Plaster and stuff

Modelling stuff continues, albeit slowly and I missed the weekly deadline of last night for an update but there you go. For the middle support for the rail bridge mentioned last week, I had long ago ordered two Chooch Bridge abutments with "steps" to nestle the truss bridge into. BUT, traditionally these appear on opposite ends of one bridge and merge into a hill or elevation at both ends.

For my application, the two abutments needed to face outwards and be a single support. An early trial with a layer of plaster sandwiched between the two abutments failed on many fronts, most importantly in alignment. Trial two, now on its way to being the real deal, involved a non plaster mounting to ensure proper alignment and the plaster would just be decoration. Out came the Tarzan's Grip and a small rectangle of 5-ply. So I now had a bridge support sandwich that needed plastering.

The batch of plaster I have has instructions that rely on weight measurements of plaster and water. The chief catering officer was not even approached about borrowing the kitchen scales, instead I used my usual kitchen technique of "Add stuff still it looks right" And so far it has worked for what I am doing. Excess plaster has been adding to the mountains and valley in the Christmas project, so that was handy too.

The bridge support sandwich then required matching texture and colour wise. Out with various files and knives to file and scrape mortar lines into the plaster to approximate the moulded stonework on the abutments. Acrylic paints work fine on plaster and are water cleaning which is always nice. See pictures below for bridge support so far. More work will be done to meld the abutments with the plaster visually, more photos will be taken when I am happy with the results.

Turntables and Bridges

In an attempt to make this a bit more regular, a Friday night offering. Current projects underway include the Walthers 120' manual turntable having been assembled and now being painted, assembling my road bridge for my N-scale shelf layout, and making up the rail truss bridge; also for my N-scale shelf layout. The turntable will be an extension to the current N-scale shelf layout. The extension will also provide a location for the multi track Cheyenne coaling tower/station (still in box) and so far a 3 stall Atlas round house (also still in box).

The bridges are designed to disguise the current ends of the N-scale shelf layout by obscuring the fact that the "world" ends and the track goes nowhere. Both are designed on an angle to draw the eye across the layout as the eye travels along the bridge: optical tricks to make the shelf appear wider than the 305mm it really is.

The rail bridge has the added complexity that I wanted it not to be a single span across the width of the shelf. To facilitate this the truss has been sliced in two at an angle so that the cut ends represent the edges of the world (front and back of the shelf). The two bridge entrances will face each other in close proximity on a bridge support that is made up mostly of two bridge abutments facing outwards and plaster to make an interface between the two abutments. As an additional optical trick, what will be the front section of truss is 2/3 of the bridge's original length and what will be the back section is the other third of the length.

While pictures would paint a thousand words, until the various projects are fully realised, those words might be along the lines of "what the?" so this entry has no photos, which helps with the more regular updates thing also!

Canberra Model Railway Expo

Well, after getting lost on the way and pulling up in the car park to realise I had my camera case but not my actual camera, we were off to Canberra Model Railway Expo at Kaleen high for the first time in my experience in Canberra. Without camera and with children a little antsier than usual, was it worth it?
Yes:
1) My Daughter now has another present for her birthday and she finally has a Hornby Thomas to go with her Bachmman Percy.
2) I found out about Micro Engineering bridge track for N-Scale, explained a bit here: Micro Engineering bridge track for N-Scale This will get the Christmas round the tree project back on track :-) Hand laying options in N scale were scarce and the possibility of guardrail made it even more difficult. Thanks to the nice folk on stand 27 "South Bend and Hilltop Railway" who were happy to answer my query about the track they had on their bridges that I was happy to find was "ready made" rather than requiring any hand laying type complexity. In addition the folk on the stand pointed me towards a vendor who, "Didn't have any here at the show but we have had it and we can get it in for you, here's our card.." I will report my retail success when that journey is complete. Anyway, some photos...

Non-train modelling

Well, in order to keep this blog afloat (boom boom), I choose to come in for a quick update on the most recent modelling project: a 1:1200 Titanic by Revell. Apparently it is one of the top ten tackiest ways to remember the disaster and looking at some of the things sold as aquarium toys, yes they are tacky, but I wanted a Titanic in my aquarium. As someone with some interest on the topic, I wanted it to be a more true representation of the ship that was, the question was though: do I do the wreck or the boat? If you model the wreck, how far do you go? Thousands of rusticles, crumpled decks, missing funnels, split in two, debris field.... and so it goes? Or just gently sink the ship whole as many thought she was until 1985 when she was found by Dr Bob Ballard. So the model has been painted as she was when afloat but the lifeboats have been tactfully removed or left off. And here are some photos, getting better with the camera, sort of, but close ups are tricky still and yes, now she has been glued together, some paint touching up will occur before she takes that last fateful journey...

