The Very Last White River and Northern Railroad

[peteski]

While organizing my prewired LEDs, I came across some unused warm white 0201 SMDs. These are the smallest commercial discrete LEDs made, and I really wanted to put them to use. Why not a car with working lights? I've done it often enough, except in this case the vehicles are early 1930s, so the headlights are all freestanding—a bit more challenging than normal.
. . .

With all of that done, it was time to test the little guy.



Obviously the last step is painting the car, and that may prove more challenging than lighting it, given my shaky hands. As of this writing I have not yet chosen a spot for the vehicle.

Wow, you keep on outdoing yourself.  What can I say?  I have  no more superlatives left in my vocabulary.

After drilling tiny holes in a metal model and cleanly installing those 0201 LEDs, you are worried about shaky hands?  If you succeed doing all that, I would think you should have no problems painting it.

[DKS]

Wow, you keep on outdoing yourself.  What can I say?  I have  no more superlatives left in my vocabulary.

After drilling tiny holes in a metal model and cleanly installing those 0201 LEDs, you are worried about shaky hands?  If you succeed doing all that, I would think you should have no problems painting it.

Thanks, peteski. As it happens, drilling holes is pretty easy--I can set up a jig to help get the hole started (once it's started, then I'm good to go). Not so easy to set up jigs for painting, though...

[peteski]

Thanks, peteski. As it happens, drilling holes is pretty easy--I can set up a jig to help get the hole started (once it's started, then I'm good to go). Not so easy to set up jigs for painting, though...

Could you rest your wrist/hand on something placed on the workbench?  I have a tremor (I'm sure nowhere as bad as what you are experiencing), and my hands aren't as steady as they were a decade ago. I find that resting my wrist on a solid surface steadies my hand quite a bit.

[DKS]

Could you rest your wrist/hand on something placed on the workbench?  I have a tremor (I'm sure nowhere as bad as what you are experiencing), and my hands aren't as steady as they were a decade ago. I find that resting my wrist on a solid surface steadies my hand quite a bit.

I do that as it is.

[DKS]

Been working on a Model AA tow truck. This is a modified Model AA tank truck (GHQ #57-012). I found a spare short stake bed from which I removed the sides, then scratchbuilt a lift from 0.010" x 0.020" and 0.010" x 0.030" strip styrene. Seeing as no two rigs in the reference images are the same, I just made up my own design. I didn't bother with any cables or chains, as the truck will be parked behind a fence, so the rig is mostly just "visual noise."



I also finished scratchbuilding the sand tower.



   

   

[DKS]

Finished the tow truck this morning. Here it is, tucked away where it will be forever parked:

[rodsup9000]

  (on the phone) Hey Dave, my model A broke down on me about a mile away. Can you come tow me in and fix it??

 Awesome work on that ole "AA"

[peteski]

Nicely done (and painted) tow truck DKS.  If you could do such a good job on this model, how about painting the car with all the LED ligths?

[DKS]

Nicely done (and painted) tow truck DKS.  If you could do such a good job on this model, how about painting the car with all the LED ligths?

We'll see. A lot of the flaws are hidden behind the fence, and I won't have that advantage with the lit car.

[peteski]

We'll see. A lot of the flaws are hidden behind the fence, and I won't have that advantage with the lit car.

Well, you know the best.  But seeing how well you handled the the body paint, radiator,  and headlights, while also painting the windows dark color, and also added some very thin silver trim around the windshield, I can't imagine what kind of flaws are hidden by the fence. The this small tow truck looks good in close-up photo, it must also look great in-person.

[DKS]

and also added some very thin silver trim around the windshield...

Ah, now that was a trick. I didn't paint that. There's a natural little ridge there that the brush very kindly followed on its own, so I just left it unpainted.

Edit: So, here it is, warts and all.

[DKS]

Also completed a switch machine install.

[glakedylan]

hey DKS....sorry to hear it was a bad week. i hope the weekend is better and leads to a better week.
you certainly still churn out great models even in the bad days.
take good care.
sincerely
Gary

[peteski]

I suspect that the solver frames were not painted (left unpainted on a metal-body truck), and if your had is steady enough to leave thin strip of unpainted metal, you are IMO not doing bad at all. I don't see any real issues on that tow truck (and I'm not patronizing you).  If you can paint the LED-equipped car as well as the tow truck, it will look good.

So you had a bad week and only completed 2 small models?  That is 2 more than I've completed this week!  And my week was not too bad. 

[DKS]

hey DKS....sorry to hear it was a bad week. i hope the weekend is better and leads to a better week.
you certainly still churn out great models even in the bad days.
take good care.
sincerely
Gary

Thanks. One of my cats died--quite suddenly--so it'll be a while before the days get better.