Installed the inner set of wires and filed down the ladder a bit. Still looks too chunky: I think the rungs are spaced too far apart. Will measure soon. While putting in the inner wires, problem arose. I originally made 12 sets of brackets and wires: The brackets are the smallest "channel" strips of styrene, the wire the thinnest (.025?) piano wire at the LHS. I put a #79 bit into my Dremel and drilled two holes in each bracket for the wires, painted them, and then assembled them into sets. I GorillaGlued the wires into one bracket, with the other bracket able to be removed or slide up & down. Painted Grimy Black. Well, install the outer sets was relatively easy: slide the moveable bracket down a bit, put a dab of GorillaGlue under each bracket, fit wire and brackets OVER outter supports, then slide bracket in to tighten both sides snug against wood. I put the sliding bracket under the bridge, just in case some wires stuck out a little bit more than others. [Trim all wires BEFORE installing onto bridge, as the piano wire is tough and the "snap" of the cut can pop the whole thing off dried glue] But the inner wires couldn't be slid over: I had to remove the sliding bracket, install the "U" above or below the brige, and then replace the bracket over the wire ends. So I decide, again, to install the already glued brackets on top, leaving the wires open under the bridge just in case of various wire lengths (which happens). After the glue dried, I went to slide the bottom brackets back onto the wires, and found my hand way to big for the job, and tweezers couldn't get the right angle, and the holes in the brackets way too small to easily slide the wire through. Fun times, with me trying to manuever a tiny piece of plastic onto sharp little wires dangling under wood bridge with about 1 3/4" space to work with, little plastic pieces flying "pop!" out of the tweezers onto the littered floor as the running dryer turned the garage into sweaty sauna. So, in the end, I just CAed the wires to the sides of the support, with the idea that later I'll use a bigger bit in the dremel to widen the holes in the brackets and then slip them over the fixed wires. I guess I could just let it go, but in pictures my eyes snap right to the missing brackets, and their absence really bugs me: Especially since the bridge is right at the front of the layout and prime picture spot, I'd like to have the bridge look "right". I'll probably scrape off the ladder, too. But, just like us, there are angles from which it look "mahvellous": or at least "good enough". Will probably install some walkways / decking along the inner track, and maybe some water barrels and other details. But right now I'm working on building the cannery dock as well as some of Randgust's fab V&T ore cars. On we go!
Started scenicing a bit: Started the breakwater under the left side of the bridge. Seems a bit much right now. Will tone down with greenish / dark wash. Maybe take some rocks away. Also tried out the "fine" sift of the dirt I dug & baked yesterday. The coarser stuff has some nice texture to it, though I'm not quite sold on the color yet: a bit bright brown. But that's what I got for now. Also solved the shiny pc board problem: mixed some floquil "foundation" with some grey and a little black. The pcboard ties disappeared! Not sure if you can see in the photo above, but maybe on this one of the ore dock currently under construction: After I build the piers and the shute below and install, I'll scrape a bit away from the pcboard to solder the pair of tracks to the dock, then touch up with the magic mixture. Another project: almost finished building a 3-car cut of Rangust's V&T Ore Cars: My railroad's soooooo poor, they're still using late 1800s equipement! Dang they're small! You can compare with the NW2 and the repainted and mid-weathered atlas ore cars on their right. The link & pin with tiny wire almost done me in (I don't have the steadiest of hands, depending on the coffee), but finally got it all together, though the middle one's a little caddiwampus. MT Z 905 couplers at each end of the cut. Still need to put on the wood running boards. And maybe fill 'em up. They track surprisingly well, given how light they are. Here's a video of my 44 Tonner pushing them into where the mine will be. Given that all three of my engines have dummy couplers, and those push the ore cars too far to the side, I've had to settle for pushing them around the layout so far. But they look pretty groovy, and as my Kato 11-105 critters just showed up, I can start building Randy's 18-ton Climax to push them around. [I have another cut of 3 cars waiting to be built, too, but i wanted to make my major mistakes on 3 rather than 6] But it should make for a pretty dramatic scene: little cars, big mountain: Also been looking at early 1900s coal & ore cars to scratchbuild. Fun stuff! And thanks, Randy (if you're watching), for all your help & info with the resin kits! Happy weekend!
