1:160 Scale Furniture

[Mark5]

For those willing to paint 

https://tennentm.wixsite.com/ironpenguin/building-detail-parts

[IronPenguin]

Wait `til you see the Z scale versions I'm working on with my new SLA printer.

[nkalanaga]

I liked the thunderstorm:
https://tennentm.wixsite.com/ironpenguin/thunderstorm-simulation

The cloud looks a little cheesy for a permanently scenicked railroad, especially if it's the only 3-D cloud in the room, but the video does look like a thunderstorm.

[IronPenguin]

I liked the thunderstorm:
https://tennentm.wixsite.com/ironpenguin/thunderstorm-simulation

The cloud looks a little cheesy for a permanently scenicked railroad, especially if it's the only 3-D cloud in the room, but the video does look like a thunderstorm.

It sounds like one, too. The thunder claps and rumbling are synchronized to the lights, not just random. And yes, that took a a while.  🙂

[DKS]

It sounds like one, too. The thunder claps and rumbling are synchronized to the lights, not just random. And yes, that took a a while.

But... the thing is, in real life, thunder is never synchronized to the flashes, since sound travels so much slower than light. Not being critical, just pointing out a little fun fact.

 

[MK]

Wire a powered subwoofer to that thing and crank it up! 

[Maletrain]

OK, let's drift this thread into putting a Van de Graaff generator on an N scale layout to have lightning hit a mountain peak.  Quiz: How fast does your fast clock have to be if your tunnel under that mountain peak is supposed to be 5 miles down the track from your vantage point, if you want the thunder (zap?) to have the proper delay?   Well, maybe let's not drift there!

[DKS]

Well, maybe let's not drift there!

Probably not... because sound travels at different speeds through air and through rock. One would also have to determine how much the sound will be diminished by 5 miles of rock, although my bet is you wouldn't hear it at all. But I dally on...

[GaryHinshaw]

160:1

[MVW]

May have a need for some of this stuff, and it all seems pretty reasonably priced. Thanks for the link!

JTG

[DKS]

Quiz: How fast does your fast clock have to be if your tunnel under that mountain peak is supposed to be 5 miles down...

Actually, as Gary notes, the clock needs to be running at 1:160... but, it needs to run 160 times slower. Since the sound travels at the same speed regardless of scale, you need to slow the clock down to deal with the fact that you've got 160th as much rock above the tunnel. In N Scale, the sound will arrive 160 times sooner because it won't slow down for the sake of us modelers. So, there's your answer... though you probably won't like it...

[IronPenguin]

But... the thing is, in real life, thunder is never synchronized to the flashes, since sound travels so much slower than light. Not being critical, just pointing out a little fun fact.

<sigh>
Actually, there is a lag between the primary flashes and the thunder claps. And the lag increases as the sequence progresses to the end, simulating a storm moving away.  I spent quite a long time trying to make it as realistic as possible given the limitations if a static display.

[nkalanaga]

Also, all lightning flashes, even in a small storm, aren't at the same distance.  And much of the rumbling in a real storm is due to sound from different distances, along the same bolt, taking different amounts of time to arrive.  A lightning bolt can easily be several miles long.  Plus, two people, watching the same storm, from different angles, would hear different thunder timing.

There really isn't a need to synchronize the light and sound, unless the time between flashes is longer than the sound travel time.

[IronPenguin]

Well, I guess the many folks (and several clubs) who have bought it and love it because it is realistic are wrong. I should have just threw some random flashes and an unrelated sound file together. Could have saved a lot of time.

[DKS]

I should have just threw some random flashes and an unrelated sound file together. Could have saved a lot of time.

Regrettably... this is true. Best laid plans and all that...

The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of people don't understand how physics works. Even professional sound engineers--look at all the movies and TV shows where the thunder is exactly synchronized to the lightning flashes. The very same principles are at work for fireworks displays, yet all too often the booms are synchronized with the flashes. People who accept this as realistic just aren't paying attention to reality.

TRW is perhaps unique in that there's a number of us here who do understand these things and who do pay attention. We even have @GaryHinshaw, our very own rock star scientist!