that dealing with the ex made me appreciate my girlfriend more
     
  19. Kevin Anderson

    Kevin Anderson TrainBoard Member

    2,726
    4,177
    77
    Started planning my attack of the train room. I need 10 switches, not enough cash and supply. Looks like I am Hand laying the track (heaven help me).

    Started retyping up my roster so I can get enough waybills made


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  20. Jim Wiggin

    Jim Wiggin Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    5,229
    6,224
    103
    Ugh. I remember those days. Stay strong. My new relationship with Angela is 12 years strong, two years longer then the marriage with my ex. I appreciate Angela more every single day and I could not be happier.
     
    bremner, BNSF FAN and Philip H like this.

Share This Page