A close up of the finished V&T ore cars with running boards: And a pict of the cannery dock: I'm trying to get all the stuff that'll be in the water done so I can do some basic scenery and then pour the river.
To my eye, it looks like the rungs are too think. Compare the bridge ladder to that on the beer can shorty tankcar. Otherwise, DANG!! Andy Tetsu Uma
Thanks, Andy. I've already removed the ladder and am building a new one out of thinner wood and piano wire for rungs. We'll see! Here's the ore unloading & freight dock I've been working on: And a detail of the ore unloader and platform: Just soldered the track today, so need to file down the solder and touch up the paint. Also still need bumpers and a hoist crane for the frieght side, and a ladder from the dock to the catwalk on the ore side. Not sure if I've ever seen ore unloading and freight transfer share a small dock before, but if not I'll claim "selective compression" I kinda winged building this, so if something is totally wrong / off / defies reality then let me know: I love to learn! Cheers!
Took advantage of some nice weather to open the garage door during the day and start scenicing, as well as get some pictures with some real light filtering in. Got bumpers on the dock: Also touched up the pcboard paint. Randgust's V&T ore cars much improve the scene! Still need to do the ladder and the cargo hoist. A small dock office will sit on land just to the right of the tracks. Here's a shot with half-decent light down the length of the waterfront area, showing the cinder ballast, dirt and a feel of the scene: Just realized how shiny those caboose handthrows are. I wonder if bragdon's weathering powder works on them. Had a scary moment when, after ballasting and gluing, I realized that the one gap I still had to cut in the track (for DC running) hadn't gotten done all by itself, so had to take the dremel to it. Then realized that the one jumper wire I was supposed to install on the other side also missed the "to do" list, so got to excavate, solder, & reballast. I really should keep a real list of tasks on a whiteboard in my workshop, so all the "oh, yeah, I still gotta do ____," and "Gotta remember to ______ before I _____." actually happen. A couple more washes on the mountains and they'll get dumped with dirt as well. Having fun scenicing while starting to build a 18ton climax. Onward & upward
Steam at last! With family visiting from Japan and all the touristy stuff involved, as well as watching the earthquake / tsunami / radiation disaster unfold on tv (fam is from kyoto: far from the disaster. until the wind shifts), hadn't had a whole lot of traintime. Benchprojects include building one of Randgust's 18-ton Climax kits over a Kato critter chassis that I'm modifying for DCC: One side of the DZ125 fits snugly in the space I carved out of the chassis, with little drop underneath. The circuit board will fit over it: I'll solder the black&red pickup wires to the board so it can still act as the cover for the pickup strips/springs. I hollowed out two small channels at the corners for the motor wires to pass under the motor. I'll paint the bottom of the decoder, and the underside fixture included in the kit will fit over it with just a wee bit of carving. Also finished laying down the basic ground cover layer: real dirt and a couple types of groundfoam. The mine side: The ore unloading dock: showing the small work shack I scratched out of styrene, Grandtline windows/doors, printed paper roof, and a piece of wire insulation painted for the bellypot stove chimney. Not super happy how the building turned out (especially the roof), but it's my first go at scratching in styrene, and it's just sitting there right now, so I can replace with a better one later. And a reverse angle of the scene: Getting closer for water pouring! Got impatient waiting for a decoder for my Lifelike 0-8-0, so hooked up the DC and took it for a spin (or two) around the layout. Finally: steam comes to Mt. Coffin! The tender has been modified to allow for space for the decoder. A wire is still loose in the connection between engine & tender, thus no front headlight. (either that or I burnt it out during an eariler short...) But, as the layout is supposed to be early 1900s, it's nice to have steam streaming through! Toot toot!
Kato critter for the 18ton Climax is DCCed & up & running! [It's following & playing with the 44t ore job] I had cut a space in the chassis for the DZ125 decoder: one side of the decoder pops up more than the other, and so that fit in the space, with the edges of the decoder acting as a lip that I tacked on to the chassis with GorillaGlue. A top view can be seen in the previous post. Here's a view from the bottom, after a first layer of paint to dull the bright red wrapper: I cut off the white, blue & yellow wires, as I'm not going to try to put a light into this little climax. Soldered the red & black wires to the curcuit board, so that could act as the cover for the pickup strips. Dug a couple channels for the grey / orange wires: then soldered them to the motor. Drilled the holes for the screws to attach the resin boiler, then attached. On a test run, the pickup strips needed more bending (critter would move only when finger pushed chassis down), so off everything came, strips adjusted, then all put back together. Programmed decoder, and off it went! Rolls great: no stalling at all on dead frogs, good creep, amazing top speed! Still need to adjust motor cvs: in this video, speed step 2 is "slow", with ss3 "speedy" (and ss4 "speedy gonzalas"!). Completed chassis next to NW2 for size comparison: Cheers to Randgust for a great kit & fab instructions! The Climax is coming to Mt. Coffin!