How do cars get off the end?

"How do cars get off the end?" My daughter is the happy owner of a lovely illustrated children's book called "Crossing" by Phillip Booth with Illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline. The book has people waiting at a railway crossing counting the cars (wagons) in a freight train. One of the cars (wagons) is an orange open bi-level auto rack with black cars (automobiles) on board (and yes, the play on words between cars and cars is part of the story...) During our night time reading my daughter had clearly been doing some thinking and asked, "How do cars get off the end?"

How better to explain than showing it in miniature? And so was born the latest "completed" project.

Being the extremely happy new owner of Walthers Auto Facility which are no longer available from Walthers and can only be found intermittently on e-Bay or in my case, down the back corner of my LHS! So I had me some ramps and some buildings and other bits, now all I needed was a auto rack... or I could take a page out of early prototype practice and build something on top of a flat car I already have. Styrene is my best friend for this sort of job. Some sketches and a cardboard mock up later, I was cutting up sheet styrene into all sorts of shapes as strengthening became required in various dimensions.

Anyway, everything needs painting (but mostly the white auto rack) and the building arrangement needs to be finalised with access roads (unless I build a long and narrow diorama, but that's another project for another time) so enjoy the pictures that try to tell a story better than my words.

Oh and the answer is: down a ramp that the train backs gently up to or for a train of auto racks, along ramps between cars (wagons) till they get to the end car (wagon), and down the ramp.

First project for 2010, sort of.

Well after receiving some Christmas gifts, it was off to the L.H.S (local hobby shop) for some supplies. Metal wheel sets for my HO rolling stock, couplers for my HO rolling stock (While I love the Kadee #5s I had been replacing my Tyco X2Fs with, Bachman EZ-mate IIs are much cheaper, I will have to wait and see how the plastic EZ-mates versus the metal Kadees go) paint (Engine Black) and glue.
I also bought some materials for a HO engine shed type arrangement:

• styrene sheet for general construction
• corrugated styrene for the roof (later realised some sort of tiling material would have been better but it looks okay so far and will look better with roof type paint)
• a stonework material that has a layer of moulded rubber textured to look like stonework, a layer of foam and a layer of the same rubber on the other side but with no stone texture.

The shed was to cover a single line of track for as much length was practicable to allow some rolling stock to hide from the dust on the layout. With dimensions based on the location, clearances for my rolling stock and a fairly simple peaked roof box design concept, off I went. The stone material looks great and cuts well with a sharp blade. Roof ridging was redone with full length strips when one of my children was honest enough to point out the roof looked, "bumpy". So please enjoy the picture that shows the current progress on the shed (To be done: painting, drainpipes, hinged doors and anything else I think of on the way)

Christmas Project In Pictures

Hope these are in order, some are definitely out of focus but all I have for some key steps.
Baseboard:

Baseboard:

Baseboard with foam dry run:

Baseboard with foam dry run: (is it just me who has uploaded images rotated for me?)

Tunnel Portal:

Bench work and track work (coloured caulk is the shizang for laying track & cork):

In the December 1983 Australian Model Railway Magazine, John Burgoyne quoted 'the finest model engineer I have ever met' by saying, "the most complex structure on this earth is no more than a collection of simple parts properly designed, carefully made and properly assembled." These words were also a caption to a shot of a trestle over Barhon's Gorge, and I mention it here as the bents of the trestle are assembled with what will form the trackbed:

Trestle assembly:

More trestle assembly:

Still more trestle assembly:

Yet more trestle assembly:

More and more trestle assembly, it was great to see the bents becoming part of something bigger:

Possibly the last trestle assembly for a while:

And now for the plaster bandages over the foam form work (and no, that's not a typo or double up):

Those tunnel portals with matching retaining walls, painted and in place:

And the tunnel opening on the other side (the newspaper is to protect the track from plaster drippings):

Pegs to hold the bridge siding on to match the curve:

And the whole lot as it was for Christmas 2009:

And a close up of the family on the hill with a little help from a photo editor for the sky:

And as it looked under the tree: