Best Of Spokane, Portland and Seattle (SP&S) 0-6-0 Project

[nkalanaga]

"3 mm thick brass strip"?  Should that be 0.3 mm?

[narrowminded]

Outstanding, Max!!!   That's some beautiful work.   

[mmagliaro]

"3 mm thick brass strip"?  Should that be 0.3 mm?

Good catch, man!  Yes, it should have been 0.3mm and I have corrected the photo.
That is .0118", which is correct.

[Tom Todd]

Max proves everyday that he is indeed a master craftsman. When it is finally submitted in the modeling contest at the  NMRA convention it should win the Best of Show. A truly outstanding accomplishment.


Tom Todd

[robwill84]

What a cute lil tender! er I mean a masterful piece of craftsmanship! 

[dnhouston]

Dang Max!!  Just amazing work

[North Bank Road]

That is one sweet looking tender Max! No wonder we have not seen you for a while. The finished product will be amazing I am sure, but come up for air now and then. Waiting for the next installment......

[nkalanaga]

If it doesn't win SOMETHING at the show we'll now the judges are biased against N scale.  Besides the appearance, I doubt that they'll find many larger models with this degree of scratchbuilding.

[peteski]

If it doesn't win SOMETHING at the show we'll now the judges are biased against N scale.  Besides the appearance, I doubt that they'll find many larger models with this degree of scratchbuilding.

Not only that, but it is all assembled very neatly - no sloppy work here.  I'm sure the paint job will be just as neat and sharp!

[Chris333]

The judge would have to first look through Max's 250 page construction log book. Give him an award just for that, keep loco under a black cloth. 

[Cajonpassfan]

This is actually a very good observation. I don't mean this in any way as a putdown, but the fact is that most HO guys have no understanding whatsoever just how difficult it is to build credible models in N scale, and especially at Max's level (which is incredible). Many have this notion that N scale is half the size and half as detailed therefore it must be half as difficult
In reality, it's not half the size, or even 54%, but working with three dimensional objects, it's only about 16%. I have a very good friend and a very accomplished modeler who switched to N some years ago when he realized what's possible in our scale, only to switch back three years later after learning some of the challenges first hand. He certainly has a whole new respect for our scale. Max of course is from a whole another planet, and his achievements can really only be fully understood when following the multitude of photos and captions, and even then I'm not sure most of us truly understand the craftsmanship and the number of hours involved.
Max, keep those pics coming please!
Otto K.

[mmagliaro]

Greetings from Planet Max!    LOL! 

First, let me extend a very heartfelt thank you to all of you for your encouragement and very kind compliments!  It means a great deal to me that you take the time to follow along and offer constructive criticism.  It has always made for better models.

As for model contests, while it is true that I have entered them, let's all be clear that that is never my primary (or even secondary) motivation for doing this.  I love to build engine models, plain and simple. 

As for NMRA contests and their "bias", I did enter my SP&S 4-6-2 in the Portland NMRA contest, and it did darn well (not 1st place, but it scored high).  I can't really complain.  So I think I have hit upon a good way of providing enough photos, evidence, and documentation with an N Scale model to show the judges how much work and scratchbuilding went into the model.  It's a balancing act between overwhelming them with so many photos and documents that they can't possibly digest it all, and showing them too little so that they don't appreciate all the work they are looking at.

Something that would be nice would be to score a 1st at one of those, against all the larger-scale entries, just to show that "it can be done". 

More than anything, I think the key ingredient to building models like this is that you have to really love doing it.  If you do, then every hour spent is fun instead of being a chore to be completed.  Victor Miranda once said (and I'm paraphrasing from memory as best I can), "If you are going to get frustrated making the same part 2, 3, or 5 times before you get it right, you shouldn't be doing this."

[narrowminded]

Greetings from Planet Max!    LOL! 

First, let me extend a very heartfelt thank you to all of you for your encouragement and very kind compliments!  It means a great deal to me that you take the time to follow along and offer constructive criticism.  It has always made for better models.

As for model contests, while it is true that I have entered them, let's all be clear that that is never my primary (or even secondary) motivation for doing this.  I love to build engine models, plain and simple. 

More than anything, I think the key ingredient to building models like this is that you have to really love doing it.  If you do, then every hour spent is fun instead of being a chore to be completed.  Victor Miranda once said (and I'm paraphrasing from memory as best I can), "If you are going to get frustrated making the same part 2, 3, or 5 times before you get it right, you shouldn't be doing this."

And there you have it!   I think it extends to daily living as well.

[johnb]

Greetings from Planet Max!    LOL! 

First, let me extend a very heartfelt thank you to all of you for your encouragement and very kind compliments!  It means a great deal to me that you take the time to follow along and offer constructive criticism.  It has always made for better models.

As for model contests, while it is true that I have entered them, let's all be clear that that is never my primary (or even secondary) motivation for doing this.  I love to build engine models, plain and simple. 

As for NMRA contests and their "bias", I did enter my SP&S 4-6-2 in the Portland NMRA contest, and it did darn well (not 1st place, but it scored high).  I can't really complain.  So I think I have hit upon a good way of providing enough photos, evidence, and documentation with an N Scale model to show the judges how much work and scratchbuilding went into the model.  It's a balancing act between overwhelming them with so many photos and documents that they can't possibly digest it all, and showing them too little so that they don't appreciate all the work they are looking at.

Something that would be nice would be to score a 1st at one of those, against all the larger-scale entries, just to show that "it can be done". 

More than anything, I think the key ingredient to building models like this is that you have to really love doing it.  If you do, then every hour spent is fun instead of being a chore to be completed.  Victor Miranda once said (and I'm paraphrasing from memory as best I can), "If you are going to get frustrated making the same part 2, 3, or 5 times before you get it right, you shouldn't be doing this."

like Tom Knapp did in 1989 with his Nn3 shay

[mmagliaro]

Hello again, everyone.  It's time for the next update on my 0-6-0 steam locomotive project.
The topic this  time is... valve gear.

In a word, making working, sliding, good-looking valve gear from scratch is, well, difficult.  But at long last,
it is done.

Here we go!
















And by the way, yes, I realize that in this photo, the two yokes have slightly different shapes along the top.  I still had to do some filing and reshaping on that top edge to get them to slip correctly in under the boiler.  By the time I got them installed, they were both the same.




















































































This next photo is a larger size than my usual posted photos, so you can click it out of the forum browser and view  it in a separate window with more zoom if you care to.