Eastern Seaboard Models White Tower Restaurant Kit Review

[lock4244]

wax off.

Tee hee 

[Philip H]

 

 

[Nato]

         All I can say in coming late to the party is "Wozzers !" Thanks Bryan. I recieved  mine over the weekend,was at a Train Show and did not have a chance to open it up untill yesterday. All this printing talk takes me back to the 1970's when I did pasteup work, took photos ,for several community newsletters when I worked for the Salt Lake area Community Action Program.The pasteups were then delivered to a small job printer.In addation to community organizing work I learned black and white darkroom work from a friend and fellow CAP worker to print the newsletter photos. Again a wonderful kit,can't wait to get my thinner,solvent? Best whatever and start cleaning.                              Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake,Utah.

[DKS]

There is still a touch left on... the surface of the grill...

Appropriate, really.

[bbussey]

... Anyway, I'll use the anode on the LED as a 'stalk' so I only have to run one wire.  I've got some small resistors, too, but I won't put that on-board, I'd be worried about heat from the resistor doing bad things to the amazing space age polymer of the model...  Another option would be to permanently affix the White Tower to an adjoining building, and run all the electronics through the wall.  That's probably the most logical approach...

An observation regarding LEDs and resistors:  The proximity of the resistor to the LED is unimportant as long as they are run in series, correct?  So the resistor could be under the building if the LED is installed prior, so that heat from the soldering iron becomes a non-issue.

With the current rendition of the buildings, I had envisioned one or two micro LEDs attached on the ceiling (actually the underside of the roof).  Originally I had wanted to add a false ceiling so that the LEDs and electronics could be installed in the "attic," but I couldn't figure out a good way to allow access without compromising the appearance of the blank outer walls on the stand-alone version.  If I had designed only the inset version, the long blank wall would have had a shortened height so the attic would be fully accessible.

It's possible to "kitbash" a false ceiling our of styrene and install it from below.  Styrene rod can be installed in the upper corners and butted against the bottom of the roof to act as spacers without interfering with the interior placement.  Then all the electronics can be stored above and the LEDs could shine through rectangular openings cut to scale with Krystal Klear "lenses" to simulate the lighting of a drop ceiling.  That's probably what I'm going to do with mine when I get to it.  But there simply was no way to have all that rendered in the stand-alone version, unfortunately.

Also, for the stand-alone versions ... I didn't include it, but the building probably should have a roof-mounted air-conditioner stationed behind the towers to connect to that air duct next to the stand-up counter, and maybe a roof vent - all out of view from the "street" level but very visible when viewing from a few stories up.  Various styles of A/C units are available as detail parts, so I decided to leave that to the discretion of the modeler.
 

[DKS]

An observation regarding LEDs and resistors:  The proximity of the resistor to the LED is unimportant as long as they are run in series, correct?  So the resistor could be under the building if the LED is installed prior, so that heat from the soldering iron becomes a non-issue.

Quite true. The location of the resistor in the circuit is irrelevant. It could be located at the power supply, and the LED at the opposite end of the supply wires.

[wcfn100]

Well the Bestine all but ruined my trailer so I've pulled my WT from it.  Hopefully that hasn't been to affected and I can get the wax another way.


Jason

[Philip H]

Jason,
Wow.  Sorry to hear.  As you have seen in my other thread, my WT came through its Bestine bath with flying colors.  What happened to your trailer exactly?

[DKS]

Well the Bestine all but ruined my trailer so I've pulled my WT from it.  Hopefully that hasn't been to affected and I can get the wax another way.

Jason, I'm very sorry to hear that. I've been doing this for years and never had a problem. How long were you soaking it? Would you be able to post any images?

[JoeD]

Just fished mine out of a short soak and lost most of the fine trim detail in the door openings.  I suspect there was an issue with the material in that area or something.  No problem though, once I paint it I'll make a solid door and laser cut some trim to look the part...or just ignor the detail and pretend it was replaced with a newer glass door.

Joe

[sizemore]

It would be nice to know what solvent products individuals were using that had issues with disintegrating/deforming details. Additionally it would be nice to know what method people are using, a bath or rub down, and the duration of said activity. I can only assume this would be vital information for Bryan to post or provide guidance.

Based on the information provided it sounds like the old Kato issue, when shells become brittle using DOT3 or "plastic" safe paint stripper.

The S.

[Philip H]

I soaked mine covered in Bestine in a glass jar for about 3 hours.

You be the judge on results:

[wcfn100]

I'm going to hold off a bit until more people share their experiences, but from what I've seen and read, Bestine may not be a 'for all occasions' solution to the left over residue as it's not really a wax remover as much as it reacts with the residue turning it into some sort of powder or crystal like substance. 

But I will say now, that I'm with Lee that the white coating has nothing to do with having the 'wax' removed and that it's the Bestine creating this coating by reacting with the residue.  Or in other words, the material should still be transparent when cleaned.   On my trailer model, there was a visible bump where the white coating was vs. where the original material still showed.  I spent much of the night trying some bathroom chemicals and I think I was able to smooth out the white coating a bit but the original surface has been fairly well etched.

At this point I'm most interested in what the model looks like painted.  I'm hoping Tom (and some others) didn't use the Bestine so we have something to compare to.

Jason

[DKS]

I'm going to hold off a bit until more people share their experiences, but from what I've seen and read, Bestine may not be a 'for all occasions' solution to the left over residue as it's not really a wax remover as much as it reacts with the residue turning it into some sort of powder or crystal like substance.

According to the technical literature I have read, heptane does not react with wax; it dissolves it (in fact, heptane is used to make liquid wax solutions for certain industrial processes). Heptane itself will not be left behind as it will always evaporate completely. If it leaves anything behind, it will be traces of the wax it dissolved, assuming one does not agitate the solvent at all and just lets it sit. It's therefore important to rinse the model with fresh heptane after a soaking to remove any remaining wax, and gently brushing the model with a soft brush while rinsing.

As for the resin, the surface will not be perfectly smooth, since it's "assembled" in layers, and there is nothing in the RP process to polish the surface afterwards. So there will always be some roughness on the surface, and this roughness will have an appearance from cloudy to almost completely opaque. The only way to make the resin itself translucent is to polish the surface, which is entirely impractical on most small models.

I have in fact seen models partially disintegrate during cleaning with heptane, but this was always around extremely fine detail, and I surmise that, in all likelihood, the wax was literally helping to hold the parts together. Considering that the finest detail is at the limits of the RP resolution, it's believable that there were lots of tiny gaps in the resin that remained glued together with surrounding wax. In this case, there's no cleaning process known that will remove the wax and leave the resin intact. This may well in fact be a case where heptane soaking is not recommended.

I have also double-checked a number of technical references and found no circumstances where heptane damaged plastics. In fact, acetone is recommended as the best wax dissolving solvent except where the wax is applied to plastics, and then heptane is recommended, because acetone is known to attack plastics and resins. Heptane is also an excellent de-greaser, and is used in industry for that purpose.

[Sokramiketes]

I'm more curious if anyone has tried paiting over the wax, and if they've been able to get good adhesion. 

There is some wax buildup in the crevices to be cleaned out, but if the wax is smoothing the flat surfaces to the point that they are translucent, then I want to preserve that nice finish and leave the wax in place under paint.  I wonder if Polly Scale or Pactra, something that forms a film of paint, would be appropriate over the wax.