This is the first time I've seen this thread. Your layout is crazy man, crazy. If this is Kalama, any chance you'll be building some diners of questionable quality? Maybe a truck stop along old highway 99?
Thanks, Tom & Mudkip (I'm reading "crazy" as a positive ) Tom: very much admire yr scenery & photography, so cheers! 18ton climax is coming along. Attached boiler to chassis, added pipe / hose detail. Then hollowed out a space for a MT903 coupler for the front: Actually sneezed while dremeling, so accidentally cut through in one place, but needed a styrene shim anyway to get down a little bit lower: not much space over the gearbox in the trucks! The cut will be covered by the front frame anyway. Next will be the sides and ends! Inspired by the dude making z-trees (on the oregon cascades thread), I thought I'd give it a whirl and try my hand at some, though using some green twine that Ace had. Here's the first five, along with the tools of the trade: After twirling in the drill, hairsprayed and sprinkled with WS conifer coarse, with a little fine weed thrown in. Thought I'd stop with the power tools when I started seeing two bears through the trees (A fabulous Bear Republic Racer 5 bear! Is there any better IPA? Really?) Five down: 200+ to go! (trees, beers, or both) Happy Weekend!
Those conifers look great! Nice and light, like most trees found in a forest are. I have been following along with your thread eagerly awaiting for something. When are you going to pour your water?!?!?! Your dock and waterfront is done so well, I just can't wait to see it with water in front. Not rushing you or anything though. The rest of your progress has been providing me plenty of enjoyment as it comes together. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Ben! As for the water: thought I'd wait a couple weeks, as the weather's been yo-yoing all over the place (at least for the SF Bay Area ) alternating downpours and cold nights with sunshiny balm. Just want good conditions for the water pouring. Also trying to figure out how the dryer in the garage will affect it all: wet towels will create a humid rainforest effect, that dissipates into an arid cold 30 minutes later. Also want to test out a couple different tints on my test diorama so that I don't end up with ectoplasm instead of Columbia River effluence. So probably another couple of weeks, at least. In the meantime, making sure I get as much groundcover done around the water so not too much drains in later. Thanks again for the compliments! Looking forward to seeing your progress as well!
More trees: Seeing that just applying the conifer coarse turf directly to the green twine resulted in some shiny branches, these I later sprayed a whiff of grimy black. Helped tone it all down, and made the branches a bit more realistic (wait: branches aren't green?). Applied new batch top of gorge corner: Just t-pinned a hole and slid the trees in. When I get a bunch I can rearrange with the better ones towards the outside, the messy ones in the middle of the mass that will be the mountains. These ones are a little too "full": will use less twine in the future. Will also brush some sawdust/glue to the trunks of the display" ones and repaint, as the wire is a bit thin for a real trunk, and too symmetrically wound. After much tiddling & diddling, my 18-ton Climax now has working couplers and also works (the contact strips had gotten a little bent out of shape, and so it'd stutter down the track). Now it runs smooth, even better when it's pulling a load. [16 second video] Now back to building more climax & trees! Have a groovy week!
So after school today, my daughter & I kicked open the garage door to take advantage of some fabulous spring sunshine and I showed her how to make trees out of wire and twine twirled in a drill: Dad would like to lay claim to the "good" ones, but it was a collaborative effort: She's done the bamboo-skewer & scrub pad pines before, but this was a first with a power tool. [hmmm... I wonder if the weekly allowance should be tied to pine production...] By making 15 trees we effectively doubled the number on the layout: Amazing how a few trees make a huge difference, but then a few more just remind you how many more you need to crank out.
Im always amazed a how well a "mini" can look when build by the right person. It also looks like it will be fun to operate.
